Investor Cheat Code Podcast with Mike Simmons

My guest today is Matt Faircloth. Matt is BiggerPockets contributor and Amazon Best Selling Author of Raising Private Capital, How to Build your Real Estate Empire with Other People's Money. He is also the Founder and CEO of DeRosa Group and has been a full-time investor for 15 years. Matt has successfully completed projects involving dozens of fix and flips, office buildings, single-family homes, and apartment buildings. He has amassed a portfolio of over 1000+ units and raised tens of millions of equity for these real estate projects.    Matt first shares his background story and how he first got into real estate. Before becoming a full-time real estate investor, Matt was a sales engineer. During that time, he met his future wife who introduced him to Rich Dad, Poor Dad. This book turned him onto the power of investing and entrepreneurship and he fell in love with the business of real estate. Soon after that, they started doing some real investing together as a couple while they were dating, and by the time we got married, they had done a reasonable amount of investing. After the crash in 2008, they didn’t have any equity anymore because everything was decimated but what they did have was a reasonable management protocol, and friends who wanted to give real estate investing a try. So, they started assembling their friends and colleagues, who eventually became their first passive investors, for a $50,000 deal.   We then move on to discussing Matt’s first deal. He shares that his first deal was a house hack; he bought a three bedroom house that he rented to two of his friends, making him $60 a month while he was living there for free. Next, he and his wife bought a duplex with money they borrowed from her father. They fixed it up and rented that out as well. After some time, they decided to sell that second property using a 1031 exchange, which avoids paying capital gains taxes when you sell an investment property and reinvest the proceeds from the sale, within certain time limits, in a property or properties of like kind and equal or greater value.   Next, we talk about when it is a good time to start looking for private money. Matt explains that every real estate investor has to bring in private capital at some point. Because, unless you win the lottery, your pockets will run dry and you will not want to expose your capital to a deal. Matt also believes that we need to change our perspective on private money, because when it comes to private lenders, they're not doing us a favor, we're offering them an opportunity.   We then discuss Matt’s thoughts on spouses working together as real estate investors. He shares that this is absolutely possible as long as both partners respect the other as well as each other’s personality style. Matt also goes on to explain that it took some time for him and his wife to figure out the best way to work together since they both have pretty dominant personalities. Real estate investing takes two things: time and money. Both of those things are burdens for a marriage and every real estate investor needs to have their spouse’s support if they plan on being successful.   We then talk about some of the big mistakes people make when they're trying to raise money for a project. Matt shares that there are two big mistakes that people make when it comes to raising money. First, they act like investors are doing them a favor, when in reality they are offering those investors an opportunity. Second, they shop for money when they need it. If you wait until you have a deal to raise the money, you’ll have to bring in a partner with a good network and good connections and you’ll end up giving away a lot of your profit. So instead, build the network first and make your base aware of the magic of real estate investing, as a passive investor.   Next, we talk about Matt’s YouTube channel Landlord Chronicles. Matt shares that he stated his channel by mistake six years ago but he currently has 31,000 subscribers. He started by posting videos that he originally shot for his lenders and after seeing that people responded well to it, he decided to create content especially for his YouTube channel. Now, he posts videos every Monday and Thursday. His educational videos range from Mentorship Monday to a Day In The Life.    Lastly, we talk about Matt’s company called DeRosa Group.  Matt explains that their company is dedicated to transforming lives through real estate. They believe that real estate is an amazing vehicle for people to achieve their net worth goals, their income goals, and financial freedom. Matt believes that real estate can provide people a great place to work, live, invest, and run a business.   Make sure you don’t miss this episode of Just Start Real Estate with fully transparent Matt Faircloth and get to know all about raising private capital! Notable Quotes:   “The questions I get asked all the time are: how do I find

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 September 29th 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:   “The overarching message of Extreme Ownership is that you take responsibility for everything that happens to and around you in your life even if you don’t necessarily believe it was your fault.”   “A team that embraces the principles of Extreme Ownership is a winning team, always.”   “Everyone that works for me right now takes ownership - without excuses, without pointing fingers, without resentment.”   “If your goal is to build a portfolio, build a portfolio. Don’t take a step in a different direction.”   “Don’t put a ton of energy or time trying to pick the best CRM. All CRMs have flaws. The best one for you is the one you will use.”   “You probably know enough to get started. You do not have to know everything to get started.”   “You won’t know all that much until you actually do it.”   “To deal with the fear and the doubts, you really have to dig into your ‘why’.”   “Find a compelling ‘why’ and get that fresh in your mind every day.” 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 Matt Drouin to the show today. Matt is a partner at OakGrove Development, a real estate investment and development firm with a special focus on value-add commercial and residential properties in Rochester, NY. Over the last 15 years, he has been in real estate management, brokerage, and development and has grown his portfolio to 120 units of residential and commercial property. Matt’s company mission is in developing real estate projects that not only add value to their investors but also put long-term community interests front and center. He believes that you can do well as a real estate developer and that ultimately community-centric development boosts profits for investors.   Matt first shares his background story and how he first got into real estate. After finishing his four-year liberal arts degree, studying business with a concentration in finance, Matt had a vision that he was going to be hired immediately out of college. Unfortunately, no one wanted to hire a liberal arts student with a general business degree with no experience. Eventually, Matt was able to get a job as a part-time bank teller in his hometown, but after two months he was sick of it. His father, who had some experience in the real estate world, advised him to get a real estate license and become a realtor. His first property was a fourplex, he lived in one of the units and rented out the rest.   We then move on to discussing Matt’s second career move as a realtor. For his second property, he chose to buy a house down the street from his first property. According to his calculations, he had to buy it for $80,000 to make the numbers work. So, he made an offer for $80,000 in cash and they accepted it. The only problem was that Matt didn't have $80,000 in cash. This is when he was introduced to private money lenders and was able to get a loan with 7% interest deferred, meaning he only had to pay back the interest and the payments once he refinanced the property.   Next, we talk about how Matt went from 14 to 120 units in the last 5 years. After losing both of his parents in his 20s, Matt decided to focus all of his energy on fast-tracking his career. Using the experience and the knowledge he accumulated working for larger-scale management development companies, he purchased his first million-dollar property. He was able to raise $300,000 from friends and family; he used $200,000 of it for the down payment, and he used the rest of it for smart capital improvements, as well as funding an operating account. In three years, he was able to push the value of that property from $1 million to $1.6 million. This deal alone was bringing him a cash flow of $40,000 a year and Matt realized that he can just recycle this BRRRR method over and over again, focusing on $1 million to $2 million properties.   We then discuss Matt’s development company, ROC Real Capital. A few years ago, Matt and his partner David started a development company focusing on more transformational development projects in marginal neighborhoods, mostly vacant buildings that they want to reposition or redevelop. They also formed a management company to manage both Matt’s assets and the assets they acquire together. The reason for that is because Matt believes that a third-party management can’t give their tenants the attention that they need.    Eventually, we talk about Matt’s team. He shares that they currently have a couple of maintenance people who are also on-site at some of their development projects and manage the subcontractors. Other than that, they have a leasing person and a bookkeeper. Matt’s partner, David runs their management company, but once they stabilize their properties after they're redeveloped, they want to bring in a full-time property manager so that David can step away from those responsibilities.    Lastly, we talk about different ways of finding deals. Matt explains that in terms of commercial deals, the relationship with commercial brokers is a huge source of deals for single-family to five-family types of properties. This is where you can get a lot of off-market deals. Another great tool to finding deals is being considered a subject matter expert with every debate in your sphere and growing that sphere is very important for building relationships with people, so that when you have a business conversation with somebody they feel like they already know you.   Make sure you don’t miss this fun episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast with Matt Drouin and learn all about the BRRRR method when it comes to multifamily deals!   Notable Quotes:   “My mistake was I thought that I needed to have experience or credibility in order to have permission from the universe to purchase larger properties.” Matt Drouin    “I had 14 units back in 2016 and now I'm up to 120 units of residential and commercial properties. The way I scaled that portfolio was through utilizing the B

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 September 22nd 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:   “Some people actually list their flip for less than they think they will get because it starts a bidding war.”   “In this market, if you have your house on the market for a month, it is over-priced.”   “This was the first set-back I had ever had and I honestly didn’t think it could happen. I just got over-confident.”   “In this market, you just don’t have to overthink it. Put your flip on the MLS and it will sell.”   “In general, I would say don’t wait.”   “I am a big fan of leveraging other people’s money.”   “You have to buy right if you are using traditional lending.”   “Make sure when you are buying and renovating a property, you are still only invested in it 80% or less of what it is worth.” 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 Chuck Garcia. Chuck is the former head of Global Marketing at Bloomberg. He is also the Founder of Climb Leadership International and coaches executives on leadership development, public speaking, and emotional intelligence with his Empathetic Leadership Institute. Chuck is a professional speaker and has given keynotes in over twenty countries. He is also the Amazon best-selling author of A Climb to the Top and podcast host of the popular show of the same name. Chuck also teaches Leadership Communication at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Engineering.   Chuck first shares his background story and how he went from Wall Street to entrepreneurship. He began his career on Wall Street, under the tutelage of Mike Bloomberg. Now, for those of you who might not know this, Mike Bloomberg was a presidential candidate and a Mayor of New York for three terms. He was also Chuck’s boss for fourteen years, and Chuck shares that he learned more in one week under his tutelage than he did in four years of college. After 9/11, the day he was scheduled to speak on the hundred seventh floor of the World Trade Center, Chuck decided that it was time for a career change. So, he started his own company called Climb Leadership international. Today, he is a professional speaker, published author, and a professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Engineering where he teaches public speaking and emotional intelligence.   We then move on to discussing one of Chuck's biggest passions which is communication. He explains that throughout his education, he defined success as being at the top of his class, as many of us do. But after beginning his career on Wall Street, he came to realize that the people who were climbing the career ladder were not the best students, but they were powerful communicators. They were the ones who could read the room the best and who were the most dynamic speakers.    Next, we talk about key concepts of communication. Chuck shares that during his college years there was one course that made a huge impact on him and it was called the Art and Science of Debate. This course changed his career. Later, when he was working at Bloomberg’s and speaking on stage, he had to find a way to connect to hundreds of different people at the same time. He experimented with a number of different methods, and he soon found his framework which he named Ten Commandments of Great Communicators. In his book A Climb to the Top, he gives an in-depth look at all ten commandments. Some of them are: the Primacy/Recency Effect, the observation that when people hear you speak they remember the first thing and the last thing that you say; Power of Emotional Appeal, that people gravitate to stories of struggle and challenge; the Power of the Pause, that by pausing you are showing consideration to the listener and giving them time to catch up and absorb the message.     Eventually, we talk about what emotional intelligence is and why it is important. Chuck explains that emotional intelligence addresses the social, personal, and survival dimensions of the emotions of an individual when they are going about their day. Emotional intelligence helps one to understand how to be self-aware. When it comes to teaching this class, Chuck explains that his students are likely to become amazing engineers but the higher they climb in their careers, the less engineering they’ll do. Their job description is going to change midway through that ladder and they will feel ill-equipped. This is called the paradox of success: the skills that got you halfway are not the skills that get you all the way. As you move higher up that ladder, your communication skills become more and more important.    Lastly, we dive deeper into the metaphor behind Climb to the Top. Chuck explains that in his book he uses a climb to a mountain as a metaphor for career success. This all started after the tragic event of 9/11 when Chuck realized that we wanted to do more with his life. He decided to become a mountaineer. After climbing his first few mountains, he began to notice a pattern similar to the one in his career. He was climbing his way to the top, one step at a time, but he wasn't alone, he had a guide and people who helped him get to the top. So, he decided to be a guide for others.   Make sure you don’t miss this incredibly fun and informative episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast with true expert communicator Chuck Garcia! Notable Quotes:   “If a man stands on integrity and he makes several billion dollars along the way, well isn’t that the American dream?” Chuck Garcia   “As real estate investors, oftentimes we're taking something really bad that doesn't have the value it should and we create value and better communities.” Mike Simmons     “Career success is determined 5 percent by your academic credentials, 15 percent by your professional experiences, 15 perce

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 September 15th 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:   “If you are a woman in this industry and dealing with contractors, you have to stand your ground.”   “Don’t think of yourself as a woman in real estate - think of yourself as a real estate investor and act like you belong there, because you do.”   “The 70% rule is the training wheels of real estate evaluation.”   “Work toward your goal, not away from it.”   “If anyone tells you they have the direct mail piece that is like the silver bullet, they are full of crap.”   “The goal is to make the phone ring with people who are interested in selling their house.”   “I was too hard-headed to get help for a number of years.”   “As soon as I put myself in an environment with people that were doing better than me, and I could ask them questions, I started building a business that could in large part run without me.” 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 Jhanel Wilson to today’s show! Jhanel is a chemical engineer turned real estate investor and entrepreneur. She is the Founder and CEO of The Savvy REI with an eight-figure portfolio andJhanel is on a mission to share her 17+ years of hard lessons and personal strategies to help people understand, master, and succeed with real estate investing.   Jhanel first shares her background story and how she went from being a chemical engineer to becoming a real estate investor. Jhanel believes that her background as an engineer has helped her become a better real estate investor. She has a great eye for details and risk analysis which helps her make better and smarter decisions, and even eliminate some of the risk along the way. Jhanel started her journey into real estate right after college by purchasing a distressed property from a family member by paying the back taxes before it went to the sheriff's sale. Shortly after, the city threatened to demolish the property due to code violations, so once more Jhanel pulled all of her resources and used student loans and credit cards to bring the property up to code, remedy additional taxes and bills, and accomplish an ARV of $70k after putting in roughly $45k. She was able to successfully complete the project and start cash flow, which immediately showed her the power of real estate.   We then move on to discussing how Jhanel manages her 8-figure portfolio. She explains that she manages all her properties herself, with the help of her team. Today, she has 90 doors that are occupied and 40 more under construction. Currently, she only has three members on her team, which is more than enough according to Jhanel’s estimate of one manager per 50 tenants. She did try going the more traditional route and using property management companies but that never seemed to work out, so she decided to take matters into her own hands.   Next, we talk about Jhanel’s business strategy. She explains that her strategy right now is strictly buy-and-hold but that she does refinance a lot. Jhanel believes that the world is meant for buy-and-hold investments, once you learn how to deal with tenants.    Lastly, we dive into Jhanel’s course Invest in Real Estate with No Money Down, Using High Limit Credit Cards where she teaches people how to use credit cards to buy real estate. Jhanel explains that credit cards are good for two reasons, the first is easy applications and the second one is low rates. The only downside to credit cards is that the payments are high but Jhanel explains that you can work that out by making interest payments part of your budget. Jhanel also dives into the difference between personal and business credit and how you can’t have one without the other.   Make sure you check out this incredibly informative episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast with Jhanel Wilson, and learn all about financing your deals using your credit cards! Notable Quotes:   “I immediately forgot all the problems that I had when I discovered the power of real estate.” Jhanel Wilson    “When you passively invest, you are trusting other people to know what to do and to actually do it.” Jhanel Wilson   “I think the world is meant for buy-and-hold investing.” Jhanel Wilson   “I always tell people to borrow more than you need, so that cash flow doesn't become a problem for you and you can use that money for paying back the loan.” Mike Simmons    “Cash flow will kick you out of the game. You might have the best deal, but if you don't have the cash to get it done, then you're going to lose.” Jhanel Wilson    “Your credit is so you can use it, so if your credit is bad, you work to get it up.” Jhanel Wilson   “Getting a good score is just part of the process. Now that you have the score you have to use it.” Jhanel Wilson   “You don't have to pay anyone to build your business credit. Your business credit is based on your personal credit.” Jhanel Wilson    “People sometimes ignore how to be an entrepreneur in the pursuit of just making money.” Mike Simmons Links: Jhanel on Instagram  Jhanel on Facebook Jhanel on LinkedIn Jhanel’s website  Course: Invest in Real Estate with No Money Down, Using High Limit Credit Cards by Jhanel Wilson  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 on September 8th 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:   “If you are overwhelmed in your business, you need to stop thinking about hiring an assistant and start hiring an assistant.”   “Most people hire way too late.”   “The MLS is the best way to evaluate properties.”   “Having access to the MLS is the best and only way to accurately determine your property’s ARV.”   “The work involved in getting a high volume of deals as a wholesaler is pretty significant.”   “If it takes you longer than eight weeks to turn over a standard flip, someone is not on top of it.”   “The reason you are scared to do something is because you are confused about it. A confused mind says, ‘NO.’” 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 am excited to welcome my friend and co-owner of 7 Figure Flipping, Bill Allen! Bill gives us a little bit of his background, explaining how he was an active-duty Navy pilot for many years before becoming a reservist, and how we met at the first 7 Figure Flipping meeting in 2016. Bill said when he first got involved in real estate investing, he had done one flip in each of his first two years, but after joining the group, his business just exploded. He has now done over 750 flip and wholesale deals, has gotten into multi-family syndication, and is doing some hard money lending, as well. Bill bought the 7 Figure Flipping group about two years ago and how he has surrounded himself with a great group of people in order to manage and run the mastermind groups and the very successful Flip Hacking Live conference.   The main reason I wanted to have Bill on the show today was to talk about this year’s Flip Hacking Live and how much it benefits its attendees. This year’s conference is October 14th thru 16th in Orlando, Florida and our listeners can follow the link provided below to buy your tickets! We had a blast last year doing the program virtually but are especially excited to get back together in person for this year’s presentation. Bill talked about his first time at FHL and how amazed he was that each speaker was basically just giving away the farm, and was completely open and honest with how they were running their businesses. He said it has been very important to him to continue in that same vein, taking the opportunity, once a year, to really lay out a blueprint for people to start and run a real estate business.   Bill and I talked about some of the specifics of this year’s live event. We are bringing back the speaker’s roundtable on Thursday night so that the attendees can spend some time with each of the speakers asking specific, more in-depth questions. Bill also stressed that the basic theme of Flip Hacking Live this year is going to be what is working now for the multiple, very successful speakers in their various businesses, and what they are looking toward for their future success. We are going to dive into what they are looking at as far as changes in the market, or with their personale, or different strategies they may be thinking of implementing. Bill really tasked the speakers into forecasting what they are planning to do in the coming months to help the participants in their real estate journey.   There is no way to put into words the value that is provided at Flip Hacking Live! Don’t miss this informative and inspirational episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast with Bill Allen, and hear the inside scoop of all of the substance offered at this year’s exciting event!   Notable Quotes: “I’m really enjoying life now, hanging out with some cool people, and trying to continue doing as many deals as I can.” Bill Allen   “Your drive and passion for what you do is amazing and everything you become involved in becomes much better.” Mike Simmons   “The first year that I went to Flip Hacking Live I was shocked at how open and honest everyone was - they were just giving away the farm.” Bill Allen   “This is what Flip Hacking Live is about -  open it up once a year, share everything, and don’t hold anything back.” Bill Allen   “This event is content-rich for anybody in real estate.” Bill Allen   “There are also a lot of great connections to be made at FHL.” Bill Allen   “My guess is there are gaps in your game. There are things that you are not doing that you should be doing and there are probably things that you are focusing on that are not of great benefit to you right now.” Mike Simmons   “Those first six months - how do I actually start, build, and grow my business for speed.” Mike Simmons   “I really want to take you on this journey of real estate investing within Flip Hacking Live.” Bill Allen   “We are going to focus on what is working now and what is going to work next.” Bill Allen   “Choose your own adventure.” Bill Allen   “You need traffic, right? You need phone calls, you need inbound leads, you need deals.” Bill Allen   “A successful investor and an unsuccessful investor - the difference is belief.” Bill Allen Links:  Real Estate Find & Fund Blueprint Flip Hacking Live 7 Figure Flipping 7 Figure Flipping Podcast 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 on August 25th 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:   “The number one way I have found that people find deals is direct mail.”   “Another great way to find deals and find leads in most markets is cold calling. It works.”   “When it comes to picking goals, first figure out what you really, really want.”   “It is a mistake for you to ask other people to help you figure out what your goals are.”   “Figure out what you really want and reverse engineer it.”   “A great way to find reliable contractors is to go to Home Depot at 6am and talk to the contractors there buying materials to go to work that day.”   “The subcontractors you love usually know really good contractors in other disciplines.”   “You compete by actually putting in the work.” 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 Jason Duncan. Jason works with entrepreneurs who want to BUILD, SCALE, and ENJOY their businesses. He has been named one of the top entrepreneurial companies in the country by Entrepreneur Magazine. He is a multi-award winning entrepreneur and founder of twelve companies. Jason is also a host of the popular podcast The Root of All Success.   Jason first shares his background story and how he became an entrepreneur. Jason spent the first thirteen years of his career in pastoral ministry. He did youth ministry and preaching ministry, traveling all around the United States. During this time he was also working as a health and life insurance salesman, selling to small business owners. But after some time, he decided that he wanted to do more, he wanted to make a real difference. So, he went back to school and got his master’s degree in education. He became a teacher and felt like he truly found his superpower. But then the recession hit, and he lost his job. He knew that he couldn’t get another job as a teacher so he started his own company Energy Lighting Services, which went on to become a multimillion-dollar company.   We then move on to discussing how Jason was able to exit his company without exiting. He shares that after running his company for a few years, he realized that he wasn’t living the life he wanted to. Sure, he was making a lot of money but he was also working his tail off every day. So, he decided to exit his company without selling it. He hired a CEO and his executive leadership team runs day-to-day operations. Now, he comes into the office once a month for a team meeting. Jason shares that there are three ways of exiting a business: (1) totally, which means exiting both physically and financially, (2) exit without exiting, exiting physically but not financially and (3) earn-out, exiting financially but not physically.   Next, we talk about the philosophy behind Jason’s exiting strategy. He explains that as an entrepreneur, you are not building your business just to give yourself a job. You are building your business, so that you can live the life that you want. This means that you cannot be the hero in your business. You start your business as a hero, because you have to build it from the ground up but eventually you have to be able to step down. Jason then goes on to explain some parts of his coaching program, such as Margin Theory which states that your ability to be successful lies in the margin, as well as the Law of Open Cycles which states that stress is not caused by the endurance of stressful situations, but by too many open cycles at once. And part of being prepared to exit is understanding that law and how you manage your stress. Jason believes that even if you get a great team around you but you haven't taught them Margin Theory and Law of Open Cycles, they're also going to operate as the heroes and ultimately that's going to be the downfall of your business.   Jason then explains the 5 Ps to entrepreneurial success. When talking with successful entrepreneurs, Jason noticed that there were 5 key things that always stood out. He labeled these as 5 Ps to entrepreneurial success. The first one is passion, which is defined as willing to endure. The second one is being at the right place at the right time, and the third one is knowing the right people. The fourth P is preparation, and the fifth is having a plan for financial resources.   Lastly, we talk about The Results University. The Results University is an online platform where Jason teaches this entrepreneurial path. The course that is available right now is called The Complete Startup Guide for Entrepreneurs and it has everything you need to know to go from startup to success in six months or less. It consists of 11 lessons, 11 videos and 10 downloadable PDF documents. You can also join Results University as a student and get access to three live trainings per month with Jason and other experts that he brings in.   Make sure you don’t miss this amazing episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast with Jason Duncan, and learn how to exit without exiting! Notable Quotes:   “If you can figure out how to save people money or make them money so that they can go change the world, that's what they're interested in listening to.” Jason Duncan   “I learned how to exit without exiting.” Jason Duncan   “I asked myself, ‘Is this the ideal life I want to live, working in this business every day?’ And the answer to that was absolutely not.” Jason Duncan   “If an employee wants job security, he or she must become indispensable. But as an entrepreneur, your job is to be dispensable.” Jason Duncan   “You didn't start that business to give yourself a job. You started the business to live your ideal life and to make an impact in the world.” Jason Duncan   ”FOCUS = Follow One Course Until Successful.” Jason Duncan Links: Jason’s Website Jason on YouTube  Jason on Fa

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 August 18th 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:   “Go get a deal. Just go get a deal.”   “That step of getting an LLC formed keeps people from going out and getting deals and making money.”   “Going into business with a loved one can damage a very important relationship permanently.”   “Partnerships are like marriages - a lot of them fail.”   “Partnerships with family members or friends often fail because people don’t evaluate the partnership the way they would have if it wasn’t with someone they knew.”   “I guess if I keep predicting that the market is going to slow down I will eventually be right.”   “If I could turn back the clock and I was 19 years old and living with my parents, I would turn real estate investing into a full-time gig today.”   “There are deals out there. There are now, there was yesterday, and there will be tomorrow.” 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 have the pleasure to interview Natalie Sisson, the founder of Suitcase Entrepreneurs, host of the UNTAPPED Podcast, bestselling author, sought-after speaker, and business coach listed on 2021 Cashflow Podcasting’s Top 13 Women’s Business Coaches Today. Natalie is also a contributor to Thrive, Forbes, and Lifehack, and she has been featured on many publications and media outlets, including 60 Minutes, Yahoo Finance, Huffington Post, and Daily Mail. Her mission is to help women entrepreneurs leverage their unique set of skills, knowledge, and experience to get paid to be them and get the income and impact they desire simply by being exactly who they are.    Natalie first shares her career backstory and how she got into entrepreneurship. Her career started in recruitment and marketing before moving to London. She worked with big international companies and got into what she relates as her dream job as the head of preposition development for the British Medical Association. She started a new department aimed at introducing doctors to entrepreneurism to help them build their services. Natalie soon realized that the job was sucking the life out of her creativity, and she was blocked from exercising her full potential. She didn’t want to feel miserable and decided to leave the corporate career to build something on her own.     We then talk about house hacking, a real estate investing strategy through which investors earn income by renting out primary residences and selling the property for a profit. Natalie explains how she bought a property to live in, rented it out, and later sold out her shares after moving to Canada. Also, five years ago, she bought another property in Belton in New Zealand and followed the same model.   Natalie explains her pursuits after ditching her career and going back to Canada. Her initial plan was to build a consultation platform for health and wellness to help big corporations decrease the number of sick days their employees take by creating happier and healthier employees. Her breakthrough came in a networking event where she met her current business partner. She got hooked up to his business, which assisted sports teams, fundraisers, and political candidates to easily raise and collect money on Facebook. Natalie worked there for about 18 months before moving out to work on her growing women’s blog that she had initiated to feature high-standing women who were doing great things in their business. The blog became popular, and she decided to build it into a business.   We then move into the mindset that hinders people from pursuing their desires and how Natalie helps people align themself with success and pursue what they love. Natalie explains her guiding principles in motivating people to see the big picture of where they want to be in order to take massive action toward their dreams. In her journey, she also realized that not everybody is in a position to quit their job and go for it, and she has been helping such people build their side hustle up to a level where they’re comfortable quitting their job to do what inspires them.    Lastly, we talk about Natalie’s book, Suck It Up Princess which she devised last year in a situation that she found herself torn and feeling sorry for herself despite great achievements. From her experience, Natalie suggests that sometimes we need self-compassion, and we need to go easy on ourselves and acknowledge that we need rest and to refresh and renew our energy. The book focuses on health, motivation, and inspiration, and it’s filled with personal stories in different areas such as love and relationships, an area she never thought of writing about before. Natalie explains that the book is for women in careers and entrepreneurship who are wondering whether there is something better for them to help them develop the right mindset, habits, and strategies to get rid of their inner critics, impostorism, doubt, and fears to be the best version of themselves and live abundantly.   Don’t miss this informative and power-packed episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast with Natalie Sisson, and learn how to get over your excuses, do the unexpected, live your life on your own terms, and make money just by being you!   Notable Quotes: “Do I want to wake up for the rest of my life, do the commute, the hustle, and the grid? No, I want to do something better.” Natalie Sisson   “You should never have a backup plan; if you feel that this is something you want to do and change your life, you have to go in wholly and give it your best shot.”  Natalie Sisson   “Sometimes you need self-compassion and grace; go easy on yourself and acknowledge that you need some rest or some time out.” Natalie Sisson    “Going after what you want is the biggest thing in life.” Mike Simons   “There are different horrors in the entrepreneurship journey, but the first one is getting off your b

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 August 11th 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:   “When looking at a possible property to buy as an investment, you want to make sure you can add value to it.”   “A couple of the biggest things that take away from the profitability of a landlord are turnover and vacancies.”   “Another way to maximize profits on a rental is to really renovate it when you buy it.”   “You can only get top-of-the-market rent if you have a top-of-the-market product.”   “The best way to maximize profits is to buy right.”   “One of the mistakes people make is they put a house on the market, they get a decent offer and they just take it. You should do at least a week, if not two, of showings before you accept any offers.”   “Pay yourself a reasonable salary and leave the rest in the company.”   “I learned how to build a business and then pumped most of my profits into marketing. My business skyrocketed.”   “The people I know that are successful are hard on themselves.”   “Making mistakes is part of the process.”   “Failing is learning.” 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’s guest is Anthony Eisenman, who works in enterprise sales for Fortune 100 companies. Eisenman grew up in a single-parent family and felt that more traditional career paths were closed off to him but was attracted to the idea of working in sales because of the possibility of being paid for his performance via commission. Through hard work and diligence, he leveraged himself into a position of owning stock options in major corporations and has built up his own brand to teach others his methods.    Mike and Anthony begin by discussing how to increase your income. Eisenman’s first piece of advice, particularly for those who currently only work for one organization and who may have a fixed income, is to negotiate with your employer to be paid based on performance. Although this brings an element of risk, Eisenman underlines that this will give you the opportunity to prove your value to the organization. Once your value has been demonstrated through excellent performance, you are then in a better position to negotiate for greater rewards, including equity.    Anthony then outlines his checklist of systems to put in place before creating multiple streams of income or pursuing a passion project. Firstly, it is important to ensure that you are excelling in your primary source of income, meaning that you have maximized your earning capacity in this role. Secondly, this role should operate like a well-oiled machine with a firm system and defined processes in place, giving you the capacity to open yourself up to investing time and energy into other sources of income.   When launching a secondary revenue stream, Anthony highlights the possibility of receiving pushback from your company or entourage. When he began to work for himself, colleagues questioned his commitment to his job and his time management capacity. However, Anthony ensured that he continued to achieve highly so that his performance and production would speak for itself.    Anthony then deep dives into his personal motivation to achieve. Whilst he used to be motivated by his ego and the idea of proving people wrong, today he is more inspired by the idea of creating a legacy for his family to give his children the comforts he never had. The memories of his former financial struggles have stayed with him and continue to push him forward. Mike also affirms how the fear of failure can be a strong push factor towards achieving financial success, since a push away from financial hardship can be just as strong a motivator as the pull factor of the desire to earn wealth for your family.   Mike then questions Anthony about the steps that he took to build his brand, and Anthony explains that the first step that he took was to invest in coaching to learn about real estate and to create a personal brand. Initially his goals for his side businesses were low as he wasn’t under pressure to achieve immediately, and this allowed him to develop and grow gradually. Anthony chose to add a short-term real estate business to his portfolio as a way to involve his family in his business, as his wife could take over the furnishing and property management aspect of the business and in the long term, his children may also become involved with property management too.    Lastly, the conversation turns to Anthony’s personal brand, which aims to help people improve their sales strategies to earn the income they deserve. He has numerous books and coaching products covering topics from cold calls to the art of persuasion to the blueprint to wealth creation. These resources represent a philosophy of lifelong learning in order to improve yourself and your position in life. No matter what stage you’re at, there is always room to grow and learn and those who don’t take that opportunity will stagnate.    Don’t miss this enlightening episode of Just Start Real Estate, and stay tuned to the end to find out how to get free learning resources from Anthony Eisenman so that you can learn his secrets to success! Notable Quotes:   “If you can prove yourself by being paid based on your performance, you’re going to earn a higher income and have a higher ceiling, and you can prove yourself to be valuable.” Anthony Eisenman   “Don’t ever be afraid to lose what you have now in order to gain even more.” Anthony Eisenman   “I did get pushback internally from my organization and it just made me press the gas that much harder.” Anthony Eisenman   “Everybody deserves to do some things they’re passionate about on the side. You don’t have to dedicate 110% to your organization. You can have some time to do some things on your own.” Anthony Eisenman   “If you get lazy, then your goals aren’t big enough.” Anthony Eisenman   “Part of my motivation, aside from my family, is fear of failure.” Mike Simmons   “Once I make a decision to do something, I take action right away.” Anthony Eisenman   “The people that ge

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 August 4th 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:   “My guess is you can’t sell your flip because you bought too high, your renovation went over budget, and now what you need to sell it for is more than the market can bear.”   “Flip Hacking Live is quite unique in that it is three days of non-stop on-stage presenters who are giving you actual step-by-step processes and breaking down their businesses in a way that is usable and actionable.”   “The presenters at Flip Hacking Live just give and give and give away all their secrets.”   “Going to Flip Hacking Live is the smartest thing you can do this year.”   “NOW is the right time.”   “If I was a full-time house flipper, I would have several realtors looking for houses for me all of the time.”   “It is very hard to find good investment properties on the MLS right now.”   “I am pretty careful to do a phone interview first when hiring. If I don’t like the person on the phone, I doubt I will like them in person.”   “How hot the lead is determines the follow-up strategy.”   “The more you do to a house to stage it, the harder you are making it for the potential buyers to see their stuff in there.”   “I believe in my heart if everyone read Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and applied the philosophies, mindset, and attitude he outlines, our world would be exponentially better.” 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 Adam Zach.  Adam has a magnificent obsession with learning and with real estate. He works 10 hours per week as a professional engineer but dedicates most of his time to family, learning, and building up his real estate businesses. The business that allowed him to semi-retire is his niche in rent-to-own investments and creative financing by buying homes for people who can’t qualify for a traditional bank loan. He currently holds 26 properties in 5 different states.   Adam first shares his background story and how he got into real estate. After college, Adam worked a high-paying job as an engineer. He was living the American dream. But pretty soon, he started getting the itch, he started to wonder about financial independence. During this time, he looked into many different things but eventually, he decided that real estate is the way to go. However, he didn't completely cut ties with his 9-5, he still works 10 hours a week as a professional engineer.    We then move on to discussing the first property Adam bought. He shares that the very first property that he bought was kind of an accidental purchase. He bought a house with his college roommates so that they could have a place to live in and party. But once he learned about property appreciation three years later, he decided to turn it into a rental as opposed to just selling it. He then started to educate himself more and together with his wife decided to invest more into real estate.    Next, we talk about what exactly Adam is doing in this industry that is different. He refers to his business model as “Set Your Rent”. At first, he would tell college students to pick a home off the MLS that they wanted to live in, and he would buy it for them as long as they paid the 1% rule. This was a way of him getting a property that was turnkey as opposed to buying a property that needed to be fixed up. He then noticed that after a year or two, college students would leave and the market rents would be a bit lower. So, he then decided to find people instead of finding properties. Most of the time it's entrepreneurs or people with no credit or poor credit and he uses the same concept. He either does rent-to-own or a contract for deed and this is what really helped explode the growth of his business and accelerated the path forward.    Adam then explains the difference between rent-to-own and a contract for deed and which one he prefers. As a landlord, Adam first checks if there is a city inspection required and if it is, he then uses the contract for deed route, because then he is not obligated to meet all the requirements. But from the standpoint of taxes, and every other purpose, a rent-to-own is a better option because a contract for deed gets charged as an interest income whereas a lease option is still a rental, so you get the depreciation and you're acting more like a landlord in that situation. On the other hand, when he’s trying to buy a piece of property, he prefers a rent-to-own option because it’s much more flexible    Eventually, we dive into discussing some of the cracks that Adam noticed in his model so far. He shares that their biggest obstacle so far was Covid. The pandemic caused financial issues to some of their tenants but luckily they were able to come up with different payment plans to avoid eviction and foreclosure. To avoid these situations, Adam’s company screens potential tenants as a landlord but also as a bank using a third party. They also make sure that their payment is not more than one-third of their income.    Lastly, Adam shares some of the concerns he had when he was first starting out. His main priority was to make sure that they were not taking advantage of people. This is why he always makes sure to ask his clients if they tried to get a bank loan first. He also advises his clients to try different banks as well as credit unions and mortgage brokers. He knows that this option is probably the most expensive for his clients, but it comes with many different benefits that his clients are seeing as a higher value.    Make sure you don’t miss this amazing episode of Just Start Real Estate with Adam Zach and learn how to find deals in a new way that is not being talked about!   Notable Quotes:   “I think sometimes it's good, even for us real estate investors, to realize we're business people at the end of the day, so I think bringing outside industries and talking about how they do things can be valuable.” Mike Simmons    “You start getting the itch and looking out the window a little bit longer each day. You kind of start thinking - what does financial independence look like?” Adam Zach   “I think it all started by just getting really curious and having a large enough unhappiness meter to be like - you know what, I'm going to do something about it.” Adam Zach   “You will get punched in the mouth from time to time in busi

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 July 28th 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:   “Most peoples’ limiting belief is that they need to be more of an expert to get started.”   “You can get started with little knowledge and build on that… you should always be learning.”   “Another limiting belief is that it is the wrong market to get started.”   “I spent five years making excuses, educating myself, being afraid of failing, being afraid of making mistakes, and I probably lost $3M because I didn’t get started.”   “The number one way to raise private money is to talk about what you are doing in your business.”   “If you ask for money, you will get advice. If you ask for advice and talk about your business, you will likely get money.”   “For most people, starting with single-family homes, either renting or flipping, is a good way to get started.”   “If you want to be held accountable, tell your goals to the person who will call you out on your BS.” Links: Find & Fund Blueprint 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 Moore.  After a stint at Ford Motor Company, Paul co-founded a staffing firm where he was a finalist for Michigan Entrepreneur of the Year two years in a row. After selling the staffing firm to a publicly traded company, he began investing in real estate, founded multiple investment and development companies, appeared on HGTV, and eventually completed 85+ real estate investments and exits, including a large multifamily development. Paul is the author of The Perfect Investment – Create Enduring Wealth from the Historic Shift to Multifamily Housing and Storing Up Profits – Capitalize on America’s Obsession with Stuff by Investing in Self-Storage. He is also the Founder and Managing Partner of Wellings Capital, a real estate private equity firm, and he has contributed to Fox Business and is a regular contributor to Bigger Pockets.   Paul first shares his background story and how he got into real estate. After getting his engineering degree and his MBA at Ohio State University, Paul worked at Ford Motor Company. Soon, he decided to start his own staffing company that was doing really well for the next few years. Eventually, he decided to sell it to a publicly traded firm. Paul found himself at 34 years old, with a couple of million dollars and absolutely no sense of investing. He moved to the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, started a nonprofit organization, and started flipping houses and waterfront lots as well as ground-up construction. In 2010, he got involved in commercial real estate that led him to write a book on multifamily investing, and then later expanding into doing a number of commercial real estate funds for people who want to invest in commercial real estate but don't have the bandwidth to do it full time.   We then move on to discussing some of the struggles that Paul faced in 2007 that led to him being 2.5 million dollars in debt. In 1997, Paul had a million and a half in the bank. Exactly a decade later to the month, he had two and a half million in debt. He explains that they were able to give their way out of debt. Following the premise of one of his heroes, George Müller, who was a 19th-century Christian evangelist with radical views on generosity, Paul and his family started to donate their money pretty radically on January 1st, 2008 while they were facing bankruptcy. Four weeks later, Paul found a loophole in the law that allowed him to split one of his waterfront lots and sell the parts individually. He sold four in the fall of 2008, and the fifth eight months later. After that, he was debt-free.     Next, we talk about how Paul got into multifamily and the benefits of apartment buildings with 80+ units. Paul shares that he first got into multifamily with a four-unit building and a couple of duplexes. He then hired a business mentor who convinced him to only do apartment buildings with 80+ units. Paul explains that it is much easier to own an apartment building with 100 units than owning 100 different houses. With a 100 unit building you only need one property manager, you have one location, you have more control over your tenants, you can get a 3%, Fannie or Freddie loan, and you can get an FHA loan with a 35-year term.   Paul then shares his opinion on real estate investing at the moment. He explains that currently 93% of multifamily above 50 units are owned and operated by corporations who have typically run the value out. The problem is that if the value has already been run out, then you're going to be running on a thin margin, hoping and praying for inflation. And if inflation doesn't come or if there is a bump in the economy, that thin margin is going to go to zero. Paul's advice is to invest in assets that have a mom-and-pop ownership base, like self-storage and mobile home parks. Paul also goes on to say that if he could invest in only one thing today, it would definitely be mobile home parks.   We then talk about Paul’s books: The Perfect Investment: Create Enduring Wealth from the Historic Shift to Multifamily Housing and Storing Up Profits: Capitalize on America's Obsession with STUFF by Investing in Self-Storage. Paul explains that he wrote his first book five years ago after he went through his mentoring program for multifamily housing. He discovered that there were actual mechanics of how it all works and that there was a value formula, and he wanted to share that with the world. He wrote his second book in 2020, based on his experience with self-storage and the number of benefits it offers.    Eventually, we dive into discussing Paul’s thoughts on inflation. Any of us who grew up in the 60s, 70s, 80s, remember the horrors of inflation. Paul explains that inflation paired with high-interest rates was disastrous, and can create stagflation. But he also believes that inflation in the face of low interest rates can be a goldmine for real estate investors. If you have inflation and you can create a fixe

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 July 21st 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:   “When investors are analyzing a deal for rental, they don’t always think of putting aside money every month for maintenance.”   “Another thing that landlords forget to consider are vacancies. Assume you will have to turnover your property at least once every year or two.”   “The great thing about private money lenders is that all of the terms are very negotiable.”   “I can’t stress it enough how much crap a property management company will take off your plate if you have a rental portfolio.”   “Getting together with your team at least once a quarter to do goal setting and strategy sessions is essential.”   “I want to hire somebody with the right values and then train skills.”   “Passive income is not passive if you are managing your properties and dealing with the maintenance issues.”   “I think in business, everything is about testing what works.” Links: Business Fast Track Blueprint 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 Ryan Chaw.  Ryan has created a personal real estate portfolio cash-flowing almost $11,000 per month through single-family home investing in California while working a busy pharmaceutical job. Real estate investing is going to allow Ryan to retire at age 31 with a 6 figure income. He was also recently featured on the BiggerPockets Rookie Podcast.   Ryan first shares his background story and how he got into real estate. He relates that he was inspired to get into real estate by his grandfather who bought a couple of properties in the San Francisco Bay area. He was able to cover all of his living expenses with the rental income and retire early. So, pretty soon Ryan realized that real estate is one of the best ways to create generational wealth, if not the best way and he wanted to get in as soon as possible. He got his degree in pharmacy in 2015 and worked two jobs, seven days a week to save enough capital to buy as much real estate as possible as early as possible. He bought his first property in 2016 and decided to copy a model that one of his friends was doing and rent individual rooms in local college towns. This allowed him to double his cash flow and double his rental income, by charging $600-$700 per bedroom. Most of his properties make between $2,500 and $3,200 per single family home. Since then, he bought one property each year by reinvesting the income. Now, he has four properties and is about to buy his fifth that will make his monthly rental income $13,910.    We then move on to discussing how Ryan manages his tenants who are all college students.  He explains that at the moment he has 18 tenants and that he does all the management by himself. Ryan looks for high quality tenants: professional students, third or fourth year students, more mature students who will most likely take on some responsibility around the house. At this point, he spends less than an hour a week self-managing his properties thanks to his PRIME method. P stands for placement of ads, you have to post your ads in a way that puts you only in front of the people that you want to rent to. R stands for receiving their social media, this helps make sure that they are serious about their studies. Next, I stands for identifying the type of tenant; are they difficult to communicate with, do they seem to get angry very easily, are they asking for cheaper rent, are they asking for things before they even sign. M stands for measuring responsiveness, the more responsive they are in terms of getting their paperwork back to you quickly and answering all your questions, the more responsible they're going to be. And finally, E stands for ensuring proof of income which is usually parent’s bank statements since they are the ones paying the rent most of the time.   Ryan then explains his rule of thumb when it comes to evaluating the property. He shares that the number one thing he looks at is the price, even though that is not the only factor. He also makes sure that he is following the 1% rule, meaning that his rental income is 1% of the total cost of the property. After purchasing his property, to increase his rental income, he usually adds as many bedrooms as possible while making sure that there is no more than 3 people per one bathroom. He also makes sure to make all the rooms move-in ready.   We then talk about the type of properties that Ryan purchases. He explains that he mainly focuses on properties that are in good condition, turnkey properties. He always takes into consideration opportunity costs, because his properties are making such a large increase in rental income per month. With turnkey properties, it usually takes him two to three weeks to repurpose some of the rooms into an extra bedroom or two and then by the next month, he usually has two tenants in, because he starts advertising his properties as soon as his offer is accepted.    Eventually, we dive into discussing male and female ratio in Ryan’s properties. He tries to match up his tenants whenever possible, but if there is a house where females prefer to live with other females, a lot of times due to  their culture, he'll have a female house and then a male house. But, he also has co-ed houses, when female tenants are comfortable staying with male tenants. But, he explains that he has to be very careful here, because he can’t have an ad that says that a house is an all-female house because that's discriminating against sex, but if the tenant that already signed a lease prefers to only stay with other females, then he is simply respecting that request.   Lastly, Ryan shares some advice for anyone getting started in the student housing market. His first advice is to follow your local city laws and to check with your city planning division to make sure that this is legal in your area. His second piece of advice is to get to know your neighbors and to expand your network as much as possible.   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 on July 7th 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:   “It is not better to be a realtor when starting your real estate business, but you need access to the MLS.”   “I have access to the MLS because I need to comp properties effectively.”   “I don’t know any investors who have been doing it successfully for a while and still use banks to fund their deals.”   “The beautiful thing about hard money lenders is that they will lend money on the strength of the deal itself.”   “If you are going to separate from a business partner, it doesn’t get better with time.”   “I think the EOS system outlined in Traction by Gino Wickman is phenomenal.”   “I half an hour of your time for someone who never buys from you and they just take up a lot of your time, you have to cut that off.”   “I don’t have a lot of worries because I am completely plugged into the real estate market.”   “I have a lot of people in my network who are plugged into the market around the country.” Links: Business Fast Track Blueprint 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 so excited to have as my guest today Brandon Turner. Brandon is a real estate investor, entrepreneur, and speaker, widely recognized as one of the foremost experts on real estate investing. He is also the popular host of the BiggerPockets podcast with over 100 million downloads, best selling author of several books, and founder and managing member of Open Door Capital. He has been featured in numerous online and print publications like Forbes.com, Entrepreneur.com, and Money Magazine.   Brandon first shares his background story and how he got into real estate. After getting his college degree in history, Brandon knew that he had two options: become a history teacher or become a lawyer. He chose the latter. But pretty soon he realized that being a lawyer really stunk. He wasn’t ready for 60 to 100-hour work weeks just to be able to retire rich at seventy years old. So, he decided to rebel against that by selling his house and buying a duplex just as the market crashed in 2007. That started his journey into multifamily real estate.    We then move on to discussing how Brandon got involved with BiggerPockets. When he was 24 years old, Brandon bought a twenty-four unit apartment building. He spent a couple of years fixing it up and by the time he was 27, the building was done and all of the units were rented. He decided to quit his job and retire early. Soon, he started guest posting on BiggerPockets, the biggest real estate blog at the time. He became friends with Josh Dorkin, founder of BiggerPockets and (according to Brandon) he came up with the idea of starting a podcast.    Brandon then explains his decision to move to Maui two years ago. He was living in western Washington at the time with 300 cloudy days a year. One day, he was at a kid’s birthday party and met Jared. Jared was also a businessman who moved to Hawaii a few years prior. Brandon shares that at that moment his mindset expanded and he decided to visit Hawaii for a month. He loved it and decided to go again, this time for three months. At the end of this trip, he ended up buying a house on Maui.        We then talk about Brandon’s company Open Door Capital. Brandon first owned a property management company called Open Properties in Washington State. He was buying a couple of properties a year, but he realized that wasn’t enough. In 2018, he decided that he wanted to go bigger. He started Open Door Capital in Hawaii with his friend Brian Murray with the goal of owning 1,000 units and 50 million dollars in real estate in the next three years. Today, they have 3400 units and 197 million dollars in real estate.     Eventually, we dive into discussing Brandon’s new books The Multifamily Millionaire, Volumes I and II. Brandon explains his stack method of exponential growth in real estate that is described in Financial Freedom in Five Years Through Multifamily, Volume I. He explains the difference between linear and exponential growth and how multifamily allows you to go from 1 unit to 5, to 20, to 50 and to reach financial freedom through five or six purchases in five years. He also goes on to explain a bit more about small multifamily and how to find your first deal. Brandon’s advice is to define your Crystal Clear Criteria: (1) your property type (2) location (3) condition (4) price range and (5) profitability.    Lastly, we talk about the biggest mistakes that people make when they go into the world of multifamily. According to Brandon, the biggest mistake that people make is that they are treating it like a hobby. Eventually, they get frustrated and they don’t stick with it. But if they treat it like a business, their chances of achieving that exponential growth and financial freedom are much higher.    Don’t miss this incredibly fun and inspirational episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast, with Brandon Turner, truly an amazing guy and businessman!  Notable Quotes:   “I like multifamily. Multifamily is easier to treat like a business” Brandon Turner   “Most of us just accept the life that we’re given and we don't really think outside of that until something breaks you out of it.” Brandon Turner   “I was not happy with where I was in life and I believe that's because I was not living up to my potential or what I knew was possible.” Brandon Turner   “It shows the power of having a clear vision, getting the right people on board, getting really good at a certain niche, and then having a system by which you manage those people.” Brandon Turner   “Those of us who are growth-minded, we're always pushing to the next level, and trying to get a deeper understanding of what the world really is, and how we function in it.” Brandon Turner   “Our mindset determines our actions and our actions determine our results.” Brandon Turner   “What I've come to realize is that our mindset has way more to do with success than the

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 May 26th 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:   “There are a lot of different ways to be financially free, but real estate was the best choice for me.”   “Being financially free means different things to different people.”   “I’m finding a high volume of deals that I am able to sell to other people who don’t have the time, money, or the knowledge to find deals for themselves.”   “A wholesale company is really a sales and marketing company.”   “Really networking hardcore can be a great way to find deals without spending money.”   “The person you hire first should probably be for the part of your job you hate the most.”   “If I am going to invest in anything, I go all in once I have done a reasonable amount of research.”   “I move very fast when it comes to real estate.”   “Money is certainly not the problem when it comes to real estate investing.”   “Usually a hard-money lender only cares about the strength of the deal that you are proposing to them.”   “When you run a business, no matter what it is, you are going to get knocked down from time to time.” Links: Business Fast Track Blueprint 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, we have not one but two amazing guests, Sandy and Wade Critides. Sandy and Wade are lifestyle entrepreneurs residing in Orange County, California who have known each other their entire lives. They both left behind careers they weren't suited for and now have a multitude of thriving businesses including an 8-figure per year network marketing, their own real estate investment firm, their very own podcast, Getting Magnetic with Sandy & Wade and they are the published authors of the number one journal for network marketers. They love nothing more than empowering people to know that they can live the life of their dreams with vision and intentionality and they have helped thousands of people do so through their work.   We begin this episode with Sandy and Wade sharing their background story. Sandy’s dad and Wade’s mom went to high school together in Massachusetts over 45 years ago. Their families have been friends for a long time and they have known each other their entire lives. Sandy started her entrepreneurship journey about eight years ago when she was only 23. At the time she was working a corporate job, and her mom unexpectedly passed away. That shifted her whole perspective on life. She realized that she was not happy at her job and that she wanted to live life to the fullest, so she went on a journey of self-discovery, figuring out who she was and what she was meant to do. She tried a number of different things until she found what she was looking for. Wade’s journey was a bit more typical. His education led him to build a career in the finance world, eventually becoming a VP at his finance firm. When he reached his mid-20s, he realized that he wanted the freedom and autonomy over his life that entrepreneurship could provide. So, eventually Sandy and Wade decided to partner up and today they are network marketing professionals for real estate investors, they have their own podcast, and they've launched a product that helps people in the network marketing space.   We then move on to discussing if entrepreneurs are born or made. Sandy and Wade believe that the answer is both. According to them, Sandy was more of a born entrepreneur and Wade became one through his corporate career. Wade explains that there is a huge difference between the mindset of an entrepreneur and the mindset of an employee. An entrepreneur always has something that is pushing them forward, and even if you are not a born entrepreneur, if you want something and you have a strong commitment, you can become an entrepreneur.    Together we then dive into discussing the why and how it can fuel your success. Discovering your “why” has to start with knowing precisely what you want. You need to be super specific about the vision you have for your life. Maybe it’s financial freedom, maybe it’s building a legacy, maybe it’s leaving your 9-to-5, but whatever it is, you need to be super specific about it. The next step is to figure out the underlying why. Entrepreneurship is hard work and your why will help you push through the roadblocks. The third step, according to Sandy and Wade, is a decision. There is a point in every entrepreneur's life where a decision is made, where they decide to pursue their passion. And that is the formula for success: a super-specific vision + underlying why +  a decision.    Eventually, we talk about how Sandy and Wade got into real estate. Looking at other entrepreneurs, Wade noticed one common thread - they were all investing in real estate. So, they decided to go for it. They started with three turnkey properties and their latest investment was an 18-unit apartment building    Don’t miss this incredibly fun and inspirational episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast, with Sandy and Wade Critides, and find out why your business lives between your ears!  Notable Quotes:   “What no one really talks about, or they don't talk about enough is, is what mindset it takes to actually be successful in whatever it is you're doing.” Mike Simmons   “Your business lives between your ears and that's why working on yourself, personal growth, and development is the most important thing you can be doing.” Sandy Critides   “Your mess becomes your message.” Sandy Critides   “On paper, everything looks great, but inside I'm not necessarily fulfilled and happy.” Wade Critides   “A lot of them were entrepreneurs, a lot of them had freedom and autonomy over their own life and a sense of purpose and passion.” Wade Critides   “What I was seeking wasn't money, it was impact, it was freedom.” Wade Critides   “Entrepreneurship is the best self-development program in the world because you’ll learn so much about yourself.” Wade Critides   “Employee and entrepreneur mindsets are wildly different.” Wade Critides   “When you want to do something, if you have a strong enough commitment to it, you'll make it happen, and you'll le

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 June 30th 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:   “We don’t change our marketing based on market conditions. We adjust our marketing based on the metrics that we track.”   “From a marketing standpoint, we do more or less of certain things based on how effective they are.”   “We have a dashboard of Key Performance Indicators that we track in our business.”   “I think a virtual team sometimes takes a higher level of management.”   “Having a good company culture is something that happens on purpose.”   “You have to purposefully create, foster, and nurture a good company culture.”   “The real estate market is almost always good for somebody.”   “I just adapt and change my philosophies to match the market that I am in.”   “It was probably only ignorance and fear that kept me from investing in multi-family early on.”   “Everyone on my buyers’ list gets to look at a deal at the same time. I want open competition to prevail.”   “The worst buyers’ list is the list of one.”   “If you have one person interested in your deal, you are screwed. You need to have a bidding war, you need to have competition.” Links: Business Fast Track Blueprint FREE Success Evaluator FREE Blueprint to Fast Growth Webinar 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 Edna Keep. Edna is a real estate millionaire, coach, and author of Multiple Ways To Wealth. She owns 778 doors valued at $70 Million of real estate. She started with single-family homes to now primarily multi-family and she does some development projects with other people’s money. As a former financial advisor, she helps connect investors with everyday people who want to create passive income for the long term and those that need help with all areas of business money management.   Edna first shares her background story. She became pregnant and had a child at 16 years old. She dropped out of high school and felt like her options were very limited, but she decided to go back and finish her high school education. After high school, Edna worked a series of waitressing and secretarial jobs as a single mother. During that time, she dedicated herself to learning and doing what she needed to do to improve her life: she bought and read thousands of books on attitude, goal setting, and living with passion. She also attended numerous seminars and listened to countless audio programs. She also learned as much as she could about business. Her work with clients and more training taught her about real estate and the power of leveraging. That is when she dove into real estate investing, growing her portfolio, and reaping the rewards.   We then talk about how Edna got started with real estate. When she and her husband first got into real estate, their plan was to buy a few houses in the next 10-15 years to help with their retirement plan. But fast forward 18 months, they found that they owned 50 doors. They started with condos and duplexes but their last purchase, that got them to 50 doors, was 24 units. Within a very short period of time, they were able to double all the rents in that building because the market was so strong at that time.    Next, we discuss what pushed Edna to get 50 doors in only 18 months. She explains that there were few things that helped them achieve that. First, paying for education. Edna and her husband were introduced to real estate through the Rich Dad Poor Dad series. This is where they learned all the strategies they needed and applied them all in a short period of time. They also had a coach during this whole process and they also partnered with some people who had taken the same training they had two years prior and already owned 20 houses.   We then dive into the financing aspect, and how Edna was able to raise money for her first 50 doors. She explains that their first option was seller financing: a situation in which the person selling the property leaves some money in it. They approached their seller and asked her to leave the amount they needed for a down payment and, in return, they pay her 6% interest on that money in five years. According to Edna, when it comes to financing, seller financing is always a good way to go.   We then talk about Edna’s Five Step Investor Attraction System. This system consists of 5 steps, and those are: mindset shift, finding and analyzing the right deal, analyzing a property, and hiring a coach. Edna believes that these 5 steps can help you shift from where you are to where you want to be.   We also discuss Edna’s book Multiple Ways to Wealth. She wrote this book back in 2013 and her main goal was to show people that there truly are multiple avenues to achieving wealth. Even though she ended up in real estate, she has a lot of experience in stocks and mutual funds as well.   Lastly, we talk about Edna’s program 90 days to 5k program. This is for people who are looking to get their first $5000 a month in income from a building or two; for those who already own a few doors, want to expand their portfolio but have run out of their own money and or their own ability to qualify for mortgages. Edna explains how having that type of support in the beginning of their journey really made a difference, and she hopes to provide that to others through her program.   Don’t miss this episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast with Edna Keep and get inspired by an amazing story of a single, young mother who went on to create a real estate empire of 778 doors and counting!  Notable Quotes:   “Early on I had to put food on the table, I had to make things work because it wasn't just about me.” Edna Keep   “I couldn't do anything full-time to change careers, it always had to be on the side.” Edna Keep   “When we got 50 doors in 18 months, we really felt like we had something there.” Edna Keep   “You don't just fall backward into that by accident. That's work, that's dedication, that's drive.” Mike Simmons   “I believe you have to buy knowledge nowadays. You absolutely have to.” Edna Keep   “Not just learning the strategies, but applying them all in a short period of time - that's what got us our first 50.” Edna Keep   “We got to work within our strengths.” Edna Keep

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 June 23rd 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:   “I would have started a lot faster if I knew then what I know now. I would have been making offers more aggressively.”   “Real estate is a numbers game.”   “If you are in a hurry at all to make your first deal, you can’t make one offer at a time.”   “Real estate investing works in any environment and any market climate.”   “If you want to be a real estate investor, go do that. Do not wait.”   “If you are thinking of getting in, get in, just start, and scale.”   “I personally think this kind of market is the most difficult - it is easy to sell houses but difficult to buy them.”   “I was passionate about growing that business, about learning and training and building a team.” Links: Business Fast Track Blueprint FREE Success Evaluator FREE Blueprint to Fast Growth Webinar 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 choice for today’s episode is a bit different and I am really excited to welcome Jodie Cook! Jodie is an entrepreneur who built and sold her social media agency over a ten-year period. Her experience of starting up, creating a brand, winning and serving clients, hiring a team, and growing and selling a company has been written into books and articles with millions of readers. She is the author of several books including two volumes of Stop Acting Like You’re Going to Live Forever, How To Raise Entrepreneurial Kids, Instagram Rules, and The Clever Tykes Storybooks. She is also a Forbes 30 under 30 Social Entrepreneur in Europe and a regular contributor of theirs.   Jodie first shares her background story. Growing up, she followed the traditional path when it came to her career. After high school, she went to college because that is what you are supposed to do. After that, she got on a graduate scheme, and this is where it all changed for her. This is where she learned how to think for herself through different coaching sessions. This is also the time she decided to start her own business.    We then take a little detour with our conversation and talk about the fact that Jodie powerlifts competitively. She shares that she was always quite sporty and started out as a runner, doing half marathons and 10k races. Eventually, she joined a gym that had a lot of competitive lifters and soon she began competing and truly enjoyed it. Since then, she has represented Great Britain internationally and she still competes within the British Powerlifting Federation in the under 57kg (125lbs) bodyweight category.   We then discuss how to get kids to be interested or want to learn more about being an entrepreneur. When she was doing the research for her book, Jodie interviewed around 200 people on how they're raising their kids to be entrepreneurs and how they themselves were raised to be entrepreneurs. What she found was that it either came from inspiration or desperation. In her book, How To Raise Entrepreneurial Kids, Jodie talks about four pillars: the mindset, the skills, the experiences and the coaching.   We then dive into the mindset of raising entrepreneurial kids. Jodie explains that in the book, the mindset pillar consists of a lot of different areas. The first one is the Family Mission Statement, a set of family values; the other part is setting goals, how to develop a child's interests instead of shutting them down.    Next, Jodie explains what she believes is one of the biggest disservices that we make when it comes to raising our kids as entrepreneurs. It became incredibly easy to trust the “educational conveyor belt,” to think in terms of what the school or the college wants us to do. It is commonplace to think that we're choosing our own way forward when actually we're choosing from a very predetermined set of options.   Lastly, we discuss Jodie’s book, Stop Acting Like You’re Going To Live Forever. A couple of years before she wrote this book, Jodie was attending a Forbes event and met an editor who told her that they were launching a contributor program for Forbes. Jodie followed up with the editor a few times after that and when the program launched she was accepted as a contributor on the topics of entrepreneurship. Soon, one of her articles called “How to Stop Caring About What Everyone Else Thinks” received massive attention. This is when she decided to publish her articles as a book. Since then, she has published the first volume with 36 different articles and the second volume with 45 articles.    Don’t miss this episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast with Jodie Cook, who delivers a wisdom-packed interview on the entrepreneurial lifestyle! Notable Quotes:   “I definitely didn't have a business plan, it was just two words: getting clients.” Jodie Cook   “I started to become fascinated that I started my own business at 22 years old, but hardly any of my friends did. They all went down the traditional career path.” Jodie Cook   “I am fascinated with how entrepreneurs are created and that's what led to me thinking about it, talking to people, writing about it.” Jodie Cook   “Everyone's born with self-awareness and then education takes it away.” Jodie Cook   “We are all different and we all have different strengths and weaknesses.” Jodie Cook   “A lot of entrepreneurs that I've met, interviewed, and talked to have something competitive in their background.” Mike Simmons   “It's either inspiration or desperation; they've come from one of those places.” Jodie Cook   “If you find something that you love that much and that you're really good at, you could probably turn anything into a business. Because the business side is secondary to you continuing to follow your purpose.” Jodie Cook   “Everything in your life revolves around doing the work the school tells you to do and kind of just moving dow

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 June 16th 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:   “I think going into business with your spouse is a really, really powerful thing.”   “If your spouse doesn’t have an active role in your business, having their complete support is critical.”   “I have met many people, unfortunately, that don’t have the support of their spouse and it really eats away at the business from the inside.”   “It is 100% possible to grow too fast.”   “I do not think that fast growth is necessarily good growth always.”   “Be careful when you are growing and expanding, and make sure it is what you really want.”   “All that foundational stuff at the beginning, the systems, the people, the mindset, the numbers you are tracking, will help you be successful as you grow.”   “There are a lot of factors that can derail a company, but the one that sneaks up on people and takes them by surprise is bad partnerships.”   “You want a partner that shares your hunger, shares your passion and desire to get to the goal and build that business.”   “If risk doesn’t bother you and your partner is very, very conservative, your partnership will fall apart.”   “Once you have nailed the model and understand what you want to do on a small scale, then it is just a matter of scaling that up.” Links: Business Fast Track Blueprint FREE Success Evaluator FREE Blueprint to Fast Growth Webinar 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 Samson Jagoras. Over Samson’s 13+ year career in business, he has served as a Futures and Commodities broker, a commercial real estate broker, actively invested in real estate. He also served as the VP of Strategic Investments for RE/MAX Commercial Alliance, built several businesses, and acted as the Chief Strategy Officer for an INC 500 company. After 9 years of helping to scale that company, he walked away from his high-income position to go all-in on helping everyday investors put their money to work in large commercial apartment investments. Today, as the founder and president of Growth Vue Properties and the founder of the Passive Power Group, Samson helps give others access to investments that they thought were unattainable and acts as a liaison, educator, and curator that gives them supreme confidence in their passive multifamily investments.   We begin today’s episode with Samson’s background story. He was raised in a blue-collar house where money was pretty hard to come by. But what they lacked in money, they made up in sports. It all started with soccer when Samson was only 5 years old. Later, he got into baseball and skateboarding. Then, when he was a freshman in high school, he started playing football. He was a great player, and all he wanted to do was play football at a collegiate level. But, when the senior year came, he didn’t have any scholarship offers because his school didn’t have a good recruiting program. With a help of his mentor and high school alumni, he was able to get a football scholarship to Western New Mexico University and that was his ticket to a college education. Later, he transferred to Colorado and got his degree in Human Psychology. He got his degree on a Friday and on the following Monday he started working with his father-in-law at futures and commodities brokerage.   Our next topic of conversation is how the market crash in 2008 affected the futures and commodities brokerage. In 2008, Samson was just starting his career in futures and commodities, he had nothing to lose except debt and student loans. So, the crash didn’t affect him personally, but it did help him realize that speculating was not the way to make money and that owning hard assets is the key. This is when he got interested in the real estate world. After spending four years in commodities, he decided to jump into real estate.    We then discuss how Samson got started in real estate and why multifamily is his real estate of choice. He explains that the first real estate he bought was a single-family home that he converted into an uptown duplex. He also did some fix-and-flips as well as some wholesale deals. But he soon realized that it is all about scale. This was the main reason why he decided to focus on multifamily homes.    We then dive into Samson’s predictions for the real estate market in the next 12-24 months. He believes that our biggest problem will be affordability. Even now, we see people moving from California to Colorado and from Colorado to the Midwest. But soon, those markets will also go up. He also believes that there will have to be some tax incentives from the government to try to accelerate affordable housing as well as the conversion of properties from one type to another: office space to condos or residential hotels to multifamily, etc.   Next, Samson explains what constitutes a good deal for him and how he funded his deals in the very beginning. The most important thing for Samson, when it comes to investing in new deals, is the cap rate, risk aversion, and knowing why you want to be in that particular market.    Lastly, we talk about Samson’s company, Growth Vue Properties. Samson is a commercial real estate broker, one of his partners is a commercial loan originator, one is in private equity, and one is a professional investor. They are looking for people who are making a good amount of money and want to invest with other real estate professionals. Their focus is on building a legacy portfolio. Their strategy has always been about providing long-term legacy wealth for their families and their investors. On the back of that, they’re also building their endowment fund, where you can give to charity in perpetuity.   Don’t miss this episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast with Samson Jagoras, who brings several different perspectives to our conversation because of his background and knowledge! Notable Quotes:   “I knew I never wanted to be on that side of the business, just swinging hammers.” Samson Jagoras   “I was so focused on skateboarding, which I think is what gave me a lot of my just relentless mindset.” Samson Jagoras   “I did everything right because all I wanted to do, once I found football, was play at the collegiate level.” Samson Jagoras   “When you do something that you feel is on your heart and you're supposed to, that builds your confidence.” Samson Jagoras   “Speculatin

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 June 9th 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:   “Because of the pandemic, more people are thinking they would rather rent an Airbnb than stay in a hotel, so I think this presents a great opportunity.”   “Investors have to understand that a short-term rental is a different level of commitment and involvement than a long-term rental.”   “Rentals seemed like too much of a slow boat to me… I wanted speed so I originally chose flipping houses.”   “Wholesaling is far-and-away the main focus in my real estate business.”   “I’m not a big fan of waiting. If I want to do something, I’m going to just do it.”   “When I first started, I knew real estate was dropping in value, but I really didn’t know what to do about it.”   “You don’t know what you don’t know, so having someone in your corner is huge.”   “We live in such a fast and immediate gratification time that if something isn’t knocking on your front door, you don’t even know it exists.” Links: Business Fast Track Blueprint FREE Success Evaluator 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 show, I am joined by Michael Episcope. Michael is principal of Origin Investments, in which he co-chairs the Investment Committee and oversees investor relations, marketing, and company operations. He brings 25 years of investment and risk management experience to the company and believes that calculated risk-taking in inefficient markets is the key to building wealth. He also regularly contributes to Forbes, Entrepreneur, and Huff Post, and frequently speaks on real estate investment panels and podcasts.   We first talk about Michael’s background story and how he got into real estate. At a very young age, Michael was exposed to the investment side of real estate by his grandfather, who was in real estate at the time. He used to spend his summers with his grandfather, who was very hands-on when it came to his business. These experiences gave Michael first taste of the real estate world and allowed him to see the lifestyle it can provide, without even realizing what a profound effect that was going to have on him later in life. After college, Michael started working for Chicago Mercantile Exchange, where he spent the next 17 years building his career as a commodities trader. After 17 years, he decided to retire from this career and this is when Origin Investments was created.   Michael then goes on to explain in detail why he decided to retire from his first career as a commodities trader. He explains that when he first got into trading he had nothing to lose, so he could take all the risk that he wanted. But, as he was moving up the ranks in his company, he realized that he was headed to a point where the risk was simply too big, where he had far more to lose than to gain. So, he retired in 2006 and in his words, it was the best thing he ever did.     We then discuss what it is that Michael is actually buying, when it comes to real estate and the two funds that they are operating at Origin Investments. Michael shares that they buy class B or better apartment buildings and they also do preferred equity, meaning they lend to certain projects. Their fund has many different products that they can invest in within the capital structure, but it's mainly class B and  class A apartment buildings. Right now, they are operating two funds at Origin Investments and their IncomePlus Fund is for the income-oriented investor. The advantage of that fund is that people can invest all of their capital at once into a diversified portfolio of assets that's made up of preferred equity, common equity, and also 20% of the fund is dedicated towards ground up development. So they are investing immediately into assets that are cash-flowing assets. Their QOZ Fund is a qualified opportunity zone fund, that is meant to deliver high-risk adjusted returns through development, but the real benefit is taking advantage of the tax benefits.   We then talk about the scope of Origin Investments. They have about $600 million in equity and the assets under management are $2 billion. Michael believes that their biggest strength is that they have a lot of skin in the game and they're investing side-by-side with investors. They also have a great Investor Relations Department and understand the service side and the psychology behind the individual investors. They currently have 30 members in their team divided into five areas: marketing team, investor relations team, investment management team,  acquisitions team and corporate operations (accounting and legal).   Lastly, we talk about the marketing strategy that Michael uses with Origin Investments. According to him, there is no magic bullet. The most important thing is to be consistent and put yourself out there. The first step to having a good marketing strategy is to have a good product. Only then can you think about the ways to market it and put it in front of people and show your competitive advantages.   Don’t miss this highly educational episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast with Michael Episcope that is all about creating and growing real wealth! Notable Quotes:   “When I was 36 years old, I had a great career but I was also young. I didn't want to retire, I wanted to do something and I think it was that early exposure to real estate that really interested me in that asset class.” Michael Episcope    “The reality was, it was a family office. We were two guys buying real estate, putting our money to work and then we ended up bringing in friends and family, syndicating and growing a fun business, and just doing more deals and generating returns and providing people with great service.” Michael Episcope    “Our belief is that you buy great real estate and you take care of the downside, the upside takes care of itself.” Michael Episcope   “When I started trading I couldn't rub two nickels to my name. So, I went and traded, and decided to take that kind of risk, because I had nothing to lose.” Micha

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 June 2nd 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:   “I know that I can impact you and your business, but it all begins with asking for help and realizing you can’t do it on your own.”   “I have experienced waiting in my life, like waiting for conditions to be right, and I can tell you it is just another excuse for not getting started.”   “Everyone I know that is successful has an abundance mentality.”   “One of the big regrets of my life is not starting sooner.”   “The second biggest regret of my life is not asking for, seeking out, and paying for help sooner.”   “Just keep making offers, stick to your numbers, don’t worry about losing out on deals.”   “Some people advise not to use a property management company to handle your rentals until you get to a certain number of them, like 10.”   “Real estate investing is a common denominator in a lot of people who have achieved a high level of financial success.”   “A benefit of investing in real estate is that if I buy a property for $100,000, I know tomorrow it won’t be worth $0, which is a real possibility with other forms of investing.” Links: Business Fast Track Blueprint 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’s guest is my friend and fellow podcaster and investor, Danny Johnson. I had Danny on the show about a year ago and am thrilled to welcome him back. Danny started flipping houses in 2003, made it successfully through the housing market crash in 2008, and started scaling his business up about 5 years ago. As a software developer before flipping houses, Danny started developing real estate investor websites by creating the software called LeadPropeller. Danny is also the host of the ever-popular Flipping Junkie Podcast and Flipping Junkie Blog. Danny has grown his house-buying company through the use of his website DannyBuysHouses.com. They buy houses in San Antonio, TX and he has helped hundreds of homeowners sell their houses fast in the Lonestar state. Many people recommend them when asked who is the best house-buying company in San Antonio.     Danny updates our new listeners with his background and how he got started in real estate investing. He began investing right after he had gotten his computer science degree in college because his dad had gotten into investing and was having a blast. Danny describes how passionate his dad became about flipping houses and was so excited to just do more each time Danny spoke with him. His dad’s mentor started Danny along his own investing path and Danny shared that he had to actually get fired from his full-time job before he was brave enough to invest full-time.   Danny talks about how and why he began his blog and wrote his book, Flipping Houses Exposed. His flipping business had slowed down because he had gotten interested in learning to fly airplanes, and he felt like he wanted to use the internet to hold himself accountable. He noticed that the popular television shows about flipping houses never showed how they got the leads and deals, so he decided to document every call he received to illustrate that side of the business. Danny also talks about the challenge of growing his business from an endeavor in which he and his wife at the time did everything, to the stage where he could comfortably take a vacation without thinking about the deals he might be missing.   Danny shares with us his passion for developing software to help other real estate investors on their journey. He just launched his new CRM software called Forefront and I asked him to explain with is different about this product. He tried to get back to the basics with this software on what he really needed it to do, which was to keep track of his leads and the follow-up. Danny talks about how this product is like a visual whiteboard, a visual representation of his business that is easy to just log in and get started. We talked quite a bit about the importance of follow-up and how this is an automated feature of Forefront CRM. We talk a lot about the details of this feature and different ways to customize it to achieve the results you desire and increase how many deals you close.   I asked Danny to explain the motivation behind starting a new podcast. Danny said he definitely sees the value of having a show for investors that are a little bit further along on their journey. He wants to be the encouragement to other people that they can grow their businesses as other investors have been to him. He has named it “Braver” and he really wants to focus on the fears that keep people from growing their businesses.   Danny is incredibly honest, transparent, and overflowing with integrity so you don’t want to miss this episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! This is a great opportunity to learn all about his new software product and how it can help you grow your business! Notable Quotes:   “Flipping houses while working a full-time job taught me how to maximize my time.” Danny Johnson   “I didn’t waste time because I didn’t have time to waste.” Danny Johnson   “A lot of people don’t even know it is an option to get off the hamster wheel.” Mike Simmons   “Trying to compete with other CRMs on features is ridiculous.” Danny Johnson   “I have talked to hundreds of investors who have no great system for following up on their leads.” Mike Simmons   “You have to follow up and when you do, it is all about being top of mind.” Danny Johnson   “Automation that feels automated feels worse than doing nothing.” Danny Johnson   “My hamster wheel was going fast and if I stopped, I was going to tumble and be thrown right off.” Danny Johnson   “If you don’t think you need better follow-up, you are either wrong or exceptional and the outlier because I do not know many investors who are truly good at this.” Mike Simmons   “If you are not really generating leads now, work on that before buying this software.” Danny Johnson   “People need encouragement.” Danny Johnson   “It’s not that people become less afraid… they become braver.” Jordan Peterson   “The skills it takes to start a business are different than the

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 May 19th 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:   “When you are buying someone’s house, you want to help them out with whatever their problem is.”   “Don’t solve a problem for them that they don’t have.”   “Most people are more than happy to tell you what they need from you.”   “If you are a workaholic, you better partner with a workaholic.”   “If you are the same person, with the same skillset, it is an unnecessary partnership.”   “Can I survive the money and the time it is going to take for me to move forward with that decision?”   “What sort of accountability am I going to put into place in order to execute on this decision?”   “The leads that I have marketed to for the last five years grew my business to over a million dollars.” Links: Business Fast Track Blueprint 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 in today’s episode is a highly successful realtor, Josh Anderson. Josh is a top Real Estate Consultant in Nashville and owner of The Anderson Group Real Estate Services. He first came into the real estate business 15 years ago and he closed last year with over $135 million dollars in real estate sold. He has been a guest on several popular shows such as Hiban Digital and Real Estate Uncensored.   We start off with Josh sharing his background story. Right after college, Josh started working for an investment bank. He was working 9 to 5, making $31,000 and he felt like he wasn’t being challenged and wasn’t being mentored. He also knew that he wanted to get into real estate and buy some investment properties. So, in 2006 he decided to go all-in - he gave his two-week notice and started his real estate journey.      We then moved on to discussing how Josh was able to grow his business, year after year, even during the market crash in 2008. He shares that growing up as the youngest of four, in a fairly competitive family, taught him to always be the hardest working guy in the room. His work ethic and his consistency allowed him to grow his business 50% to 100% each year, for the first six years.    Together we then dive into discussing specific tactics that Josh uses in order to drive leads and how much it has changed in the last 15 years. Josh believes that the general idea is always going to be the same. Technology does change it up along the way, but the basic things stay the same. It’s all about building your database, adding value, and following up on leads. Another important part, according to Josh, is your mindset. Because, it doesn't matter how great your database is, or how much you want to sell a $5 million house, if your mindset around that isn't right, then you're not going to do it.   We then talk about Josh’s market predictions for the next 12-18 months. He believes that nothing is really going to change in 2021 when it comes to the real estate market. His prediction is that we've got several months of this market before it either softens or interest rates go up.    Josh also shares some advice for any new realtors out there. According to him, the key to winning in today’s market is going back to basics. Building your database, doing open houses, and doubling down on the number of phone calls, handshakes and texts, compared to the market 5 or 10 years ago. The market is moving way too fast at the moment and the best thing for a new realtor might be to join a team for a couple of years and to learn as much as possible.    Josh then goes on to share some advice for buyers as well. The most important thing for buyers right now is to sit down with a local agent and figure out what exactly is going on in the market at the moment. He also urges buyers to pick their agents carefully, to make sure that they get a full-time agent, a person who sees contracts and offers all the time, somebody that's got experience negotiating.    Lastly, we dive more into the topic of interest rates. Josh believes that there's too much craziness going on in the world and in business right now, but that interest rates won’t experience any major changes this year. While keeping in mind that there are so many variables that go into it, interest rates are currently so artificially low that at some point we have to get back up to normal numbers.   Don’t miss this episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast with Josh Anderson and learn how to win as a realtor in today’s market by going back to basics! Notable Quotes:   “I'd always wanted to get my real estate license because I wanted to buy some investment properties. And so I kind of just went all in. One day, I came into work and put in my two-week notice. That was my last normal paycheck.” Josh Anderson   “I didn't really have any money starting out, so I had to be successful.” Josh Anderson   “I'm not the smartest guy in the room but I will outwork anybody if it's something that I want.” Josh Anderson   “If you're the smartest person in the room, you're probably in the wrong room.” Josh Anderson   “It's the never stopping, getting out there, and showing up every day. That's the mindset that really makes a difference.” Mike Simmons   “The most successful people in every industry are really great at consistency.” Josh Anderson   “When it doesn't work the first 10 times you do it, you have to be willing to do it the 11th time.” Josh Anderson   “I did 23 deals my first year in the business. This past year, we did 255 for about 130 million dollars in volume.” Josh Anderson   “Having listings controls the business.” Josh Anderson   “I literally follow up with people until they buy or die.” Josh Anderson   “In this market, as a buyer or a seller, you're either all in or you're on the sidelines.” Josh Anderson   “People do business with

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 May 12th 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:   “One of the advantages to investing in several single-family properties is that you can spread out the risk of one particular area going bad so that one area can’t kill your entire portfolio.”   “The economies of scale are so much better if you are dealing with one multi-family building with several units in it, rather than several single-family homes.”   “The short answer is: hire a coach as soon as possible.”   “I tried to do it without a coach, but my mindset and my belief systems and what I thought was possible were completely broken and I didn’t even know it.”   “Nothing significant changed for me in my business until I got help.”   “In the mentorship group, I finally had access to people who had already built the business I wanted to have.”   “Coaching and masterminds are an expense to my company, but it is also an investment.”   “If you really want to move forward faster and you really want to understand what it takes to build a business successfully, the best way is to get help from someone.”     Links: Business Fast Track Blueprint 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 this episode, I welcome a self-storage investing expert, Scott Meyers. Scott is the Founder and Owner of Kingdom Storage Holdings. He is also a leading expert in self-storage investments and owns and operates 3 multi-million dollar businesses. During his career, Scott has been featured on CNNMoney, Forbes, BBC, and many others.   Scott first shares his background story and how he got into real estate. After college, Scott started working for a Fortune 500 company. After getting his first paycheck, he started looking for ways to invest, and pretty soon he realized that real estate was the way to go. He bought his first house, fix it up, and rented it out. After that, he bought two more, but he wasn’t able to get the cash flow and the freedom that he expected, so he decided to give apartments a go. After building an impressive portfolio of 400 apartments in 2005, he and his wife decided that it wasn’t worth all the time that they were putting in, and their only two options (without tenants and toilets) were parking lots or self-storage. Today, they are approaching a number of 2.4 million square feet of self-storage and 14,000 doors.   We then moved on to discussing how one finds a self-storage facility that is a good investment. Scott explains that with commercial real estate, the value is based upon the net operating income, meaning how much money it brings in after you subtract expenses. Then you apply a market capitalization rate to it and that's how you get the value of commercial real estate. The first step in determining whether or not a self-storage facility is a good investment is looking at all the income sources. Next, you need to figure out what all the expenses are. And finally, you need to have an exit strategy and know how much you can increase the NOI (net operating income) after you purchase it.    Together, we then dive into discussing cap rates applied to self-storage facilities. Scott shares that class A facilities are two to three stories, all temperature-controlled, gleaming facilities that are right on the road in the major metropolitan statistical areas, all electronic; class B: usually single story, maybe on the outskirts, may have asphalt may have gravel, still has security professionally managed; and class C: rural, a little further out, less professionally managed, smaller, older, maybe some obsolete sizes, etc.   Scott then talks about the types of facilities that he usually invests in. He usually goes for the C class, buying a facility that's in the path of progress. Approximately a five-acre parcel that’s got buildings on three or four acres, not managed well, the owner hasn't raised rates in ten years because they like to stay full, they don't have a website, and they don't know how to market. He turns them around by reducing the manager's hours or his payroll hours, marketing the heck out of it, raising rates, and then adding buildings onto the additional four and five acres, continuing to raise rates, and eventually, he refinances it or sells it off to a bigger player.    Eventually, we discuss how someone, with no prior experience in real estate, can start with self-storage. Scott shares some good news, which is that when it comes to commercial real estate, banks look more at the strength of the asset than the strength of the borrower. Scott’s advice, for someone who is just starting out, is to bring in somebody, not necessarily to sign on the loan, but just to be a part of the LLC. They could have 2%-3% of the shares in exchange because banks just want to see that you have somebody on your team that has some skin in the game and that you have someone to guide you.    Scott then shares some of his deal-breakers when it comes to buying a self-storage facility. First on his list are facilities that are functionally obsolete, meaning a first-generation facility, built in the 70s or early 80s that is 5’ x 5’ (the most popular size now is 15’ x 10’). Next on his list of deal breakers are rural areas, simply because there is no activity and no competition. Simply put, he is just trying to stay away from the markets where he can't really drive the performance.   We also talked about other streams of income, other than the rent of the facility. Scott shares different ways to generate income other than the rent itself. These include a non-refundable move-in fee, renter's insurance, selling locks and moving supplies, and detailing services, for example.   Lastly, we discuss the future of self-storage and Scott explains why he believes that self-storage is very recession-resistant and inflation-resistant. He also shares how you can start investing in self-storage properties alongside him and his team, completely passively and still learn about the business while getting an ownership position that includes shares of the LLC, a percentage of cash flow, a percentage of the profits upon a sale, and a percentage of the depreciation.

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 last month 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 May 5th 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:   “Seventy percent of the houses I have bought in the last six years have been because the postcard I sent arrived when that seller needed that message.”   “The desire to create that business and time-freedom has to be greater than your fear of actually doing it. Or you have to come up with something that scares you more than starting the business.”   “The fear of regret and not starting my business became scarier than actually just doing it.”   “One great way to build a buyers list is to go to local meetups and REIAs and meet people, shake their hands, and ask them what they need.”   “I initially thought that COVID was going to crush the short-term rental property market, but it looks like it is only going to strengthen it in the long run.”   “If you look at the history of the real estate market, it always goes up and down.”   “I would suggest, as a wholesaler, that you get on the buyers’ list of all the other wholesalers in your market.”   Links: Blitzar Capital Investing Opportunity 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 in today’s episode is Lyndsay Phillips. Lyndsay is the CEO and Captain of Smooth Sailing Business Growth. She is your content marketing strategic partner, a serial entrepreneur, and also proud owner of Smooth Business Podcasting & Real Estate Investors Marketing. Lyndsay has been featured on MSN, NBC, Fox, published in Huffington Post, and has been a guest on John Lee Dumas’s “Entrepreneurs On Fire” and Joe Fairless’ “Best Real Estate Investing Podcast Ever.” She loves helping entrepreneurs build their authority and increase visibility through the power of podcasting with her full-service podcasting and content marketing services.   We first talk about Lyndsay’s background story and how she got into marketing. As a mom who could work only part-time, Lyndsay started out as a virtual assistant to one of her friends. As her client list grew, she started getting more real-estate clients and decided to niche down her business and change her business model. She quickly realized that marketing agencies don’t really understand the perspective of real-estate investors and decided to focus more on content marketing.    We then moved on to talking about some of the practical things that you can do today to help you with your leads. Lyndsay shares that the first thing you should do is make sure that you are showing yourself authentically on your website and that your messaging is very clear on who you're speaking to and who your avatar is. This will help your potential clients connect with you in a way that will allow you to turn your leads into your clients.    Together we then dive into discussing whether or not social media is a good place to generate leads. Lyndsay explains that in today’s online world it is all about relationships. Engaging with people, commenting, being in various online groups, and simply offering value and being “on the ground” will get you much further than Facebook ads. There is a sea of that out there and it is overwhelming, so you need to set yourself apart as an authority, as a go-to person that people want to engage with.    Lastly, we discuss the type of marketing Lyndsay provides for her client and her specific superpower.  Lyndsay is an expert in helping people establish themselves as an authority. She believes that you need to have a consistent brand, a consistent message, and be consistent on social media if you want your business to grow. She explains different ways in which you can repurpose your content in order to uplevel your authority, and also why you need to have a simple sales funnel.    Don’t miss this episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast that is filled with invaluable nuggets from Lyndsay Phillips on how to build your authority online in order to drive attention to your business and drive leads into your funnel! Notable Quotes: “When it comes to real estate investing, there are two things that have always been needed desperately and that have never changed: money and leads.” Mike Simmons   “I believe in just diving in, even if you're freaking out.” Lyndsay Phillips   “I find that a lot of marketing companies are very focused on just online marketing or coaches. They're not quite understanding the perspective of a real estate investor.” Lyndsay Phillips   “Real estate investors are like sharks in the water: if there is somebody who we think can help us get more leads, we flock to it like a shark to blood.” Mike Simmons   “Really leaning into yourself and who you're attracting in your messaging - that to me is like half of the equation.” Lyndsay Phillips   “If you're talking to everybody, you're talking to nobody.” Mike Simmons   “Everyone's sort of struggling to figure out social media and how to apply that to lead generation.” Mike Simmons   “To me, the secret sauce nowadays is really setting yourself apart as an authority.” Lyndsay Phillips   “There are different ways to elevate your authority platform so that you're setting yourself apart as the go-to person, and you're not lost in the sea of everybody else.” Lyndsay Phillips   “Talking to people is always going to be more valuable than blasting ads.” Mike Simmons   “You need to have a consistent brand, a consistent message, and consistent social media.” Lyndsay Phillips   “You're showing that you're everywhere and that you're giving information, and that's gonna uplevel your authority.” Lyndsay Phillips Links: Smooth Sailing Business Growth on Facebook Smooth Sailing Business Growth on Twitter Smooth Sailing Business Growth on Instagram  Multifamily Live Event 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 last month 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 April 28th 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:   “So after that first deal, I leveraged other people’s money, either hard money or private money, going forward. From that point, I never once had to invest my own money in a deal.”   “People are the number one thing that helps you scale and grow your business effectively.”   “I look for tools that keep me going and keep me productive.”   “Taking strategic risks is almost like a military operation.”   “I think paralysis analysis keeps more people on the starting block than any other factor.”   “Everyone has stuff going on in their personal life, so you can’t really use that as an excuse for not getting started.”   “Sometimes you need to be scrappy.”   “There is no better testimonial for your willingness to put everything on the line if you actually have skin in the game and are investing your own money.”   “Most businesses fail because they don’t know their numbers.” Links: Blitzar Capital Investing Opportunity 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 this episode, I welcome Bill Wooditch. After spending a year at a dead-end job with a foreclosed future, Bill Wooditch created his renowned “Always Forward” mindset and forged his way from the impoverished backwoods of western Pennsylvania to create a multi-million-dollar company, which he continues to lead today. As a professional speaker, Bill uses his experiences to inspire individuals to pursue personal development and professional success. He is the author of Always Forward and Fail More, a Wall Street Journal bestseller. The hard-won lessons he shares in his books and keynotes are designed to shorten the distance between where you are now and where you are determined to go in the future.   We open this episode with Bill sharing his background story. Bill grew up in western Pennsylvania, having to march to a certain drum all the time because his father was a Pennsylvania state policeman. Ironically, Bill was a rebel from a very young age and didn’t deal well with authority. His rebellious nature got him a job in a factory and while his friends went to school, he had to stay home and go to work. Bill shares how living this life, feeling like there is no future in front of him, scared him to death. This is when his parents decided to give him one more chance and send him to school.   Bill then talks about his experiences during his college years, and how the biggest lesson he learned was how to connect with people. Bill believes that college is still important today for the right industry, for engineers and scientists, but he doesn’t believe that it is the only way to become successful. This was a tough mind shift for him because he was a huge believer in college experience because it worked for him.    Together we then dive into discussing the good and the bad that Bill learned during his career that served him in moving forward. He explains how doing things the “corporate way” never came naturally to him, and he discovered the magic formula the hard way, by failing. He found that the true formula was to simply connect with people. Bill is a firm believer that putting people in a box and trying to make them conform to the “rules'' is not beneficial for anyone. His philosophy is that only a great leader can hire exceptional people and allow them to be great.   We also discussed what Bill’s company does and how he discovered his niche. He shares how his regional insurance brokerage firm The Wooditch Group is a holding company for a couple of companies that transact property and casualty insurance-related business. This platform allowed Bill to follow one of his other passions, which is public speaking. Eventually, all of this led to him writing his books, in which he poured his essence into, Always Forward and Fail More. Today, he doesn’t spend that much time on the corporate insurance side because he has an amazing team behind him, so he is able to focus on having high-end conversations with successful people.   Eventually, Bill explains the difference between large and small goals. According to Bill, it is important to have huge aspirations in life, but you have to have small goals in between because accomplishing those small goals will give you the boost that you need in order to keep moving forward and eventually accomplishing your large goals. Otherwise, you will just have a fantasy that will eventually disappoint you and set you back. Bill shares that the difference between inspiration and motivation is that motivation will go away after a while.   Lastly, we discuss the importance of first giving value. Bill believes that in order to differentiate yourself from the masses you have to think in terms of value. You need to keep in mind that the arbiter of the value is the client. This, as he called it, “servant mentality” attracted his customers and made him stand out. He built his entire business on giving value first.    Don’t miss this episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast with Bill Wooditch! This was an incredibly fun conversation, but it’s also filled with great value, important messages, and amazing lessons, so make sure you tune in! Notable Quotes:   “I was a rebel without a clue.” Bill Wooditch   “I hated the most important thing that we have to do to make success real and that is work.” Bill Wooditch   “We all need a little fear in our lives to be able to move forward, and I had a big dose of fear: doing the same things for 8 hours a day, with no future in front of me.” Bill Wooditch   “When I was growing up, there was no discussion - you are going to go to college, that's what you do, otherwise you're a loser, high school education is not enough. I just don't think it's the case anymore for a lot of folks.” Mike Simmons   “I found the magic formula the hard way, by failing. The magic formula was just to connect with people.” Bill Wooditch   “You are not going to win every heart, you are not going to influe

Welcome to this version of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! I am excited about this new feature that I am going to be bringing you on Thursdays - the replay of each week’s Facebook Live Question and Answer session. I just started doing these live forums last month 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 April 14th 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:   “If you can’t convince your loved ones of what you want to do, I don’t think you believe it.”   “You’re desperate to start a business? Then explain that to your loved ones.”   “If you are trying to get from A to Z you don’t have to understand what’s involved with Z, but you have to know how to get from A to B.”   “Get in touch with why you want to do something new.”   “Educate yourself. Figure out how to get from A to B.”   “The goal has to be achievable, the ‘why’ has to be the motivation.”   “My ‘why’ is I want freedom of time.”   “I want to build something that will last beyond me and will help take care of my family.” Links: Blitzar Capital Investing Opportunity 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 this episode, I welcome fellow real estate investor, Rick Sapio. Rick is a life-long entrepreneur, #1 best-selling author, and TEDx speaker. He has founded more than twenty companies, taken nine companies public, led seventeen corporate turnarounds, and completed capital raises for over thirty companies and funds. Rick also founded The 100-Year Savings Solution, which helps real estate investors become their own source of financing by leveraging the cash value inside of whole life insurance policies.   Rick first shares his background story. He is the seventh of nine children. When he was a kid, his mom suffered a nervous breakdown from which she never recovered. When Rick was eleven years old, his dad got diagnosed with cancer. He was given only 6 more weeks to live, but ended up having another two and a half years which he spent teaching Rick and his siblings how to be resourceful. Rick believes that it was his father who instilled in him good values from which he was able to make good decisions.    Rick then goes on to talk about the first business he started. He earned his first income by delivering New York Daily News to over 200 doorsteps each morning, seven days a week. Then when he was thirteen years old, he opened a bicycle shop with one of his friends. He would buy used bikes, fix them up and sell them. This later evolved into him building engines and cars through college. At the age of twenty-three, he was able to buy three rental properties.    We then move on to talking about the one thing that Rick believes really changed his life. After his father died, Rick was determined to find mentors. His first mentor advised him to get an engineering degree and even though Rick never thought about college before, after that one conversation his path was set. He was able to get a scholarship and after he graduated he got a job in a company that bought bonds of bankrupt companies. As a result of doing that in the late 80s and early 90s he got to interact with some amazing people that were in that same space, people like Warren Buffett, Carl Icahn, and Leon Black. This led to Rick starting his own company, which he still has twenty-seven years later.   Then we discuss what value-based decision-making means to Rick. He explains that every decision we make in our life that is not aligned with our values, has a high probability of going against the grain and causing issues. He also shares that his main values are simplicity, probability, and leverage and how his values allow him to do all the things that are important to him, both personally and professionally.    Eventually, we discuss Rick’s amazing project of interviewing 40 billionaires and the lessons he learned from them. It all started with Rick visiting Thomas Boone Pickens on his ranch (that was bigger than the state of Rhode Island). This was his first billionaire interview and it just kept growing from there. Rick explains that it’s all about providing value. He learned that they needed a relationship with him as much as he needed one with them because it was all about value exchange.    Lastly, we talk about the 100 Year Saving Solution. A long time ago, one of Rick’s friends turned him to dividend-paying whole life insurances. This led Rick to partner with an insurance agency and that is how the 100 year real estate investor was created. The thing that Rick loves most about it is it keeps people focused on the long term. With the 100 Year Saving Solution, the money you invest goes into the policy first, and then you borrow against the policy and buy the asset. This way, you have two assets and a way to leverage.   Don’t miss this episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast with Rick Sapio, and get advice from a man who has talked to the best of the best in the world!  Notable Quotes: “My whole life has been about finding mentors and making something from nothing.” Rick Sapio   “If you instill in people values to make decisions from, they don't make as many mistakes.” Rick Sapio   “When you make a mistake, it sets you back five steps.”  Rick Sapio   “Simplicity, probability, and leverage are the operating values that I use in my personal and business life.” Rick Sapio   “New York Daily News and 200 people on my route. Didn't matter if it was raining, if there were hurricanes or ice on the ground. It had to be delivered before 5:30a.” Rick Sapio   “There was no such thing as sick, there was no such thing as tired, there's no such thing as I don't want to.” Rick Sapio   “You have no idea what one conversation can do if you're committed to somebody.” Rick Sapio   “Your values are really your DNA and I believe everybody has a unique list of values that they're born with.” Rick Sapio   “How do you meet these people? The answer is you provide value.” Rick Sapio   “Provide value and people will tend to give you their time.” Mike Simmons&nbs

Welcome to this version of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! I am excited about this new feature that I am going to be bringing you on Thursdays - the replay of each week’s Facebook Live Question and Answer session. I just started doing these live forums last month 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 was the first live Q&A that I did on April 7th 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:   “Convincing yourself is not something you do when you are evaluating a specific property that you want to invest in.”   “How do you triangulate the truth in any situation? You ask a lot of different sources, right?”   “Another great idea is to join a mastermind because now you are in a curated community of people who are doing great things in their businesses, and coming together to share that.”   “How long will the market stay hot? Short answer - nobody knows!”   “If you want to be a real estate investor, be a real estate investor. I don’t care what the market cycle is. You have to be aware of where you are in the market cycle, but it doesn’t mean that you wait.”   “I regret every risk that I wanted to take, but didn’t take, because the reason I didn’t take it, in almost every case, was because I was afraid.”   “Time is something that people blame a lot for not taking a risk.” Links: Blitzar Capital Investing Opportunity 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 Chris Watters. Chris is the Founder and CEO of Watters International Realty and he hosts his own show entitled CEO Secrets Podcast. Chris also co-authored the book The Million Dollar Real Estate Team with his business partner, Bradley Pounds. His other ventures, investments, and advisory roles include Mint Title, WHD Investments Inc, WIR Publishing Inc, and #RealDeal.   We start this episode with Chris sharing his background story. Back when he was in college, Chris owned a lawn mowing business and was able to pay his way through college and get a degree in finance. During his senior year, he got interested in real estate, but he was still very young and impatient, so he turned to the oil and gas industry. After the market crashed in 2009, Chris lost his job. That’s when he decided to use his savings and open a restaurant. Unfortunately, with the market being so bad, he wasn’t able to sustain his business in the service industry. So, in 2010 Chris got his broker’s license and started recruiting people to be a part of his team.   Chris then goes on to explain how he was able to recruit new people to his team. He knew, from his own experience, that the first thing a realtor needs is a good lead. But he also knew that this can get pretty expensive. So, he decided to create a co-op fund with other local businesses, and pretty soon he got up to $5,000 per month. This was more than enough to allow Chris to grow his business and his team by using leads. He used leads as value propositions to get agents.    Together we then dive into discussing the importance of building a good team. Chris points out that there are three key things when it comes to building a team. First, you need to know who to recruit and select. Second, you need to know how to actually train people and build a roadmap that will help them be successful. And third, to distinguish between quality and quantity when it comes to leads because not all leads are equal. Once he had answers to these questions, his team grew pretty fast and they netted 1 million dollars in their third year.     Eventually, we discuss Chris’s motive for starting his podcast CEO Secrets. He shares that as a student, he was a part of a number of different organizations that allowed him to come in contact with some amazing and smart people. Chris believes that learning from those people was his biggest shortcut when it comes to his growth. Wanting to share his own journey and help others through his experience, he first co-wrote The Million Dollar Real Estate Team. After he started expanding into other markets, he started to explore coaches outside of real estate and quickly realized that a lot of people in the real estate business think like a salesman, and not as a CEO. This is why he decided to start his own podcast as well as his non-profit masterclass - to teach real estate agents to think like CEOs and make strategic shifts in their business.   Lastly, Chris shares the plethora of different non-profit organizations that he supports (and you can too) through his business, with sales from his book and his amazing 90-day masterclass.    Don’t miss this episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast with Chris Watters and learn how to build an amazing team, have transformational success, and grow your business! Notable Quotes:   “I wanted to grow fast and skip all the steps, versus developing my skills as a salesperson.” Chris Watters   “I wasn't even practicing as a real estate agent, I was just fascinated with the idea of lead generation in the real estate industry.” Chris Watters   “I was dead broke, sleeping on my girlfriend's red IKEA couch. And being 24 or 25 years old, the only thing I knew at that point was how to prospect on the phone from a sales perspective and the internet lead generation side.” Chris Watters   “One of the things I needed early in my career, when I didn't sell that many houses and I was dead broke, was money to pay for lead generation.” Chris Watters   “I used the leads as the value proposition to get agents.” Chris Watters   “You can generate a lot of really cheap leads but you can burn your salespeople out and they may not even make any money because they have to work 100 leads to close one deal.” Chris Watters   “We grew super fast. In our third year, we netted a million bucks.” Chris Watters   “Leads are just oxygen - you can only go so long without leads before you die.” Mike Simmons   “A lot of people get into real estate and they don't think like a CEO, they think like a salesperson.” Chris Watters   “It's not to the benefit of a lot of these real estate companies to help you build a big business.” Chris Watters   “If you just make a couple of tweaks by thinking like a CEO, you're going to be able to have transformational success to take your business to the next level.” Chris Watters Links: Chris on LinkedIn Chris on Facebo

For this episode, I welcome a former MMA fighter and current real estate agent, Tim Stout. Tim is a super successful and highly-awarded real estate agent in Georgia who uses innovative marketing methods to win over customers. He is the owner and operator of Tim Stout and Associates. His team of experts represents the best and brightest in the industry, and they are always striving to lead the field in research, innovation, and consumer education.   Tim first shares his background story. Growing up in a small town, he started boxing when he was a kid and after dropping out of high school, he decided that he wanted to become a professional MMA fighter. During his MMA career, he met his wife and got married. He explains how after he got married, he lost the desire “to hurt people” and decided to retire from the MMA world.   We then moved on to discussing how Tim transitioned from being an MMA fighter to being a full-time real estate agent. After retiring from the octagon, Tim decided that his next career would be in sales, and very soon he realized that it should be in real estate. His initial plan was to sell one house a month, but he ended up selling 16 houses in his first 7 months.   Together we then dive into discussing what fueled Tim’s interest in investing and what part of investing applied most to him. He is a buy-and-hold investor and believes that every real estate agent who is not investing in real estate is missing out on a great opportunity. Tim’s portfolio consists of fourteen doors, an office building, and his personal property. He shares that investing in real estate has allowed him to accumulate a decent net worth.    Tim also shares his short-term and long-term goals when it comes to real estate. His short-term goal is to buy eight properties without spending any of his own money and he already has three of them. His long-term goal is to be making $50,000 - $75,000 a month. We then talk about Tim’s motivation and what keeps him going forward. His main motivation is his family, and he wants to be able to create more for them. He is also motivated by the agents he gets to create and work with. Currently, he has around twenty people on his team, whom he introduced to real estate investing so that they are able to create a better life for themselves and their families.    Eventually, Tim talks about the books that had the biggest impact on him and changed his life. His number one recommendation, which comes as no surprise, is Rich Dad Poor Dad. His other recommendations include Start with Why by Simon Sinek,  and Never Split the Difference with Chris Voss. Tim believes that leaders are readers and when you stop educating yourself you are giving somebody else an advantage in your market.    Lastly, Tim shares his view of the real estate market in the midst of the pandemic. He believes that the market is going to have to even out eventually and that the changes that are happening won't be enough to upset the market, because we are at such a deficit, nationally.   Don’t miss this episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast with Tim Stout, who after retiring from MMA, approaches his career as a real estate agent from a standpoint of helping people! Notable Quotes:   “I've always been the hardest worker in the room. I've always done more than everybody else.” Tim Stout   “I texted my wife at that second - ‘I'm gonna sell real estate.’” Tim Stout   “In the first six to eight months, I sold like sixteen houses. ” Tim Stout   “When you buy $100,000 in stock, you spend $100,000. I can buy $100,000 in real estate, and pay $20,000.” Tim Stout   “The best way to invest in commercial is to be your own tenant, so you don't have to worry about vacancies.” Mike Simmons   “Real estate is so forgiving. It's okay to make a bad decision, it's okay to overpay for a property if you're making cash flow.” Tim Stout   “I think the biggest risk in life is risking regretting when you're old and it's too late.” Mike Simmons   “Regret is the only emotion that you can’t do anything about.” Tim Stout   “People who are high achievers, almost always, are consumers of books. Whether it's audio or whether they are reading it, it's all about education. All successful people I know put a huge value on education in whatever form.” Mike Simmons   “When you quit educating yourself, you're giving somebody else an advantage in your market.” Tim Stout   “If you have a team of people who all completely embrace that philosophy and all of them refuse to blame anybody, will take responsibility for anything that goes wrong, and fix it, there's no stopping that team.” Mike Simmons   “Having a leader that is willing to take responsibility and truly believes that they are at fault for what goes on in their organization is not only good leadership but also makes the people that work for and with them very, very loyal.” Mike Simmons

Today’s episode is a bit different because I am joined by a guest that does not come from the real-estate realm. Joining me today is Chris Michael Harris. Chris is a serial entrepreneur, business and performance coach, keynote speaker, and an online expert. He is also the founder and CEO of Startup U and the host of the popular Startup U Podcast.   We begin this episode with Chris sharing his background story. Chris grew up in Georgia and throughout his childhood and his teenage years, he always had an entrepreneurial spirit. As a kid, he spent his summers mowing lawns, detailing cars, and doing all different kinds of DIY projects. He was able to build his business to a point where he made $16,000 over the course of one summer. This side-hustling continued well into his college years, where he made $43,000 in only two weeks by reselling clothing items on eBay and he continued to make thousands of dollars with a moving company that he started with his brother. After he graduated from college, Chris got a “real job” but continued working with his moving company over the weekends. Six months into his new job, while he was on a vacation in Vegas, he decided to quit his job to dedicate all of his time to his moving company. Within 36 months, they were a multimillionaire dollar company doing business in thirty-two states.   We then move on to discussing how this rapid growth affected his business. He explains how his business grew faster than his ability to stay on top of things. Chris found himself not being able to keep up and soon his dream became his nightmare. He eventually ended up spending 95% of his time plugging holes, managing cash flow, basically being in survival mode, instead of actually building a sustainable business. He shares some of the problems he encountered during this time, one of which was hiring crews in a short amount of time, and not really being able to vet people probably before hiring them.     Chris then goes on to talk about the effects of this rapid growth on his health. In January of 2016, the state of Georgia no longer allowed moving companies to use rental trucks, unless they had one of their own. On top of the fact that they had to buy their own truck, as a new company, they had to pay outrageous insurance rates as well. So, $200,000 later, Chris was able to get a single truck. By May, Chris’s health got so bad to a point that he had to seek medical help. After running some tests, they came to the conclusion that his gut was in a really bad shape, his thyroid was not working properly, and he had almost every vitamin and mineral deficiency. He was told that if he continued to live like this, he would be gone by the time he was 50 years old.    Next, we talk about how Chris realized that he needed capital. He pitched 725 different investors in three months. He got several commitment letters from people who wanted to sit down with him, have a look at his business and go over all the details. He was able to get a loan of $100,000, but in August of 2016, his moving truck was coming back from Florida and got into an accident on the freeway. At this point, Chris believed that he was going to jail because workman’s comp for his workers had expired, and he couldn’t afford to renew it. Fortunately, none of the people were injured, but Chris realized then and there that his business was finished.    We then talk about how after losing his business, Chris focused on his health. Seeing his father suffer from Crohn’s disease, he knew that he didn’t want to go the pharmaceutical route. He immersed himself in learning about health, wellness, and natural ways to get his health back. He also started to look for motivation externally, and because of that, he created his podcast. During this time, his greatest support was his wife who started her own online business and was able to get him everything he needed to continue in his path of recovery. Very soon, his podcast was in the trending top five podcasts in the world in business, health, and education. He was able to interview some of the most successful people in the world and get some great advice and much-needed inspiration. Chris then goes on to share some of his best advice when it comes to sleep, diet, and stress management.   Lastly, we talk about Chris’s business at the moment and what he does now. He explains how after he started his podcast, he decided to focus completely on wisdom work. He started with mentorship and coaching for different companies, and he founded the StartupU Training Programs to help entrepreneurs navigate some of the things that he experienced.   Make sure you don’t miss this amazing episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast, with the amazing Chris Michael Harris, that will help you not only take care of your business but your health as well! Notable Quotes:   “80% of business is fundamentally the same, it's the 20% that’s the nuance, the trade-specif

For this episode, I am happy to welcome Hoss Pratt. Hoss is the CEO and founder of Hoss Pratt International, the premier resource for agents and firms that want to take their business to the next level. He is the best-selling author of Listing Boss: The Definitive Blueprint for Real Estate Success and the creator of the super successful and popular “Listing Boss'' real estate course. Hoss is a nationally known authority when it comes to lead generation and lead conversion. He has a reach of tens of thousands through social media, speaking engagements, guest podcasting, and seminars. Hoss has been featured in major and local publications throughout his career including the Wall Street Select, Small Business Trendsetters, and the Daily Herald.   We begin this episode with Hoss sharing his background story. Growing up on a farm in northwest Missouri, as he likes to say, the odds were against him. But despite those odds, Hoss was showing his entrepreneurial spirit even as a teenager, when he started his own lawn care business. He built up a book of business, over 100 lawns, and got one of the biggest commercial contracts in the Midwest when he was just a teenager. Even though his brothers were athletes, Hoss’s role model was his father. He watched his father go to work every day, wearing a suit and a tie, and he wanted to be just like him.    Our next topic is the beginning of Hoss’s entrepreneurial journey. After his lawn care business took off, his mentor at the time advised him to go where the money is, which was Dallas, Texas. So, when he was 21 years old, he decided to sell his lawn business and move to Dallas. He sold his business to his brother, who still runs it with the same contracts that Hoss got back in the day. He explains how this was his first lesson in leaving the good to go to great and being willing to lose it all in order to gain everything.    Hoss then dives into explaining his first business moves in Texas. He shares that his first job was as a door-to-door salesman, and he believes that this is where he learned how to deal with rejection. After spending a few years in sales, he decided that it was time to elevate his skills. He got his real estate license and became a realtor. In the first six months of his real estate career, he lost his life savings. But he shares how he was able to turn that around and finish his year with nine million dollars in closed sales by going only after listings.    We dive deeper into Hoss’s strategy that helped him turn his business around in his first year as a real estate agent. He explains that his turning point was discovering the for sale by owner niche. He found people who wanted to sell their house, who were unrepresented and didn't have a licensed agent. At that point, it was a matter of him just calling and offering them his services. He would have these conversations over and over, for hours a day, just like he did when he went door to door, just like he did when he started his lawn service because it works every time. We then move on to talking about how Hoss managed to recover his business after the financial crisis in 2008. Reflecting back on his business journey, he explains how pivoting has helped him stay in business and become successful. He pivots every 10 years; he pivoted after 9/11, and he pivoted right before the crash in 2008. He sold his business and decided to travel around the country teaching others how to become successful real estate agents and helping them through that crash. During that time, he did 1000 seminars in 48 states, teaching people everything he knew, from investing in real estate, selling more real estate, to making their business more successful through the best marketing and systems.   Hoss then shares his motives for writing his book, Listing Boss: The Definitive Blueprint for Real Estate Success. For him, it was a calling. He loves telling his story because he believes that's why he is living that story. So, he wanted to create a model that other agents and other people can follow. He believes that every successful agent, every successful  entrepreneur should put their experience into a book in order to help other people.   Lastly, we talk about Hoss’s pivoting during COVID. He talks about his partnership with eXp, the world's fastest-growing cloud-based brokerage. He also explains why he believes that it's the only model out there that can help agents achieve financial freedom, from having equity in the brokerage to revenue sharing and increasing commissions. Hoss also gives his views of the market during the pandemic. He believes that, on the residential side, it's the greatest time in the history of real estate to sell a house.   Don’t miss the newest episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast with super inspiring entrepreneur, Hoss Pratt, who shares some amazing actionable steps and instructions for achieving real estate success! Notable Quotes: &nbsp