Investor Cheat Code Podcast with Mike Simmons

I am excited to welcome Nathan and Ryleigh Eckles to the show today! Many parents often wonder how to get their kids interested in their work. For Nathan, a real estate investor, it was relatively easy! He took his daughter, Ryleigh, to his projects when she was just an infant, and when she was ready, he allowed her to do various tasks. Over the years, it became second nature for her, and now as a teenager, she’s an active participant in their real estate business, Dad And Daughter Buy Houses. Ryleigh has also appeared on stage at 7 Figure Flipping’s Flip Hacking Live, and in magazines, and their story as father-daughter investors is very compelling!     We begin the episode with Nathan sharing their background story and how he exposed Ryleigh to his work in real estate. He shares that he got his first rental when his wife was pregnant, and they closed the deal when Ryleigh was born. He has been a landlord his whole life, and he started taking Ryleigh to projects sometimes out of necessity and other times just to spend time with her. He was doing all the repairs, which took him away from their home, and he had to find ways to bring his family to him. When she was a little bit older, they would allow her to do things like painting the walls in the basement of rentals. Whatever she asked to do, he let her and he didn’t care how good it was because he would fix it. For Ryleigh, the experiences are fun to remember.  She recalls painting the houses, the snacks that her mom would buy them, and the fun names that her dad gave to the houses so she could remember them.    We then talk about when Nathan discovered that it was less of a game and Ryleigh actually loved it. Nathan shares that it happened when he decided to go to Flip Hacking Live  and she wanted to go with him. They spent time listening to podcasts together, and he realized that she was picking up and retaining the information. At that time, he was also doing flips alongside long-term rentals, and her interest showed him how much she wanted to be in the game. From Ryleigh's experience, she always connected with the people they listened to on podcasts. The fact that they were making millions of dollars a year fascinated her, and it sparked her interest in real estate.   Next, we talk about their business and what they are focusing on right now. Nathan shares that they are transitioning to midterm rentals for traveling nurses and business executives. Their focus is more on acquiring wealth and this niche is more profitable than long-term rentals. On the other side, flipping is quite the opposite, and he enjoys a lump sum paycheck. Their goal this year is to accumulate wealth by transforming some of their long-term rentals and holding furnished rental properties in the right locations.   We then talk about the economy and the work involved in long-term versus mid-term rentals. Nathan shares that they have one long-term rental that they rented for $1,600 a month. They did a complete rehab for it, which cost them around $10,000 for the furniture and the fixtures. They do everything, just like in an Airbnb residential property. They have to ensure everything is there for the mid-term clients, including WIFI and other utility services. This usually costs them an additional $500 to $600 in expenses every month while renting it for $2,700 a month. Nathan usually targets renting to traveling nurses and executives, but he’s looking into other options like working with insurance for floods and fires to host people whose houses have been destroyed. According to him, just like in anything else, the more options you have, the better.   Lastly, we talk about Ryleigh’s role in their mid-term rental business and their future goals. For Ryleigh, she is responsible for picking out most of the decorating items, such as the furniture, designs, and colors. She also makes a checklist of everything they need to ensure the whole process runs smoothly from the beginning to the end. Their goal is to acquire or transform their long-term rentals into furnished properties to have seven mid-term rentals by the end of the year. This will help Nathan to quit his job and dive fully into real estate, something he is looking forward to.   Make sure you don’t miss another amazing episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast with Nathan and Ryleigh Eckles and get valuable information on how to invest in mid-term rentals and how you can get your kids involved in real estate investing! Notable Quotes:   “Mid-term rentals are more profitable than the long-term. They call for more work, but you get to keep the fruits of your labor.” Nathan Eckles   “Just like everything else, the more options you have in real estate the better.” Nathan Eckles   “It is hard as a young person to prioritize making money, learning a skill or building a business when there are so many things that you can focus on nowadays.” Mike Simmons   “Th

Welcome to this version of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! I am excited to bring you another replay of my Facebook Live Question and Answer sessions. I just started doing these live forums in April and they are going so well and I am getting such great feedback and questions, I thought I would share them here on the podcast. Especially for those people that are unable to join us live, this will provide an opportunity to hear the awesome questions I am fielding about business, taking risks, real estate, and so much more! Some of the questions have been very real estate specific, but others have been general business questions, like asking about overcoming fear in order to get started and how to successfully scale. I have also received more personal questions like how I decided real estate investing was right for me and the steps I took to get my business off the ground.   This presentation is the live Q&A that I did the week of March 23rd and each Thursday we will offer you another chance to take advantage of listening to the answers to our guests’ fabulous and compelling questions! Don’t miss this new episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! Notable Quotes:   “You need to push on the pain point a little.”   “If a seller has motivation, it is another way of saying they have pain in their life and selling you their house is going to remove that pain.”   “You should always be trying to expedite everything you do.”   “If your short term rental tenant has nothing to complain about, you won’t be getting calls.”   “The reality is that right now contractors have more work than they know what to do with.”   “A lot of contractors have short term thinking.”   “With contractors, what is in your control is how you treat them.”   “Many times, contractors will grab the money at the expense of a relationship.”   “The 70% rule was designed to get you in the ballpark.”   “In this hot market, it is hard to make the 70% rule stick.” Links: 7 Figure Investor 7 Figure Flipping Return on Investments Just Start Real Estate JSRE on Facebook Mike on Facebook Mike on Instagram Mike on LinkedIn Mike on Twitter Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months  

My guest today is Alicia Jarrett. Alicia is passionate about land investments and how to get the most effective deals. She and her partner Matt have been assisting buyers and sellers with wholesale land deals for over three years. They have been investing exclusively in the States, and their goal is to help make their customers’ dreams come true by providing access to great below-market deals. Their company, Super Charged Offers, has allowed people to own land, build more on their lot, add value by increasing their lot size, and add more affordable homes to their projects effectively. They can help you find your next perfect piece of land, too!   We begin the episode with Alicia sharing her background story and how she got into real estate. Alicia told me that she has a background in human resources, leadership development, and training facilitation. She also had a consulting company in Australia for more than a decade, which she loved. A corporate job makes us live within our means, but for Alicia and her partner Matt, they wanted to do something bigger that aligned with their passion for travel. They started investing in the US by purchasing some fix and flip single-family homes in Florida, which worked well for them. However, the market was getting very competitive, and they shifted to land to keep their promise of doing business anywhere in the world. In the process, they also started their real estate marketing company, and right now, they have four businesses in the US and have built a team to work with them.   We then talk about why Alicia decided to invest in the States as opposed to where she lives, Australia. According to Alicia, Australia is a wonderful and beautiful country with amazing real estate, but it is very expensive. Where they live in Northern Australia, the average mansion costs $1.2M, while in Melbourne city, the houses range between $2.5 to 3.5M. From her perspective, people buy houses worth that much to get the land, and then they knock down the house to build a new one. The entry to the market is also very high, and the access to information is controlled by privacy laws that lock everything down. In the States, it is possible to access information about their customers, which is essential for effective marketing.    Next, we talk about the advantages and challenges of land investment and why investors should try it. Alicia shares that land investment is an open market when it comes to the type of land and the strategies you can use. We tend to see buildings more than we see a piece of land that is not attractive. According to Alicia, there are so many things that you can do with a piece of land to increase its value. You can turn it into recreational land, hunting land, building land, developer’s land, commercial land, or industrial land. Opening up to these different possibilities is what makes land investment profitable. On the other hand, the main challenges to expect can include bad taxes, financial encumbrances, probate, and title issues. Most of these problems can be solved except those that are cost-prohibitive.   We then talk about how you can know where to buy land and resell it effectively. Alicia shares that it is pretty much the same as acquiring houses. They look for areas where there are profitable buyers' activities going on using data reports for over 18 months. The data helps them to know what has been happening in that area, how many people say that the land has value, and the number of people who are paying above and below market value. If the majority of people are paying below the market value, this is not an area to invest in; however, if most people are paying above, it’s worth getting into the game. Always do your due diligence, by looking at the numbers and buyers' activity levels and the information can help you identify better and more profitable deals.   Lastly, we talk about finding deals and marketing for opportunities. According to Alicia, establishing a pipeline works if you got your business set up right and you’re consistent. An effective pipeline in any business is not about what you are doing today, it's about consistency in what you did three and six months ago. For them, they had to put in place systems to enable them to continue getting and closing deals. They automated their data in online marketing to mature their sales funnel from the moment they get the data to the time their customers ask for offers. This makes it easy for their ideal customers to do business with them, and that is how they built their marketing company Superchargedoffers.com. People can contact them and ask for deals online, via email sequencing, SMS, letters, Facebook, or through an Ad, which has increased their efficiency.        Make sure you don’t miss another amazing episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast with Alicia Jarrett and get valuable information on how to invest in the land and get perfect d

Welcome to this version of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! I am excited to bring you another replay of my Facebook Live Question and Answer sessions. I just started doing these live forums in April and they are going so well and I am getting such great feedback and questions, I thought I would share them here on the podcast. Especially for those people that are unable to join us live, this will provide an opportunity to hear the awesome questions I am fielding about business, taking risks, real estate, and so much more! Some of the questions have been very real estate specific, but others have been general business questions, like asking about overcoming fear in order to get started and how to successfully scale. I have also received more personal questions like how I decided real estate investing was right for me and the steps I took to get my business off the ground.   This presentation is the live Q&A that I did the week of March 16th and each Thursday we will offer you another chance to take advantage of listening to the answers to our guests’ fabulous and compelling questions! Don’t miss this new episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! Notable Quotes:   “This isn’t supposed to be a break even business.”   “A short-term rental property in a northern state can be either feast or famine.”   “The reason you do short-term rentals is that generally they have a much higher rate of return.”   “One big mistake was rushing into a deal and not taking enough time to analyze the numbers.”   “Make sure you do the due diligence on every property you are considering buying.”   “When you are starting out, I think it is a great idea to start in secondary markets rather than metro areas.”   “Secondary markets are great because there is less competition.”   “Try to find a way to solve the seller’s problem through real estate.”   “Having a good company culture is probably more important for a small company.”   “If you don’t start with a good company culture with your first hire, you will just be building a fire of bad culture that is going to burn out of control and consume your business.” Links: 7 Figure Investor 7 Figure Flipping Return on Investments Just Start Real Estate JSRE on Facebook Mike on Facebook Mike on Instagram Mike on LinkedIn Mike on Twitter Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months  

My guest today is Maria Fristrom, the founder and CEO of Home Acres Ltd, a real estate investing company in Finland. Their mission is to offer homes with a heart and landlording with love to provide tenants with a home they are proud of. Maria had an international career in marketing and communication, working for agencies in Stockholm and Silicon Valley before stepping out and getting into real estate. Since 2015 she has built a multi-million-dollar real estate portfolio while also going through her toughest challenges as a mother. Maria’s inspiring story is a testament to how real estate investing can pull you out of financial, emotional, and mental depths.   We begin the episode with Maria sharing her background story and how she ended up in real estate. She shares that her mission is to help women dare more in investing. Maria and her husband owned an investment club where they read books and talked about them. One of the books was Rich Dad Poor Dad, and it lit something in them. They started looking at apartments. However, life took over, they moved to Hong Kong, and it took a backseat. They had to focus more on their career. Later, while working in a company in Silicon Valley, Maria bought her first investment property and decided that she would purposely and intentionally continue doing things that gave her the freedom to own her time. This led to her biggest move.     We then talk about Maria's desire to leave a job that she loved. She shares that it was not 100% her decision to leave the job. She turned out to be pregnant again, and her husband had been headhunted for a job in Finland. They were going to have two kids, and paying $4000 for their care was not worth it. Maria gave up her job and decided to go full time into  real estate investing. She saw an opportunity to build her real estate portfolio and make up for her lost income. Since then, Maria has grown, and she hopes to work creatively, more closely with others to teach and give back.   Next, we talk about how Maria started her investment journey. Maria bought her first property while working in the US instead of buying their own home. They then moved to Finland, and that is where she built the biggest part of her real estate portfolio. The principles are the same, but Maria says that she got into real estate in Finland when nobody was doing the BRRRR method. This is what led to her breakthrough. She could not compete with the large players as she didn’t have the capital, the contacts, and the economy of scale. However, she had a concept that nobody else was using, so she started staging her rentals to build her personal brand. Maria got a lot of press that led to other opportunities to collaborate with brands and do the same thing for them.     We then talk about Maria’s first investment in a single-family house in Colorado. Maria shares that she and her husband had a rough time growing up in Finland in the 80s, and neither of them was coming from money. They worked very hard, for a very long time, to be able to buy their first home. While in California, through her financial advisor, Maria got a good deal on a 2,300 sqft single-family home in Colorado. They did the math and she discovered that buying their home was a liability but investing in a rental property was an asset. They financed it through a conventional bank loan. She bought it for $285,000 with a $70,000 down payment, and they rented it out. They have had tenants there for six years, and it worked for them. Now they have been in the house for six months. They flipped it for sales and are looking to get $600,000 or more.       Lastly, we talk about Maria's biggest mistake while investing in real estate. Maria shares that it has to do with the desire to very quickly. She felt like she had to do it all, give birth to three babies, move around the world and build a multi-million dollar real estate portfolio. Initially, her goal was to substitute her income from her job by buying four properties in that year. By the end of the year, Maria had two, and she needed two more. So she bought new construction highlight apartments. These were co-op properties that she found on MLS, and they were $175,000 each. The co-op funded 70%, while they financed 30%. At the same time, an institutional investor bought 42 other apartments in the same satellite, and when the construction came up, there was no demand, so they started dropping their prices. New construction was new for Maria, but she had to do it differently by personalizing her strategy. From her experience, Maria learned that she had to stop following her goals blindly and stick to what she knew to avoid making another mistake.    Make sure you don’t miss another amazing episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast with Maria Fristrom and get valuable information on how you can build your portfolio creatively in real estate! Notable Quotes:   “Instea

Welcome to this version of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! I am excited to bring you another replay of my Facebook Live Question and Answer sessions. I just started doing these live forums in April and they are going so well and I am getting such great feedback and questions, I thought I would share them here on the podcast. Especially for those people that are unable to join us live, this will provide an opportunity to hear the awesome questions I am fielding about business, taking risks, real estate, and so much more! Some of the questions have been very real estate specific, but others have been general business questions, like asking about overcoming fear in order to get started and how to successfully scale. I have also received more personal questions like how I decided real estate investing was right for me and the steps I took to get my business off the ground.   This presentation is the live Q&A that I did the week of March 9th and each Thursday we will offer you another chance to take advantage of listening to the answers to our guests’ fabulous and compelling questions! Don’t miss this new episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! Notable Quotes:   “Most potential rental tenants would buy a house if they had good credit or money in the bank.”   “You have to look at the specific credit issues. What is dinging their credit?”   “Most landlords will overlook hospital or medical-related credit issues.”   “You don’t want a tenant that has a history of not paying their rent or house payments.”   “As a new landlord, I say, more than anything, get off on the right foot.”   “Real estate is a fantastic business. It just is and always has been.”   “Why do you need to start your own business?”   “The reason I am doing something has to be more powerful than my fear of doing it.”   “Education will clear up a lot of the fear, but it won’t be helpful if you don’t have a compelling reason for being successful.”   “I don’t think that people who are not trained and proficient in Google Adwords should be doing it. Hire it out to an expert.” Links: 7 Figure Investor 7 Figure Flipping Return on Investments Just Start Real Estate JSRE on Facebook Mike on Facebook Mike on Instagram Mike on LinkedIn Mike on Twitter Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months  

For the podcast today, I interviewed nationally recognized speaker, author, and podcast host, Chris Naugle. Over the last 20 years, Chris has worn a wide variety of business hats. He was a former pro snowboarder, owning several snowboard and skateboard shops. He's invested in real estate with his wife, doing flips, wholesales, and a lot of private lending. They even had a pilot on HGTV in 2018. The main hat he wears is that of a money mentor, because what is taught in schools about money is absolute trash. He has spoken to and taught over ten thousand Americans delivering the financial knowledge that fuels lasting freedom.   We begin, like we usually do, by talking about Chris’ background and how he got started as an entrepreneur. Chris talked about his upbringing and how he learned a lot from growing up in a lower middle-class household. He talked about his early work experience and how it shaped his life and attitude about money. Chris talks about starting in entrepreneurship by selling apparel he designed with his high school art teacher when he was sixteen years old and how his mother mortgaged her house to help him open a snow and skate board shop. He opened Phatman Boardshop in November of 1994 and ran it until he sold it in 2010.   Chris talks about how economic circumstances taught him how to pivot in his business model. His business suffered because of the dotcom recession and he found the only companies that were interested in hiring him were Wall Street firms. He didn’t understand it, but found that because he was a successful entrepreneur and willing to learn, they wanted him to work for them. He spent sixteen years as an advisor for the firm that hired him until he saw some things going on he didn’t want to be involved in. He then started investing in real estate, which led him to teach others about money and achieving financial freedom.   We then talk about Chris’ current passion, which is teaching people about wealth building and management. Chris says that he does not manage other people’s money anymore, but rather, teaches people how to be great stewards of their own money. He contends we have all been lied to concerning money and convinced the best thing to do is to give up the control of it. He came to the conclusions that he holds about wealth from studying the wealthiest families in the world - the Rothchilds, the Rockefellers, and many others. He talks about how these families do the same thing we do - trade our time for money, but then handle it differently once they have it. Chris then introduces us to the concept of infinite banking and how we can always make our money work for us.   Chris points out that infinite banking is a process rather than a product. I described the Just Start Real Estate audience and asked him if this process was available to everyone on the investing spectrum. Chris said that he believes that the process is available to everyone who has, at a minimum, started following the first law of wealth, which is saving at least 10% of your gross earnings. We also spent some time discussing how current events, such as the recent invasion of Ukraine by Russia, affects our money.   Don’t miss this exciting new episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! My guest, Chris Naugle, teaches us all about the fundamentals of wealth-building and the process of infinite banking!! Notable Quotes:   “I grew up in a house like many where there was scarcity.” Chris Naugle   “Every time my mother needed something, she was a very good saver, and I learned to save money from her.” Chris Naugle   “I quit trading hours for dollars.” Chris Naugle   “Entrepreneurship took on a new meaning for me when it was no longer a hobby and my mom’s house was on the line.” Chris Naugle   “Running Phatman Boardshop was one of the greatest experiences of my life.” Chris Naugle   “When things happen, we make pivots in our life.” Chris Naugle   “What does Wall Street want to do with a punk snowboarding kid who has never put a suit on in his life?” Chris Naugle   “We have all been taught the big lie - to give up control of our own money.” Chris Naugle   “I teach one thing and that is to take back control of your money.” Chris Naugle   “If you are not saving money today, the infinite banking concept will not work for you.” Chris Naugle   “Inflation is a hidden tax.” Chris Naugle Links: Phatman BoardShop Mapping Out the Millionaire Mystery Chris' Website Chris' Resource Page Chris on Instagram Chris on YouTube Chris on LinkedIN Chris on Facebook Chris on Twitter 7 Figure Investor Just Start Real Estate JSRE on Facebook Mike on Facebook Mike on Instagram Mike on LinkedIn Mike on Twitter Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months  

Welcome to this version of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! I am excited to bring you another replay of my Facebook Live Question and Answer sessions. I just started doing these live forums in April and they are going so well and I am getting such great feedback and questions, I thought I would share them here on the podcast. Especially for those people that are unable to join us live, this will provide an opportunity to hear the awesome questions I am fielding about business, taking risks, real estate, and so much more! Some of the questions have been very real estate specific, but others have been general business questions, like asking about overcoming fear in order to get started and how to successfully scale. I have also received more personal questions like how I decided real estate investing was right for me and the steps I took to get my business off the ground.   This presentation is the live Q&A that I did the week of March 2nd and each Thursday we will offer you another chance to take advantage of listening to the answers to our guests’ fabulous and compelling questions! Don’t miss this new episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! Notable Quotes:   “Every conversation with every seller is different.”   “When it is time to get serious, you have to get real serious.”   “I’m all about meeting things head on when it comes to interpersonal conflict.”   “Most sellers want more than we can give them.”   “We will remind them of their motivation consistently through the process.”   “Some people when met with adversity, rise up and rush into the storm.”   “Have that conversation and get their thoughts. Share the vision and then go for it.”   “There is an unseen force in marketing we call ‘momentum’ because we don’t know what else to call it.” Links: 7 Figure Investor 7 Figure Flipping Return on Investments Just Start Real Estate JSRE on Facebook Mike on Facebook Mike on Instagram Mike on LinkedIn Mike on Twitter Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months  

I am happy to welcome my friend, Tanya Rooney, to the show today! Tanya is a real estate investor, and she is a former Project Manager at CBRE. She has used her communication and organization skills to assist clients in their construction projects. Tanya is the owner of BAFS Home Buyers. She started her career in house flipping and wholesaling before shifting her focus to short-term rentals to align her investments with her personality. Tanya wants to provide appropriate and affordable accommodation for people like her that love to travel and make great memories.    We begin the episode with Tanya sharing how she grew her real estate business to a point where she could quit her job. Tanya shares that when we met in a mastermind class, she was doing her second flip but still in her project management position in CBRE. To grow and get to a place where she could quit her job, Tanya had to join a community of like-minded people, in flipping and wholesaling groups. They provided the support she needed to do things that she couldn’t do on her own though she knew they were the right thing to do. However, knowing that she had the skills and could make money gave her the confidence to quit her job to go full into real estate. According to Tanya, this was a mindset thing and she just needed to make a shift.    We then talk about what Tanya’s first year free from her job looked like. She shares that she was doing house flips and wholesaling for off-market deals from MLS deals. There are so many deals on MLS, and they got to win because of their mindset. She also worked with other real agents whose property referrals and recommendations helped her move the needle. However, she has shifted her focus from flipping and wholesaling to managing short-term rentals.    Next, we discuss why Tanya shifted her focus from flipping and wholesaling to short-term rentals. Tanya shares that flipping was becoming more stressful, and for the sake of her mental health and family, she had to make that shift. Tanya likes commercial construction and projects, and a year and a half ago, they turned a five-bedroom, three-bathroom house that they owned into their first short-term rental. It wasn’t selling for what they could have wanted it to, and with the help of a mastermind from her group, she decided to dive into the short-term rental market, and now they have three more. This model aligns more with her personality. She enjoys hosting travel and stocks them the way she wants to be accommodated when she is out of town.   We then talk about Tanya’s business model and the kind of houses she’s looking for. She shares that the coolest thing about real estate is that it surrounds us and everybody has their own thing and way to do business. Whether you are a multifamily property owner, flipper, or wholesaler, you can buy a house, keep it, rent it or sell it. There are so many ways  to create cash flow. However, Tanya likes big houses that can accommodate people similar to herself, such as those who need space for ten or twelve people. There are tons of houses like that, which allows her to provide space for people to congregate and make fun memories. According to her, real estate is all about what you want your brand to be, and whether you want to start rentals, multifamily, flipping, or wholesaling, you need to identify your values to design your unique brand.    Lastly, we talk about how Tanya finances her short-term rental properties. Tanya shares that she does it using bank loans and other people's money. They have four properties that they financed through private capital, loans, and their own money. Tanya has partners who believe in her ability to create money, and out of the investment, they will get some of the equity. Tanya also shares the importance of building a team and creating a system by choosing people you can rely on.    Make sure you don’t miss another amazing episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast with Tanya Rooney and get valuable information on creative ways to match your real estate investment strategy with your personality and lifestyle! Notable Quotes:   “Thriving in real estate is not all about money - it’s more about mindset.” Tanya Rooney   “Matching your real estate investments with your personality will help you develop a stress-free investment strategy and enjoy what you’re doing.” Tanya Rooney   “Everybody that gets into real estate has a goal.“ Tanya Rooney   “Whether you want to start with rentals, multifamily, flipping or wholesaling, you need to identify your values and they will help you develop your brand.” Tanya Rooney   “It’s awesome to operate in multiple markets, but you’re going to get better efficiency when you have more in one market.” Tanya Rooney Links: Tanya on LinkedIn Tanya on Facebook  Tanya on Instagram Tanya on Pinterest  7 Figure Investor Just Start Real Estate JSRE on Facebook Mike on Faceboo

Welcome to this version of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! I am excited to bring you another replay of my Facebook Live Question and Answer sessions. I just started doing these live forums in April and they are going so well and I am getting such great feedback and questions, I thought I would share them here on the podcast. Especially for those people that are unable to join us live, this will provide an opportunity to hear the awesome questions I am fielding about business, taking risks, real estate, and so much more! Some of the questions have been very real estate specific, but others have been general business questions, like asking about overcoming fear in order to get started and how to successfully scale. I have also received more personal questions like how I decided real estate investing was right for me and the steps I took to get my business off the ground.   This presentation is the live Q&A that I did the week of February 23rd and each Thursday we will offer you another chance to take advantage of listening to the answers to our guests’ fabulous and compelling questions! Don’t miss this new episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! Notable Quotes:   “You need to know what is happening with the market so you can adjust your strategy.”   “You don’t hide from the market - you go into it.”   “Don’t count on a downturn. Stay the course and keep doing what you are doing, just keep your ear to the ground.”   “If the market changes, react to that appropriately with the way you buy and sell properties.”   “I would pull your money out as soon as your financing company will let you, then rinse and repeat.”   “Doing one of these a year is a slow road and I am just not a slow road guy.”   “We play the game fairly.”   “Doing the work up front with a potential tenant is one of the most important aspects of being a landlord.” Links: 7 Figure Investor 7 Figure Flipping Return on Investments Just Start Real Estate JSRE on Facebook Mike on Facebook Mike on Instagram Mike on LinkedIn Mike on Twitter Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months  

I am excited to have Joey Mure and Russ Morgan on the podcast today! Joey and Russ are the founders and partners at Wealth Without Wall Street, hosts of the popular podcast of the same name, and serial entrepreneurs who currently operate 19 short-term rentals, along with being involved in several other investment strategies. Joey and Russ also have a podcast that enables them to reach more people with the message of financial freedom and passive income.  They love talking about the challenges and motivations they experience as business owners to help others pursue financial freedom.    We begin the episode with Joey and Russ sharing their background stories and how they ended up in real estate. Joey shared that he was in the mortgage industry for 11 years, and during that time, he became friends with Russ. Russ was a certified financial adviser, and he started referring clients to him. Their pivot point came when Russ learned something new from a book that he shared with him. It changed the way they looked at personal finance and how they controlled cash flow in their life. They joined forces, and in 2014 they started a partnership that birthed their Wealth Without Wall Street company.   We then talk about Joey and Russ's first investment strategy that they took action on. Joey came from a mortgage business, and the first investment he got into was in private lending. He loved its passivity, a check every month, and it was profitable, but Joey realized that he wanted something that added more velocity to his earnings. On the other hand, Russ started by buying a two-bedroom condo and started a long-term rental. From his experience, Russ learned that his personality style and investor DNA was of somebody who liked to be more involved, and he had to match who he was with the investments he was making.     Next, we talk about what Russ and Joey did together when they combined forces to get things moving in their business. They share that the most important thing they did at the beginning was focusing on their own business. Wealth Without Wall Street was super dependent on them for the day-to-day operations. If they weren’t in a seat talking to somebody, they were not making money, and they had to figure out how to make their business more passive. They hired a consultant who advised them to build a coaching program by bringing in coaches, taking their knowledge, and putting it in a sustainable and repeatable process. Creating GPS (Goal. Plan, and Support) processes that they walk people through was hard work for a long time, and according to Joey, it made all the difference, and it freed them up to go out and implement other things.   We then talk about what Russ and Joey do to make passive income at a high level in addition to crypto mining and short-term rentals. They share that they have a land flipping business that buys property, turns them around, and sells them on terms to somebody else. They often acquire land investments from landowners who have land that they don’t use out of state and have bad taxes. They make it affordable to buyers by having the owner finance for about $200 or $300 a month. For marketing, the first people they market to are the neighbors, and 40% of their purchases come from them. They also market on social platforms such as Facebook and Craigslist. According to Russ, this business model has worked for them, and they produce $10,000 to $15,000 a month in cash flow, and it’s climbing.     Lastly, we talk about what attracts Joey and Russ to short-term rentals as opposed to long-term rentals or regular leases. Joey shares that he has a two-bedroom and two-bathroom house that he has owned since 2004, and this was the first unit they turned into a short-term rental to see if they could get a higher cash flow from the market in 2019, right at the beginning of the pandemic. They marketed the unit on Airbnb as coming soon, and two weeks before it was even available, they were getting bookings. Those bookings exceeded by over $4000 within the first month. However, Joey and Russ's model is slightly different as they don’t buy the property. They lease the properties, and they furnish them. Their down payment is often $1,850 for a three-bedroom, $25,000 for the furnishing, and they still earn $15,000 to $24,000, which is about 66 to 100%, and way better than long-term rental deals.        Make sure you don’t miss another amazing episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast with Joey Mure and Russ Morgan and get valuable information on how you can replace your income with passive investments to achieve financial freedom! Notable Quotes:   “Financial freedom is a formula that can apply to anyone regardless of where they are.” Joey Mure   “When doing short-term rentals, you have to identify and know who your guest is.“ Joey Mure   “The goal of financial freedom is making your monthly passive inco

Welcome to this version of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! I am excited to bring you another replay of my Facebook Live Question and Answer sessions. I just started doing these live forums in April and they are going so well and I am getting such great feedback and questions, I thought I would share them here on the podcast. Especially for those people that are unable to join us live, this will provide an opportunity to hear the awesome questions I am fielding about business, taking risks, real estate, and so much more! Some of the questions have been very real estate specific, but others have been general business questions, like asking about overcoming fear in order to get started and how to successfully scale. I have also received more personal questions like how I decided real estate investing was right for me and the steps I took to get my business off the ground.   This presentation is the live Q&A that I did the week of February 16th and each Thursday we will offer you another chance to take advantage of listening to the answers to our guests’ fabulous and compelling questions! Don’t miss this new episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! Notable Quotes:   “The market is always fine. It is how you adjust to it that counts.”   “When the market changes, you just have to change your approach.”   “There will always be some things that fall through the cracks.”   “To stay on top of your team, you need to be measuring their performance weekly.”   “Activities lead to results.”   “The key isn’t necessarily that your spouse believes in it like you do, but just that they support it.”   “You need to put her in a room with people that are already doing it and doing it successfully.”   “You are staying top-of-mind because you made an offer when no one else did.”   “Wholesalers hate it when they get no offers because they don’t know what to do next.”   “One of the mindset issues that I had to change right away was what I thought was possible.”   “I didn’t think my company was big enough to actually start hiring other people.”   “It is going to take more reps to get that hit.” Links: 7 Figure Investor 7 Figure Flipping Return on Investments Just Start Real Estate JSRE on Facebook Mike on Facebook Mike on Instagram Mike on LinkedIn Mike on Twitter Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months  

In this episode, I am joined by Amanda Han. As a CPA, tax strategist, and real estate investor, Amanda Han combines her passion for real estate investing with her expertise in tax tactics. Her goal is to help investors with tactics designed to supercharge their wealth-building using entity structuring, self-directed investing, and income offset opportunities to keep more of what they make.   Amanda begins by giving us a little bit of her background. She talks about how both her parents and grandparents were real estate investors but encouraged her to follow the more traditional route of getting an education, followed by a good job. She began her accounting career at Deloitte, just by chance, in their real estate specialty group. She realized very quickly some of the tax benefits her investor clients could take advantage of, increasing their income while not necessarily working a ton of hours.   Amanda explained that the majority of real estate investors are not aware of the tax strategies available to them. She pointed out that it isn’t necessarily anyone’s fault but that the tax codes are written in a convoluted way. Reaping tax benefits requires very specialized knowledge for each and every industry.   I asked Amanda to explain a little about what is going on with the tax situation during the current COVID-19 pandemic. She said as part of the Cares Act pandemic relief package, the new filing deadline is July 15th. Most of the states are following these guidelines, and Amanda recommended getting more information from AICPA State Tax Filing Guidelines.   I wanted to find out Amanda’s recommendations for newer or smaller investors on when a good time is to begin working with a CPA and employing tax strategies. She said it was important for even brand new investors to consult advisors in order to form proper legal entities necessary for both tax benefits and protection, and also how to use them effectively.   I asked Amanda to explain a strategy that I have recently become familiar with which is cost segregation. She said first that one of the things that is so attractive about real estate investing is the depreciation that can be claimed no matter how much is put down on the house or other factors. Cost segregation is just the next level of this type of tax advantage. It involves defining all of the components of a particular investment property, not just the building itself. Some of these components may be eligible for an immediate deduction, providing the possibility of taking a higher deduction upfront rather than having everything depreciate over the standard timeframe.   Amanda went on to explain strategies that could benefit some types of real estate investors but not others, giving specific examples. She also gave some great, practical advice on how to determine whether an individual’s tax advisor was helping employ these strategies.   I then asked Amanda about the charity that she and her husband and business partner, Matt, formed named Animals for Armed Forces Foundation. The foundation helps to place shelter animals with current or retired servicemen and women. Normally on Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day each year they will work with local shelters to place animals in military homes for free, while the foundation pays for any necessary fees. Amanda talked about how rewarding it is to receive pictures of these pets in their new homes with their forever families.     We then talked about the two books they have written on tax strategies for real estate investors (see links at the bottom). She said that she and Matt read a lot of books about taxes benefits for investors and found them difficult and dull to read and wondered how people who were not CPAs would get any useful information from them, so they wrote their own books to help people find strategies that could help them. The first book is story-based about specific successes and mistakes made by investors and provides actionable, easy-to-understand advice about various tax schemes.   If you are like me, you may not know much about taxes, but please join me for this interesting, motivating, and believe or not, fun interview with tax expert Amanda Han! Notable Quotes   “I think there is a misconception that investors think they only need to work with a CPA or an attorney when I have ‘X’ number of rentals.” Amanda Han   “It is more transaction-focused rather than a number of rentals in terms of who could benefit from tax planning.” Amanda Han   “In the tax world, there is never a one-size-fits-all strategy.” Amanda Han   “In the spirit of Michael Scott, now say it like I am a four-year-old.” Mike Simmons   “Flipping burgers - not nearly the upside of flipping houses.” Mike Simmons   “Our firm specializes in proactive tax planning.” Amanda Han   “We have people whose tax preparer is their father-in-law… you can’t fire your father-in-law.” Amanda Han   “We a

Welcome to this version of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! I am excited to bring you another replay of my Facebook Live Question and Answer sessions. I just started doing these live forums in April and they are going so well and I am getting such great feedback and questions, I thought I would share them here on the podcast. Especially for those people that are unable to join us live, this will provide an opportunity to hear the awesome questions I am fielding about business, taking risks, real estate, and so much more! Some of the questions have been very real estate specific, but others have been general business questions, like asking about overcoming fear in order to get started and how to successfully scale. I have also received more personal questions like how I decided real estate investing was right for me and the steps I took to get my business off the ground.   This presentation is the live Q&A that I did the week of February 9th and each Thursday we will offer you another chance to take advantage of listening to the answers to our guests’ fabulous and compelling questions! Don’t miss this new episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! Notable Quotes:   “Postcards for my company’s marketing were the cash cows… for years.”   “When COVID first hit, people were taking their mail out of the box with salad tongs.”   “PPC took the place of postcards in terms of the amount of calls we were getting.”   “We are more profitable now than when we were sending out the mail.”   “Cold calling was our number two lead source for a while.”   “We are increasing our radio marketing and trying some new things there.”   “I am not a big fan of doing five or six marketing channels because I think you end up doing some of them poorly.”   “The best talent isn’t always the talent that is within arm’s reach.”   “I wouldn’t let your Zoom burnout keep you for achieving everything you can achieve.”   “I am interested in making as many 7 Figure Investors as I can, right now.” Links: 7 Figure Investor 7 Figure Flipping Return on Investments Just Start Real Estate JSRE on Facebook Mike on Facebook Mike on Instagram Mike on LinkedIn Mike on Twitter Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months  

My guest today is Paul Wakim. Paul is the founder of Fly Over Properties, a real estate photography company and he is also the co-founder of TwnSqr, a web-based company that works as a lead generation engine for real estate agents. Paul started TwnSqr as a project to create an algorithm to predict who was going to sell their house next so he could find more deals. TwnSqr is 100% free and very easy to use, and with the recent influx of institutional and hedge fund money moving into the single-family rental space, it’s focused on simplifying access to properties and giving investors the tools they need to quickly and easily sell their properties.   We begin the episode with Paul sharing his background story and how he ended up in real estate. He shares that he has always been his own boss, even through middle and high school. He owned a landscaping company with his brother, and he kept the business alive through college. He also started a real estate photography company with his wife, and they ended up working with the biggest real estate company on the east coast. For the first year and a half, Paul was the only photographer and had a lot of interaction with top agents and investors before they hired their first employees. The start-up was really a grind for him, but he’s happy to have started there.     We then talk about Paul’s transition from real estate photography to investing in properties. He shares that he spent hundreds, probably thousands, of hours in the car listening to podcasts about real estate investing while he was driving around to do his work. They were the primary photography companies for some of the highest flippers, and he saw their operations and the kind of money they were making. All of this exposure to real estate led Paul to his own investment journey. He got his real estate license and eventually started ground-up residential development. Because he started as a realtor agent, he appreciated the experience it gave him about the real estate market. However, he says it’s not a necessity if you want to start investing.       Next, we talk about Paul’s first investment in real estate. Paul shared that his first investment was a conservatorship which took them two years to complete. They ended up purchasing the house for a dollar in front of a judge, and then two weeks later, they sold it for $89,000. According to Paul, the deal was worth it, and he learned a lot in the process. Paul also shares that he lost his access to MLS when he started investing after getting rid of his realtor's license. As a result, he taught himself how to code and built a very rudimentary algorithm that successfully predicted who was going to sell their property next. This enabled him to wholesale properties for a profit and opened up an opportunity to do high and ground-up real estate construction.     We then talk about Paul's coding algorithm and the company he created out of his coding experience.  Paul shares that the program was based on properties with similar attributes in the same neighborhood and geographical locations. From this coding experience, Paul built a web-based company called Twnsqr that serves as a predictor of who will sell next and as a lead generation engine primarily for real agents. However, according to Paul, COVID screwed up the prediction algorithm, and it’s no longer a part of Twnsqr. It also made it difficult for them to find people who wanted to sell on-market, and they primarily deal with off-market sales.          Lastly, we talk about the process that they use on their platform to vet buyers for different properties. Paul shares that anybody can submit a proposal or an offer through the platform, but it’s up to the person who has posted the property to determine who they want to work with. According to Paul, when sending in your proposal, you can include your preferred purchasing price and information about yourself to increase your chances of getting the deal. However, they are working on incorporating profiles, proof of funds, and reviews to help sellers make the best decision possible.    Make sure you don’t miss another amazing episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast with Paul Wakim and get valuable information on how you can buy and sell off-market properties with Twnsqr! Notable Quotes:   “You don’t need to be a real estate agent to be an investor, but it will help 100% in understanding the legalities of the real estate market.” Paul Wakim   “The best way to learn is to work for somebody for free. Just be valuable, absorb and ask questions without charging anything.” Mike Simmons   “Listening to podcasts and interacting with people who are successful in real estate can help you get the ball rolling.“ Paul Wakim  Links: Twnsqr Paul's Email  Paul on LinkedIn Paul on Instagram Paul on Twitter  Paul on Youtube 7 Figure Inves

Welcome to this version of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! I am excited to bring you another replay of my Facebook Live Question and Answer sessions. I just started doing these live forums in April and they are going so well and I am getting such great feedback and questions, I thought I would share them here on the podcast. Especially for those people that are unable to join us live, this will provide an opportunity to hear the awesome questions I am fielding about business, taking risks, real estate, and so much more! Some of the questions have been very real estate specific, but others have been general business questions, like asking about overcoming fear in order to get started and how to successfully scale. I have also received more personal questions like how I decided real estate investing was right for me and the steps I took to get my business off the ground.   This presentation is the live Q&A that I did the week of February 2nd and each Thursday we will offer you another chance to take advantage of listening to the answers to our guests’ fabulous and compelling questions! Don’t miss this new episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! Notable Quotes:   “Here is the tough question - what is their motivation? Why do they need to sell?”   “When I was in sales, I would start out with kindness.”   “When it comes to long-term scaling up for your business, you are going to have to find other lenders besides banks and credit unions.”   “What I think is of great value to realtors are the leads that are not going to work for you as a wholesaler.”   “If you just got your first or second deal, what do you do to celebrate? Go get your third deal!”   “When I get a win, it makes me hungry for the next win.”   “I really want you to put that money back into your business.”   “Whenever I go out, go to a REIA and meet people, I am always happy I did.”   Links: 7 Figure Investor 7 Figure Flipping Return on Investments Just Start Real Estate JSRE on Facebook Mike on Facebook Mike on Instagram Mike on LinkedIn Mike on Twitter Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months  

I am excited to welcome Art Morrison III to the show today! Art is a former basketball player, the founder of AboveMAX Basketball, the CEO of United Home Relief, and the author of Overcome: The Key to Unlocking Your Superhuman. Following his retirement from basketball, he single-handedly built a basketball camp for children and later transitioned into real estate. He now seeks to teach young adults how to get into the real estate investing game and expedite their path to financial freedom.    We begin the episode with Art sharing his background story and how he ended up in real estate. Art shares that after a rocky childhood, he went on to play collegiate basketball at a D2 school on scholarship and eventually to professional basketball in Portugal.  After moving on from his career, Art applied everything he learned in basketball in entrepreneurship to grow his organization, and later, his real estate business. He started investing in real estate in 2018, and he did over $2.5 million in transactions in his first two years in wholesaling. He later moved from wholesaling and flipping to doing full syndications, and he has done over $6 million in transactions, across 15 properties, in only three years.     We then talk about how playing sports impacted his business life. Art shares that there is a lot of value in playing sports, being an athlete, or being part of any organization that requires discipline at a young age. When you apply discipline, character-building, persistence, teamwork, and commitment to entrepreneurship, you’re setting yourself up for success. Art was hungry for success, and he poured his efforts into basketball, which earned him a successful career. In real estate, it was no different; he knew how to play the game and how to win.   Next, we talk about how Art started his entrepreneurship journey after he left his basketball profession in 2014. Art stopped playing basketball because of injuries and corruption. As an entrepreneurial-minded athlete, Art didn’t want to get a job. He wanted to be in control, so he started a basketball organization. He was doing well, and he knew that if he applied the same efforts and principles in real estate, he would be successful. Art was in an industry that had a ceiling, and for him venturing into real estate, the sky was the limit. In 2018 he stepped forward to make his dream a reality. However, he didn’t do it openly until he got his first wholesale deal, which allowed him to make $40,000 from an off-market deal.   We then talk about why Art got into wholesaling and how he was able to scale it. Art shares that he wanted to own his own business and destiny. According to him, wholesaling fit well with his personality. From his studies, Art knew that wholesaling is an OPM (other people's money) strategy, and it was easy for him to scale up. After his first deal, he bought a multifamily property with the money that he earned from it. Art also got more deals from Instagram marketing, and he was able to do the same thing with his industrial partners.    Lastly, we talk about how Art was raising money at the beginning of his real estate business.  Art shares that he had a trustworthy brand and network, and when he launched his real estate company, everybody knew he was smart and trustworthy. He had a professional basketball organization, and people trusted him with their children. This made it easier for them to trust him with their finances, and he was guaranteed a loan for the capital that he needed to scale his venture. However, later they shifted to the LLC space, and now they are limited to only accredited investors. According to Art, this experience has allowed them to build their brand on social media and in their demographic to raise more funds publicly.   Make sure you don’t miss another fantastic episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast with Art Morrison III and get valuable information on creative ways of starting and financing your real estate projects! Notable Quotes:   “There’s a lot of value in playing sports, being an athlete, or being part of any organization that requires discipline at a young age.” Art Morrison III   “You just need to find motivation. If you find a person who is not motivated to sell their property you might end up paying too much.” Art Morrison IIII   “It doesn’t matter how much money you have, you need to educate yourself or you’ll lose it.“ Art Morrison III   “Investors invest money with people. They have to like you and trust you as a person.” Mike Simmons    “Success is not a coincidence - it’s about self-awareness of what your strengths and weaknesses, and creating a team that compliments you.”  Mike Simmons  Links: Art’s Website  Art on Instagram Art on LinkedIn  Art’s Book  7 Figure Investor Just Start Real Estate JSRE on Facebook Mike on Facebook Mike on Instagram Mike on LinkedIn Mike on Twitter L

Welcome to this version of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! I am excited to bring you another replay of my Facebook Live Question and Answer sessions. I just started doing these live forums in April and they are going so well and I am getting such great feedback and questions, I thought I would share them here on the podcast. Especially for those people that are unable to join us live, this will provide an opportunity to hear the awesome questions I am fielding about business, taking risks, real estate, and so much more! Some of the questions have been very real estate specific, but others have been general business questions, like asking about overcoming fear in order to get started and how to successfully scale. I have also received more personal questions like how I decided real estate investing was right for me and the steps I took to get my business off the ground.   This presentation is the live Q&A that I did the week of January 26th and each Thursday we will offer you another chance to take advantage of listening to the answers to our guests’ fabulous and compelling questions! Don’t miss this new episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! Notable Quotes:   “There were a number of years that I argued you need to have financing in place before finding a property.”   “Just find the deal and the money will come.”   “Here’s the key - a good deal will always get funded.”   “If you think you are spending too much time analyzing deals, you probably are.”   “Be 80% sure of what you are talking about with your numbers.”   “Make the offer. It is going to start a dialogue.”   “Spend less time analyzing deals and make more offers.”   “I rain down hellfire on people that try to take my deals.”   “Make sure your relationships with your sellers are really strong.”   “A buyer can only go behind your back if a seller is willing to play.”   “Success leaves clues.” Links: 7 Figure Investor 7 Figure Flipping Return on Investments Just Start Real Estate JSRE on Facebook Mike on Facebook Mike on Instagram Mike on LinkedIn Mike on Twitter Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months  

My guest today is Drew White. After 10 years working as a pediatric nurse, he quit and became his own banker. Drew is now an entrepreneur and an investor, and he teaches real estate investors how to protect and store their wealth in their own highly liquid banking systems.   We begin the episode with Drew sharing his background story and how his entrepreneurship journey started. Drew shares that he graduated from nursing school with over $150,000 of student loan debt, which would require him to use 50% of his earnings over a long period of time to pay off. That was the first time he understood the true impact of the debt he had created. He and his wife paid the whole debt, leaving themselves with nothing. This experience gave him a hunger to create wealth-building side businesses to take control of his family finances.   We then talk about the basic and high-level steps of flipping a mobile home and how Drew conducts evaluations. Drew shares that to invest in mobile homes, you must know what you are doing, and just like in real estate, you must look for good deals. Basically, what he does is that he looks for someone to give him a down payment and then pay monthly payments for five to seven years. There is a fine line with mobile homes, if you fix them all the way up, you’re not going to get your money back, and the goal is to get your money back.    Next, we talk about how to get good deals for your mobile home investments. Drew shares that a lot of it depends on the park you are in. and whether you’re doing it inside or outside a park. In a park, you should evaluate the state of the park, whether people want to be there and what is near the location. Drew says there is no exact formula for evaluation, and for him, he started by doing tests to find out what a mobile home goes for. As he got better, he started searching to find out what and how people were selling them in the market. According to him, many people don’t care what the total price is; what they care about is their monthly payment.    We then talk about what infinite banking is and why he prefers putting his money there as opposed to the stock market, CD, and others. According to Drew, infinite banking is a way to create your own private, personal, or family banking system outside traditional banks using whole life insurance. With infinite banking, you also get more benefits compared to traditional banking, such as uninterrupted compound interest because it’s a whole life contract. When you use that money, you are using the insurance company’s money. Your money always grows in a tax-free manner and a guaranteed 4% rate plus dividends. In contrast, when you use a CD or savings account, you get less 0.2% on your savings, which interrupts any compounding that you have.     Lastly, we talk about Drew's advice for people who are dissatisfied with their job. The first thing that Drew talks about is identifying your long-term goals. Sometimes people complain about where they are, but they don’t think about where they are going. According to Drew, there are different things you can do to create passive income and move from a job that is not paying you enough. The first thing that Drew recommends is to assess where you are and your short and long-term goals.  Start from the basics and be open-minded. There is no one size fits all when it comes to building a passive income.    Make sure you don’t miss another amazing episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast with Drew White and get valuable information on how to start your entrepreneurial career and gain financial freedom! Notable Quotes:   “There is a fine line with mobile homes - if you completely renovate them, you’re not going to get your money back.” Drew White    “The most curious people are the most successful.“ Mike Simmons   “A lot of people don’t care what the total price is of a mobile home. What they care about is their monthly payment.” Drew White   “Most entrepreneurs are born when they are placed in the right environment.” Mike Simmons Links: IBC Drew  Drew’s Podcast Drew on LinkedIn  7 Figure Investor Just Start Real Estate JSRE on Facebook Mike on Facebook Mike on Instagram Mike on LinkedIn Mike on Twitter Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months  

Welcome to this version of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! I am excited to bring you another replay of my Facebook Live Question and Answer sessions. I just started doing these live forums in April and they are going so well and I am getting such great feedback and questions, I thought I would share them here on the podcast. Especially for those people that are unable to join us live, this will provide an opportunity to hear the awesome questions I am fielding about business, taking risks, real estate, and so much more! Some of the questions have been very real estate specific, but others have been general business questions, like asking about overcoming fear in order to get started and how to successfully scale. I have also received more personal questions like how I decided real estate investing was right for me and the steps I took to get my business off the ground.   This presentation is the live Q&A that I did the week of January 19th and each Thursday we will offer you another chance to take advantage of listening to the answers to our guests’ fabulous and compelling questions! Don’t miss this new episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! Notable Quotes:   “There is always a right and a wrong way to conduct your business.”   “I have way more faith in direct mail than I do for cold calling for finding leads.”   “I don’t know of any cold calling system that can reach the level of response and revenue from direct mail.”   “Historically, direct mail is hands-down king.”   “My short answer is ‘Don’t wait.’”   “If you are going to hold a property for 10 or more years, buy now.”   “If you are buying at a discount, you can wholesale the property, or flip it, and sell it for a profit. That works in any market.” “Figure out how to generate more leads so you can make more offers.”   “Real estate investing is all about two things - leads and money.”   “If you can generate leads and raise money, you can conquer the world in real estate.”   “Nothing in your business is important until you start generating leads.”   “This business is simple. It is not always easy, but it is simple.”   “The people who have success take consistent action, sometimes massive action.”   “The most successful people are the ones that start working and stop making excuses.” Links: 7 Figure Investor 7 Figure Flipping Return on Investments Just Start Real Estate JSRE on Facebook Mike on Facebook Mike on Instagram Mike on LinkedIn Mike on Twitter Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months  

My guest today is Dustin Heiner. Dustin is a successful investor and he started his real estate business from the ground up, with no money, no knowledge, and no properties. He has been able to build a business that makes him tens of thousands of dollars each month in passive income while giving him 40+ hours of his life back. With Master Passive Income, Dustin is on a mission to teach as many people as possible the step-by-step process of investing in real estate by building a business first.     We begin the episode with Dustin sharing his background story and how he got into real estate. He shares that he got into real estate when he was first laid off from his county job. Though Dustin was lucky to get another one, he realized that he defined his value in terms of his job and needed to make sure it didn’t happen again. He decided to make his job his part-time career, and he became a full-time investor. Dustin invested in real estate, and when he was 37 years old, he was able to quit his job because he had so many rental properties that brought in income. Though Dustin was making $75,000 a year from his job, he discovered that he was losing money and needed to make more money on his own.    We then talk about how Dustin found his properties when he got into real estate. He shares that in 2006 when he started investing, he was staying in California, and the price of properties was high. So, he started buying in other places with lower prices where he could still make passive income. From his experience, Dustin says that he started off the wrong way, but to do it right, you have to build the business first and then buy the inventory to put into the business. For him, he starts by finding a good city with a lot of inventory, potential properties that he can buy, then he finds the right property managers, and lastly, he finds the property itself. Dustin gets everybody that is going to run his business in before buying the property. This ensures that he gets it right and continues to make money in his new investments.     Next, we talk about Dustin’s current strategy of acquiring and buying properties. Dustin shares that he uses everybody and anybody who wants to sell him a property. He identifies himself to everybody as an investor, and by doing that, people know that he’s a buyer. He’s always looking for new properties, and one reason he’s able to capture a lot of equity is that he puts out a lot of offers. And when it comes to choosing a property, he always opts for wholesalers rather than retailers because they work hard for his cash equities. However, one of the best tips Dustin recommends when getting properties capturing equity is finding a property on sale on the MLS and then contacting the seller’s realtor to help you get the property at a discount.     We then talk about the financing side of Dustin’s investment strategy. According to Dustin, funding and managing a property fall under the same strategy. For him, he figures out tools that he can use in all parts of his business. For instance, if he needs to find a property, he needs realtors, wholesalers, other investors, and REIA groups. These are the tools and ways for him to find a property and the same thing with financing properties. He uses private money, hard money, credit card, loans, portfolio loans, mortgages, and commercials as tools, and he teaches his students to deploy them into properties. Dustin has used fourteen different ways to finance properties, but he says not all of them are a fit for every property. As an investor, you need to be problem solvers, and you need many tools to solve these problems and implement them in the best ways possible.    Lastly, we talk about the economy of scales and why Dustin spreads his investments out. Dustin's main goal initially was to quit his job and have money coming in through passive income. He realized if he bought one property, it made $250 in a month and $3000 a year, which was not worth it. On the other hand, with 10 properties, he made $2500 a month and $30,000 a year without working, and with 20 properties, he made $20,000 a month and $60,000 a year passive income. For him, he knew he had to scale his business to get more and more. However, he discovered that investing in one area can be risky, and he started diversifying to build a consistent income.    Make sure you don’t miss another amazing episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast with Dustin Heiner and get valuable information on low-risk strategies for acquiring properties and financing your projects! Notable Quotes:   “Your value does not come from your job..” Dustin Heiner    “Your boss is paying you just enough to keep you working without quitting. They are not paying you for your value.” Dustin Heiner    “Don’t wait for your boss to lay you off, work on your passive income and instead lay them off.” Dustin Heiner   “Don’t

Welcome to this version of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! I am excited to bring you another replay of my Facebook Live Question and Answer sessions. I just started doing these live forums in April and they are going so well and I am getting such great feedback and questions, I thought I would share them here on the podcast. Especially for those people that are unable to join us live, this will provide an opportunity to hear the awesome questions I am fielding about business, taking risks, real estate, and so much more! Some of the questions have been very real estate specific, but others have been general business questions, like asking about overcoming fear in order to get started and how to successfully scale. I have also received more personal questions like how I decided real estate investing was right for me and the steps I took to get my business off the ground.   This presentation is the live Q&A that I did the week of January 12th and each Thursday we will offer you another chance to take advantage of listening to the answers to our guests’ fabulous and compelling questions! Don’t miss this new episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! Notable Quotes:   “It is a short-sighted statement to say you need a partner to have credibility. You only need to do one or two deals to have credibility.”   “Partnerships can be very tricky.”   “Instead of bringing on a partner, invest in coaching or mentorship.”   “We don’t typically give earnest money deposits to the seller when we are doing wholesale deals.”   “Find someone to fund your EMD if it is a smoking deal.”   “You need to do a good job of listening to the sellers and truly empathizing with what they are going through.”   “You have to find out from them why selling their house to you is a better solution than putting it on the MLS.”   “When hiring, many times companies will trade a good culture fit for a particular skill set.”   “I almost had a full-out mutiny in my company when I hired purely for skills and not a good company culture fit.” Links: 7 Figure Investor Multifamily Live Flip Hacking Live 7 Figure Flipping Return on Investments Just Start Real Estate JSRE on Facebook Mike on Facebook Mike on Instagram Mike on LinkedIn Mike on Twitter Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months  

I am thrilled to welcome my friend Adam Whitney to the podcast today! Adam is a co-owner and the CEO of Blackjack Real Estate and has served in the Marine Corps since 2004 and remains on active duty. He is a specialist in managing teams and possesses accountability traits learned in the military which are absolutely pivotal to being a successful entrepreneur.  Adam utilizes laser-focused marketing techniques in order to achieve his current level of success.   We begin the episode with Adam sharing his background story and how he ended up in real estate. He shares that he has served 17 years in active duty in the Marine Corps. He started investing in real estate in 2017 in rental properties but later got into a partnership in private welding. Adam realized he needed to develop the very important skills of marketing and sales in order to grow his business. By following flipping communities he ended up learning a ton in sales, finding marketing deals, and ultimately ended up as the CEO for Blackjack Real Estate.     We then talk about how Bill Allen approached Adam when he wanted to pitch him the idea of buying Blackjack. He shares that it was less divine interaction than people usually think. He was on a podcast and a trip with Bill and that is where they started building their friendship. Adam was just working hard, trying to be a good person, and executing a game plan that the flipping group gave him. However, after the trip, Bill offered him an opportunity to be the majority owner of the company. Adam was shocked, but he was up for the task, and he knew he could help build and grow the company.   Next, we talk about Adam’s transition and what surprised him when he took the wheel. Adam shares that there were some assumptions that he made that were not true. One of the amazing things was that the company was without leadership or strategic guidance, but it was functioning well. According to Adam, when you take over something that is so successful, you tend to make assumptions that everything is being done for the right reasons. For him, he assumed that the people were in positions for the right reasons, but some of the people weren’t a good fit for the company. They didn’t meet the core values and did not execute in their roles. They had to let some employees go, which was a surprise to him, but it worked, and they stabilized.    We then talk about Blackjack Real Estate company and where it stands at the moment. According to Adam, they are getting to that point where they’re getting the right people in the right seats. Adam says their big goal in the first quarter of 2022 is to get their leadership and their vision in place and to figure out who's going to lead their departments effectively. This should be the goal of every business. They also have a projection to hit $1.6 million this year and eventually go back to being a three million dollar company.   Next, we discuss the marketing and lead-generating strategies that are working best for Adam and his team. He shares that they are primarily doing direct mail, cold calling, and SEO for their business. Almost every business uses direct mail as the primary lead source, and they have been using the same postcards they have been using for a long time. However, in real estate, marketing, especially with direct mail, is all about timing. Your message has to hit the hand of a person who is in a position to sell or buy a property from you. Timing is everything, and if you want to get to the right hands at the right time, drop the production cost and do it more often.     Lastly, we talk about KPI metrics role in growth. Adam shares that he looks at his metrics weekly. According to him, if you don’t have KPIs, it’s equivalent to driving in a foreign place without a GPS, and you are incapable of understanding your business. There are a lot of metrics that you can track in your business, such as your average contracts, calls, sales, and so on. Tracking these baseline numbers will help you understand your business, where things are going wrong, and what you need to address. The bottom line is that you have to know what is going on in your company, so tracking your KPIs is essential.   Make sure you don’t miss another amazing episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! This interview with Adam Whitney was awesome and he provides so much valuable information on how you can establish yourself and thrive in real estate! Notable Quotes:   “When we take over something that is so successful, we tend to make assumptions that everything is being done for the right reasons, which might not be the case.” Adam Whitney   “Timing is everything, and if you want to get to the right hands at the right time, drop your production cost and do it more often.” Mike Simmons   “Who you spend time with is who you become. Maximize your exposure to the people that are doing the things you want to be doing.” Adam Whitn

Welcome to this version of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! I am excited to bring you another replay of my Facebook Live Question and Answer sessions. I just started doing these live forums in April and they are going so well and I am getting such great feedback and questions, I thought I would share them here on the podcast. Especially for those people that are unable to join us live, this will provide an opportunity to hear the awesome questions I am fielding about business, taking risks, real estate, and so much more! Some of the questions have been very real estate specific, but others have been general business questions, like asking about overcoming fear in order to get started and how to successfully scale. I have also received more personal questions like how I decided real estate investing was right for me and the steps I took to get my business off the ground.   This presentation is the live Q&A that I did the week of January 5th and each Thursday we will offer you another chance to take advantage of listening to the answers to our guests’ fabulous and compelling questions! Don’t miss this new episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! Notable Quotes:   “First you nail it, then you scale it.” Mike Simmons quoting Andy McFarland   “I absolutely think you can do $1.2M with four or five employees.”   “The reason they most likely called you is that they can’t list their house on the MLS and it is your job to find out why.”   “We buy houses from people that need to sell their house quickly and for a fair price, in cash.”   “I am less interested in making year-long goals than I am in creating 90-day goals.”   “One of the failures of New Year’s Resolutions is that we lose momentum and motivation because they are too long-term.”   “Twelve-month goals get lost in the shuffle.”   “With 90-day goals, you can’t slip up very much or else you are in jeopardy of missing it.” Links: 7 Figure Investor Flip Hacking Live 7 Figure Flipping Return on Investments Just Start Real Estate JSRE on Facebook Mike on Facebook Mike on Instagram Mike on LinkedIn Mike on Twitter Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months  

I am happy to welcome Scott Smith to the podcast today! Scott is the founder of Royal Legal Solutions, a real estate investor, and asset protection attorney in Austin, Texas. He graduated from Albany Law School and began his career in high-stakes corporate litigation. Scott has spent the past eight years of his career diving through case law, mastering tax code, and analyzing real estate investments to help investors protect their hard-earned assets.   We begin the episode with Scott sharing his career background and how he ended up in real estate. Scott is an asset protection attorney and a long-time real estate investor. He started real estate investing while in law school. After college, he worked as a litigator suing insurance companies for denying coverage until he started making enough money in real estate. Scott had no intentions of starting a firm, but he created Royal Legal Solutions after realizing that people needed help in asset protection, estate planning, and tax issues. According to him, most real estate investors have a limited knowledge of legal protection strategies.   We then talk about the kind of real estate investments Scott made to start earning more than he was making as an attorney. He shares that he invested in single-family homes. For him, focusing on real estate and legal systems for seven years now with a team of five attorneys, seven paralegals, and over 2000 clients nationwide has given him an opportunity to expand and help people. Scott says that single-family homes are a great investment avenue, especially for your first ten properties. The level of passive income they provide makes them a great place to start and then investors can branch out when they are ready.    Next, we talk about LLCs and how many times it’s the right entity to form. Scott shares that an LLC or a series of LLCs is always the right entity to form, especially during the initial stages. According to him, If you’re someone that does not have any properties yet, but you want to protect yourself personally and your clients from losses, you need an LLC to do that. Similarly, if you own one asset or real estate property, then you need an LLC so that you don’t hold assets under your name. For multiple pieces of real estate, the most efficient tool to use is a series LLC, which you can form in one state and use anywhere. This means if somebody sues you, they can’t take hold of your assets. Scott says that 95% of their clients are single-family home investors with one to seven properties, and the series LLC is by far the best vehicle of asset protection.   We then talk about ways that you can protect your real estate investments. Scott shares that the number one thing is knowing what is appropriate for you. Everybody has assets regardless of how much money they have in the bank account, their credit score, and they need to protect their access to funds. The way you protect your credit score is by establishing an LLC and operating through it for your contracts and any documentation that you’re signing. So, if a lawsuit is filed, it will sue the LLC because it’s the one that entered into an agreement and made the representation. This will give you a much cheaper downside where you can just form a new LLC versus having to defend a lawsuit that will cost you no less than $5000. According to him, LLC structures are so powerful when applied correctly.   Lastly, we talk about Scott’s company and what they offer. He shares that their approach has been to give away all the information and secrets for free. His goal is to get as many people as possible protected using the right structures. They offer an incredible amount of education for free on their website. Their giveaways include eBooks and instructional videos to get people educated to help them take action on their own or work with them. They put people who chose to work with them through an advisory process that walks them through the theories and structures that are appropriate for them. From there, they are assigned an attorney, a paralegal, and a dedicated team to help through the execution process to ensure they are doing the right things.      Make sure you don’t miss another amazing episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast with Scott Smith and get valuable information on asset protection strategies that you must implement today! Notable Quotes:   “Insurance protects you from most of the risks but it doesn't cover things like misleading someone in an email or text message or a breach of contract.” Scott Smith    “If you own one asset in real estate then you need an LLC. You don’t hold assets in your own name.” Scott Smith   “You need to be thinking about ligation when you are dealing with any kind of person.” Scott Smith   “The series LLC is by far the best vehicle for asset protection, but if you are starting out, then an LLC is better than having nothing at all.“ Scott Smith &nbs

Welcome to this version of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! I am excited to bring you another replay of my Facebook Live Question and Answer sessions. I just started doing these live forums in April and they are going so well and I am getting such great feedback and questions, I thought I would share them here on the podcast. Especially for those people that are unable to join us live, this will provide an opportunity to hear the awesome questions I am fielding about business, taking risks, real estate, and so much more! Some of the questions have been very real estate specific, but others have been general business questions, like asking about overcoming fear in order to get started and how to successfully scale. I have also received more personal questions like how I decided real estate investing was right for me and the steps I took to get my business off the ground.   This presentation is the live Q&A that I did the week of December 29th and each Thursday we will offer you another chance to take advantage of listening to the answers to our guests’ fabulous and compelling questions! Don’t miss this new episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! Notable Quotes:   “I have several friends that are in the short-term rental market and they are handling them in vastly different ways from each other.”   “Most short-term rentals investors are getting enough return on their investment to pay off the property in 4 to 6 years.”   “Make sure the numbers make sense for you.”   “In real estate, you want to have a marketing budget that gives you a four-to-six-month runway.”   “The bigger a company gets, the slower it tends to move.”   “Use speed to your advantage in marketing.”   “Entrepreneurship can be really lonely. You have to surround yourself with people that remind you why you are doing what you are doing.”   “You have to have a really powerful ‘why” to stay motivated in your business.” Links: 7 Figure Investor Flip Hacking Live 7 Figure Flipping Return on Investments Just Start Real Estate JSRE on Facebook Mike on Facebook Mike on Instagram Mike on LinkedIn Mike on Twitter Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months

My guest today is Brent Bowers. Brent has five years of experience in the land wholesaling business. As an Army Officer with over eight years of service, Brent was spending a great deal of time away from his family, and he knew he needed a business that could help him be more present in his family life. His interest in real estate began in 2007 when he purchased his first rental house. From there, he started exploring real estate investing to support his family while enjoying more time with them.   We begin the episode with Brent sharing his backstory and how he ended up owning a very successful land company. After graduating from high school in 2004, Brent started a land company, and in 2007 he acquired his real estate license. He started buying rental houses and became a real estate agent, but it got so bad that he moved out to join the military. Some years later, Brent got back into business, this time into house hacking. It didn’t take long before he was in massive debt and broke again. To make things better, he started building a team, and in his quest, he stumbled on land business. He did several transactions, and before he knew it, his business was growing, which led him to his financial freedom, and ever since, he started focusing on land more.     We then talk about Brent’s transition to the land business and the lessons he learned along the way. He shares that he was doing well in wholesaling, but he was still searching for the answers. He was running from the pain of losing his first marriage, and he didn’t want what happened to happen to him again. The thought of leaving crushed his soul, and he knew he had to have some businesses to take care of all their expenses if he was to leave the military to be with his family. Coincidentally, he heard a guy from a podcast who was buying land at a massive discount and tripling and quadrupling his money during sales. Brent thought he could do the same. He had a land business, he took action, and within three weeks, he was able to make sales and later stabilize his cash flow.      Next, we talk about Brent’s wholesale company’s selling process. Brent’s biggest projects have been on land and assigning land contracts. According to him, a land business is unique because land doesn’t have a roof falling in, a foundation that needs fixing, or plumbing that needs repair. To find land for sale, Brent starts by finding an area, picking his playground, and then looking for land owners’ information from platforms like PropStream, Resource Guru, or the country tax treasury. The information includes their name and mailing address which he uses to send LOLs (Land Offer Letters).     We then discuss how Brent deals with cases where buyers on long-term contracts default on their payments before the due period and the full payment are complete. According to Brent, this happens all the time, and one out of twelve will default. However, the bigger the down payment, the less likely the buyers will default. In some cases, they try to modify the loans to enable the buyers to pay in full, but sometimes they let the land go into default even after paying almost 78%, which is heartbreaking.  When this happens, Brent says that he usually cancels the contract by sending a certified letter or email through his attorney.   Lastly, we talk about Brent’s criteria and checklists for identifying land to buy. For Brent, his target is always 3x his money. He works with a margin of ⅓ of what land is worth, which guarantees him a return. When it comes to selling, Brent sales are triple the buying price, and the buyers often pay in installments with an interest of 9%. They operate on contracts for deed, the land remains under his name, and they don’t allow construction until the whole contract is paid.   Make sure you don’t miss this amazing episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast with Brent Bowers and get valuable information on real estate land investments!   Notable Quotes: “Just start today, take action, and do it! We don’t always have the answers that we need tomorrow, but we have the answers for today.” Brent Bowers   “What makes the land business different is that it doesn’t have a roof falling in or a foundation that needs fixing.” Brent Bowers   “The bigger the downpayment the less the buyers are likely to default long-term payment contracts.” Brent Bowers   “There’s a secret with every house especially when you flip them and renovate them.” Brent Bowers   “Successful people in real estate are coincidentally the people who go out and take action.” Mike Simmons    “Implementors tend to be the luckiest and the most successful people.”   Mike Simmons  Links: Brent's Website; The Land Shark Brent Bowers on YouTube Brent's Podcast Brent on LinkedIn Just Start Real Estate JSRE on Facebook Mike on Facebook Mike on Instagram Mike on LinkedIn Mike on Twitter Level Jump

Welcome to this version of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! I am excited to bring you another replay of my Facebook Live Question and Answer sessions. I just started doing these live forums in April and they are going so well and I am getting such great feedback and questions, I thought I would share them here on the podcast. Especially for those people that are unable to join us live, this will provide an opportunity to hear the awesome questions I am fielding about business, taking risks, real estate, and so much more! Some of the questions have been very real estate specific, but others have been general business questions, like asking about overcoming fear in order to get started and how to successfully scale. I have also received more personal questions like how I decided real estate investing was right for me and the steps I took to get my business off the ground.   This presentation is the live Q&A that I did the week of December 22nd and each Thursday we will offer you another chance to take advantage of listening to the answers to our guests’ fabulous and compelling questions! Don’t miss this new episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! Notable Quotes:   “You just have to show up and ask the questions to get you where you want to be.”   “You need to have someone else’s hindsight to use as your foresight.”   “You need to sit down and really listen to a potential seller.”   “Solve the problem - buy the house.”   “Find out the problem so you can help them with the solution.”   “If direct mail and cold calling are working and you are happy with the results, I wouldn’t change a thing.”   “If something works, do more of it.”   “Niche marketing, and niche lists, are smaller and time-sensitive.”   Links: 7 Figure Investor Flip Hacking Live 7 Figure Flipping Return on Investments Just Start Real Estate JSRE on Facebook Mike on Facebook Mike on Instagram Mike on LinkedIn Mike on Twitter Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months  

My guest today is Nico Ortega. Nico is the co-founder and CEO at NUOVO. He has over eight years of experience in real estate development and more than five years of experience in real estate short-term rental multifamily properties. He’s knowledgeable in all aspects of the hospitality industry, from sourcing, management, operations, CXP,  and sales. He has proven management and leadership skills demonstrated by increasing property owners’ rental income with a margin of 20-30 % from what they earned before.  We begin the episode with Nico sharing his background story and how he got into real estate. After graduating from college, he started working with his brother, who was in the industry but needed help with commercial real estate brokerages for a shopping mall. Two to three years later, they sold their project and went over to Miami, partnered, and did more projects in the real estate. They started their operations with five units of multifamily properties. We then talk about Nico’s focus and the strategies they employed to identify properties that met their criteria. He says that their focus from the beginning was multifamily houses that were in top shape. They went after class A properties in downtown locations, so there was no need to negotiate renovation costs. To identify the suitable properties, they used a filter to select the best multifamily units available. For Nico, If he was to go back to 2015, he would take the same steps, but he would choose a different route in today’s real estate environment. Between 2015 and today, there have been a lot of new entrants in the market that are doing it on scale, and the competition for the same properties is growing. Initially, Nico said that their personalized approach was the reason for their growth and success. He personally went to the owners and regional managers to find the right fit.  Next, we talk about Nico units determining criteria. Nico and his partner took into consideration a variety of factors, and the most important were management and ownership. They had experiences where they had an owner who didn’t understand the business 100%, and property managers were very skeptical, making it difficult to maintain long-lasting business relations. You need to find an owner who understands that it’s more about the consistency and safety of rental units and maintaining a margin. The second factor is the quality of the property. The property needs to be in tip-top shape and well taken care of. Thirdly, Nico says that hotels and motels have a strong influence on real estate. Lastly, Nico explains the importance of clarity in rules. Before you try to do real estate at scale or individual property management, you have to understand the area’s regulations. We then discuss how Nico finances their real estate properties and his business strategy.  According to Nico, they usually have a benchmark between 1.7x and 2x for the rent. They had a very organic approach towards their growth, and they would send follow-up emails to clients explaining the advantages of security, consistency, a professional manager, and strong communication to remove skepticism in any contract Their occupancy is usually 80-85% depending on the season. They scale it using their revenue management system developed by a professor from his brother’s data analysis and machine learning MBA class. The revenue management system takes into account every internal and external including review, competition, and budget to produce a recommended rate. Lastly, we talk about Nico’s market. According to Nico, his ideal property is a 25 unit property, with studios, one-bedroom, kitchen, in-unit laundry, no pools, and no front desk. If you’re such an owner, if you put your property in their program they will take care of everything from managing the customers to managing the units and payments. This is a passive income opportunity, and you will be generating 20-30% more for short-term rent than you were generating before. Make sure you don’t miss this amazing episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast with Nico Ortega. Tune in! Get valuable information on creative ways of financing and growing your real estate projects! Notable Quotes: “If you see a property that is damaged, not well taken care of, the management is being super lenient with the upkeep of the property. That will come back and bite you.”     Nico Ortega   “Hotels and motels have a strong influence on the real estate industry.”     Nico Ortega   “Opportunities come when you least expect them to.”   Nico Ortega   We don’t shy away from opportunities. We are going to look at it what people have available and try to help in whatever way we can if it fits whatever we’re looking for.”   Nico Ortega     Links: Stay NUOVO Equity funding campaign  Nico on LinkedIn Nico on Facebook Nico on Instagram Nico on Twitter Nico Email; nicostaynuovo.com/ Just Start Real Estate JSR

Welcome to this version of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! I am excited to bring you another replay of my Facebook Live Question and Answer sessions. I just started doing these live forums in April and they are going so well and I am getting such great feedback and questions, I thought I would share them here on the podcast. Especially for those people that are unable to join us live, this will provide an opportunity to hear the awesome questions I am fielding about business, taking risks, real estate, and so much more! Some of the questions have been very real estate specific, but others have been general business questions, like asking about overcoming fear in order to get started and how to successfully scale. I have also received more personal questions like how I decided real estate investing was right for me and the steps I took to get my business off the ground.   This presentation is the live Q&A that I did the week of December 15th and each Thursday we will offer you another chance to take advantage of listening to the answers to our guests’ fabulous and compelling questions! Don’t miss this new episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! Notable Quotes:   “A degree in finance would be helpful in tracking your cash flow and expenditures.”   “Investors know how to make money, how to talk to people, and how to write deals, but they are not necessarily great at tracking their money.”   “Saving money is great, but you don’t necessarily need a ton of your own money to get started in real estate.”   “The best way to get started is to find a mentor or coach.”   “One of the most important relationships within a wholesaling company is between the acquisitions and dispositions managers.”   “Understanding each other will make the relationship much, much better.”   “Acquisition people are wired to get contracts.”   “That’s a coachable moment and hopefully everyone can learn something from your leadership.”   “The single biggest and most valuable asset within your wholesaling business is your buyer’s list.”   “You have to focus on, cultivate, and nurture your buyer’s list.” Links: 7 Figure Investor Flip Hacking Live 7 Figure Flipping Return on Investments Just Start Real Estate JSRE on Facebook Mike on Facebook Mike on Instagram Mike on LinkedIn Mike on Twitter Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months

I am thrilled to welcome my friend and colleague, Bill Allen, to the show today to talk about his new book! I point out that Bill is by far my most frequent guest and how he has shared his background story in other podcasts. He went from one flip in his first year to sixty-seven in his next year by joining the 7 Figure Flipping Mastermind, blowing up his real estate investing business in a manner very similar to my own path. Bill ended up buying the 7 Figure Flipping company in July of 2019 and has been super busy the past couple of years, but was convinced it was now or never for getting his thoughts and experiences down on paper. We deep dive into his first book, 7 Figure Flipping Underground, in the rest of the interview.   Both of us get the same business-related questions all the time, and Bill expressed the need to have something to hand someone to say, “here is the answer.” The desire to leave something behind for his kids and others to reference was also a strong motivator for Bill to take on this project. We talked about how being part of the 7 Figure Flipping Mastermind group has a large pricetag and he was hoping to be able to share a lot of that type of mentoring with the masses very inexpensively. Bill also talked about writing the book and then feeling it wasn’t quite what he wanted to deliver, so he ended up rewriting the entire manuscript! Because Bill had been inspired to write this book by his dad who is also a published author, I asked how his dad responded when he found out about Bill’s book. Bill said he felt so gratified when his dad told him how proud he was of him.   I was incredibly honored when Bill asked me to read the manuscript for the audio version of this book, so if you haven’t had enough of my voice, you will have to check it out! We did something very cool with the audio version too - I had some questions after reading the book and basically interviewed Bill for some bonus content at the end of each chapter. Bill is basically giving the book away free on his website so check out the link below to get your copy by just paying for postage. Bill also adds that he heard some advice about reading a book while listening to it at the same time, so he has made it easy to get both versions on his website.   I pointed out that Bill has built his company very recently, over the past several years, so that the information in the book is very current and timeless. He has also made some dramatic changes in his business structurally and I wanted him to describe the modifications he chose to make. Bill gave us some background of hiring his team and eventually a COO to basically take over for him of running the day-to-day operations. Then the pandemic changed everything. Bill is incredibly open and honest with the struggles he experienced and how it changed his outlook and goals. Make sure you don’t miss this fantastic episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast with Bill Allen and get all of the inside scoop on not only his new book, but also his recent business challenges and changes! Bill is such a great guy and we just have a blast in this interview… join us! Notable Quotes:   “This book is the definitive guide to helping you get started in your real estate business.” Mike Simmons   “Usually when people haven’t gotten started with something, it is because of a lack of information and/or fear.” Mike Simmons   “I get the same questions over and over again, so I just wanted this thing, this book, to say, ‘Here is the answer.’” Bill Allen   “This book can open people’s eyes to off-market real estate deals and the strategies and techniques shouldn’t change because they are fundamental principles.” Bill Allen   “7 Figure Flipping Underground is the cheapest way to get $25,000 worth of mentoring.” Mike Simmons   “I guarantee that there is stuff in this book that you don’t know or haven’t thought of.” Mike Simmons   “Be open-minded and listen to what other people need and want.” Bill Allen   “When we find a superstar kind of person, we have to figure out how to take care of them.” Bill Allen   “If I say ‘yes’ to you, I am going to give you everything I got.” Bill Allen Links: 7 Figure Flipping Underground 7 Figure Flipping  Return on Investments Just Start Real Estate JSRE on Facebook Mike on Facebook Mike on Instagram Mike on LinkedIn Mike on Twitter Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months

Welcome to this version of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! I am excited to bring you another replay of my Facebook Live Question and Answer sessions. I just started doing these live forums in April and they are going so well and I am getting such great feedback and questions, I thought I would share them here on the podcast. Especially for those people that are unable to join us live, this will provide an opportunity to hear the awesome questions I am fielding about business, taking risks, real estate, and so much more! Some of the questions have been very real estate specific, but others have been general business questions, like asking about overcoming fear in order to get started and how to successfully scale. I have also received more personal questions like how I decided real estate investing was right for me and the steps I took to get my business off the ground.   This presentation is the live Q&A that I did the week of December 8th and each Thursday we will offer you another chance to take advantage of listening to the answers to our guests’ fabulous and compelling questions! Don’t miss this new episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! Notable Quotes:   “With postcards, the message matters less than the timing.”   “You should send postcards to the same recipients every 30 to 60 days, maximum so that you hit people when they are having a life moment which causes them to have to sell their house.”   “It is actually kind of hard to lose money on a flip unless you don’t do your due diligence and ignore red flags.”   “A house that is not on a main road makes can make a really good flip.”   “For a flip, you don’t want a house that looks completely different than all the other houses in the neighborhood.”   “The best way to build your buyers list is by getting to know the players in your market.”   “I blew up my buyer’s list by using ListSource.”   “You want to send potential buyers letters rather than postcards because you want to represent yourself as a legitimate business.”   “Using direct mail gives you the highest probability of early success in marketing.”   “Direct mail marketing is responsible for the vast majority of deals most successful real estate investors secure.”   “I always want to know what my call to lead ratio is. How many calls does it take for me to get a lead?” Links: ListSource 7 Figure Investor Flip Hacking Live 7 Figure Flipping Return on Investments Just Start Real Estate JSRE on Facebook Mike on Facebook Mike on Instagram Mike on LinkedIn Mike on Twitter Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months

My guest today is Byron Enriquez. Byron has over 15 years of real estate finance experience, handling complex financial transactions, always keeping in mind risk mitigation as well as a profitable outcome for all parties. He is a proven sales and leadership coach who has focused his career on developing salespeople and sales leaders. Byron lends over $15M a month for private real estate investors to invest in buy and holds, flips, and commercial real estate. His accolades include being featured in Yahoo Finance, many popular podcasts, and having completed over 1500 real estate transactions.    We begin the episode with Byron sharing his background story and how he ended up in real estate. He shares that he has been in the business for almost 20 years and in that time, he has done pretty much every aspect of real estate; lending, property management, flipping.  Prior to getting into mortgage, Byron’s passion was finance. He was a foreign exchange trader in securities trading for a few years. He caught the “banking bug” at 18 years old and worked his way through college. He shares that he got his passion for real estate from his dad who owned properties and used to ask Byron for help translating loan documents when he was 12-13 years old. Looking back, he now realizes that actually triggered something in him and made him make a career out of it.   We then talk about Byron’s transition from the corporate world into entrepreneurship and the lessons he learned along the way. He shares that there are a lot of similarities between being a leader in the corporate world, managing a team, and being an entrepreneur. Back when he was managing hundreds of people in the banking sector, there was never a roadmap on how to achieve what they needed from him. His job was to come in and analyze the situation, and create the path. For Byron, it’s the same when it comes to entrepreneurship which is why he believes that self-motivation and self-drive are crucial in building your own path as an entrepreneur.    Next, we talk about Byron’s company, JSS Financials. Byron and his partner started JSS Financials five years ago. Their goal was to help self-employed individuals and freelancers in California to get financed for properties. They started carving out a niche for themselves to be able to help these individuals. In the beginning, it was more conventional financing, but it soon evolved into what they call private mortgage lending. The funds that they lend out don't come from banks instead, they have private relationships with private family offices, hedge funds, and different investors. Byron brought that corporate mentality of doing things and disclosing everything properly. Their money is coming from private sources, but you can still mortgage it; there's a website where you can make mortgage payments and you get all the reporting that you need to get. Byron also shares that since the beginning of the pandemic, they took some calculated risks and were able to double down and expand into all fifty states.    We then talk about how to be better when it comes to sales. According to Byron, the number one thing you need to look at, if you are trying to be a better salesperson, is your conversion rate. Because in sales it's not all about the activity; it's but it's doing the activity the right amount of times. Once you know your conversation rate, you will be able to determine the number of times you need to do a certain activity to get the desired result. It's all about putting yourself in opportunities to do it and letting your expertise shine when you get there. But you need to do it the right amount of times, to get in front of the right amount of people to be able to get that conversion.   Lastly, we talk about what to expect from the real estate market going forward in this mid to post COVID era. Byron believes that there are still a lot of opportunities in the market. We might not see the huge increases that we saw in the last 18 months, but he believes that the values will continue to increase. As for the lending side of the business, Byron shares that pre-Covid there were some more flexible programs for the qualified mortgage base, but after Covid they completely shrunk down. But, they have been opening up again in the last 6-9 months providing some opportunities for more creative financing. Byron also shares that his company is launching their own fund where investors can invest money into the fund and then JSS creates programs to go out and deploy those e funds into the real estate community.   Make sure you don’t miss another amazing episode of the  Just Start Real Estate Podcast with Byron Enriquez and get valuable information on creative ways of financing your projects! Notable Quotes:   “I reported to the CEO, I was at that level. And then I realized: I'm sitting here building something for somebody else.” Byron Enriquez    “It's a lot about self-

Welcome to this version of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! I am excited to bring you another replay of my Facebook Live Question and Answer sessions. I just started doing these live forums in April and they are going so well and I am getting such great feedback and questions, I thought I would share them here on the podcast. Especially for those people that are unable to join us live, this will provide an opportunity to hear the awesome questions I am fielding about business, taking risks, real estate, and so much more! Some of the questions have been very real estate specific, but others have been general business questions, like asking about overcoming fear in order to get started and how to successfully scale. I have also received more personal questions like how I decided real estate investing was right for me and the steps I took to get my business off the ground.   This presentation is the live Q&A that I did the week of December 1st and each Thursday we will offer you another chance to take advantage of listening to the answers to our guests’ fabulous and compelling questions! Don’t miss this new episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! Links: Real Estate Find & Fund Blueprint Flip Hacking Live 7 Figure Flipping Return on Investments Just Start Real Estate JSRE on Facebook Mike on Facebook Mike on Instagram Mike on LinkedIn Mike on Twitter Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months

My guest today is Hans Struzyna. Hans works on the #1 team for luxury real estate in the East Bay of the San Francisco Area. He has personally closed over $100 million in volume in the last 4 years. Hans is also a former member of the Olympic Rowing Team and has been featured on Fox, ABC, NBC, and CBS.   We begin the episode with Hans sharing his background story and how he ended up in real estate. Hans is originally from the Pacific Northwest. He grew up in Seattle and he went to the University of Washington. As a sophomore in high school, he discovered rowing, a very popular sport in the Seattle area, and he made the Olympic team while attending the University of Washington. He then moved to California to train with a high-performance team in the Bay Area and long story short, he made his way to Rio in 2016 where he competed with his team, placing fourth overall. Hans refers to that experience as his first (unpaid) career. After his rowing career was over, he jumped straight into real estate. He got his license and eventually joined the team where he’s at right now, dealing in the luxury home market.    We then talk about the effect of being in sports at some point in your life and how that can manifest itself later in life, especially career-wise. As a former Olympic athlete, Hans shares that being in sports is a great place to start learning about teamwork, dedication and being intentional and consistent. He believes all of these things have tremendous value in business. Another positive consequence of being in sports is developing an ability to be coachable and understanding that coaching is necessary to get you better. But, Hans also points out that, when you're picking a coach or you're taking advice, you have to be very careful of whose advice you take and why you're taking it. This will help you avoid the shiny object syndrome and being all over the place with little to no results.    Next, we talk about how and why Hans settled on the luxury market. Hans shares that when he first got into real estate, he was in short sales and foreclosures, cold calling two hours a day. In his first year, he got nine deals and felt like he wasn’t being valued enough because all that people cared about was not getting foreclosed on. Also, he realized that the middle tier and the low tier price points were being taken over by technology, so he decided to go where technology isn’t, which is the luxury home market. According to Hans, the luxury market is all about high-touch, high-value transactions, where you have to build relationships, build skill sets, and build a reputation that you are someone who can get it done and do it at an incredibly high level, which was exactly what he wanted.    Lastly, we talk about Hans’ Luxury Market Workshop and some of the key components that people can take away from it. He explains that he first starts off with more practical things, like how to identify the luxury market and your brand and then he dives into how you can mold that in a way that speaks to your client, to the person who is seeking that representation and that clarity in the market. Hans’ workshop comes with seven live group coaching sessions that are held once per week, a step-by-step guide of how to identify your high-end market and your unique place in it, resources to help you plan, prepare and present your brand at all points of your career, a private Facebook group to connect and network with like-minded individuals, and a weekly live Q&A session to address all of your specific questions directly with Hans.    Make sure you don’t miss this incredible episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast with the amazing Hans Struzyna and learn how to grow your business in the luxury home market! Notable Quotes:   “It's all about the teamwork, the soft skills as well as the actual physical skills of showing up to practice or rehearsals or whatever. And I think all of that has tremendous value in business and definitely in real estate as well.” Hans Struzyna     “Probably the single biggest benefit of having been in sports at some point is your ability to take coaching and understand that coaching is necessary to get you better.” Mike Simmons    “When you're picking a coach, or you're taking advice, you have to be very careful of whose advice you take and why you're taking it.” Hans Struzyna   “I was thinking  - well, if technology is going to try and take that middle and that lower tier, I need to go where the technology isn't.” Hans Struzyna   “I have a process that if you go the extra mile with me and educate yourself and let me guide you, I will spare you a lot of the insanity.” Hans Struzyna   “If you can build the base, the foundation of your offering, articulate it and then deliver upon it, that is how you build longevity in a marketplace and you build relationships. ” Hans Struzyna   “If you get clear on what

Welcome to this version of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! I am excited to bring you another replay of my Facebook Live Question and Answer sessions. I just started doing these live forums in April and they are going so well and I am getting such great feedback and questions, I thought I would share them here on the podcast. Especially for those people that are unable to join us live, this will provide an opportunity to hear the awesome questions I am fielding about business, taking risks, real estate, and so much more! Some of the questions have been very real estate specific, but others have been general business questions, like asking about overcoming fear in order to get started and how to successfully scale. I have also received more personal questions like how I decided real estate investing was right for me and the steps I took to get my business off the ground.   This presentation is the live Q&A that I did the week of November 24th and each Thursday we will offer you another chance to take advantage of listening to the answers to our guests’ fabulous and compelling questions! Don’t miss this new episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! Notable Quotes:   “I recommend, to the point of insisting, that you use variable data when you are mailing postcards.”   “Don’t make postcards generic because they will get thrown away.”   “Get on every single wholesalers’ list in your market.”   “If you make offers on every single property that comes into your inbox, you will get deals.”   “I have recorded a whole audiobook, and I am not excited about doing another one.”   “The best way to find good wholesalers is to go to REIAs and meet ups.” Links: Real Estate Find & Fund Blueprint Flip Hacking Live 7 Figure Flipping Return on Investments Just Start Real Estate JSRE on Facebook Mike on Facebook Mike on Instagram Mike on LinkedIn Mike on Twitter Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months

I am happy to welcome Jorge Fajardo to the show today! Jorge started his career in the mortgage and finance industry in 2002 and in order to pursue this interest on a larger scale, he built his own mortgage company. In the midst of the foreclosure crisis during the years of 2008-2015, Jorge used his vast knowledge and talents to help homeowners experiencing distress due to financial hardships. Jorge established Keystone Property Investments in 2015 and has since bought and sold over 100 properties in both the SFR and multi-family space. Keystone has lucrative joint ventures in place which allow the company to scale and take on several projects simultaneously throughout different parts of the State of Florida.   We begin the episode with Jorge sharing his background story and how he ended up in real estate. He has been in real estate his entire career. He started fresh out of college, in the mortgage industry as a loan officer, and eventually from there went on to open his own brokerage shop on the mortgage lending side. Everything was going great until 2008 when the mortgage meltdown and the housing crisis hit. So overnight, Jorge found himself having to close down shop, because lending had essentially dried up. Eventually, he ended up taking his lending and banking experience and knowledge and pivoting into consumer protection, going to work for a law firm that specializes in foreclosure defense and loss mitigation. With his knowledge and experience at the time, he ended up heading up the loss mitigation department. While working there, one of the things he noticed was that a lot of the same investors kept coming back and he was very intrigued by that. Little by little, he started familiarizing himself with the whole investing side. He started learning about wholesaling, creative financing, and other strategies and techniques and in 2015 he decided to leave the law firm and go into business for himself. His first deal was a wholesale and that first check was about three months' worth of his salary at the firm and he didn't look back after that.   We then talk about how long it took Jorge to really decide that real estate investing was what he wanted to do. He shares that once he did that first deal, and made a ton of money on it, he knew that he was going all in. He started his company in late 2015 when the market started to improve and his primary focus was marketing. He was sending out mailers, getting deals off the MLS and Zillow, and from driving-for-dollars. When it came to raising capital, he started with friends and family. He would ask them to invest their money with him and after his deal is closed, he would give them back an additional 20%. Pretty soon, as his business grew, friends and family kept coming back wanting to invest again. This allowed him to go from strictly wholesaling to doing rehabs.    Next, we talk about how Jorge is handling the change in the market and how he is positioning his company for that. Jorge feels like we're currently at or reaching the top of the market. When looking at prices in areas that he is familiar with, he notices that they have significantly gone up in the last two to three years. His advice for investors is to be disciplined, have a clear understanding of what you want, and look at the numbers.    Lastly, we talk about a new technology that Jorge is working on - Isum 360: Lead gen automation. Jorge explains that Isum 360 is a real estate super tool that is a mix of AI, Marketing Automation, and Real Estate Experience. With the help of one of his clients who is a software developer, Jorge and his team have built a platform that they wanted to use – and most importantly – that produces outstanding results. Isum 360 allows brokers and agents to acquire high-quality seller and buyer leads and automate the process. Also, it allows you to:   Integrate your daily tools to optimize your results Automate repetitive tasks to focus on building relationships & closing deals Have all of your platforms integrated into one place  Higher focus, better results   Make sure you don’t miss this amazing episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast with Jorge Fajardo and learn how you can use this new technology to generate leads! Notable Quotes:   “As an investor, whether you're a wholesaler or a rehabber, at the end of the day, we're looking at the same numbers. It's just about being disciplined and having a clear understanding of what your buying criteria is and what your numbers are.” Jorge Fajardo    “Leads are the oxygen of your company, you have to have leads. If you don't have leads coming in, you're dying.” Mike Simmons    “We're getting warm leads that are actually responding and we're able to then retarget a lookalike audience. Now, we can go out and retarget as many of those customers as possible to increase our returns. It's been working great.” Jorge Fajardo  Links: Jorge on LinkedIn K

Welcome to this version of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! I am excited to bring you another replay of my Facebook Live Question and Answer sessions. I just started doing these live forums in April and they are going so well and I am getting such great feedback and questions, I thought I would share them here on the podcast. Especially for those people that are unable to join us live, this will provide an opportunity to hear the awesome questions I am fielding about business, taking risks, real estate, and so much more! Some of the questions have been very real estate specific, but others have been general business questions, like asking about overcoming fear in order to get started and how to successfully scale. I have also received more personal questions like how I decided real estate investing was right for me and the steps I took to get my business off the ground.   This presentation is the live Q&A that I did the week of November 17th and each Thursday we will offer you another chance to take advantage of listening to the answers to our guests’ fabulous and compelling questions! Don’t miss this new episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! Notable Quotes:   “A hard money lender may not loan you 100% of the purchase price and renovation amount of a property, but will likely load 80-90% of those costs.”   “If you buy a property right, once you renovate it, it is worth more than the money you have into it, and you can refi out of it.”   “I always suggest finding a CPA right away, especially if you are buying rentals, because there are some significant tax advantages to having rentals.”   “I don’t recommend finding a CPA and having a hundred conversations with them before you start looking for investment properties.”   “Start looking for properties immediately!”   “The best CRM is the one that you will diligently use every single day in your business.”   “Sometimes people stress out about the tools they are going to use in their business and they make them more important than the business itself.”   “When approaching a property owner, you want to find out if and why they want to sell. It is really pretty simple.” Links: Real Estate Find & Fund Blueprint Flip Hacking Live 7 Figure Flipping Return on Investments Just Start Real Estate JSRE on Facebook Mike on Facebook Mike on Instagram Mike on LinkedIn Mike on Twitter Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months  

My guest today is Mike DeHaan. Mike is an electrical engineer-turned-real estate investor. He is the Founder of INW Properties LL and owns 34 doors and has completed over 50 deals in 3 years of investing. Mike now generates more passive rental income than he used to make with his 9-to-5 which was a 6-figure salary job. He has been featured on the Real Dealz Podcast, Real Estate Investing 365, and several Ryan Dossey YouTube videos.   We begin the episode with Mike sharing his background story and how he got started in real estate. Mike started his career as an engineer by degree, but after five years of doing that, he decided to change his career path. With no real plan, he started dabbling in real estate while also trying to get into the tech world. The tech world turned out to be too difficult, especially with where he was located, so he started getting more and more into real estate. In 2018 he bought three rentals and in 2019, he started flipping some houses by himself, working with realtors to find stuff on the market and buying from wholesalers. Soon, it was getting hard to find deals so he decided to join forces with his, now business partner, who was also his best friend from college and start their business. They started officially in the beginning of 2020 and now they own 34 units and they've done about 50 transactions in the last year.    We then talk about where Mike found the funding for his deals. He shares that he bought his first three rentals using money from his W-2 job, but when it came to flipping he acquired the money through different partnerships. As soon as he started getting involved with real estate, Mike really got involved in the local investor community and that's how he’s been able to grow very quickly. He is a big believer that your network is your net worth, so when he started flipping houses, he met somebody who had the cash but didn't have the time. Mike, on the other hand,  had the time and he had the hustle, so he facilitated the projects and they would just split the profits 50-50. A big lesson here is to always show up and talk about what you do because, at the end of the day, real estate is a people business.   Next, we talk about Mike’s transition from his W-2 job to entrepreneurship.  Even though he was married at the time he left his W-2 job, Mike shares that the toughest conversation was the one with his parents. Coming from an academic background, it was hard for him to explain to his parents that he will no longer have a job that requires his engineering degree. Luckily, his parents didn’t try to discourage him. Mike also shares that his W-2 at that point was making him miserable and depressed and that entrepreneurship has elevated his life in ways he couldn’t even imagine.    We also talk about the best way to find deals. Mike shares that they focus on direct mail and they mix in some cold calling there as well. But the biggest thing is just being persistent. They also really push a local brand very heavily, showing that we are actually true local people who are connected to the local community. This may sound simple, but it works and it has been a cornerstone in their business the entire time   Next, we talk about landlording. Mike and his partner have been able to accumulate a sizable rental portfolio in a relatively short amount of time. At the moment, they are doing their own property management for the most part. The only ones that they don't manage themselves, are properties that are at a decent distance from where they live, so they use property managers out there. They also have a virtual assistant who helps them answer maintenance calls and do other random tasks that come with it. The only thing that they really have to do when it comes to property management helps placing tenants, but they are working on hiring an admin right now to help them do that whole process. Mike mentions that one of the software that they use is Hemlane. Make sure you don’t miss this amazing episode of Just Start Real Estate with Mike DeHaan!   Notable Quotes:   “There are two things that you did really well to find this money that came to you: you showed up where people like that hang out and you talked about what you were doing.” Mike Simmons    “A big thing that a lot of people don't understand is that after you have those conversations with people, you have to be proactive and follow-up.” Mike DeHaan   “I think that the entrepreneurial lifestyle just fits me a lot better. Once you kind of figure it out and start making real money, it elevates your life in ways that you don't really understand.” Mike DeHaan   “Of all the very successful real estate investors that I know, I would say 80% of them get the vast majority of their deals from direct mail. It just works.” Mike Simmons   “You have to have decent properties. There are so many landlords out there that just think because it's a rental, the p

Welcome to this version of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! I am excited to bring you another replay of my Facebook Live Question and Answer sessions. I just started doing these live forums in April and they are going so well and I am getting such great feedback and questions, I thought I would share them here on the podcast. Especially for those people that are unable to join us live, this will provide an opportunity to hear the awesome questions I am fielding about business, taking risks, real estate, and so much more! Some of the questions have been very real estate specific, but others have been general business questions, like asking about overcoming fear in order to get started and how to successfully scale. I have also received more personal questions like how I decided real estate investing was right for me and the steps I took to get my business off the ground.   This presentation is the live Q&A that I did the week of November 11th and each Thursday we will offer you another chance to take advantage of listening to the answers to our guests’ fabulous and compelling questions! Don’t miss this new episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! Notable Quotes:   “I have coached and mentored literally hundreds of people that went on to build the business they had dreamed of.”   “If I had had someone when I first started in real estate to answer my questions, I would have saved a few years of fumbling around and making mistakes.”   “Success leaves footprints.”   Tony Robbins     “I would have killed to have this kind of information when I first started, so I hope you guys are taking advantage of it!”   “It has been a true thrill and privilege to be able to answer your questions.”   “You have set an expectation that you are going to pay ahead for work that hasn’t been done yet.”   “Never work with someone that walks off the job site for something unreasonable or unethical.”   “Don’t listen to the one or two people that have a problem with something.”   “The BRRRR method is a very sound strategy for investing in real estate.” Links: Real Estate Find & Fund Blueprint Flip Hacking Live 7 Figure Flipping Return on Investments Just Start Real Estate JSRE on Facebook Mike on Facebook Mike on Instagram Mike on LinkedIn Mike on Twitter Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months

On today’s episode of Just Start Real Estate, I have the pleasure of talking with entrepreneur Rod Khleif. Rod has worked in real estate since the early 1980s, inspired by his mother. He was born in the Netherlands and migrated with his family to Denver at the age of six, and for their first few years in the States, the family struggled to make ends meet. However, his mother was thrifty and forward-thinking, earning money from babysitting that she then invested into stocks and eventually into property, despite having no formal background in finance or real estate. Rod followed his mom’s example and got his real estate license in 1978.    In his first two years as a real estate agent, Rod made enough money to get by, but in his third year, his income rocketed to over $100,000. He was able to achieve this by adjusting his mindset around wealth and earnings. However, he suffered during the 2008 recession, losing $50 million in that year alone. He was able to bounce back and today he helps others to build themselves up from nothing.    One of the first strategies that Rod deployed to get back on his feet after the 2008 crash was reassociating himself with what he wanted. He realigned himself with what his goals were and why he wanted to achieve them. Secondly, he also changed his focus to concentrate on his goals, ignoring anything that didn’t help him to achieve his objective.     Next, Rod walks me through his goal-setting strategy. His technique begins by selecting his goal-setting time carefully; he recommends choosing an hour in the day when you’re naturally full of energy. In this hour, Rod asks that you sit down and write all the things that you want in life, from houses to cars to jetskis to private islands, letting your imagination run wild and never stopping to question what comes out. Once you’ve written down everything you can possibly think of, large and small, you start writing the list of the things you want to do in your life, such as places you want to visit, bucket list items you want to achieve and so on. You should also write down everything you want to learn, like foreign languages or college degrees. Lastly, you write down the people that you want to help.    The next step to Rod’s goal setting technique is to add a time limit to each goal, without overthinking the limit that you assign. Then from that list, select your number one goal, the thing that you want to achieve the most out of everything, and write it on a separate piece of paper. You then need to select your top three goals that you can achieve in one year, and add them to the paper with your top goal. For each of these four goals, write down why you want to achieve that goal, using emotionally charged language. You should also write down what would happen if you don’t achieve these goals, not being afraid to dig a little into the pain. Afterward, find images that represent these goals to keep around you, so that you’re constantly reminded to achieve them.    Rod also emphasizes that happiness doesn’t come from goals, it’s about overall progress and growth. It’s important to celebrate achieving a goal, but you should always have something lined up behind the goal so that you keep moving forwards. He also makes an effort to help others and reach out to people in need and encourages everyone to do the same, regardless of their income level.     Stay tuned to the end of the podcast to get Rod’s exclusive promo code to make incredible savings on his three-day Orlando seminar, and to receive a load of his other courses at a hugely discounted price! What a pleasure to have such a generous and successful real estate investor such as Rod Khleif on the Just Start Real Estate Podcast!   Notable Quotes:   “80-90% of your success in anything in your mindset and your psychology.” Rod Khleif   “Peer group is so frickin’ important. You want to be around people that encourage you, validate you, push you, who aren’t afraid of your success, aren’t jealous of your success, and who aren’t going to hold you back” Rod Khleif   “If you’re listening to Mike, you’re a leader. There’s no question that you’re a leader. And right now more than ever, the world needs leaders.” Rod Khleif   “Take the limits off yourself. There’s nothing you can’t do, be, or have” Rod Khleif   “It’s never about the goals, it’s about creating that burning desire so that you get your butt up early, you stay up late, you work a Saturday, you grind for a few years like most people won’t, so you live the rest of your life like most people can’t.”  Rod Khleif   “As human beings, we will overestimate what we can do in a year, and massively underestimate what we can do in five, ten, twenty years” Rod Khleif   “There’s a reason that the acronym for belief systems is BS, because 99% of them are just that: BS.” Rod Khleif   “The most successful people on the planet

Welcome to this version of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! I am excited to bring you another replay of my Facebook Live Question and Answer sessions. I just started doing these live forums in April and they are going so well and I am getting such great feedback and questions, I thought I would share them here on the podcast. Especially for those people that are unable to join us live, this will provide an opportunity to hear the awesome questions I am fielding about business, taking risks, real estate, and so much more! Some of the questions have been very real estate specific, but others have been general business questions, like asking about overcoming fear in order to get started and how to successfully scale. I have also received more personal questions like how I decided real estate investing was right for me and the steps I took to get my business off the ground.   This presentation is the live Q&A that I did the week of November 3rd and each Thursday we will offer you another chance to take advantage of listening to the answers to our guests’ fabulous and compelling questions! Don’t miss this new episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! Notable Quotes:   “If the market starts to turn and prices start to go down, that is a good thing for investors.”   “If the market does crash, the media will be telling everyone ‘real estate is bad,” but it is really the best time to rush in.”   “Real estate investors rush into the burning house when everyone else is rushing out.”   “There are things that you can do to rehab your investment property that have a huge impact psychologically, but that don’t cost that much.”   “I empathize with people that have a corporate job and don’t know how they are going to find the time to start investing, but I don’t have a lot of sympathy for it and I don’t encourage that kind of thought.”   “You have to really analyze what are priorities are. We decide our priorities.”   “If you watch any level of TV at all, maybe change that, right?” Links: Real Estate Find & Fund Blueprint Flip Hacking Live 7 Figure Flipping Return on Investments Just Start Real Estate JSRE on Facebook Mike on Facebook Mike on Instagram Mike on LinkedIn Mike on Twitter Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months

In today’s episode I’m joined by, not one but two, amazing guests - Kyara Gray and Khalil Uqdah! Kyara and Khalil are Founders of Charm City Buyers. They are passionate about changing the narrative in Baltimore and shifting generations by building wealth through real estate. From recent college grads to full-time entrepreneurs, they have grown their 7-figure real estate empire all before the age of 30 via the “School of Hard Knocks”. With a portfolio of 20+ rentals and an eye for great flip deals, they have their eyes set on showing the masses how to add value to their communities and combat the negative impacts of gentrification through ownership.    Kyara and Khalil first share their background story and how they got started in real estate. They have been investing in real estate for almost 10 years. They are extremely focused on how to turn vacant houses into homes, how to build wealth through real estate, how to really impact the community, and change the narrative of when Baltimore comes to mind, not only as just a city, but also as an opportunity to invest in real estate. Before real estate, they were struggling to find their niche, from software companies to sales, but one thing that stayed consistent was their desire for a positive community impact and wealth building.    We then talk about their transition from their full-time jobs to entrepreneurship. Kyara explains that she was the one who introduced the idea of real estate to Khalil, but it was his passion for entrepreneurship that opened their minds to the opportunities in real estate. Their transition from full-time jobs to real estate was gradual, they slowly eased into it until they had enough residual income from their rentals that allowed both of them to quit their 9 to 5 jobs.    We then move on to talking about financing behind their deals. When it comes to financing, Kyara explains that for them it was crucial to learn and understand how money works. They used different methods and approaches to get access to capital, from working with a nonprofit to using a private lender. Kyara also shares that there are nonprofit lenders all over the country who are focused on building communities, as well as developers who are interested in doing great work in neighborhoods. Khalil shares that they've also been awarded over $3.6 million of tax credits and grants in 2020 and 2021.   Next, we talk about how to know where to focus your energy and your efforts. Khalil shares that the most important thing for them was to make sure that there's enough financial income on a residual basis to ensure that they can really pivot and do whatever they want. This is where the rental game came in. They started with rentals but soon decided to start flipping as well because they wanted to add value to the goals and initiatives of Baltimore City and build homeownership. Now, they are taking it a step further working on a large construction project with 50 homes in Baltimore.   We also talk about running a business as a couple. Kyara and Khalil share that in the beginning, they were running a pretty small operation where both of them were hands-on as much as possible. Nowadays, they have a team and they both have their own roles and their own responsibilities. One thing that really helps them out is that they're very specific and intentional about defining what it is they’re trying to do and accomplish together, and they use that as their Northstar to continue to push forward.   Lastly, we talk about why 2021 is a great time to be investing in real estate. Kyara explains that a lot of money is always made in chaos. A lot of people have made a whole lot of money during the last 18 months since the pandemic started. The key is knowing and understanding that even though the market in the MLS is hot right now, there's a lot of other places where you can find deals, particularly off-market. But there are still places that aren't seeing that same level of energy and that changes very, very quickly. This is something that Kyara and Khalil have been really, really vocal about this entire time - don't let what you're hearing scare you away from taking action in the spaces and areas that are going to see so much growth in the next 5 to 10 years because of some of the seeds that are planted right now. You don't have to compete in the MLS with people who are looking to buy their first, second or third home, but taking action now is really going to position you for winning long term.   Make sure you don’t miss this amazing episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast with Kyara Gray & Khalil Uqdah and find out why 2021 is a great time to start!   Notable Quotes:   “One thing that stayed consistent is that positive community impact, building wealth and something you can pass down was always at the front of mind.” Khalil Uqdah   “Once I understood how much power real estate had in building wealth and getting more

Welcome to this version of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! I am excited to bring you another replay of my Facebook Live Question and Answer sessions. I just started doing these live forums in April and they are going so well and I am getting such great feedback and questions, I thought I would share them here on the podcast. Especially for those people that are unable to join us live, this will provide an opportunity to hear the awesome questions I am fielding about business, taking risks, real estate, and so much more! Some of the questions have been very real estate specific, but others have been general business questions, like asking about overcoming fear in order to get started and how to successfully scale. I have also received more personal questions like how I decided real estate investing was right for me and the steps I took to get my business off the ground.   This presentation is the live Q&A that I did the week of October 27th and each Thursday we will offer you another chance to take advantage of listening to the answers to our guests’ fabulous and compelling questions! Don’t miss this new episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! Notable Quotes:   “We are seeing a market that is holding pretty steady.”   “The market is still hot, right? But who cares?”   “Don’t listen to people that are being negative and saying real estate investing won’t work.”   “Don’t listen to people who don’t know what they are talking about.”   “Surround yourself with people who understand your goals and have achieved what you would like to achieve.”   “I highly suggest that you join a mastermind or a program like mine so you are in a group with people just like you.”   “I have never met a seller who had the slightest clue what the renovations of their house should cost.”   “A new house flipper cannot rely on the seller’s repair estimate.”   “You only want to renovate to the point that you are following suit with the rest of the neighborhood.”   “If you get stuck in a rut or are confused, go back to driving leads. Leads are what you should be working on no matter what else is going on.”   “If you stop getting leads, your business is dying.”   “When you are making tons and tons of offers, you just have to get in the ballpark.” Links: Real Estate Find & Fund Blueprint Flip Hacking Live 7 Figure Flipping Return on Investments Just Start Real Estate JSRE on Facebook Mike on Facebook Mike on Instagram Mike on LinkedIn Mike on Twitter Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months

Today, I welcome Bryan Driscoll onto the podcast! Bryan is a real estate investor, a digital marketing and SEO expert, and the Co-Founder of Motivated Leads, a digital marketing agency that helps real estate investors expand their portfolios quickly by generating quality motivated seller leads. He has over a decade of experience doing SEO for both large and small companies, startups, and fortune 500 companies and has been recognized by Forbes and other major publications for his work.   Bryan started by sharing a bit of his background and how he got into this side of the business. He said he got his start in digital marketing in the early 2000s, mostly working in search engine optimization or SEO dealing with bigger eCommerce companies. Bryan bought his first rental property about seven years ago and that got him into doing local marketing in the real estate space.   I asked Bryan to talk about some of the mistakes he sees people making with their websites and using SEO in order to draw traffic and get a higher free google ranking. He talked about how intimidating a super-fancy website can be to a seller that just wants someone to give him a decent offer for his home. He said the call to action and a strong, clear message is most important.   Next, we talk about Facebook Ads and Google SEO. Bryan uses Google Pay Per Click and Facebook. The difference is that on Facebook, you're paying per impression while on Google you're paying per click. Also, on Google, you're competing on a keyword basis while on Facebook, you’re competing on an impression base. With Facebook you can get a cheaper reach, click and lead then with Google Pay Per Click. So, his advice is to always start with Facebook first and then add Google Pay Per Click later on because then you have that high intent person coming to the website, and if they don't convert you’re living in their Facebook feed, especially if you have testimonials.   Lastly, we talk about how sellers can adapt their lead gen strategy to accommodate the market. Bryan explains that the most important things are to build a brand, to build something that's trustworthy and to be extremely direct with your marketing. Because the goal isn't to get more leads. The goal is to get good leads and good motivated sellers. Another important thing to note is that whatever platform you're using to drive traffic to your website, you always want to: first, capture their information (their phone number, their email, get them to fill out your form; and second, ask additional questions (why do you want to sell, confirm your property's not listed on the market, how much work does your property need, how fast do you want to sell it, etc.) Asking those additional questions is going to give you an indication on if they're motivated and it's also going to weed out the people who are not serious about selling. Bryan’s final advice is to set up an automated text message that will send out your link and ask them to book an appointment with you, to anyone who fills out a form on your website.   Don’t miss this awesome episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast with Bryan Driscoll and learn the keys to finding more motivated sellers for your business! Notable Quotes:   “Finding motivated sellers is, and always will be, a top priority for real estate investors.” Mike Simmons   “Getting leads into your pipeline is the blood that keeps the body alive.” Mike Simmons   “Website aesthetics don’t matter as much as a strong call to action and a strong message.” Bryan Driscoll   “The traffic you get to your website is more important than the message on it.” Bryan Driscoll “Rewrite the content, rewrite it unique for you. Because if you have two different websites with the same words in the same order, how can the search engine determine which one's more relevant?” Bryan Driscoll    “It's more important the traffic you get to that website, then the message on the website.” Bryan Driscoll   “Build a brand, build something that's when people see it, it's trustworthy. And then also, be extremely direct with your marketing.”   Bryan Driscoll       “The goal isn't to get more leads. The goal is to get good leads, good motivated sellers. ” Mike Simmons   “If you want to avoid spending 5 million to figure out what Bryan knows, go straight to Bryan. Ask him what he figured out and get him to help you. “ Mike Simmons Links: Bryan’s Website Motivated Leads Website Bryan on LinkedIn Motivated Leads on LinkedIn Motivated Leads on Facebook Motivated Leads on Instagram 7 Figure Flipping Return on Investments Just Start Real Estate JSRE on Facebook Mike on Facebook Mike on Instagram Mike on LinkedIn Mike on Twitter Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months

Welcome to this version of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! I am excited to bring you another replay of my Facebook Live Question and Answer sessions. I just started doing these live forums in April and they are going so well and I am getting such great feedback and questions, I thought I would share them here on the podcast. Especially for those people that are unable to join us live, this will provide an opportunity to hear the awesome questions I am fielding about business, taking risks, real estate, and so much more! Some of the questions have been very real estate specific, but others have been general business questions, like asking about overcoming fear in order to get started and how to successfully scale. I have also received more personal questions like how I decided real estate investing was right for me and the steps I took to get my business off the ground.   This presentation is the live Q&A that I did the week of October 20th and each Thursday we will offer you another chance to take advantage of listening to the answers to our guests’ fabulous and compelling questions! Don’t miss this new episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! Notable Quotes:   “If you are worried about making a lethal mistake, you need to have a mentor, a coach, and/or a mastermind.”   “You need to be able to have your questions answered by people who have been running a business and have had success so that you are not just figuring it out as you go.”   “There is nothing worse than handing a realtor 50 leads in a month and never hearing about them again.”   “I’m not afraid of competition, but I don’t want you to waste my time and use me.”   “Lead with value. Figure out what you have to offer that will be of value to that business owner.”   “Try to find a way to make their life easier or be a source of revenue for them.”   “When it comes to marketing, you have to be consistent. That is the secret sauce.”   “Come up with a marketing plan and budget that you can maintain for six months and execute.”   “Don’t stop it and start it… marketing is very much a momentum thing.”   “Long-term rentals are good because they are much more passive than short-term rentals.” Links: Real Estate Find & Fund Blueprint Flip Hacking Live 7 Figure Flipping Return on Investments Just Start Real Estate JSRE on Facebook Mike on Facebook Mike on Instagram Mike on LinkedIn Mike on Twitter Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months

My guest today is Ari Galper. Ari is the world’s #1 Authority on Trust-Based Selling. He is the author of Unlock The Sales Game and The One Call Sale and has been featured in CEO Magazine, Forbes, CNN, SkyNews, Australian Financial Review. Currently, Ari is the most sought-after trust-based selling authority for advisors, consultants, business owners, and entrepreneurs, as well as major corporations such as Citibank, Telstra, and General Electric   Ari first shares his background story and how he discovered trust-based selling. Twenty years ago, Ari was a sales manager at a company that launched the first online website tracking tools for collecting data, now known as Google Analytics. One day, he got a huge opportunity to pitch their product to a company that could double their revenue. They got on a conference call, everything was going great but after the meeting was over, Ari accidentally pressed the “mute” button instead of the “off” button. Knowing that the meeting went great he was surprised to hear them saying, ‘We're not going to go with him. Keep using him for more information and make sure we shop somewhere else cheaper.’ It was at this moment he realized it has become socially acceptable not to tell the truth to people who sell. He also realized that the reason for this was that people put their guard up when they know that they are talking to someone who is trying to make a sale. So, he decided to come up with a system, a method that would take that pressure out of the sales process, so that both parties can come together and build trust with each other.    We then move on to discussing how to build trust when you are trying to make a sale. Ari explains that you can still be ambitious and go after your goals, but you are not allowed to transfer the pressure you feel onto the person to whom you are trying to sell. In order to do this, you first need to address some of the sales myths. Such as that sales is a numbers game; the more contacts you have, the more calls you make, the more sales you get. According to Ari, in today’s economy it’s not about how many calls you make, it’s about how deep you go in each conversation, it’s about building trust. The second myth is the sale is lost at the end of the process. According to Ari’s research, the sale is lost at the beginning. And finally, the third myth: rejection is part of the game. Rejection is triggered by certain things you say and do that cause the other person to put their guard up.    Next, we talk about what attributes the most to not getting a sale. Ari explains that the first shift that needs to happen, if you are looking to make more sales, is a mindset shift. If you want to make a sale, you have to detach yourself from your goal, you can’t put your own agenda at the center, instead you have to put yourself into your client’s world. Next, you need to use trust-based language, words and phrases that won’t trigger off any alarms for your clients that associate you with the negative salesperson stereotype.   Lastly, we talk about Ari’s program Unlock The Game. This program directly challenges all the selling “rules” that are considered status quo thinking among most small and large businesses and provides a new and authentic sales mindset, along with trust-based languaging. Ari explains that the most important thing here is to take the pressure out of the process and shift your mindset and language so that you build a moment of vulnerability with your clients.    Make sure you don’t miss this amazing episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast with the world’s #1 Authority on Trust-Based Selling, Ari Galper. Learn how to stop selling and start building authentic relationships based on trust and integrity that will result in endless possibilities! Notable Quotes:   “I realized at that moment, that somewhere along the way it has become socially acceptable not to tell the truth to people who sell.” Ari Galper    “Typically, buyers and prospects are afraid to tell us the truth because there is an invisible river of pressure that flows underneath every sales chat we have with someone, and their guard is up.” Ari Galper   “You can still be ambitious. You can still have goals. You can still go for those goals, but you're not allowed to transfer that pressure from you to the other person.” Ari Galper   “We discovered that in this economy, it's not about how many contacts you make anymore, how many calls you make, it's about how deep you go in each conversation.” Ari Galper   “You've got to let them know you care about them. And this is the missing component in the sales world, that we don't have a way to convey to people that we care about them.” Ari Galper   “If you attempt to move somebody forward and they aren't ready yet, you break the trust right there at the beginning.“ Ari Galper   “Delivery is half of the trust.” Ari Galper   “When they sense your enthusi

Welcome to this version of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! I am excited to bring you another replay of my Facebook Live Question and Answer sessions. I just started doing these live forums in April and they are going so well and I am getting such great feedback and questions, I thought I would share them here on the podcast. Especially for those people that are unable to join us live, this will provide an opportunity to hear the awesome questions I am fielding about business, taking risks, real estate, and so much more! Some of the questions have been very real estate specific, but others have been general business questions, like asking about overcoming fear in order to get started and how to successfully scale. I have also received more personal questions like how I decided real estate investing was right for me and the steps I took to get my business off the ground.   This presentation is the live Q&A that I did the week of October 13th and each Thursday we will offer you another chance to take advantage of listening to the answers to our guests’ fabulous and compelling questions! Don’t miss this new episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! Notable Quotes:   “I think a good working relationship starts with clear expectations.”   “You don’t know what you don’t know and sometimes you don’t know what questions to ask.”   “Sales tactics without compassion will always fail.”   “How much is your brain focused on how much you want that sale versus truly thinking, ‘I want to help this person’?”   “Make sure the sellers are motivated before you spend tons of time trying to buy their house.”   “You cannot manage a millennial the same way you manage a Gen X person.”   “Millennials view their job and their workday differently than people that are older than them.”   “Millennials believe they are entitled to a workplace that makes them feel fulfilled, and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.”   “It is possible if you have workers that are not getting the job done, it is possible they don’t have the values that you want in the company.” Links: Real Estate Find & Fund Blueprint Flip Hacking Live 7 Figure Flipping Return on Investments Just Start Real Estate JSRE on Facebook Mike on Facebook Mike on Instagram Mike on LinkedIn Mike on Twitter Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months

I am happy to welcome fellow investor Gary Boomershine to the show today! Gary is the Founder of RealEstateInvestor.com which he started in 2005 out of the need to scale and grow his own real estate investing business. His company caters to top producing agents, investors, and smaller hedge funds who are looking for a competitive advantage in their local markets. Gary is also the host of the Real Estate Investor Huddle Podcast and has been featured as a guest on many podcasts including the Best Real Estate Investing Advice Ever Show with Joe Fairless.   Gary first shares his background story and how he got into real estate. Before creating Real Estate Investor, the largest marketer in the entire real estate niche with close to 90 million pieces of direct mail and 9 million interactions with sellers, Gary got his computer science engineering degree. However, he comes from a strong real estate background - his parents owned a real estate brokerage and Gary got his license as soon as he turned 18. After college, he started his engineering career and was doing pretty well for himself, but the only downside was that he was working 90 hours per week. This all changed on May 17th of 2004, after a single seminar that ignited his passion for real estate. With a $700,000 mortgage, Gary and his wife decided to cut ties with the corporate world and dive straight into real estate investing.    We then move on to discussing the importance of leverage in real estate. Gary explains that a lot of people call themselves real estate investors, but they're really real estate business operators, meaning they are building a business based on real estate. The key is that every business needs a CEO and if you're the CEO and you're doing $10/hour work, you're going to have a $10 bank account. So if you're running a business, you have to understand that it’s a finance game and the leverage component is - you're leveraging other people's money, possibly your own, but you're also leveraging other people's time, experiences, and resources. A lot of people get stuck because they try to do everything themselves and it's a trap. You need to understand the value of your time, which is probably between $250 and $1,000 dollars an hour or more. So, if you're doing anything that's $10/hour work, you need to find someone to do it for you, and instead of thinking of it as an expense, think of it as a return on your investment.   Next, we talk about when it is a good time to start building your team and what to look for. According to Gary, you need to do it as soon as possible. If you're committed to doing real estate, you first have to figure out if you’re going to find properties on the market (typically through a realtor) or you're going to go off-market, which means you're going to go directly to the seller. No matter which way you choose, somebody has to do the work; on average it takes 45 leads to close a deal and 45 leads is a lot of work. All of these tasks require a lot of work so you need to build your team right away.   We then discuss the process of finding leads. Gary explains that around 25% of their clients at RealEstateInvestor.com want everything done for them; they just want to meet with the sellers. For a set amount Gary’s team generates the leads, screens the leads, does all the phone work and all the qualifying. So, for about $10/hour they can hire a team of people who are experts at pulling the mailing list, at skip-tracing, at finding things that nobody else can find because they know better than anybody else in the country what works and what doesn’t. Gary also goes on to explain that their perfect client is somebody who understands that real estate is their vehicle, somebody who already had some level of success, and somebody who is ready to scale up.   Lastly, we talk about what marketing strategies are working best right now. Gary shares that real estate is a cycle and right now we’re in a euphoric stage of that cycle where a massive number of people are competing for the same types of deals. According to Gary, the central and the south-central part of the country work best at the moment because it’s a lot less expensive to generate deals in that area. Gary also explains that only 3% of all deals come off of the first inbound call, 97% of all deals take six to seven interactions with the seller, which means you have to be really good at following up on a text or a call, use the right words at the right time. Gary’s team follows up automatically, for a minimum of two years.   Make sure you don’t miss this incredible episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast with the amazing Gary Boomershine and learn all the secrets of leveraging and creating a sustainable business! Notable Quotes:   “Most of us get into this business for financial freedom and having a life. Real estate can give us that, it’s the vehicle for that if you understand that it’s a finance game and a game of lev

Welcome to this version of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! I am excited to bring you another replay of my Facebook Live Question and Answer sessions. I just started doing these live forums in April and they are going so well and I am getting such great feedback and questions, I thought I would share them here on the podcast. Especially for those people that are unable to join us live, this will provide an opportunity to hear the awesome questions I am fielding about business, taking risks, real estate, and so much more! Some of the questions have been very real estate specific, but others have been general business questions, like asking about overcoming fear in order to get started and how to successfully scale. I have also received more personal questions like how I decided real estate investing was right for me and the steps I took to get my business off the ground.   This presentation is the live Q&A that I did on October 6th and each week on Thursday we will offer you another chance to take advantage of listening to the answers to our guests’ fabulous and compelling questions! Don’t miss this new episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! Notable Quotes:   “Whatever you are doing right now to get deals is a process and a system and you need to get that down on paper.”   “Have the person you hire flesh out the process that they are responsible for.”   “I have never invested in luxury homes because it is such a niche market. The buyer pool is very small and they can be very finicky.”   “I had two people reach out to fully fund my next deal before I finished with the first one.”   “After the first deal, I used private money to fund all my flips going forward.”   “Time and financial freedom don’t happen right away. Real estate investing is a business, too.”   “You need to start building a team sooner rather than later.” Links: Real Estate Find & Fund Blueprint Flip Hacking Live 7 Figure Flipping Return on Investments Just Start Real Estate JSRE on Facebook Mike on Facebook Mike on Instagram Mike on LinkedIn Mike on Twitter Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months