Investor Cheat Code Podcast with Mike Simmons

For this episode, I am thrilled to welcome the President and CEO of McCormick National Holdings, Joe Mendoza. Joe has more than twenty years’ experience in the real estate and investment industry and is the host of two successful podcasts and a YouTube show. He has regularly appeared on television news and radio shows for his professional knowledge and insight. Joe is a licensed California Real Estate Broker, an Accredited Investor, a Certified Fund Manager, and also a successful Business Coach. He has a long history of success including thousands of transactions successfully closed and well over $100,000,000 in volume.   Joe told us that he came from a working-class background, his dad having been in the navy and his mom working in civil service. He remembers his uncle inviting him to a Robert Allen seminar when he was seventeen years old, which is where the real estate investor's dream for him began. He didn’t know exactly what to do to begin so he decided to take what college-level real estate classes he could while still in high school. The market was pretty depressed at this time and Joe decided to go to college to get his four-year degree.   Joe attended San Diego State University and became a stockbroker trainee when he graduated. He learned how to cold-call during this period but then the dot com bust occurred and he lost his job. Joe could only find work as a bill collector and worked in this field for four years, but in 1998 he also began working with a real estate agent to learn more about that side of real estate.   This led us into a conversation of where we think the housing market is headed. Joe said there were some variables in the last market turndown that are really not applicable now, such as the housing loans that were given and the excess supply of newly built houses. This leads Joe to believe any future downturn of the market will not be as severe as what we saw in 2007-8. He really believes that it depends on which side of the real estate fence you are on as to how difficult things may become, especially due to the pandemic business closures. Joe talked a lot about what he has done in his own businesses to adjust to this interesting time.    I knew from my research that Joe spends a lot of time volunteering and so I asked him to describe what he does and how he gives back to others. He said that he has two teenagers and he is very active in their activities. He has been on the board of several non-profit organizations and very involved in his church community. He also spends a lot of time with mentoring and coaching other investors all over the country and also internationally.    I say at the end of this interview that Joe just drops gold all over the place, so don’t miss this awesome episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! Notable Quotes:   “Hey Joe, if you want to be rich, get into real estate!” Joe Mendoza’s Uncle   “All you need is to have a fire ignited.” Mike Simmons   “When the media is telling you to do something so emphatically, it is counter-intuitive to do the opposite, but that is where a lot of money is made.” Mike Simmons   “If you own a business and have employees counting on you, it is your responsibility to understand the market and make sure you are poised to be in a good position when things change.” Mike Simmons   “I love to give back through coaching and mentorship and see people succeed.” Joe Mendoza   “I have some investors that I am coaching now that could pull the plug and be financially free.” Joe Mendoza   “Know your numbers. Know your formula.” Joe Mendoza   “This is not a solo sport, it is a team sport.” Joe Mendoza   “I want to add value. I am a firm believer in pay it forward.” Joe Mendoza   “You just dropped a ton of gold all over the place.” Mike Simmons Links: Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months Joe’s Website Joe's YouTube Channel Joe on Instagram Joe on Facebook 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

For this episode, I welcome fellow 7 Figure Flipping Mastermind members, Luc & Jess Boiron. Jess and Luc are a real estate investing couple from Toronto, Canada, and both are lawyers who also hold MBAs. Luc had been investing in RE since 2007 on a small scale, and in 2016, Jess and Luc founded Bliss Realty Inc. to flip houses. Since then, they completed over $50m in real estate deals before turning 30 and their business has grown to be the largest wholesaler in Canada operating in Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal with 16 employees. In addition, they are growing their rental portfolio with a mix of short term rentals and small multi-family properties in Ontario.   Luc started by sharing how he and Jess met. They were both in an exclusive dual law/MBA program and because they completed so much education, they feel like they started their adult working life later than a lot of people. Luc’s dad was a commercial real estate agent and owned some commercial properties, so he grew up learning about mortgages and other real estate topics. He bought his first rental property when he was just starting his undergraduate degree in Toronto and talked about how many lessons he learned from it. He continued to buy and sell properties throughout the time he was in school, and then worked as a lawyer for a year after graduating. He said he was too entrepreneurial to be a good fit at many law firms, but conversely, Jess worked at the best firm in Toronto for seven years after graduating. Jess said she loved practicing and was slower to move into the real estate investing side, but finding out that she was pregnant really made up her mind.   Luc and Jess tell a great story of how their business plans were initially foiled by an accident that Luc had. He was originally planning to move to California to start flipping houses because his brother lived there and was going to fund Luc’s work. Right before he was supposed to leave, he had an accident and surgery, and was, therefore, unable to travel and did his law internship instead in Toronto. Another sibling of Luc’s helped him find some properties near where they were living and they began flipping houses in Canada, which they didn’t even believe was possible before they tried.   Because of privacy laws in Canada, you can’t pull lists at all to find deals, so we talked about how they were able to find deals privately. Luc talked about how they were able to target potential buyers through Google Ads without violating privacy laws. They have also incorporated other marketing techniques including scouting run-down neighborhoods and doing every-door direct mail to those property owners. Luc shared their average buy and sell prices in their area, as well, demonstrating the wide range of their market.   Since at the time of this recording Luc and Jess were about to give birth to their first baby, I asked what role they would both be playing in the business as they juggled that with being parents. Jess gave us a lot of insight into their personalities and how they had decided to structure their growing business to accommodate working harmoniously together while having their own autonomy. I asked how they are able to separate business from their personal lives and they both said it is sometimes a challenge because they are both so passionate about what they do. They said as they become parents, they may have to find ways to draw a firm line in the sand for when they stop working each day.   When I asked them to give us a snapshot of where their business was just before they joined 7 Figure Flipping, Luc told us that they had figured out flipping and wholesaling in their unique circumstances, but they didn’t really know how to build a team. He goes into great detail on how they managed to build their team and grow their business, with support from the mastermind group. In about a year, they grew from three full-time employees to sixteen full-time employees, they have expanded to three different markets, and have moved from doing two deals a month to at least that in a week.   We talked about hiring, company culture, incentive structures, using personality profiles, managing the different motivators of their team members, risk tolerance, transitioning from flipping to wholesaling, and so much more! This is a fun, practical advice-packed episode with an investor couple team that is just killing it, so don’t miss this interview with Luc and Jess Boiron on Just Start Real Estate! Notable Quotes:   “We were eternal students before we started getting into real estate, having both done nine years of post-secondary education.” Jess Boiron   “With real estate, time heals all wounds.” Luc Boiron   “I went into law hoping to make good money so that I could qualify for mortgages in order to buy real estate, which is not necessarily good motivation to become a lawyer.” Luc Boiron   “The fact that you are both all-in on the business is huge.” Mike Si

For this episode, I am excited to have Dan Rochon on the show. As a real estate sales agent, Dan and his team are consistently top producers in their marketplace. Through their investment company, Dan and Traci Rochon have been investing in residential and commercial real estate for more than a decade. Dan‘s purpose in life is to help people achieve greatness through his teaching, coaching, and mentorship. He leads the Greetings Virginia Sales Network for his agents and staff to exceed their client‘s expectations. Additionally, Dan is the author of Real Estate Evolution: The Ten Step Guide to C.P.I. (Consistent and Predictable Income) for Real Estate Agents.   We started, as we usually do, diving into Dan’s background and how he got into real estate investing. Dan said in 2005 he was working as a waiter in Washington DC, living a very unhealthy lifestyle and he realized he needed to make a change. He knew that he wanted to be a business owner and found that getting his agent’s license and opening an agency required less capital than the franchises he was considering. He started selling in late 2007, which of course we all know was an incredibly difficult time to be starting in this industry. He ended up buying the brokerage about a year and a half after getting his sales license, which he ran for about ten years.   Dan has a ton going on with his business so I wanted to explore some of that. I asked him first to talk about his book Real Estate Evolution. Dan said that one of his mentors asked him to document everything he had learned by being in business, with real estate sales, and personal development. He ended up working every day for thirteen months on this project and found that he had written a book at the end of it. He said that about a third of it is on the subject of personal development so that people can unlock their potential.   Dan talked about changing our thoughts and programming by looking at how we are spending our time, what we are reading, our relationships, and how we are taking care of our health. We discussed a couple of techniques for motivating ourselves, getting a better start to the day, and creating new, positive habits. Dan also talked about the power of our subconscious mind and taking a look at what we dream to see what kinds of thoughts that part of our brain is feeding back to us. Recurring negative, limiting thoughts can hinder our growth.   We then discussed some of the specific advice Dan gives real estate agents to help them be more successful. He said that comparatively it is fairly easy to become an agent so a lot of them do not study the industry or take it seriously enough. One of the things that has helped him in dealing with his clients is to let them know all of the possible outcomes of the process, so that everyone is aware and prepared for possible set-backs or eventualities. Dan also pointed out some ways to read behavior and listen from another’s point of view to be more effective with clients or other agents.   We talked about using personality assessments, tactics of hiring and working with clients, clarifying what our “why” is, and so much more! Don’t miss today’s episode with Dan Rochon on the Just Start Real Estate Podcast!   Notable Quotes:   “You could spit and have a 33% chance of hitting a house that needed your services.” Dan Rochon   “When everyone is running away, you know there is some opportunity there.” Mike Simmons   “As a business owner, stacking cash, being liquid, and preparing for a downturn in the market is the smartest thing you can do.” Mike Simmons   “What did I do to cause the outcome and what could I do differently moving forward to cause a better outcome if it was a mistake. And if it was something that was successful, what did I do to cause that outcome and how can I put it on steroids, how can I amplify it?” Dan Rochon   “I can tell you one variable that is constant with people who struggle and never feel like they are getting what they want - they are always pointing at other people and blaming them for their problems.” Mike Simmons   “It is my firm belief that the first step to any kind of sales training should be how do you become the best possible version of yourself.” Dan Rochon   “Has there ever been a time when I saw someone else embrace affirmations and have a fantastic result as an outcome?” Dan Rochon   “If yes, then how?” Dan Rochon   “Listening to motivational speeches, people really talking from the heart about what it takes to succeed, is super, super effective for me. It starts my day with a much more positive, energetic, get out there and crush it kind of attitude.” Mike Simmons   “A lot of the time, if we think something bad has happened, it is a reflection of something we are afraid of.” Dan Rochon   “Embrace the fear - on the other side is glory.” Dan Rochon   “Many agents are not following the right systems to create a predi

For this episode, I am excited to welcome Stephanie Cabral, who is a buy-and-hold real estate investor and former attorney from Connecticut. Stephanie has built a portfolio over $2.25m and began investing while working at a law firm as the sole member of the probate department and also working as one of the top commercial real estate firms in the world. Stephanie now owns and operates 15 units plus multiple active flips and is responsible for all aspects of the business including marketing, acquisition, construction management, operations, and property management. She specializes in the BRRRR strategy and was able to scale her business using a detailed network of systems, standard operating procedures, automation, and virtual assistants.   Stephanie shares her background with us, pointing out that she is a lawyer by trade. While she loved and thrived in law school, once she got out, she found that she didn’t love practicing as a lawyer. As much as she appreciated her clients, she did not like how adversarial the work was and didn’t like being in an office all day. She ended up buying a duplex in order to use the rental income to qualify for a personal home loan and she fell in love with the idea of house-hacking. She worked as an agent, too, while she was working as a lawyer and continues to since retiring from her firm in December 2019.   Stephanie got a 203K loan for her first property so we explored that topic for a bit. Because the brokers are looking at the ARV, you can get a larger value loan to cover both the purchase price and the rehab estimate. In this type of loan, the contractor gets paid directly from the lender. Also, the 203K loan does not require you to have experience in investing and rehabilitation work, which can be a huge obstacle for newer investors with traditional hard money lenders. You also get a consultant that helps you manage the project and ensure the quality of the contractors’ work.   I asked Stephanie to describe the team of people she is working with to us. She said she is very involved herself, but her right hand is a virtual assistant in the Philippines who handles all of the administrative tasks, including social media and a lot of the property management tasks, including interfacing with the tenants. Stephanie also has a leasing assistant who directly connects with potential tenants and shows them around and screens them for rentability. She also has a bookkeeper who she hired through Upwork that has been working with her for years, but Stephanie did talk about the need to go through the trial and error process to find some people that are really good. Stephanie talked about the need to have great systems and processes in place, including training videos and templates, in order to simplify the training procedure. I asked Stephanie why she self-manages her properties versus hiring a property management company. She said that it is financially beneficial for her to self-manage, mostly because she has very little turnover in tenants. She attributes this to the constant communication she has with her tenants, which is largely automated, but maintains a great connection. I asked how she handles any required repairs, and since she is having a VA handle the maintenance requests, how she is sure she is not getting over-charged. Stephanie explained that because she also does house flipping, she has a pool of contractors, and in particular, a go-to handyman who is always the first maintenance call.   We talked about mid-term rentals, the effects of COVID on Stephanie’s business, the BRRRR strategy, private money versus hard money lenders, the technology Stephanie uses to run her business, Facebook ads, and so much more! Don’t miss this honest, fun, and hard-core real estate episode with lawyer-turned-investor, Stephanie Cabral! Notable Quotes:   “Being in an office environment was not the life I wanted to live.” Stephanie Cabral   “What was one of the greatest frustrations at the time ended up being the greatest gift.” Stephanie Cabral   “I didn’t even know that I was investing - I thought I was living cheaply and being resourceful.” Stephanie Cabral   “Being resourceful is certainly one of my superpowers.” Stephanie Cabral   “The power of real estate as an investment really opened up for me.” Stephanie Cabral   “So the way you eat an elephant is one bite at a time.” Desmond Tutu, quoted by Stephanie Cabral   “It requires some administrative stamina to get through the paperwork for a 203K loan.” Stephanie Cabral   “I do make it a priority to automate and delegate as much as humanly possible.” Stephanie Cabral   “Find somebody with a natural skill set that you are looking for and then you train the rest.” Stephanie Cabral   “As far as delegating work, start with the task that is most repetitive that is causing the most brain damage.” Stephanie Cabral   “Put yourself out there so people know what you are doin

For this episode, I am happy to welcome Rachel Richards on to the show! Only 27 years old, former financial advisor Rachel Richards has made a name for herself in the personal finance realm. In 2019, Rachel quit her job and retired, with over $10,000 per month in passive income! She is the bestselling author of Money Honey and Passive Income, Aggressive Retirement. Rachel is also a real estate investor with 35 rental units. Her valuable money lessons have helped thousands of millennials work their way out of financial despair. She has successfully done what no one has done before: made the topic of money management fun, entertaining, and simple!   Rachel gave us a bit of her background, telling us that she paid her way through school by selling Cutco Cutlery and therefore, had sales experience. This, coupled with her passion for teaching people about finances, is what led her to become a financial advisor. She said she didn’t last long because she wasn’t a fan of cold-calling people for clients. She had always been interested in real estate investing and had read a ton about it, so she worked for a time with another investor, and then a real estate agent. These experiences gave her the confidence to get into investing on her own and in 2017, Rachel and her husband bought their first duplex when she was 24 years old.   I asked Rachel to give us the details of her first deal - how she found it and how she financed it. Because she had her real estate license by this time, she said she had an advantage, because she had access to the MLS. She found the property she wanted, but the listing was expired, so she contacted the agent and found out that the owners were going to list it again once they had done some work to it. Because Rachel stayed in contact with the agent, she called Rachel a couple of days before it was listed again and gave her the chance to make an offer. They financed it conventionally, having both saved money after college for the down payment, and they managed to get a seller concession for the renovation that they had to do.   Rachel started writing her books while she was still working full-time and managing their rental properties, so we talked about how that came about for a bit. She said her family and friends had been asking her for financial advice for a while and she wanted to take this topic, which was normally boring and confusing, and make it fun and simple for people to understand. She said it felt like her first book, Money Honey, was always inside of her and she tried to make finances easier to learn about by sharing her own stories and mistakes. We also discussed Rachel’s second book, Passive Income, Aggressive Retirement, in which she discusses twenty-eight different passive income models that anyone can get involved with, regardless of age or station in life.   I asked Rachel to describe how she proceeded with her investing as she moved forward from the first deal. She shared with us that the different ways having her real estate license benefited her. She continued to monitor the MLS for potential deals, using subscriptions and saved searches so that she would get email notifications for properties she was interested in. She felt like this gave her a real time advantage, as she could be at a property within 30 minutes of it being listed.    Even though Rachel and her husband are no longer actively investing because they have the rental income they wanted to achieve, Rachel is still very passionate about teaching others about financial literacy so she is invested in creating online courses. The first one that she has created is called “Get Your Financial $hit Together” which you can check out by following the links below.   Join me as I interview this incredibly impressive investor and financial guru as she shares some of the secrets of how she earned financial independence! Don’t miss today’s episode with Rachel Richards on the Just Start Real Estate Podcast!   Notable Quotes:   “To me, real estate is one of the best tools for building long-term wealth. From an early age, I knew that this was going to be my path to financial independence.” Rachel Richards   “From a very early age, I tried to save 50% of my income.” Rachel Richards   “Just get creative… there are ways you can do this.” Mike Simmons   “The last thing you want to do is operate from a place of panic and desperation.” Rachel Richards   “I just try not to take myself too seriously.” Rachel Richards   “I am not afraid to admit when I am making mistakes and doing embarrassing things.” Rachel Richards   “Having my real estate license was brilliant because I was the buyer’s agent on all of our deals and would get a significant check at closing, which helped us continue investing.” Rachel Richards   “There are some things you can’t be cheap with, like property management.” Rachel Richards   “Hopefully someone will learn from my mistakes.

For this episode, I am excited to welcome fellow 7 Figure Flipping Mastermind group member, Waylon McCulloch. Waylon started his career as a professional dirtbike racer, but after too many injuries moved on to running used car dealerships for the last 15 years. He is now the owner of Discount Realty, a real estate wholesale company located in San Antonio, TX. Along with building and growing his wholesale company that was started 2 1/2 years ago, he owns a couple of other real estate companies that invest in single-family home rentals and owner-financed sales, while running his family's used car dealerships full-time.   We started by exploring Waylon’s background and how real estate investing got onto his radar. When his grandfather moved into an assisted living facility in 2015, Waylon and his dad purchased his house as a means to get started in the business. They purchased a couple of other properties the same year and held them as rentals, but their business stalled until Waylon got very invested in lead generation.   After joining 7 Figure Flipping in April of 2018, Waylon dedicated his time to learning about and growing a wholesaling business. He spent the remainder of that year building out systems and getting things set up. In 2019, they ended up with 18 deals under contract, hired both a lead manager and an acquisitions/dispositions manager, and are hoping to hire a transaction coordinator. We discussed the importance of having certain team members in place in order to maximize your business’ potential, especially if you are still working a full-time job like Waylon.   Waylon expressed an interest in doing more owner-financed deals and so we spent some time exploring this topic, especially how these types of deals may increase due to the pandemic. We talked about how this conversation would go and what type of homeowner would benefit from this arrangement.   Since Waylon has been a member of 7 Figure Flipping for over two years, I asked him what his takeaway is from the group. He said he was so glad that he made the commitment and has met some great people. Waylon said he wasn’t sure he would be where he is today if it weren’t for involvement in this mastermind.   We discussed marketing strategies, working virtually, growing your staff, wholesaling versus flipping, and so much more! Please join me as I welcome Waylon McCulloch to the Just Start Real Estate Family! Notable Quotes: “Real estate is dangerous in different ways than dirt bike racing, but safer physically.” Mike Simmons   “I decided I was either going to make or break it.” Waylon McCulloch   “Having someone to focus on answering all the calls and doing the follow-up made my life a whole lot better.” Waylon McCulloch   “The wholesaling business sure does take a lot of work to get it up and going.” Waylon McCulloch   “I think the biggest misconception in residential real estate is that wholesaling is easy.” Mike Simmons   “You need someone in-house that is really pushing your deals through the title company.” Mike Simmons   “If you don’t have that in your tool bag, you are missing out.” Waylon McCulloch   “COVID had a big impact on my direct mail.” Waylon McCulloch   “Direct mail does bring in deals as long as you are being consistent with it and mailing enough.” Waylon McCulloch   “You need to deep dive and figure out what you are good at.” Waylon McCulloch   “[On wholesaling] I like the idea of being able to control the deals and get to pick when I have the funds to buy another one.” Waylon McCulloch   “I like speed a lot more than watching a rehab project from start to finish.” Mike Simmons   “Some people live for the transformation of flipping, but I can live without it.” Mike Simmons   “I like working on the back-end with buyers and being able to get them something because there are a lot of people that need the deal-flow right now.” Waylon McCulloch   “You can definitely feel like you are on an island in this business so it is nice to connect with people who are on the same journey.” Waylon McCulloch about the 7 Figure Flipping Mastermind   “Imagine how great it would be if you had made all of your life decisions with the benefit of hindsight.” Mike Simmons about the 7 Figure Flipping Mastermind Links: Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months 7 Figure Flipping Discount Realty Dale’s Motor Co. & Bartlett Motors Return on Investments Just Start Real Estate JSRE on Facebook Mike on Facebook Mike on Instagram Mike on LinkedIn Mike on Twitter

In this episode, I’m joined by Kirby Atwell, host of the popular podcast, Living off Rentals. After serving as an officer in the US Army from 2005 – 2011, Kirby left the military to pursue his passion as a full-time entrepreneur, launching and scaling two different real estate investment companies in succession. Kirby holds a BA from United States Military Academy at West Point, and an MBA in real estate finance from the University of Illinois Chicago. While in the military, Kirby served as a Platoon Leader, Executive Officer, Aide-de-Camp to the Commanding General of the 94th AAMDC, and Commander of the AN/TPY-2 homeland defense radar site in Shariki, Japan.   Kirby shared more of his background with us, telling us that he had always had an entrepreneurial itch, and planned to have his own business after serving in the Army. A year after he graduated, he read Rich Dad Poor Dad and knew that he would be a real estate investor for life. When he was stationed in El Paso in 2006, the house across the street went up for sale and he decided to buy his first investment property. Once he was out of the Army, he partnered with a friend and his wife and they started flipping houses in the Chicago area.   Kirby talked about how they grew their business so that, at its height in 2015, they had thirteen team members and around twenty-two deals going every month. What he found, though, was that everyone else kept getting paid, but he wasn’t achieving his goal of building monthly passive income to have eventual financial freedom. He ended up changing his strategy in 2016, sold his flipping business to his partners, and started focusing mostly on investing with the BRRRR strategy. He found a government program called the HUD VASH Voucher, which provides housing for homeless veterans and built a new business around this niche.    I asked Kirby to explain the BRRRR strategy to our listeners with the assumption that we hadn’t used it before. I particularly wanted him to explain how the refinance aspect of this strategy works. He said he struck a deal with a local bank where they would package four properties together and they would give him a commercial loan for 75% of the appraised value. Kirby said that strategy was very effective, but now that the demand for the VASH vouchers has gone down, he is using the same system for short term rentals in the northwest Indiana area.   Kirby explained why he is buying homes in Indiana, telling us how it is almost as though Chicago and the state of Illinois is incentivizing people to move away because of property taxes and other factors. In the area he is investing in, there are several attractions, including Lake Michigan, and it is a great area to have short term rentals. He said that he and his wife are doing the property management themselves for these houses.   I then asked Kirby to talk about the non-profit work that he is involved in. Kirby said the organization is called Bunker Labs and it helps veterans start and grow businesses. He said initially when he got out of the military, he wanted his civilian identity back and was not involved at all with other veterans. But in 2014, he was in the first cohort to go through the program and was so impressed with the founder and the resources he was bringing in to help people. When he switched his investing model to rentals, he found that he had more available time, and the Bunker Labs founder asked him to come on as the COO. He later transitioned to being the CFO, and they have thirty-six chapters across the United States.   We talked about marketing, lead generation, Facebook ads, helping people, and so much more! Don’t miss this transparent, info-packed episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast with Kirby Atwell! Notable Quotes:   “I really enjoy talking to successful, smart people, but I love talking to good people who are also successful and smart.”   Mike Simmons     “The harder she worked, the more money she made.”   Kirby Atwell about his mom’s business     “I was really attracted to the buy-and-hold model, but I had to flip initially to get money to buy more houses.”   Kirby Atwell      “We jumped on the flipping treadmill, this perpetual machine that you keep feeding.”   Kirby Atwell     “We were just driving the machine, but not creating what I got into investing for, which was financial freedom.”   Kirby Atwell     “Scaling isn’t for everyone. It sounds like you built this monster that just needed to eat.”   Mike Simmons     “This is really where you have to figure out who you are as a person.”   Kirby Atwell   “I am all about freedom.”   Kirby Atwell     “The dream is to have free time and have a lifestyle.”   Mike Simmons     “I was doing what looked like success on social media.”   Kirby Atwell     “Do what you want to do, but ult

In this episode, I am excited to welcome on fellow 7 Figure Flipping member, William Morgan. Will is the owner and founder of Penny Lane Equity, a rapidly growing Real Estate flipping and wholesaling company in California’s Central Coast. Will grew what was once a hobby into a thriving business with 7 figure revenue while also having a full-time job. Will has since “cut the cord” and now leads a team of 10 talented professionals as they provide some of the most attractive Real Estate opportunities found anywhere in the region. Once an adrenaline junkie, Will now tempers his thrill-seeking by sharing his love for surfing, the mountains, and travel with his 2 young kids.   We got started as we normally do with Will sharing his background with us and how he got into real estate. He began his corporate career working in the nuclear power industry at the age of eighteen. He worked short contracts in this business and then would take the money he earned to travel and surf. After living this ideal lifestyle for about ten years, he figured he had to grow up, and took on a full-time job in nuclear operations. Real estate got on his radar when a neighbor bought a house through a sheriff’s auction and rehabbed that Will ended up buying in 2003 for his primary residence. Will was fascinated by the whole process and that propelled him into learning about investing on his own.   Will did a lot of research on how to find his first investment property and ended up buying his first in 2004 using conventional financing. The guy he bought his primary residence from turned out to be a mentor in the fix and flip process, helping Will to avoid a lot of rookie mistakes. I asked some questions about this deal and Will shared details about the rehab work and how the numbers worked out.   Will said he approached real estate investing as a hobby because he had a full-time job, so he was happy with picking up one or two properties a year. He was also investing in other ways with stocks and bonds, always studying and learning about different passive income models. Because he had a sense that real estate was part of the impending market disruption, he sold all five of his rentals and his primary residence in 2007.    I asked Will about what systems and processes he had in place in the very beginning of his investing business. He said he didn’t initially, but having very little profit margin in his first deal made it necessary to establish when he started getting back into real estate investing around 2012. He said documenting his work processes was really out of necessity because he had a full-time job and knew there were times he was going to need help, and also to maximize his efficiency.    I wanted Will to tell me what he thought were some of the biggest challenges to trying to scale a business while having a full-time job. He said time was his obstacle, as you have to grow the business in what would normally be your spare time, so you have to schedule time to do this. It may take away from sleep, or leisure time, or family time, but he prioritized the sacrifice. He found that because he was drawing a regular salary, it freed up the investment income to hire help to manage everything. We discussed the details of how Will scaled up responsibly.   Because we met through the 7 Figure Flipping Mastermind group, I wanted Will to talk about how he thought this has affected his business. Very much like me, he said he was very skeptical initially, having never paid for training of any kind. He said he cannot believe how valuable it is to have the ability to call or text, at any time, other investors in order to shorten the learning curve and avoid mistakes.    We talked about marketing, the specifics of making offers, how Will’s team divides up responsibilities, the impact of the pandemic on his business,  and so much more! Join me and Will as we discuss the in and outs of real estate investing in the latest episode of Just Start Real Estate! Notable Quotes:   “I like to call myself a genius because I sold my real estate investments in 2007, but there was definitely some luck involved.”   William Morgan     “Some people make their own luck by being on top of things and having their ear to the ground.”   Mike Simmons     “Systems and processes were a way to communicate with my team without being there.”   William Morgan     “You have to make room in your life to scale a business.”   William Morgan     “The idea is to learn from your mistakes and improve.”   William Morgan     “Team members have to be a core-value fit.”   William Morgan     “If you want to do something well, you have to have rules to guide you.”   William Morgan     “You have to recognize value.”   William Morgan     “We want to be the source for distressed properties in our area.”   William Mo

In this episode, I am pleased to welcome Sean Morrissey to the show. Sean began as a buy and hold real estate investor in 2003 with a two-bedroom condo in Hanover Park, IL. Having earned his Illinois real estate broker license in 2007, Sean survived the market crash and assisted homeowners throughout the Chicagoland area and opened Chicagoland Realty Group Partners LLC in 2011. Since that time, Sean has managed over 700+ rental transactions, 200+ homes, and owns and manages his own rental property portfolio in the western suburbs of the Chicagoland area. Sean focuses the majority of his time in growing and managing his real estate portfolio while hosting a podcast named Landlording for Life.   I am always so interested in how and why people get into real estate investing, so Sean started by sharing his background with us. He said he graduated from Purdue University with a BA in Restaurant Management and joined the Peace Corps where he worked in Western Kenya. When he returned home and began working in restaurant management, his dad introduced him to a book about using real estate investments as tax shelters. Sean started joining REIAs to talk to investors and landlords, and bought his first investment property in June of 2003 in the Chicagoland area.   I asked Sean to explain his experience with the Peace Corps and what led him to choose that before starting his corporate work life. He said he was involved in a student exchange program in college which got him interested in international travel and helping others. He was stationed in western Kenya at a technical college helping students work with computers and doing many community outreach projects. Sean said it was an awesome experience and he would love to go back someday soon.   I wanted Sean to explain what led him to get his broker’s license and what he considers the advantages are to do so for a real estate investor. His thought process was that he would have access to the MLS and more deals, and be a better investor. Sean said it made a lot of sense to pursue his license at that time because there was no Zillow or Redfin, which has made a lot of the property information public now. Until 2009, he was still working full-time in the restaurant business, so working more as a realtor initially helped him to figure out how he was going to transition to real estate investing full-time.   As Sean has had his own property management company in the past, we talked quite a bit about common mistakes made by investors when managing their own properties, size of portfolios, and why he sold his company. Sean’s opinion is that a newer investor should manage their own properties until they get over ten doors in their portfolio so that they understand the rigors of the job and learn from any mistakes made. He also talked a lot about what their criteria was for screening tenants, which is very helpful for those landlords who self-manage.    I asked Sean to explain why he has shifted toward an investor-centered model, rather than focusing on his brokerage work or continuing in the property management field. He went into great detail about the several ways you can benefit financially from buy and hold investing versus other types, and also the time and work investment of each.    Sean shares some of his struggles as a landlord, specifics about his business dealings, property management tactics, and so much more! You will not want to miss this fantastic, value-filled episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! Notable Quotes:   “Ultimately, it is through the experiences where you get burned that you learn the most.”   Sean Morrissey     “I’m more of a lifestyle-focused guy these days.”   Sean Morrissey     “If you are not re-creating your business systems every five years, you are going to fall behind.”   Sean Morrissey     “The use of virtual assistants is very scalable.”   Sean Morrissey     “At the end of the day, you get what you pay for.”   Sean Morrissey     “Investors with small portfolios need to put aside money for capital expenditures.”   Sean Morrissey     “Keep up with your repairs.”   Sean Morrissey     “All I heard is that I am right.”   Mike Simmons     “If you can see the bigger picture of how you are building passive income, you can build generational wealth through buy and hold investing.”   Sean Morrissey   Links: Flip Hacking Live Landlording for Life 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

This is going to be kind of a different episode today as I present my recent interview with my friend, Danny Johnson, on his show, the Flipping Junkie Podcast. Danny wanted to have me on specifically to talk about Flip Hacking Live and what attendees of this event could expect. In the interview, I share my own experiences with being involved with this event and the benefits of making the investment to attend, namely, how to move the needle in your real estate investing business.   Danny started off by asking me to share my background and how I got into the real estate investing business. I stressed how vital it was for my business and personal growth to join the 7 Figure Flipping Mastermind group. The same year I joined, they decided to start holding an annual event, utilizing some of their most successful members as speakers in order to help real estate investors grow their businesses. I really want people to understand that these investors have nothing to sell and are giving the participants the “meat and potatoes” of their strategies without having to pay for anything beyond the cost of admission.   The speakers at Flip Hacking live cover subjects such as how to talk to sellers, how to find deals, different types of creative financing, marketing ideas that really help people set themselves apart, running a business remotely, and so much more. All of the concepts presented can be applied to a person’s individual situation and business no matter what scale they are at or what their goals are.   I have talked to dozens of investors and most everyone feels that we are headed into some kind of a dip in the housing market, most likely moving into more of a buyer’s market. My presentation at this years Flip Hacking Live is titled, “What I Wish Someone Would Have Told Me During the Last Downturn,” and I am going to speak about all of the things I wish I would have known when I started in this business during the last difficult housing market.   Flip Hacking Live is not an ordinary three-day webinar. There are going to be breakout sessions, one-on-one coaching, networking sessions, so it is going to be very interactive. The majority of the speakers are pure real estate investors, but we will also have some big-name, keynote speakers that are incredibly motivational and inspire us to be better people.   This is the first time that we have held Flip Hacking Live as a virtual event and I wanted to talk about all benefits of doing it this way. First of all, you aren’t going to be worrying about being in a big group, shaking hands, and being less than social distanced from other participants. You don’t need to pay for plane tickets, a hotel room for several days, or restaurant meals, so there is a significant cost saving there. You can sit in your office or at home and completely immerse yourself in the experience. I promise you we will not expect you to sit and listen to speaker after speaker as there will be different sessions and it will be super interactive. Again, this is not a standard webinar. The speakers are all flying to a location and will be on stage during their presentations so it is going to be as Flip Hacking Live-like as possible!    In the spirit of my talk this year, if I could go back and tell my younger self one thing, it would be “Make the investment and go to Flip Hacking Live!” I hope everyone listening will join us this year on October 15th, 16th, and 17th! We are offering access to all of the past event talks when you get your ticket by visiting FlipHackingLive.com, promo code, Danny! Notable Quotes:   “It was just horsepower getting me through deals.”   Mike Simmons     “I was really stumped on how to scale beyond where I was so I finally broke down and joined a mastermind group.”   Mike Simmons     “When you surround yourself with people who have moved beyond your thinking and have done bigger and better things, it opens your mind to what you didn’t know and what you could be doing in your business to get better.”   Mike Simmons     “Wherever you are, you can get better.”   Mike Simmons     “Why don’t we take some of our most successful members, put them on stage, and have them lay out, from end to end, specifically what they are doing in their business that is working for them?”   Mike Simmons     “The speakers are just there to give you the playbook for what they do best.”   Mike Simmons     “When you are around people that have a giving spirit, like people in the 7 Figure Flipping  organization, it is amazing what you can take away from an event like this.”   Mike Simmons     “Because the mastermind did so much for me, I felt like I wanted to be involved in Flip Hacking Live because I want to help people.”   Mike Simmons     “I’ve seen the transformation enough to know it is real.”   Mike Simmons     “It is not

In this episode, I have the opportunity to interview fellow 7 Figure Flipping member, Sheri Duignan. Sheri has been involved in real estate investing since 2004, beginning with the rental of her own home when she was called to move across the company for her job. Over the next few years, having experienced both the highs and lows of real estate, she decided to self-educate through reading and attending seminars and then launched her own business. In order to do this, she resigned her District Vice President position after 18 years with this company but is now happily wholesaling and flipping houses full-time.   After the almost accidental start in real estate by renting her own home in Atlanta, Sheri talks about the transition from her corporate job into real estate investing. She purchased her next two rentals in North Carolina because she went to school and also had family in the area. She talked about looking for investor-friendly agents to find these properties and how once she found one, he ended up managing her properties for him and built a business out of it.   Because Sheri started out as a buy-and-hold investor, I asked her what made her transition into other aspects of investing. When her Atlanta home came vacant after the same tenants for 10 years, she and her husband camped out in the house while they nearly completely rehabbed it to rent again. Sheri really enjoyed the process and ended up taking some classes that convinced her she should be flipping and wholesaling houses in addition to her rental properties.   I asked Sheri to share some of the difficulties she has had in her time investing. She talked about how when she first started investing full-time after leaving her corporate job, she was very frustrated and wondered if she had made a big mistake because she was doing so much work and spending a ton on advertising with very little return. Just when she was ready to give up, she ended up closing on two deals, which completely changed her mindset and restored her confidence.   Because she shared these struggles with us, I asked Sheri what is working best for her now with lead generation. She said she is still successful with direct mail, but she is finding networking to be very effective. Sheri joined Business Networking International which is a referral company that incentivizes its members to refer to one another in the group. She explained the current deal she is working on that she obtained through this network, and went into detail describing the numbers and the creative financing she was able to utilize. Sheri also explained that her goal was to finance more rentals with the profits she is making from flipping houses to increase her passive income.   Here is just another example of an incredibly generous business person who is willing to lay it all out honestly in an effort to help other investors, so don’t miss this fantastic episode with Sheri Duignan! Notable Quotes:   “Real estate is really my passion and what makes me excited. There are so many facets to it.”   Sheri Duignan     “I was tired of corporate politics and wanted to work for myself.”   Sheri Duignan     “You just have to be patient and have some grit.”   Sheri Duignan     “Thank God for my husband… he was such a great cheerleader and kept telling me to ‘Go, Go, Go!’”   Sheri Duignan     “You can’t let one property define you.”   Sheri Duignan     “Where I am really finding more success with lead generation is through networking.”   Sheri Duignan     “Relationships and networking take more time and energy, but in the long run, the return on the investment is astronomical.”   Mike Simmons     “If you are an entrepreneur, it can’t be ‘I can’t’... it has to be ‘How can I?’”   Mike Simmons     “You can go one of two ways when life gets tough - you can quit or you can buckle down and work harder.”   Mike Simmons     “Don’t be bashful about what you are doing. Talk about it.”   Mike Simmons     “My advice to new investors - Just get started.”   Sheri Duignan     “Joining 7 Figure Flipping is probably the best thing I have done, out of everything I have done.”   Sheri Duignan     “I resisted masterminds and coaching for years because I was being pig headed and thought I could just figure it out.”   Mike Simmons     “I love your ‘I will figure this out and win’ attitude!”   Mike Simmons   Links: Flip Hacking Live Business Network International  Real Results Realty LLC Sheri’s Email 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

Ok guys, thank you for joining me, thank you for being here on Just Start Real Estate! I’m excited to have you and I’m excited to be with you for another Thursday show. This is the Thursday show that didn’t exist a month ago as we just started doing two shows per week and I am psyched about it! I am trying to turn about the volume on the value that I am offering you on these shows and the Thursday show is something I am really happy about. I am happy to be bringing you more content that I think is going to move the needle for your business. Today, we are continuing our Flip Hacking Live Rewind series and I am just plucking the best of the best, the presentations I really think you missed out on by not seeing them live and giving them to you here. Today we have a presentation from 2018 given by my mentor, Andy McFarland, who I really look up to in this industry, as a person, a businessman, a father, and a husband. If you have had any exposure to Andy or seen him present, you know what I am talking about - he is absolutely the best and smartest of guys. Today, I am bringing you his presentation on Seller Financing. Guys, seller financing is going to be humongous in the next year or two. It’s big now, it has always been big, but I think it is going to be especially impactful and useful in your real estate tool belt for you so that you are able to do these types of deals. There is nobody better, no one that has been doing it longer at such a high level than Andy and he is the perfect guy to lay this out for you so that you can start doing seller financing deals.   Pay attention to this one - Andy really brings it in this presentation and I know it is going to blow your mind! Seller financing, as Andy explains it, is easy to follow and easy to implement and you should be doing this in your business!  Notable Quotes:   “Gotta learn to look at all the angles.”   MacGyver     “You can’t effectively sell what you don’t believe.”   “No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care.”   “There is no microwave trust.”   “You show that you care by active listening.”   “Listening is not waiting to talk.”   “Start and end your day with this: Have I done any good in the world today?” Links: Flip Hacking Live 7 Figure Flipping Andy’s Website ABC Offer Return on Investments Just Start Real Estate JSRE on Facebook Mike on Facebook Mike on Instagram Mike on LinkedIn Mike on Twitter Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months

In this episode, I have the opportunity to interview Roofstock CEO, Gary Beasley. Roofstock is a leading real estate investment marketplace that he co-founded in 2015. Gary caught the entrepreneurial bug while earning an MBA at Stanford, and spent most of his career building businesses in the real estate, hospitality, and tech sectors.   We began as we often do by diving into Gary’s background. He talked about growing up in small midwestern towns learning a bit about the business from his dad who owned a commercial real estate brokerage firm. Gary said things really changed for him when he went to school at Northwestern and how the environment really opened his eyes to the different possibilities available to him. He decided to go to business school after working a couple of years in real estate, thinking that he wanted to do something different, but ending up right back in real estate after earning his MBA from Stanford.   Gary talked about his early work experience and the different roles that he played. He talked about how much he learned and how his confidence grew when he was able to perform duties that he had not done previously. After several years of working as both a CFO and president for ZipRealty, he decided to take a year off to work on various projects. He took some time to teach some entrepreneur courses at Stanford and ended up making a proposal to a solar panel technology company that led to another leadership role.   Gary took some time to explain the circumstances that led him to starting Roofstock and the advantages to their platform. Some of these include fast sales, costs associated with selling homes are lower than through traditional means, there is no down time for the investment, and very little disruption to the tenant. As part of this discussion, I talked a lot about why using Roofstock is desirable for an investor in my situation. Gary outlined several of the benefits and guarantees that are integral to the Roofstock marketplace.   We then discussed where Gary thinks the housing market is headed. He said that it is so hard to predict the future because there are so many variables, but it is very interesting that the housing market is still so hot after several months of the pandemic. He stressed that because of the pandemic, people are valuing their homestead more than ever and that is having an interesting impact on the market.   Gary has an incredibly interesting background and was a great guest, so please join us for this uber-informative episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast!   Notable Quotes:   “One of the best things about college is how it expands your horizons and your viewpoint of what is possible.”   Mike Simmons     “I encourage people to view college as a time of exploration and not necessarily as a practical, pre-professional period.”   Gary Beasley     “College really teaches you how to think.”   Gary Beasley     “Early in your career, do things for the experience, not for the money.”   Gary Beasley     “The more difficult the decision, the less it matters what you decide.”   Gary Beasley     “You lean on experts that can help you.”   Gary Beasley     “Make sure you are surrounded by the right people.”   Gary Beasley     “Embrace the process and everything will be okay.”   Gary Beasley     “If you stay where you are comfortable, I hope you are comfortable where you currently are because that is where you will remain.”   Mike Simmons     “We are trying to break down the geographic barriers to real estate investing.”   Gary Beasley     “When you are building a marketplace, it has to be on a foundation of trust.”   Gary Beasley     “It has to be trust first, then growth, and then profitability.”   Gary Beasley   Links: Flip Hacking Live Roofstock 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 have for you today an awesome, handpicked presentation. These are like the best of the best presentations that we had at past Flip Hacking Live and I just want to show you what you are missing out on if you are not going. If you are going, it is something to look forward to because I have a presentation today that my friend, Adam Rae, did a couple of years ago and it is all about wealth accumulation, wealth building, and creating a life inside of real estate that gives you the opportunity to live the life that you really want with freedom of time, financial freedom, and how to go about doing that. He gets into a little bit of tax stuff and things like that so it is really good, solid information that you can actually utilize right away.   This is why I am bringing you these presentations as part of our Flip Hacking Live Rewind Series. Most of these have not been released to the public or given away for free - usually, you have to pay to get the presentation recordings. I am giving them to you free because I really want you to understand what goes on at this event! If you haven’t gotten your tickets, you can grab them at the link below! Go grab your tickets, but in the meantime, check out this presentation from 2018 which is absolutely applicable today. As a matter of fact, it might be even more applicable now than it was then! Check it out, get ready to take notes… this one is awesome! Notable Quotes:   “Why are we all here? Why does it matter?”   “All models are wrong; some are useful.”   George E. P. Box     “You actually have to do the work to apply some of the principles and work it out with your values, your life, your business.”   “I think you need to back up and define what wealth is for you.”   “What you are seeing online is a very curated view of what someone else considers what wealth is.”   “It’s not about the money for me, it’s about the time.”   “Passive income is mailbox money - it is going to pay you regardless if you show up or not.”   “Don’t mistake assets for passive income.”   “The purpose of wealth-building is to buy back time.”   “How incredible is the wealth in this room when we not only get to bring money in but it is about sending it out to work for the people that we love.”   “I have been in other groups, but I don’t know another group that has the character, the values, the camaraderie, and the transparency.”   “It’s about growing as people on a long journey to wealth so that we can all achieve and be the people we were made to be.”   “The real estate professional piece [of the tax code] is where it gets really sexy.”     Links: Flip Hacking Live 7 Figure Flipping Adam’s Website KBKG ABC Offer Return on Investments Just Start Real Estate JSRE on Facebook Mike on Facebook Mike on Instagram Mike on LinkedIn Mike on Twitter Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months

In this episode, I have the opportunity to interview Avery Carl, who bought her first rental property at age 26 on a $37,000 salary. Through strategically investing in short-term rental properties in mature vacation rental markets, she was a millionaire by the age of 31. She now owns a portfolio of 28 properties and is the CEO and founder of The Short Term Shop, a real estate team that helps investors acquire short-term rental properties in the most recession-resistant markets, and trains them on the same methods that led her out of the corporate rat race and into financial freedom.    Avery begins by telling us about her background in which she worked as a marketing manager in the music industry. Completely uneducated in real estate investing, she and her husband decided to purchase a home for a long-term rental in the hopes of selling it to pay for college for their future kids. Quickly, they realized that they should do more investing and came across the idea of short-term rentals. They have now grown their portfolio into 28 properties, split between short and long-term rentals. Avery’s business, The Short Term Shop, grew from the necessity of having to become an expert in this type of investing as so few people are and she found very little support.   Avery talks about how her focus has been regional, driveable, vacation-rental markets because they are more recession-proof. Very applicable currently, as we are still dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, these types of rentals are very attractive when people are unable to or cannot afford to get on a plane, but still want to get away from home. She said that an easy way to think of areas that might be attractive to have short-term rentals are places you may have visited as a child when you rented a house rather than stayed in a hotel. Avery also said that metro markets can be undesirable because of regulations imposed stemming from the competition of nearby hotel markets.   I asked Avery to talk about what I perceived is the downside of short-term rentals, primarily having to deal with people and answer questions very frequently. She said that many different software platforms have risen out of this fairly new type of investing called channel managers that automate a lot of this process. Avery also said that providing as much information as possible in your Airbnb or VRBO listing to try to answer as many questions ahead of time as possible. She also explained all of the technology they have in place for monitoring their rentals.   I wanted Avery to explain the finances involved for the different markets that she is in. She went through the numbers she has seen in her experience and some of the possible expenses, such as property management, which she does herself. Avery said that more bedrooms make for a higher return on investment, so we talked about this and other details a bit.    I wanted Avery to talk about some of the mistakes she had experienced herself or seen with her clients that new investors should be aware of. Evaluating properties to buy is different in that you want to look at asking price versus what you can make in rentals, instead of what you would make when you sell it. As far as management, she said you have to be aware that because the renters are on vacation, they may not be on their best behavior, but that doesn’t mean they are trashing your place and you have to be careful about calling them out on it. Avery also talked about some of the software tools available to short-term rental investors for management.   I then asked Avery to explain  to our listeners the service that The Short Term Shop provides. She said that she is a realtor and has teams in three different markets in Tennessee, Florida, and Alabama. They help investors make sure that the properties they are evaluating would make profitable short-term rentals and walk them through the whole process to run a vacation rental.   Even though Avery owns and runs a business to help people get started in this kind of investing, she was completely transparent and gave us all the tips and tools she uses for her own properties! Don’t miss this fast-paced interview, chock-full of great information with Avery Carl!  Notable Quotes:   “Short-term rentals provide turbo-charged income.”   Avery Carl     “You definitely want to treat your cleaners like gold because they are your eyes and ears.”   Avery Carl     “Don’t micromanage.”   Avery Carl     “The more people you can sleep, the more money you can make, and the higher the cash-on-cash return.”   Avery Carl     “It’s better than sitting in an office every day.”   Avery Carl   “Normal real estate investors are looking for super deals all of the time.”   Mike Simmons   Links: Flip Hacking Live The Short Term Shop AirDNA Mashvisor KeyData YourPorter IGMS TurnoverBnB Beyond Pricing PriceLabs Wheelhouse

Today, I have another great presentation from a past Flip Hacking Live in our Thursday Flip Hacking Live Rewind series where I share a little glimpse of what you can expect to experience at this event. If you already went ahead and got your ticket, you are going to love it and I am just going to prove it to you by showing you past events; people who spoke, people who will be speaking again this year so you can see the value before you even show up. If you haven’t gotten your tickets, go grab them! Today, I have Tyler Jensen’s presentation from last year and it is powerful and awesome! If you don’t know who Tyler is, he is a friend of mine who is making a name for himself right now because he is doing 7 Day Flips. That’s right - he is doing full renovation flips in 7 days or less! We are talking about $40,000 renovations, not just minor stuff. It is amazing, especially for those of us who take weeks or months or even a year to do renovations, Tyler is doing it in 7 days. Listen, even if you think that 7 days is just not realistic for you, what if you could just cut your renovation time in half? Imagine how much more productive you would be, imagine how much money you could save on holding costs and all that stuff.   This is a presentation you should really be excited about! Tyler is going to be at Flip Hacking Live again this year, but you will want to listen to this and be ready to take notes because he gives great tips and opens up the playbook on how to flip a house in 7 days. Notable Quotes:   “You get to choose whether today is the best day ever.”   “I’m here to build castles, not fight dragons.”   “Small questions yield small answers.”   “Money is made in efficiency.”   “Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.”   Parkinson’s Law     “Our biggest takeaway is planning and people. We had to have both.”   “The battle is no time to sharpen your sword.”   “You can’t soar like an eagle if you hang out with turkeys.”   “I was born for this.” Links: Flip Hacking Live 7 Figure Flipping Tyler’s Website ABC Offer Return on Investments Just Start Real Estate JSRE on Facebook Mike on Facebook Mike on Instagram Mike on LinkedIn Mike on Twitter Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months

In this episode, I have the honor of interviewing my good friend Danny Johnson, who does a great job of introducing himself as we start things off a little bit differently for this show. 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 prior to flipping houses, Danny started developing real estate investor websites by creating the software called LeadPropeller. Recently, he has developed and released FlipPilot 2.0, which is lead/deal management pipeline software. Danny is also the host of the ever-popular Flipping Junkie Podcast and Flipping Junkie Blog.   Danny shared some details of his personal life and how circumstances really forced him into looking hard at his life and work. He had removed himself from the day-to-day operations of his house flipping business, but he found that this was something he really wanted to change. As he is re-investing himself in real estate investing, he wants to keep things simple and look at his long-term plans for the business’ growth.   I asked Danny to talk about the development of FlipPilot and what drove him to produce that software. Because his background is in software development, it was natural for him to want to create vehicles to help with his investing business. He talked about the whole progression of building the software and the lessons he learned along the way.   Danny talked about how he started the Flipping Junkie Blog as a means to hold himself accountable and to be transparent about the deals he was finding and all of the associated numbers. He ended up writing a book titled Flipping Houses Exposed to share all of the information he learned during this experience. But he wasn’t happy with the conversion ratio, which is what led him to the development of FlipPilot. We wanted to dig into the whys behind the lack of success in converting deals and solve it for himself going forward as he became more involved in real estate again.   We talked a lot about how FlipPilot incorporates your systems and processes and how valuable this is for being effective in your business. We discussed integrating personal touches such as follow-up notes and how they sound like a great idea, but they need to be part of your process or you won’t take the time to do them. Danny stressed how important it is to be able to visualize each system, putting it in a place where you will see it so that you actually work it. This also makes it much easier to scale and have your whole team working on the same page. It also makes getting things done fun and rewarding.   Because of this unique situation of talking to an experienced investor who is, in a sense, starting over, I asked Danny to describe how this journey is going. Even though he doesn’t plan on employing a large group of people, he is treating it as a scalable company. He is looking at being more effective and efficient, making his time and effort really count, rather than spending a ton of time and money for little gain. His marketing strategy has also changed because he is more focused on long-term investments in specific markets. Danny also discusses being more profit-oriented, rather than focusing on a random number-of-deals goal.   This interview feels like two guys, sitting around a fire-pit, having a beer, talking real estate and life… you don’t want to miss this episode with Danny Johnson! Notable Quotes:   “That rush of excitement you felt is really an indication, a confirmation of what you want.”   Mike Simmons     “I always wanted to create software to help out with the house flipping business.”   Danny Johnson     “I don’t want to go in thinking I know everything… I want to learn fresh.”   Danny Johnson     “One of the hardest things to do well, in this industry, is follow-up.”   Mike Simmons     “Treating people like people is a huge part of this.”   Danny Johnson     “Who doesn’t want to be seen and heard?”   Danny Johnson     “Referrals is another thing that people in our business overlook.”   Mike Simmons     “You got to make it such a “WOW” experience so that they can’t help but to tell their friends about it.”   Danny Johnson     “What is not measured cannot be managed.”   Danny Johnson     “Enjoy this business - every day of it.”   Danny Johnson     “How much money do you need to live a comfortable life?”   Danny Johnson   Links: Flip Hacking Live Lead Propeller FlipPilot FlipPilot Demo Flipping Houses Exposed Flipping Junkie Blog Flipping Junkie Podcast Work the System Traction 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

The first Thursday installment of Just Start Real Estate in several years features someone I am really proud to call a friend and who has had more influence over my real estate growth in the last five years than any other human being on Planet Earth. That is because he is someone who is not only highly successful, but he also does it the right way as he is a good person. He is someone I look up to and look to as a mentor. He has been on the show before, his name is Andy McFarland, and he did a presentation at a past Flip Hacking Live which is as true now as it was in 2017. It is a presentation I have listened to more than once and it is one that I think listeners will go back to and revisit again and again. Andy gets into what he calls “blocking and tackling,” which is a term for getting back to the basics. He explains what it is that makes your company strong and in a position to scale, as opposed to throwing a bunch of new-fangled things at it. For real estate investors, “blocking and tackling” is leads and conversions. Andy dives deep into this subject matter and also talks about preparation, pre-work before appointments, and hiring. At the end of the presentation, Andy also has a Q&A session, handling questions from the audience.   This is an incredibly powerful presentation, one that I listen to any time I feel my business has gotten off-track a bit. Don’t miss this opportunity to get a sneak peek into Flip Hacking Live and a small piece of what this event has to offer with this talk by Andy McFarland! Notable Quotes:   “All of us here in America have huge, limitless opportunities.”   “We all have a pot of gold here by virtue of the fact that we live in the United States.”   “In every man there is something wherein I may learn of him, and in that, I am his pupil.”   Ralph Waldo Emerson     “You have permission to be bigger.”   “Not all success is measured in numbers.”   “The secret to success is there is no secret. It is the basics - blocking and tackling.”   Chris Gardner     “Do what others are unwilling to do.”   “If you are not answering your phone and are spending money on marketing, you are wasting your money.”   “The key is preparation.”   “Always continue your education.”   “Are you willing to do this? Are you willing to prepare?”   “Discover your truth about that property.”   “We can’t see something we don’t believe in.”   “Show up on time.”   “Be real. Build rapport. Listen.”   “It is 90% preparation.”   “You need to be able to get things done through other people.” Links: Flip Hacking Live 7 Figure Flipping Andy’s Website ABC Offer Return on Investments Just Start Real Estate JSRE on Facebook Mike on Facebook Mike on Instagram Mike on LinkedIn Mike on Twitter Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months

In this episode, I get the chance to interview fellow 7 Figure Flippers Rob Badhorn and Ernie Vargas. Rob lives in Arizona, but performs flips and owns rentals in Ohio. He worked in corporate America for 23+ years, handing $1.5B in revenue for Sales Teams Across USA. He is constantly building multiple streams of income, especially during these challenging times, as he considers himself a serial entrepreneur. Rob’s rental portfolio includes the flips and/or wholesale of 100+ homes utilizing the marketing strategies of Direct Mail, Bandit Signs, Cold Calling, RVM’s/Voice broadcast, FB Custom Audiences, and Texting. He also owns a software company specializing in Lead Generation and Skip Tracing.   Ernie Vargas purchased his first house in 1994 and continued doing real estate while working full-time, but he didn’t hit the success he felt he was capable of. In 1999, after an accident that left him in a coma, he realized that life was short, so he quit his job and went into investing full-time. Eventually, probate hit his radar and started him on a quest to learn all he could about this niche that no one had answers for.   After many years of specializing in probate, Ernie has become a true probate expert, often helping attorneys and their clients in the probate process. His ability to think outside the box coupled with his expertise in negotiating and marketing has allowed him to help several hundreds of investors, agents, and sellers get deals closed. Now Ernie not only has more time to spend with his wife and four kids, but he gets to do what he truly loves doing - helping everyday people create wealth and personal freedom.   The guys first began by giving us their backgrounds and what lead them to real estate investing. Ernie described the moment that really changed things for him when he was working as a freezer stocker at a warehouse store that would eventually become Costco. His boss said something to him that made him realize that he wanted much more from life. He changed jobs and on his way to his first day of training, ended up getting into a terrible car accident that left him in a coma. This experience, coupled with a seminar he went to, completely changed his thinking.   Rob said his journey was similar to a lot of other investors - he read Rich Dad, Poor Dad, went to a few seminars, but he said he has always had the bug to get the passive income stream going. He was in the corporate world but purchased a couple of rentals in order to make up his salary so that he could invest full-time. Joining the 7 Figure Flipping mastermind group really changed everything for him.   Rob talked about his rental portfolio and how he manages the properties himself while employing one handyman to do the work. I asked how much of the work he actually does himself as far as background checks, collecting rent, etc. and Rob said he thought the thing that changed the most in the past several years was the software available for property management.   Even though he has a large rental portfolio, Rob felt the need to expand into other forms of real estate investing to develop multiple income streams, which is the reason why he and Ernie partnered up. I wanted to dig deep on the details of their partnership because so many people struggle with making this work. Ernie said they both have different areas of expertise; Rob is really strong in the area of technology related to real estate and Ernie has become a probate specialist. They had met at a 7 Figure Flipping event and Ernie called Rob concerning skip tracing and the rest is history.   We also discussed the issues with probate investing which have been intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic situation. There is so much talk about this type of investing being deceitful that I wanted the guys to explain how they actually help people with integrity. Ernie talked about how many investors shy away from this type of work, but that the demand for people-loving investors is so high because there is a real need to help those who are grieving through the process.   These two investors bring so much to the proverbial table and share so much information with you in this episode of Just Start Real Estate. Don’t miss my conversation with Rob Badhorn and Ernie Vargas! Notable Quotes:   “We get lessons out of anything we experience in life if we allow them to change us.”   Ernie Vargas     “I was bitten by the idea of opportunity and change.”   Ernie Vargas     “Have a goal, give that goal a deadline, write it down, and go out and take action.”   Ernie Vargas     “You do what you can with what you have.”   Ernie Vargas     “You have to be ready when opportunities come.”   Ernie Vargas     “The NBA did not work out for me.”   Rob Badhorn     “It’s like bringing a puppy to the park if you are looking for a date.”   Mike Simmons     “When it can

In this episode, I get the chance to interview fellow 7 Figure Flipper Darren Smith. Darren is a residential and commercial real estate investor in multiple markets across the country. After being in the Army and working in the computer industry, he tried his hand in real estate but unfortunately lost his earnings in the housing crash. This experience took Darren out of real estate for a few years, but his love for the industry drew him back. Working as an assistant to a wholesaler at first, Darren learned a great deal and started his own business. A week before he was laid off from his computer job, Darren joined the 7 Figure Flipping Mastermind group.   We began, as we often do, discussing what drew Darren to real estate investing. He said after being in the service for several years, he found himself sitting next to an investor that was flipping houses and had a multi-family property in Baltimore. Because he was super passionate about the work that he was doing, this caused Darren to catch the real estate “bug.”   Since his first deal in 2003, to the present day, Darren has had some ups-and-downs in this business, like every investor. We talked about how he made some money in his first go-around with investing but lost it in the housing market crash. After starting up his own company in 2014, he ran into some issues in 2017, hired a coach, laid off some employees, and rebuilt from there. We talked about meeting the challenges by changing strategies rather than giving up.   We talked about helping out clients, the pros and cons of wholesaling versus flipping, how Darren’s deal-finding process is ever-evolving, and so much more! We discussed a ton of marketing ideas and why cold-calling is a longer process than some other strategies. Darren explained the training and role-playing that they do as a staff in order to convert deals through this method.   Darren also explained the differences he has faced in speaking with both buyers and sellers during the COVID-19 pandemic. He said in both cases it is just really important to acknowledge the change in circumstances, and yes, things are challenging, but no one really knows what the future is going to bring. I asked about other changes they have had to make and Darren talked about how they are having home inspectors go out to take pictures and videos of homes, which ends up being the only necessary point of contact whether buying or selling.   I asked Darren what markets he is working in and he explained that he lives in Pennsylvania, works in two markets in Colorado, and just bought an existing real estate business outside of Philly. This was such a novel and interesting concept to me that we discussed this in detail. I asked if it was just a property database, and Darren explained that it is really the established business presence and reputation that they invested in. He even explained how they structured the deal, which he actually recommends to anyone attempting to do the same thing.   Darren wrapped up the interview by not only giving credit to his team but also pointing out how much he counts on the support and fellowship of 7 Figure Flipping. This character-filled investor gives us so much wisdom in the latest installment of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast, you would be crazy to miss it! Notable Quotes:   “It’s like flying too close to the sun - you could have burned up, but you didn’t.”   Mike Simmons     “You have to assess what is going on and make changes accordingly.”   Mike Simmons     “Fifty percent of our processes are different than they were 90 days ago.”   Darren Smith     “We throw meat into the pen and let the lions fight over it.”   Mike Simmons     “The reality is, it’s a people business.”   Mike Simmons     “If it gets harder to sell, it will get easier to buy.”   Darren Smith     “Specialists make more money than generalists.”   Darren Smith     “We’ve gone from about 90% closing in person to about 90% closing over the phone.”   Darren Smith     “When you have the right people in place, scaling gets much easier to do.”   Darren Smith     “Any time there is economic hardship, rentals become more of a thing.”   Mike Simmons     “Dude, you are even smarter than I thought you were!”   Mike Simmons     “You have a clear focus, sound logic, and a strong game plan.”   Mike Simmons     “I have never been more thankful to be in a mastermind than right now.”   Darren Smith     “Masterminds are a lifeline. If you were on the Titanic, what would you be willing to invest in a raft?”   Mike Simmons   Links: Flip Hacking Live Darren’s Email 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

In this episode, I am joined by Carla Reeves, who is known for her compassionate, direct, and truth-telling candor. Carla Reeves has coached hundreds of executives, CEOs, and other ambitious leaders over the past ten years. She  is committed to guiding individuals to clarity about the real stumbling blocks that stand in the way of their growth and equip them to experience profound shifts in their confidence and ability to communicate powerfully.   Carla spent 10+ years in Corporate America working in Human Resources and Information Technology. She left Corporate America at age 32 to raise her boys and live the entrepreneurial life she loves. A series of entrepreneurial adventures organically evolved into the coaching she does today. What she knows to be true is that people are far closer than they realize to the very things they deeply desire. Often, the only thing standing in the way is an old, outdated way of viewing themselves and the world around them.   Carla uses the analogy of the lens of a pair of glasses… if we are looking at the world through these and they are marred by faulty or unhealthy thinking, no matter how successful we are, we are not going to experience our life as happy. She talks about the escapism that so many people think will make them happy - escape from a relationship, or a job, or a location. Carla tries to get people to delay those actions in order to help them discover what is really driving them.   Carla is a big proponent of journaling, so I asked her why she thought that is so important. She said there are many benefits but that she would focus on three ways it can be a helpful tool. Journaling can be a mechanism to empty your mind and clear out all of the noise, which Carla calls taking out the mental trash. It also gives us a little distance from our thoughts and awareness of what we are allowing in our headspace. Clara also says she likes to think of journaling as a tool for navigating our lives, to get things down with pen and paper in order to examine the circumstances and prepare our response.   I asked Carla to explain the meaning and importance of mindset shifts. She said we often get focused on what we don’t want, and how fear can play a part in unhealthy and unproductive thinking. She said that it is important for us to be aware of this and then ask ourselves what we do want, and focus on that instead of imaging negative outcomes.   We talked a little bit about the pandemic, the wide range of reactions to it, and how Carla is helping her clients get through this challenge. She said the tone of her coaching calls have really changed from being forward-thinking and goal-focused to rather a survival mode kind of situation. Carla said because we are getting so much information, and much of it conflicting, and differing view and opinions, it is even more important to unpack our thinking, whether through journaling or speaking to someone we trust. She emphasized how important it is to control the things that we allow in our lives and the power that they have over us.   During this interview, Carla really emphasizes the power our thinking has and how much positive influence we can have if we take the time to become aware of it and change it up, if necessary. This episode is incredibly helpful in reminding us of the need for self-care if we are going to grow both personally and professionally and I hope you will join us!     Notable Quotes:   “What holds people back has more to do with what is between their ears rather than the external tools they have at their disposal.”   Mike Simmons     “On the outside, life looks really good, but there is a disconnect on the inside for them to actually experience that.”   Carla Reeves     “Thriving begins on the inside.”   Carla Reeves     “A deep change in the way that you experience life requires a deep change in the way that you think.”   Carla Reeves     “We have to examine our thinking first to really shift our outer experience.”   Carla Reeves     “A lot of high-achievers have an old, out-dated story inside themselves that doesn’t fit, but got lodged inside them somehow.”   Carla Reeves     “I try to help my clients let go of their faulty thinking which causes relentless striving for never-ending achievement.”   Carla Reeves     “What I discovered was that many people came to me for coaching because they wanted to escape something.”   Carla Reeves     “They become fueled by inspiration or passion rather than trying to prove something.”   Carla Reeves     “Just replacing that fuel or engine with something more productive and positive is the key.”   Mike Simmons     “Journaling is like taking out the mental trash and will help you to be more present and engaged.”   Carla Reeves     “If you don’t make decisions for yours

In this episode, I am excited to interview Mark Podolsky, who, armed with only $3,000, gut-wrenching fear, and absolutely no real estate experience, bought his first few parcels of raw land in 2001. Today, Mark is the author of Dirt Rich, the ultimate guide to helping you build a passive income, and owner of Frontier Properties, a very reputable and successful land investing company. He is also the host of two popular podcasts, The Art of Passive Income and The Best Passive Income Model. By focusing on working smart, not hard, he has completed over 5,500 land deals with an average ROI of over 300% on cash flips, and over 1,000% on the deals he sells with financing terms.   Mark begins by giving us a little detail on how he got into land investing. He was working as an investment banker in mergers and acquisitions and had a co-worker achieving incredibly high ROI by investing in raw land. Mark couldn’t believe the numbers, so he tried it himself. After about 18 months, he was able to exceed his corporate job income and was able to quit in order to invest full-time.   I asked Mark to walk us through his investing model. He starts by going to the county treasurer in a particular area and gets the list of everyone who owes back taxes on land. He said that this advertises two things to him: the owner is not emotionally attached to the land and he is financially distressed in some way. Mark then looks at comparable sales, takes the lowest comparable sale, divides by 4, and offers that fraction to the owner of the land. Because this is cash, and better than nothing, 3-5% of the people will accept it. Once bought, Mark wants to make the property cash-flow, just like if he had a rental home, and he has a usually has guaranteed buyers in the neighbors. If they have no interest in the property, he has an extensive list of buyers and sites to sell it.   Mark talked a lot about selling to his buyer’s list, so I asked him how you build a list for land. He commented that he has a huge market for raw land and he explained some of his marketing strategies. He also employs a 90-day return or exchange and 365-day exchange program so it removes the risk for his customers. He then explained how he has automated both the front-end and back-end systems. He says he only has one hour in this business a week when he conducts his team meeting.   I asked Mark to lay out what his team looks like. He has an Acquisitions Manager who decides on a market after extensive research, gets the delinquent tax list from the county, and then who works with a guy on Fiverr, who Mark says is an “excel ninja.” He scrubs the list and uploads it to The Land Geek’s proprietary software LGPASS, which sends out direct mail offers. Then the Intake Manager takes over as the offers come back, to ensure they are actual deals, and to try to negotiate a lower selling price, in addition to the actual closing. The property due diligence is performed by a group in the Philipines associated with an American title company, and then they have ad writers for the major selling outlets like Craiglist and Facebook Marketplace. Mark also employs Virtual Assistants (VAs) to work with the Acquisition Manager handling administrative duties.   This episode is about so much more than land investing! Mark walks us through his entire process, which is such valuable information for any investor! Join us for this powerful episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! Notable Quotes:   “Now we are working because we want to, not because we have to.”   Mark Podolsky     “No renters, no rehabs, no renovations, no rodents.”   Mark Podolsky     “The game that we play is can we create enough of these land notes so that our passive income exceeds our fixed expenses.”   Mark Podolsky     “Happy customers guaranteed.”   Mark Podolsky’s business philosophy     “What used to take me hours and hours, now takes me one second because of automation.”   Mark Podolsky     “You just have to show up - it is a consistency game.”   Mark Podolsky     “COVID is definitely changing the way we do business. We might not have the same success rate closing deals over the phone, but it is dwarfed by the volume of deals when you are doing it virtually.”   Mike Simmons     “We are learning how to do things faster and better.”   Mike Simmons     “Owning land is kind of like man-jewelry.”   Mark Podolsky   Links: Flip Hacking Live Mark’s Website  Tax Title Services GeekPay LGPASS DataTree ListSource Dirt Rich The Wholetailing Course Return on Investments Just Start Real Estate JSRE on Facebook Mike on Facebook Mike on Instagram Mike on LinkedIn Mike on Twitter Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months

In this episode, I am joined by super-successful Karen Briscoe, who is the principal owner of the Huckaby Briscoe Conroy Group (HBC) with Keller Williams. The HBC Group has been recognized by the Wall Street Journal as one of the 250 Top Realtor® teams in the United States. Since 1977, HBC Group has sold over 1,500 homes valued at over $1.5 billion. The team consistently sells over 100 residential properties annually ranging from multi-million dollar luxury estates to condominiums and townhomes. Primary market areas include Northern Virginia, suburban Maryland, and Washington, DC.   Karen is the creator of the transformative "5 Minute Success" concept. Her books Real Estate Success in 5 Minutes a Day: Secrets of a Top Agent Revealed and Commit to Get Leads: 66 Day Challenge offer a combination of information and inspiration delivered through memorable stories. Her most recent book, Flip Time / Love Life is a heroine’s journey tale about loving the life you have while you create and co-create the life of your dreams. Karen also hosts the highly-rated and immensely popular show 5 Minute Success - The Podcast.   Karen starts by telling us how she got into real estate and what led her to authoring books and becoming a podcaster. She initially got started in property developments, but then switched to the residential side of real estate after staying home with her children for many years. Her success in re-building her business after the housing market crisis in 2008 led her to share her methods through her books and podcast.   I asked Karen what she thought helped her to be so successful so early and she said it was her primary strategy of lead-generation that she covers in her Commit to Get Leads book. She said she consistently took a plain notebook, numbered a page from one to twenty-five, and when she had filled that up with people she had reached out to that week, she knew her work was done. She is a firm believer that this consistent effort and commitment is what has led to her continued success.   Karen then walks us through the 5 Minute Success principles. She is convinced success is achieved by getting into action immediately and applying lessons learned. Karen talks about how spending five minutes each day, especially attaching the reading of these principles coupled with an existing habit, like having your morning coffee, is very effective and makes the new habit effortless.   I then asked Karen to explain her 66 Day Challenge so we could dive a little deeper into lead generation because it is so vital to a profitable business. She pointed out that there has been a lot of research done on how long it actually takes to form a new habit. Many people say it takes 21 days, but during that period the person is really excited and, when that wears off, the habit can fail to fully form. If they continue, in the second 21 days, the person goes through a period of evaluation, determining whether they really want to continue developing this new habit. The remaining days in the 66 day period are when people actually start to experience the benefits, and so it is important to power through and create the energy for persistence. And then, of course, this is just the challenge to get you jump-started for forming a life-long habit.   Because Karen has had so much success for a long period of time in real estate, I asked her where she thought the market would be headed because of the impact of COVID-19. She said she thought the concept of home has actually changed because of the shelter-in-place directives, and people are going to be more mindful of their living space because of it. Karen described how where they were seeing a trend toward urbanization, it now seems to be shifting toward suburbanization, because people want more space and land. She said many agents from around the country are seeing demand, but many of the sellers are unsure about the ongoing situation and not pulling the trigger.   Karen then talked about her partnership with the Front Row Foundation which helps individuals and families braving critical health challenges live life in the Front Row. The hope of the foundation is to provide a Front Row experience that will allow the recipient to set aside any physical or emotional challenges while they attend the event of their dreams and create memories that last a lifetime.   Karen is an ultra-successful business person, but much more importantly, an incredibly generous and kind one as well, so you will definitely miss out if you don’t listen to this week’s episode!   Notable Quotes:   “The best system is the one you use.”   Mike Simmons     “Don’t overthink it - it is the consistency and the work that matters.”   Mike Simmons     “Preparing to do the work is an excuse for not actually doing the work.”   Mike Simmons     “I call it activity blocking rather than time blocking.”   Karen Briscoe   &n

In this episode, I am thrilled to interview Michael J. Maher, who is CEO of REFERCO, the world's foremost authority in business referrals. In just his third year in real estate, he did 187 transactions and over $40 million, entirely from referrals. For the next 8 years, he received over 500 referrals every single year and netted over $1 million. Michael is an internationally bestselling author and his book (7L) The Seven Levels of Communication: Go from Relationships to Referrals has been the #1 book in Real Estate Sales on Amazon for over 9 straight years. In addition to these impressive accomplishments, he has shared the stage George W. Bush, Tony Robbins, Barbara Corcoran, and John Maxwell.   As we often do on the show, we started by talking about Michael’s background. He began his working career as a high school math teacher and coach of three sports: football, basketball, and baseball. He spoke about how dedicated he was and earned District Teacher of the Year in his first year teaching. Michael had an interest in real estate so he got licensed as an agent at the same time he bought his first home. He talks about how he built his business almost entirely through word of mouth and referrals.   Because Michael became an agent in 1999, I asked him how he weathered the housing market crash years. He said that because they were getting almost all their business through referrals, they ended up having records years during that period. This is when Michael first knew he was going to have to write a book because he had discovered a system of doing business that worked well in good markets, but even better in depressed times. He spoke about how the 7L system is basically tailor-made for a challenging time like we are facing during the COVID-19 pandemic. We talked about specific marketing and deal-generating strategies based on his 7L principles, going into detail about making your marketing as personal as possible.   I then asked Michael about his book, (7L) The Seven Levels of Communication: Go from Relationships to Referrals. He walked us through the levels and their amount of influence in relationships with people. The second-most powerful level involves events and seminars, and Michael explained some of the programs that they offer. That led us to a conversation on the necessity of some structure to your day in order to increase productivity. He used the example of going to school and having an intense focus on a particular subject for a pre-determined amount of time every day. Michael also walked us through the morning and evening rituals, which he imparts in his book and classes through the use of acronyms.   Michael then told us about how he helps business owners build their businesses on a foundation of love, generosity, and appreciation. He went into great detail about the personal and professional benefits of choosing to live and conduct yourself this way. Michael described love as our super-power, and generosity is that love in action. He also explained that it is vital for us to appreciate everything that happens in our lives, good or bad.   I can’t tell you how powerful and wisdom-packed this episode is! You would be crazy not to join me as I interview super-successful entrepreneur, Michael J. Maher!   Notable Quotes:   “Good market - referrals are really good. Bad market - referrals are everything.”   Michael J. Maher     “When people are thinking they are going to lose their home, they want to talk to someone they trust.”   Michael J. Maher     “I’m big into personalized and customized service.”   Michael J. Maher     “What is the most important currency in today’s world? It’s not money - it’s trust.”   Michael J. Maher     “Love is your superpower.”   Michael J. Maher     “What I’m really excited about now is helping people get structure in a world of chaos.”   Michael J. Maher     “Why do we charge for them? So people show up. If they have skin in the game, they come.”   Michael J. Maher     “There is a lot of people that would trade their wealth for health and happiness right now.”   Michael J. Maher     “Energy is the most precious resource known to man.”   Michael J. Maher     “You can change your life by changing your strategy.”   Michael J. Maher     “We are going to have a day - why not structure it in the most effective way you can possibly structure it?”   Mike Simmons     “It mixes the best of ‘go with the flow’ with ‘get in the flow.’”   Michael J. Maher     “Your purpose in life is to be referrable.”   Michael J. Maher     “Picking and choosing the opportunity is a lot better than chasing opportunity.”   Michael J. Maher   Links: Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months (7L) The Seven Levels of Communication:

In this episode, I am excited to interview Justin Silverio, who is the owner of JS2 Homes and Open Letter Marketing. Justin has been investing in real estate since 2011 with extensive experience in rehabbing, new construction, wholesaling, and multi-family rental properties in and around the Boston area. Justin founded Open Letter Marketing in 2016 with a focus on providing real estate investors with a more effective direct to seller marketing approach than the outdated methods. Justin’s company works with hundreds of investors throughout the country and is recognized as one of the top real estate investor marketing companies.   Justin begins by telling us about his background and how he always had a love of houses because his dad was a contractor. The flipping television shows that came out around 2009 really piqued his interest as he was working as an accountant, but didn’t love it. Partnering with his father in finding and rehabbing houses married two of Justin’s passions together - love of houses and of numbers. For the first five years in real estate investing, Justin and his dad were flipping houses while he continued to work his full-time job, also while doing marketing for new properties. We talked about the challenges inherent with the situation, but also how it is possible to make it work.   I asked Justin how they funded their first deal and he described the process he went through in order to pitch three regional banks to do business with them. He did his homework, knew what information the banks wanted to see, and put together a five-year business plan to get funding before selecting his first property.    Justin then described what his business looks like today. He went from rehabbing entry-level homes, to mid-level homes, to high-end homes and new construction, to what he is doing today which is primarily multi-family condo conversions. The bulk of his day-to-day business dealings is made up of wholesaling homes while staying involved with the multi-family developments which are more long-term projects. He talked about how competition and profit margin per time spent really drove him to switch his business model.   Justin then told us about his company Open Letter Marketing, which was created to provide real estate investors with direct to seller marketing. I asked Justin to describe what their program does better than his competitors and he spoke to the fact that his product looks at the very fine details. With his product, they promote campaigns with a sequence of letters where each letter builds off of the prior.   I asked Justin to describe the current project he is working on, software called OLM InvestorHub, which is a lead and marketing management system based on his own business process. It will enable investors to purchase or import multiple lists, identify properties that are on more than one list, and identify the quality of a list once it is imported. Once the lead quality has been identified, you can create marketing campaigns specific to each. Justin talks about the software’s dashboard and how it organizes all of the marketing tools an investor is using and sends reminders to perform certain tasks to keep everything organized and visible to the user. They also have a CRM product that communicates with InvestorHub called OLM DealFlow.   Going forward, Justin is concerned with defining a systematic process for his wholesaling business so they can grow and expand. He also talked about looking at the more technical side of direct to seller marketing and how that can influence the direction of Open Letter Marketing.   During this interview, Justin speaks about being on the front lines in order to engineer new things to help people get better responses in changing market conditions. This is an incredibly informative episode for helping investors use the most current tools in order to fuel their business and I hope you will join us! Notable Quotes:   “The degree is just the gateway to the world you want to get into.”   Mike Simmons     “I know I have something that works much better and there is nothing on the market that offers this.”   Justin Silverio     “If a marketing strategy works in my real estate investment business, I’m going to offer it to my customers.”   Justin Silverio     “It is almost though you are building a conversation with the seller, and you do it in a specific way so that they are getting to know about you more with each letter.”   Justin Silverio     “I’m just trying to create a solution for my own issue.”   Justin Silverio     “My goal is to truly make an impact and provide value to as many real estate investors as I possibly can.”   Justin Silverio     “How can I create a product to make everyone an expert in marketing?”   Justin Silverio     “You end up doing lazy marketing, out of convenience, rather than stra

In this episode, I am excited to interview Justin Colby who is the Founder and President of The Science of Flipping and Phoenix Wealth Builders. The Science of Flipping is a top-ranked real estate investing podcast and Justin now has a second podcast called The Entrepreneur DNA for those going through the entrepreneurial journey. His real estate investment company, Phoenix Wealth Builders, specializes in purchasing, rehab, wholesaling, and wholetailing properties in the Metro Phoenix Area and they have flipped and wholesaled over 1500 properties to date. Justin has been called a master at finding deals in a market that many say is the most difficult market to be a real estate investor.    Justin began by telling us that he started as a realtor in 2005 and then bought a brokerage with a friend. He talked about how it was almost impossible not to make a lot of money in real estate in the years before the market crash. Being really young at that time, he spent a ton of money, had a really expensive car and condo, which all went away in 2007. He shares how he lost everything and ended up sleeping on his buddy’s couch.   Things started to turn around for Justin when he and a friend decided to begin investing in real estate. They ended up using transactional funding for their deals, which was popular at that time, where they would get a deal funded and closed basically simultaneously or same day. I asked if, at this time, he was doing any work on these properties and he said no, effectively what he was doing was wholetailing. Justin talked about setting a goal for himself of calling 100 realtors a day in order to find deals and people to work with, and it took a full nine months before they had their first deal.   After Justin talked about his resilience and fortitude in getting some traction in his new business, I asked him to share how he gets his deals. He addressed several different marketing strategies, including pay per click advertising, direct mail, cold-calling and auto-texting, and driving for dollars. Justin also examined the level of seller motivation and relative cost for each, as well.   I then asked Justin to describe how he is brokering deals by working with iBuyer companies such as Opendoor and Offerpad. If a deal isn’t attractive to his company for wholesaling, wholetailing, flipping, or even buy-and-hold, he will inquire with his realtor about the price one of these companies will offer the seller for their home and take a portion of the transaction fees if he can successfully hook them up. This is a really creative way of working with them instead of getting swallowed up by them as a smaller investor.   We discussed how the COVID pandemic was affecting his business and how he has been able to adapt. Justin says he really prides himself on the ability to stay flexible and make adjustments, if necessary. He talks about how he had refocused his energy on his business after a partnership fell through, and when the pandemic hit, it was actually good timing for him.   Justin was incredibly transparent in his business dealings and if you join us I know you will get a ton of actionable wisdom! Notable Quotes:   “The beginning years were the fun ones - when I was broke, busted, and disgusted.”   Justin Colby     “Pain is more of a motivator than the carrot.”   Justin Colby     “Just talk about what you are doing and people will get excited and gravitate toward you.”   Mike Simmons     “Here is my secret sauce - I’m a people person.”   Justin Colby     “I just had fortitude - I was willing to endure pain when other people can’t or won’t.”   Justin Colby     “I know what I want to achieve and I am relentless in trying to achieve it regardless of when I achieve it.”   Justin Colby     “People overestimate what they can accomplish in a year and underestimate what they can accomplish in ten.”   Tony Robbins      “You can get exactly what you want if you are willing to: (a) work for it but (b) have patience.”   Justin Colby     “You need to have more than one market strategy going at all times.”   Justin Colby     “I have been able to make adjustments and pivot when required, and remained very flexible.”   Justin Colby     “The only times I ever got hurt was when I chased money.”   Justin Colby   Links: Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months Propstream TSOFData.com Fortitude by Dan Crenshaw Launch Control Text Messaging DealMachine App Opendoor Offerpad The Score Takes Care of Itself by Bill Walsh The Science of Flipping Academy FB Group Justin on Instagram Flip Hacking Live Return on Investments Just Start Real Estate JSRE on Facebook Mike on Facebook Mike on Instagram Mike on LinkedIn Mike on Twitter

In this episode, I have the privilege of interviewing Erik Cabral. Erik is the founder of the media agency, On Air Brands; the innovative networking and podcasting event PodMAX; the real estate investment company Mindado Investment Group; and is host, co-host, and producer on multiple shows, including the Entrepreneurs Circle podcast. With multiple businesses, partnerships, and podcasts Erik is the quintessential “serial entrepreneur” who spends much of his time helping others grow their businesses, brands, and reputation.   We began by talking about Erik’s time in the corporate world, working in a creative capacity for Big Pharma, and how he began investigating the concept of real estate investing after being laid-off. He shares how friendly and helpful he found investors while attending events and REIAs, which was very different from the highly-competitive, cutthroat industry he had worked in. Erik took his background in creative work to not only build his own brand as he began investing, but also as a bartering tool to help other investors, which is how he started On Air Brands.   Erik then shared the details of his first deal in which he hired a coach who was an established investor in order to help mentor him through the process. His coach took him to all of his rentals, introduced him to all of his tenants, and finally made him run the numbers on the duplex he ended up buying. He ended up using the BRRRR strategy with this property and he says it cash-flows like crazy.   Erik talked about how he is more active building his media agency than actively flipping or wholesaling right now. He expressed how passionate he is about helping people sell their home, but how much of his time he had to devote to really do that well. He also talks about the inherent challenges all investors face when rehabbing houses and that didn’t feel like time well spent to him either.   I then asked Erik to explain On Air Brands, how it came about and who the company serves. He said that initially, they were doing logos, branding, websites, etc. to help out real estate investors, but it grew as people experienced how professional Erik’s podcast production was and people wanted the same for their own shows. He explained that it all grew from investors who have multiple businesses needing to take their message and their platform into one place.   We talked about how diverse Erik’s business interests are and how he is a partner in Renault Winery & Resort, which is the 3rd oldest winery in the US. He talks about what a mess the project was to begin with but how it has turned out to be such an interesting collaboration with people he is pursuing other investments with. Erik talks about how great it is to be working with a “tribe” of people, all focused on lifting one another up and helping each other to be successful.   We also talked about the birth and evolution of his newest project, PodMAX. It is a network of podcasting shows, especially in the investing space, who are collaborating in Erik’s office space which has several make-shift podcasting studios. We discussed at length how important networking is, meeting people, and the exchange of ideas being vital to our growth as human beings and business people.    This is a super fun and incredibly informative interview and I urge you to join Erik Cabral and me to take in all of this great actionable advice!   Notable Quotes:   “[In the corporate world] you are building someone else’s wealth, you’re aligning behind their goals to direct their ship where they’re trying to go.”   Erik Cabral     “Mike: Where was most of your real estate knowledge gained? Erik: It was doing. I had to do it.” “I had to start speaking the language, and then I had to start offering value.”   Erik Cabral     “They are chasing just money, but they’re not even paying attention to what their heart or their brain is telling them about where they should be.”   Mike Simmons     “Don’t they need to know you, then like you, and then trust you in order for you to start doing some things together? Well, podcasting does exactly that for you upfront.”   Erik Cabral     “Podcasting is part of that - one spoke on the wheel of marketing.”   Erik Cabral     “Business owners have to be in the business of media. We all have to realize we are social media marketing engines.”   Erik Cabral      “When you can surround yourself with people who are levels up, you learn so much from them.”   Erik Cabral      Links: Flip Hacking Live Rich Dad Poor Dad Built to Sell 7FF Live Event On Air Brands PodMAX Mindado Erik on Instagram Erik on Facebook Erik on LinkedIn 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 Month

In this episode, I have the pleasure of speaking with best-selling author, popular podcaster, and motivational speaker, Rock Thomas. Rock is also the host of the #IAmMovement Podcast. From farm boy to real estate and business guru, mentor, and self-made millionaire, Rock has studied one-on-one with the world’s best teachers such as Tony Robbins, Stephen Covey, and Gary Keller on his mission to inspire others to create their best life, on their terms.   After decades of learning from the greatest minds on the planet, working with and coaching thousands of people in his workshops and webinars, Rock now spends his time teaching people how to be financially free and truly happy on their terms whether they work for themselves or others.   We began by talking about Rock’s early adulthood and what lead him to his current success. He talked about the incredible range of various jobs that he did, relocating to take care of his ailing father, and then finally, the opportunity to get into real estate by buying a RE/MAX franchise. I also asked him about his childhood and Rock shared the lessons he learned through growing up in a big family on a farm.   We discussed how our upbringing can both diminish and fuel us to be successful. Rock was so open about how the way he was brought up challenged his sense of worth but also drove him to be a better person. He continues to struggle with a sense of belonging but has worked very hard to overcome these adversities, even though he knows they made him strong and resourceful.   We talked about the mastermind groups that Rock has been a part of: GoBundance was created for men who choose to live bigger and more fulfilled lives of impact. It's a framework to strengthen your journey in becoming a better man, husband, father, friend, and entrepreneur. It's the place men come together to live EPIC lives; and M1, a community of positive, energetic people to help people march toward financial freedom.   I then asked Rock to tell us how he organizes his day for success. He loves to start his day with yoga, and then at the beginning of the week, he spends most of his time with podcasts, sales training, basically online, virtual-world tasks. He works Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and then takes the rest of the week off. For Rock, the most important things are to be spending his time doing what he loves with the people he loves. We talked about health and wellness, working out, and eating right, with Rock sharing some of his personal tips.    I asked Rock about the time after he sold his RE/MAX franchises and went on a personal quest for wellness and what that looked like. He talked about discovering the Ultimate Edge program by Tony Robbins and getting more focused on living his true values. Rock talked about being a passionately curious student with some of the biggest names in the self-help industry.     We then talked about the books that Rock has written and what motivated him to write them. He talked about experiences from his youth that labeled him and the efforts to change his thinking to transform his life. Rock gives us so much wisdom that he has learned through his many life and business experiences.   I hope you will join me as I talk with uber-successful entrepreneur, Rock Thomas! This was an incredibly open, honest, and motivating interview that will shift your mindset and change your life. Notable Quotes:   “I started doing things my own way and that is the longest way to learn.”    Rock Thomas     “It got me focused, man - I was dialed in, I was paying attention.”    Rock Thomas     “Sometimes people underestimate the power of fear. Nothing will make you focus like being afraid.”   Mike Simmons     “Your net worth will never go up more than your self-worth.”   Rock Thomas     “Every day I got up and before I served any of my clients, I went and got new ones.”   Rock Thomas     “It is the life-blood, what is feeding your business.”   Mike Simmons     “The greatest gift I got was learning how to be incredibly resourceful.”   Rock Thomas     I ‘Macgyver-ed’ it - you use what is available around you.”   Rock Thomas     “To me, there is always a path, always a way.”   Rock Thomas     “I learned that mindset, growing up on a farm, which is incredibly valuable.”   Rock Thomas     “To make excuses and look for reasons why things won’t work is not my playbook.”   Rock Thomas     “I created a mastermind, a group of men, just so that I could belong to my own group.”   Rock Thomas     “I’m the CD, you are the MP3. You take the best from me and your mother and you become a better version.”   Rock Thomas, to his kids     “The intention and the lessons were sound, even if the delivery was somewhat lacking.”   Mike

In this episode, I have the pleasure of interviewing fellow podcaster and popular blogger, Sharon Vornholt, who is the owner of Innovative Property Solutions in Louisville, KY. Sharon owned and operated a successful home inspection business for 17 years, while also investing part-time. Sharon was originally a rehabber and a buy-and-hold landlord, but when the market crashed in 2008, she became an “accidental wholesaler” and full-time investor. Sharon is also the creator of the Louisville Gals Real Estate Blog, and the popular podcast “Let’s Talk Real Estate Investing”. Sharon hosts several live events each year and is a regular speaker at other events across the country.   We began by talking about Sharon’s start in the real estate investing world. It all began for her when her friend took her to an REIA event… Sharon knew then that real estate was what she was meant to do. In the early days, Sharon learned a lot about different types of deals based on her own business needs, very similar to my own start in investing.   We talked a lot about different types of markets, the down-turn in 2008 compared to the current situations, and how to make money during all these periods. Sharon spoke about working with investors and how each had a different model, but by getting to know their criteria, she continued to be successful as a wholesaler.   I then asked Sharon about her Louisville Gals Real Estate Blog and the circumstances surrounding starting that up. Sharon said she started it in 2010 and her podcast, “Let’s Talk Real Estate Investing,” followed shortly thereafter. Through these two platforms, she discovered that her real passion was teaching people about marketing and branding in order to generate leads for real estate investing. This was also the time she discovered probate investing.   Sharon gave us some valuable information about the process involved with probate investing. If there is property included in a recently deceased person’s estate, the family needs to sell the property before the debts are paid and the assets can be dispersed. Sharon talked about how these families really need help and can be very motivated sellers. She also discussed the circumstances she takes into account and accordingly, adjusts her marketing and outreach.   We talked a little bit about how the current coronavirus pandemic is affecting Sharon’s business, specifically, and real estate investing generally. She said probate is largely immune to market fluctuations, but that there will be a backlog of probate deals available because of the closure of the court system. Sharon also talked about the course that she has put together, called “Probate Investing Simplified,” where she walks people through all of the terminologies and the entire process of probate investing. She also provides tons of bonus material, including detailed marketing letters, so that anyone who completes the course will be a probate investing expert.   I hope you will join me as I talk with this super impressive investor who is practically oozing integrity - Sharon Vornholt! Notable Quotes:   “Real estate is all about the numbers.”    Sharon Vornholt     “You can be a real estate investor in any market cycle.”   Mike Simmons     “Buy-and-hold landlords never quit buying… it is like an addiction.”   Sharon Vornholt     “If it cash-flows, they are all-in.”   Sharon Vornholt     “Your model isn’t everybody else’s model.”   Mike Simmons     “I realized I need to stop trying to predict what people will do and just put properties out there.”   Mike Simmons     “The real estate investors that I know that have had success - they are just willing to jump in and do it.”   Mike Simmons     “You don’t need to know how to negotiate if you don’t know how to get deals.”   Sharon Vornholt     “Real estate investors go tone-deaf when you say the word ‘branding.’”   Sharon Vornholt     “Marketing is how you get leads, but branding is why they choose you.”   Sharon Vornholt     “You just have to stay in the game - direct mailing is a long-term play.”   Sharon Vornholt     “I’m all about the situation - how to not upset people, but to help them.”   Sharon Vornholt     “This is just continuing on a trend lately, certainly on this show - good people.”   Mike Simmons     “I may be leaving money on the table, but I keep my integrity.”   Sharon Vornholt     “You are coming from a position of helping them with an actual problem, and not how much money you are going to make.”   Mike Simmons     “You have to be able to look at yourself when you wake up in the morning, and you are not going to be able to do that if you take advantage of someone who doesn’t know any better.”   Mike Simmons     “People get so fo

In this episode, I am honored to interview Kevin Bupp, who is the Founder & CEO of Sunrise Capital Investors, which invests in mobile home parks, parking lots, apartments, offices, and single-family homes all across the US. He has 16 years of experience in educating investors to locate, acquire, and create “higher than average”  returns from the widely misunderstood niche of mobile home park investing. He shares his expertise through the Mobile Home Park Academy and also as the host of The Real Estate Investing for Cash Flow and The Mobile Home Park Investing podcasts, which have become two of the hottest real estate podcasts on iTunes.   Kevin told us about his background and how he first came to real estate investing. He talked about his family’s humble beginnings and the various things he did to make money so he could buy the things he wanted. Kevin described the relationships that first lead him to real estate investing, going to his first boot camp, how he felt coming out of it, and how he made his first deal at the age of 20.   I asked Kevin what he looks for in a good deal and he talked about the importance of sound economic fundamentals in a particular market. He also looks at the area’s policies concerning landlord and tenant laws to make sure they are win-win for both sides. His financial goals include the ability to hold each property and realize a certain level of return on investment initially and throughout the life of the investment.   I wanted to get the details about investing in mobile homes, so I asked Kevin specific questions about this niche of the real estate market. He said they own properties all over the country and normally purchase the entire mobile home complex, but a small percentage of their overall portfolio are individual units, as well.   Kevin discussed his history in real estate investing, starting with single-family and multi-family investments before the housing market crash in 2008. After his business was severely hit at this time, he took a couple of years to re-evaluate the type of property he wanted to invest in going forward. Kevin developed a relationship with a very successful mobile home investor and it really influenced the direction he decided to go next.   Kevin then talked about the specific advantages and challenges of being in the mobile home space. The points he makes about the perception of mobile homes, the issues involved with communities building new communities, and the progression of surrounding developments are super compelling and informative. We discussed some of the details concerning new investors and this type of investment, too.   Kevin described how mobile home parks are remotely managed, either from an office on the property itself or if the community is smaller, from a manager’s home office. These managers perform similar functions to managers of more standard types of properties - collecting rents, handing out late notices, and sometimes representing them in court, if necessary. They then have a district manager who the individual managers report to who regularly visits each property.   Having invested in all different types of real estate, this episode with super successful and exciting investor Kevin Bupp provides a ton of actionable and practical wisdom and I hope you join us!  Notable Quotes:   “Real estate found me - I didn’t find it. I am very blessed and grateful for that coming into my life because I don’t know what I would be doing otherwise.”  Kevin Bupp   “A real paycheck gave me a taste of that freedom, of paving my own way..” Kevin Bupp   “I did whatever I could to hustle and make a dollar.” Kevin Bupp   “At my first boot camp, I met a lot of people that I didn’t feel were any smarter than me who were doing big things in the real estate space.” Kevin Bupp   “The quickest way to get ignored is to ask for something without giving anything in return.” Mike Simmons   “Learning by first giving.” Mike Simmons   “We need to know we are comfortable with the worst-case scenario.” Kevin Bupp   “If you want to scale a business, you have to be open to where the deals are.” Kevin Bupp   “I went on a journey examining what went wrong, what don’t I want to do again, and how can I rebuild.” Kevin Bupp   “I don’t have that big of a stomach - I would rather buy something that is more tried-and-true.” Kevin Bupp   “It’s all about getting educated - you need to learn the intricacies of that investment vehicle.” Kevin Bupp   “Go network, get to know others that are in your space.” Kevin Bupp    “The seller objections for a mobile home park purchase are not that dissimilar to any other type of real estate.” Mike Simmons   “It’s a really weird transition where you say, ‘We need more people, but we can’t afford more people.’” Kevin Bupp    “I like to be proactive with my hiring.” Kevin Bupp   “The companies t

In this episode, I am joined by Kyle and Kirk Burnett who are twin brothers that invest in real estate together. Kyle lives in Cincinnati with his wife and two girls and has been investing in real estate for three and a half years. Kirk moved to the Dominican Republic five years ago to work as a missionary, where he met and married his wife. Now he works remotely full-time with the Burnett Group while still volunteering at the non-profit organization.   We talked about what they were both doing before getting into real estate investing and what roles each of them play now in their company. While their primary investing market is Cincinnati, they are currently working on expanding into another market. Kyle and Kirk discussed their respective roles, hiring help, and the details of remotely handling deals.   As Kyle and Kirk expand into this new market, they are going to test out the remote business model by utilizing less costly marketing strategies, such as texting and cold-calling, rather than direct mail.   I asked them to describe their business operations and any of the tools they are using to be more successful. Kyle and Kirk talked about a couple of the apps they use (see links for more information) and spoke about the importance of communication between team members. We also discussed the advantages and disadvantages of closing deals over the phone.   We talked about what we might do differently if we were starting over with a clean slate today. Kyle and I both said we would definitely start with flipping houses, but Kirk said he would begin by wholesaling so he could stay in the Dominican Republic and continue to work in ministry. Both said how valuable being part of a mastermind group is and how much they value the relationships and shared information.   I hope you will join me for this super down-to-earth and informative interview with the Brothers Burnett! Notable Quotes:   “We are going to go for some of the low-hanging fruit to prove the model.” Kirk Burnett   “We are full-steam ahead in the new market (regardless of the pandemic).” Kirk Burnett   “Something like the pandemic happening tests your business - are there holes in your game?” Mike Simmons   “Too many people are playing defense and are fear-based in what they are doing.” Mike Simmons   “Don’t make this an excuse not to be successful.” Mike Simmons   “Here ya go - boom. Quarantine, COVID, now what? You can curl up in a ball and die, or you can figure out your path forward.” Mike Simmons   “You have to get over your unreasonable or unfounded fears.” Mike Simmons   “Imagine the talent you can pull from if you open up your hiring to anywhere.” Mike Simmons    “I do enjoy the flipping aspect of things and I don’t think that is something that will ever go away.”  Kyle Burnett    “I love where I am at, and more importantly, I love the organization and ministry that I serve with and the kids I serve for. That is my number one priority and I wouldn’t do anything to sacrifice that.” Kirk Burnett   “You’re just good people, man.” Mike Simmons   “Take action. Now.” Kyle Burnett   “You don’t want to have the regret of not taking action.” Kyle Burnett   “Anybody that is ready to jump in, find a mastermind as quickly as possible.” Kyle Burnett Links: Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months 2nd Mile Missions Traction 12 Week Year 7 Figure Flipping Slack Whatsapp Google Drive Burnett Home Buyers 7FF Video Vault

In this episode, I talked with Palak Shah, who is the founder and owner of Open Spaces Capital that generates over $1M in revenue. She brought her knowledge and 17 years of experience in building systems, processes, and scaling from her corporate career in engineering leadership to fast track her real estate investing journey. In her first two years investing full-time, she purchased, renovated, rented, and refinanced properties creating a $4M rental portfolio. It is now her passion to empower other investors to pursue entrepreneurship through real estate investing to live a financially free life without taking undue risks or over-leveraging through her coaching program at Open Spaces Women.   We began, as we often do, talking about Palak’s background and what brought her real estate investing. She worked as a mechanical engineer in the corporate world for 17 years, traveling all over the world, loving her career, but when she had kids, everything changed. She had less and less time to spend with her family as she climbed the corporate ladder, and that left her feeling resentful and wanting something more. By the time she decided to leave her corporate job, she and her husband had already invested in a couple of rental properties, and she started to get her footing as an investor with those.   I asked Palak how she transitioned from her full-time job into real estate investing. She walked through how she analyzed the feasibility of working from home while raising her kids rather than remaining in her corporate position. We talked about how vital it is to have the support of your spouse as you move into a venture, especially when investing money.   Palak discussed different investing strategies she utilizes in her real estate market of Philadelphia. She primarily employs the BRRRR (buy, rehab, rent, refinance, repeat) Method to grow both her portfolio and passive income. Palak talked about different ways she ‘supercharges’ that particular strategy.   I asked Palak if she is at all interested in other types of real estate investing such as wholesaling or flipping and she talked about how that would require her to expand her skill-set which would defeat the whole purpose of why she got into REI in the first place - to spend more time with her children. She is willing to spend money to hire a reputable wholesaler, agent, or general contractor so that she doesn’t have to spend the time learning those tasks.   Then we discussed how Palak finds her deals. She starts off by saying it does take some time and effort to build a good deal pipeline, but it begins with cultivating good relationships. She works with wholesalers and has done several deals with a realtor, but she still often finds workable deals on the MLS. We talked about how important it is in working with realtors to train them to the specifics you are looking for as an investor and how you run your numbers.   Palak then walked us through a deal she did that ended up cash-flowing $3500 per month. She says she loves the property because so many positive things came out of doing that deal, such as completely revamping the neighborhood and even helping a neighbor to start a business.   Palak said that since they figured out this super-charged BRRRR strategy she really wants to help other investors, especially dual-income families trying to raise kids. She has started a coaching program and has a new cohort beginning June 6th that you can check out by visiting https://www.openspaceswomen.com.   I hope you will join me for this terrific and super-informative interview with brilliant engineer-turned-real estate investor, Palak Shah! Notable Quotes:   “I felt like a lie had been sold to me - you are told ‘get an education, establish your career, have kids, and everything will be fine,’ but it’s not like that because everything gets really complicated.” Palak Shah   “I wanted to make an impact and do something meaningful, but I wanted to do it on my own terms.” Palak Shah   “When it was time to figure out what I was going to do next, buy-and-hold investing seemed like the best option.” Palak Shah   “When we were a family with two incomes, we just thought of real estate investing as a way to park our money.” Palak Shah   “Working from home during the pandemic may open people’s eyes to the fact that they don’t want to go back to the corporate grind.” Mike Simmons   “Companies may need to take notice and be more flexible.”  Mike Simmons    “Is this why I gave up my life, so you could grow up and eventually quit your job?” Palak Shah’s Mother   “It is underrated how important it is to have a spouse that supports you.” Mike Simmons   “When it comes to investing, that is a couple’s decision to make together.” Palak Shah   “You have to figure out how to meet in the middle so you can achieve the best for your family.” Palak Shah   “There is just so much information o

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

For this episode, I interviewed friend and fellow 7 Figure Flipper Dana Mace. She begins by talking about her background and how she began in real estate investing. Dana said that because her step-dad owned one of the largest, privately-owned real estate businesses in Virginia, investing this way was just part of their family culture. She bought her first property at the age of 21 years old and hasn’t looked back since.   Dana was born and raised in Virginia Beach and this metropolitan area is where her business is focused. She and her husband started their newest company, Ubiquitous Properties, with the goal of scaling their flipping business to 60 each year. Dana explained that they picked the name Ubiquitous because it means “omnipotent; all over, everywhere” and that is their objective. We discussed the markets in our prospective areas and what an average deal sold for.   We talked about different strategies for getting on wholesalers’ lists and what was really successful for Dana in her market. She also shared with us how she evaluates her deals. Dana also gave us an idea of the key people she wants to have as part of her team so that she can scale up to a particular level.   Dana shared some of the struggles she has been dealing with this year, but how determined she is to push through and make her business succeed. In order to raise some capital, they pulled off a 7-day flip, and Dana describes what that experience was like.   Next, I wanted Dana to talk about why she started her YouTube channel and what its purpose is. She said that she thinks that the best way to scale something and to learn is just to talk about it. She had initially intended to show a lot of before and after house-flipping situations but was encouraged to put on more varied real estate content, as well.   Join me for this super fun, upbeat and honest interview with fiery real estate investor Dana  Mace! Notable Quotes   “I knew that real estate was the thing to go into.” Dana Mace “If anybody wants a tip, tell them to buy real estate.” Dana Mace’s Stepdad   “I have been very fortunate to have people surrounding me my whole life that know a lot about real estate so that I have been able to learn and grow.” Dana Mace   “I knew I wanted to do something cool with my life and something cool with my money.” Dana Mace   “I just wanted to flip it. I am just flip-happy sometimes.” Dana Mace   “No one understands completely how well you are doing because you are just a ninja and crushing it, just doing your thing and not making a big deal about it.” Mike Simmons   “When life “lifes” on you, what are you gonna do?” Dana Mace   “Life makes its move, and sometimes it feels like ‘Check.’ It is only ‘Checkmate’ when you give up.” Mike Simmons   “Find the people that are good at things that you are not.” Dana Mace   “The number one thing that has made the biggest difference in my business is getting out of my own way, realizing what I wasn’t good at, quit lying to myself about it, and bring someone in that could handle that for me.” Mike Simmons   “What does scaling really look like to me? Being better tomorrow, a little bit better than what you were today.” Dana Mace Links: 7 Figure Flipping Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months Dana’s YouTube Channel 7FF Video Vault

In this episode, I had the pleasure of interviewing multi-family property investor Teghena (Tenny) Tolofari. Prior to establishing Xsite Capital Investment in 2019, Tenny spent several years leading a major sales force in one of the fastest-growing financial services companies in America. He is also a Global Cyber Security professional supporting the likes of Boeing and Deloitte. Tenny’s major role is building relationships with brokers, property management companies, and investors to ensure the success of their property investment business. Tenny began by sharing the story of his humble beginnings as a child in Nigeria. He was initially very insecure about his abilities and did not do well in school. Because of the class system in Africa, Tenny realized the only way he could break out of the poverty of his youth was to immigrate to the United States. He made a bet with his mother in which she told him she would find the means to send him to graduate school in America if he could finish college with high honors. That motivated Tenny to get to work and accomplish this goal. Upon arriving in the States, Tenny began his graduate degree in Management Information Systems at Virginia International University and then transferred to Bowie State University. After graduation, even though he had great jobs and was able to bring his family over to the U.S. from Nigeria, he continued to ask himself, “What’s next?” He then began to learn about finance and it opened up a whole new world to him. Like so many other budding entrepreneurs, Tenny started self-educating by reading Rich Dad Poor Dad and Rich Dad’s Cashflow Quadrant by Robert Kiyosaki. He found that the financial service platform gave him the opportunity to start his own business and work with others with more experience. During this process, he met his partner, Leslie Awasom. After discovering they were reading many of the same financial freedom books, they began their working relationship by meeting at a brewery to play the Cashflow 101 Board Game. Because Leslie already had a real estate investing company, they decided to merge their business efforts in January of 2019. Tenny talks about how both he and Leslie were very invested in educating themselves and went to many financial and real estate boot camp and mastermind events. They decided they were going to focus their real estate ventures in the multi-family market and bought their first property, a 192 unit apartment building in Marietta, Georgia. This year, they are looking to expand these efforts. I asked Tenny how he feels when he hears people born in this country talk about how they don’t have the same opportunities as others and can’t afford to improve their situation. Tenny said it used to make him mad because he believes those are just excuses for not improving yourself, but then realized you can only be who you surround yourself with. We discussed how important it is to appreciate and use what you have and encircle yourself with good people. Tenny talked about the sacrifices he had to make, yet how driven he was to succeed. Tenny then explained what syndication is because that is what he primarily deals with in his business. He explained the difference between the two business classifications that they have, 503B and 503C, as far as dealing with investors. He also detailed why they decided to go into multi-family real estate investing rather than other options. He gave several examples of the advantages of owning multi-family including spreading out expenses such as management companies and adjusting for vacancies. Tenny also detailed their philosophy for finding and funding deals. We talked a lot about different ways to build relationships and how important this is in real estate investing. Tenny said one of the strategies that they have when trying to enter a new market is to talk to the property management companies first in order to get an in with the big brokers in that area.  I hope you join me as I get to know this dynamic investor and fantastic human being who built a successful real estate business from nothing with self-education, hard work, and desire!   Notable Quotes:   “You can only be what you surround yourself with.” Tenny Tolofari   “Everyone has the opportunity - it’s just how badly do you want it and what are you going to to to get there.” Mike Simmons   “I know what I want. I didn’t want that life, like so many of my friends back home, that are struggling to take care of their family.” Tenny Tolofari   “A lot of people don’t appreciate what they have. They just don’t understand.” Tenny Tolofari   “Gratitude and perspective are things that can help people change.” Tenny Tolofari   “People change due to two things: desperation or inspiration. Mine was both.” Tenny Tolofari   “I’d never done commercial real estate before… I just had to put myself out there and learn.” Tenny Tolofari   “And this is one of my superpowers that I know G

For this episode, I have invited four of my friends and fellow real estate investors to talk about their specific market experiences thus far during the COVID-19 pandemic. I asked each of them to introduce themselves and tell us a little bit about their business. Adam Rae lives in Colorado Springs and operates his business in southern Colorado. His business works in wholesaling, flipping, and rental properties. Andy McFarland lives in Utah and is also involved in wholesaling, flipping, and owns rentals in three different markets:  Salt Lake City Utah, Albuquerque, NM, and Indianapolis, Indiana. Jeremiah Johnson runs his business remotely from his home just outside of Denver and does primarily wholesaling in the markets of Wichita and Kansas City. Terry Burger does business in the markets of Atlanta Georgia and Greenville, South Carolina, performing primarily flips. We began by discussing our different states and markets and the limitations we are seeing with the varied stay-at-home orders and how that has immediately affected our businesses. With the US economy impacted so severely by the pandemic, we all shared our projections about the real estate market going forward. We also considered how the different facets of the business could be influenced by the response of buyers, sellers, and lenders. We talked about different ways we have all implemented some cost-saving measures internal to our businesses, as well. This episode is filled with “actionable intelligence” that will benefit investors of all kinds, in any state of business development.   Notable Quotes:   “History does not repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” Mark Twain   “Real estate is the local perception of a national opinion.”   “Our asset class is looking pretty sexy right now.”   “We’re not going back to living in tents anytime soon.”   “Real estate is a slow-moving animal and you aren’t going to miss the boat if you don’t buy something tomorrow.”   “I think your grandma’s economics still work here… live on less than you make, invest the difference, have cash reserves, have staying power.”   “I wrote down “actionable intelligence” - I absolutely love that and need to make it part of my vocabulary.”   “It is important to develop empathy and not ego through this.” Links: Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months 7FF Video Vault 7 Figure Flipping Adam Rae's Website Andy McFarland's Website Jeremiah Johnson's Website Terry Burger's Website

In this episode, I interviewed Will Brown, who is a 20-year-old real estate investor and tech entrepreneur who dropped out of college in May of 2018. Since then, he has run and built a team from scratch without any outside funds to go on and do over 90 deals and $900,000 in assignment fees in less than 2 years. He has since handed the reins of the wholesaling business off to a partner and is 100% focused on building his AI tech startup in Los Angeles. He is massively into personal development and supports others in carving their own path and creating themselves into who they want to be. Will began by summarizing what brought him to real estate. He and his mom attended a mastermind event in the Fall of 2016, but they didn’t have the money to invest, so that left a little bit of a bad taste in his mouth. In January 2017 he was playing a video game that let you buy and cash flow real estate, and he thought that learning about it for real would be a lot more interesting than sitting on his couch! His first google search on the subject led him to a BiggerPockets podcast, and there was no stopping him from there. Will started investing by cold-calling off of a probate list and putting himself in the proximity of other real estate investors. He offered his services, in the case of his first deals, by installing security systems in order to learn from other investors. We discussed how you can’t start any kind of relationship by asking for what you need first. Will talked about the need to know your skill-set, and the willingness to work hard for someone else without concern about the outcome in order to learn and grow. Will gave a detailed description of his first solo deal, and he describes the challenges he faced. He talked about the importance of having a great lawyer and how he managed different aspects of the deal that were new to him. He feels like he learned so much from this first deal and the mistakes they made will never be repeated. Will described how they find their deals, and talks extensively about building a team. He hired an assistant in the Fall of 2018 and was able to scale his business exponentially because he was able to spend his time more effectively. It helped him so much to have someone to help him do the things he wasn’t particularly strong at. Will provided the list of technology he currently uses to find deals and the listeners can find these links further down in these show notes. He speaks in-depth about his sales funnel and what he has found to most effectively convert leads to deals. I asked Will to explain what he is involved in now and how he found a partner in order to run his real estate business. He talked about paying his partner really well in order to keep him and put him on a tiered commission schedule in order to entice him to stay. His partner is now running the real estate completely on his own with minimal interaction with Will. Will is now completely invested in launching an artificial intelligence company in Los Angeles, which he conceived in a Cabo San Lucas hot tub while at a business mastermind event. His concept is grown from the question of how to provide resourcefulness to humanity because if you solve one problem, another is created. In order to address this, Will is working on creating AI personal assistants for people to help people in problem-solving and life balance. You have to check out this super energized interview with up-and-coming entrepreneur, Will Brown. He gives a ton of great advice based on a solid foundation of respectable values, along with being an extremely entertaining interviewee.   Notable Quotes:   “Not to say, do this: step, step, step. But it gave me the inspiration of ‘Hey, this guy has done this before,’ and it kept adding proof that yes, this is possible.” Will Brown   “I had the drive of setting up the blueprint of my life and laying out the foundation now, not only in acquiring assets but also learning to be a leader, learning to delegate, learning to fail forward, how do you do this, how do you do this... ” Will Brown   “You’ve got to love the process. You know, all the crap you have to go through to get it. If you are focused on the results, you are not going to get it.” Will Brown   “So what Will did is he basically decided he wanted to be around people who were doing real estate. And you offered your services, you offered to be of value to them. You didn’t say, ‘Show me how to do it, help me start my business, me, me, me.’ Instead, it was like, ‘what can I do for you?’ and then oh, by the way, I get to be around you when you do this.” Mike Simmons   “Number one, you are going to be uber-successful. Not because of whatever result you create there, but because of that mindset. That you are willing to give and give and give and give without any expectation in return, but knowing that it comes back.” Will Brown   “You had a problem and you figured it out. It’s like chess. It’s like, ‘Check’ and the

In this episode, I had the pleasure of interviewing buy-and-hold real estate investor Henry Washington. I asked Henry to kick things off by sharing his background and what brought him to this type of investing. He said that getting married and the talk of starting a family really changed his mindset about his lifestyle and how he was going to support a family. Like so many others, his real estate journey began by reading Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki.   Living and working in NW Arkansas, Henry started by just telling everyone he knew that he was a real estate investor and came upon his first deal this way. He then started a marketing campaign by sending postcards and found three more deals. I was really curious about Henry’s first marketing strategy and he explained that he wanted to stay away from what everyone else was doing in order to find a niche market.    Without having any background in construction, Henry talked about how he first started estimating rehab costs. He created a square-footage-based spreadsheet with costs for each discipline he found straight from Google searches. He eventually met and partnered with a guy who had a very strong construction background who proceeded to evaluate properties for him. This partnership allowed Henry to scale his business at a much faster rate.   I wanted to focus on the subject of partnerships with Henry for a bit and I asked him to talk about the elements that were contributing to the success of his partnership. He stressed the importance of shared values and vision and also attributes such as integrity, honesty, and the desire to help people. He also emphasized the importance of open communication in minimizing conflict and successfully working together.   Henry has his values listed on his website and I especially wanted him to define what he means by “servant leadership.” He talked about the importance of focusing on helping people and then success will follow. He believes the more you lead by serving, the more contagious that behavior will be. He recognizes the deals he is getting is because people have a situation and it is vital to him to meet them where they are and make the situation beneficial to both parties.   We then shifted gears to talk about lessons learned by dealing with contractors. Henry talked about the importance of having a detailed scope of work upfront so that he did not waste time talking with contractors that were never going to take the job anyway because of the state of housing market. He also worked extensively with his partner on honing his cost spreadsheet so that he could basically dictate the price of any construction work. Henry talked about the importance of keeping his valued contractors happy so he could establish long-term relationships.   I know that many real estate investors struggle with finding deals, so this was the next topic I asked Henry about. He said his most lucrative deals are currently coming from his lead generation website that he runs a Google ad words campaign on.   As far as Henry’s advice for people just starting in this business, he said after someone has done their due-diligence of self-educating, he advises them to focus their resources on figuring out their market and what a good deal looks like before deciding on a lead-generating strategy. The next step is learning how to properly evaluate properties once they have leads. Henry is convinced that focusing on these three things in order to buy a good deal, is the key to success in this business. Using these principles, Henry continues to grow his business while still having a full-time job in the IT industry.    Henry is a great guy, with a ton of character and depth, so I hope you join us for this newest edition of Just Start Real Estate!   Notable Quotes   “I never saw real estate as something I couldn’t do - I just didn’t know what I didn’t know.” Henry Washington   “Being a landlord is easy. I couldn’t fix it if I wanted to… I gotta call a guy.” Henry Washington   “You heard what people were doing and decided to do something different.” Mike Simmons   “The scale you can get when you have more people helping you - there is a multiplier there.” Henry Washington   “You learn really quick in this business, it is not a real estate business, it is a people business.” Henry Washington   “I need to be a solution to your problem.” Henry Washington   “It is funny how it works out - the people that focus on helping folks end up having more financial success.” Mike Simmons Links: 7 Figure Flipping Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months Rich Dad Poor Dad BiggerPockets Pro Member Henry on Instagram Henry’s Website 7FF Video Vault

In this episode, I interview buy-and-hold real estate investor Erin Helle. Erin begins by giving us her background and what brought her to this type of investing. She began her career in the military, first attending West Point Academy and then serving on active duty. Because her husband was also in the service, they knew that both of them being on active duty would be short-lived as they planned to start a family. She resigned her commission after about eight years of active duty to participate in the Army Reserves but was released when the Army discovered she had a heart condition. Upon leaving active duty, she began to explore real estate as a way to earn an income and be present for her family.   Since she did not have her own team at that point, Erin decided that any property requiring rehab wouldn’t work for the first go-around. Erin’s first deal, in May of 2018, was purchasing a newly constructed house, still in the process of being built. What she got was a completely rent-ready property, where she went directly from closing to meet her new tenant with keys.   Here I talked about how I had never heard of anyone getting into this industry by paying full-asking price for a newly constructed house, found on the MLS, but that is what is so great about real estate! There are so many ways to do it and be successful.   For her second deal, Erin pursued a flip property, which she and her dad did much of the work themselves. She talks about having learned so many lessons having to do with building relationships with contractors, budgeting, planning, and especially the selling process. The ability to close on the finished property proved to be a little difficult because of the demographics of the area that it was in. Erin knew she had so much to learn, felt like she had exhausted avenues for learning, and thought just getting in there was the best way to move forward.   Having a construction team upfront was one of the biggest lessons she learned from this project. When trying to contract certain aspects of this project out, she found that contractors would either not show up to bid the job, or would be awarded the job and still not show up. Erin also found that some portions of the job were way more costly than she anticipated and had budgeted for. Learning the timing and order of how the individual construction tasks were performed was also very enriching for her.   I then asked Erin what her primary investment strategy is and how she thought the current COVID-19 situation might affect that. She said she doesn’t plan to do any flips soon, but that she is always looking and open for new opportunities. She doesn’t think her rental market is going to be adversely affected by the quarantine situation and doesn’t think she will have to use any type of government assistance that may be available to her. I also shared my thoughts about this unusual situation and I talked about a video I saw that compared the real estate market now to the housing crisis in 2008 and how it was affected after 9/11.   I also wanted to find out how Erin finds her deals, so that is what we discussed next. She talked about the importance of KPIs (key performance indicators) and doing them consistently to see results. We discussed how her business model is more relationship-based than through paid marketing.   Erin then talked about the challenges of running her business remotely and how important it is to have a good team in place in each investment location. We talked about the necessity of a checks-and-balances system to keep everyone on task and doing good work. I commented that I could have an hours-long podcast on how to find, hire, train, and maintain a good team!   In regard to this, Erin talked about the systems she has in place to run her business. She said it is very simple, driven mostly by spreadsheets and contracts. This helps her to keep both herself and her teams on task and the expectations are very clear from the beginning.   I asked Erin what she would do differently if she could wipe the slate clean and use all the lessons learned to start her real estate business again, and she said she would not do anything differently. She believes strongly that any set-back she has experienced has contributed to the person she is and the business she is running.   Join Erin and me for a great interview featuring super actionable advice on both buy-and-hold and find-and-flip real estate investing! Notable Quotes   “Sometimes the more you know, you can get in your own way.” Mike Simmons   “I learned what a release of lien meant in that [first flip property], so that was huge.” Mike Simmons   “It’s just resourcefulness, dealing with the situation and figuring out how to get through it.” Mike Simmons   “If you have the will to get there, you will figure out a way.” Mike Simmons   “Water finds a path.” Mike Simmons   “[Flipping] is not what I’m supposed to b

In this episode, Coach Mike Venos joins me to talk about several life lessons he has learned through over 35 years of coaching kids of all ages. Mike has been the Head Swim Coach at Brother Rice High School for 22 years, Mercy High School for 4 years, and Beachwood Recreation summer club for 17 years. In the time that he has served as the head coach for these teams, they have captured a combined nine Class A / Division I State Championships and 24 Catholic League Championships. He has coached 14 individual and 15 relay-team State Champions, over 50 All-Americans, and two United States Olympic Trial qualifiers.    Mike has received many local, state, and national accolades during his very successful career, is a member of the Catholic League Hall of Fame and will be inducted into the Brother Rice Hall of Fame this spring. In addition to coaching, he teaches Theology at Brother Rice.   Due to everything currently going on in the world concerning the COVID-19 pandemic, my goal with this show is to glean some wisdom for people in dealing with challenges. I started the interviewing by asking Mike why he thinks some people rise to challenges and some shrink from the same opportunities. Through interacting with his students and athletes he said you find out how much you can push them, the kids that are willing to go the extra mile, who is hungry to succeed, and who is born with innate ability take on difficulties. He said certainly these attributes can be innate to a person’s personality, or sometimes can be drawn out of them.   We discussed how sports are such a great forum for allowing people to make mistakes and learn from them. We also discussed the role of parenting in producing people who are more resilient human beings and how different parenting is today then it was when we were kids.   We backed up a bit to explore Mike’s background. He told me his dad was in sales and his mom was a Religious Education teacher, and how he got into swimming because his dad told him he wasn’t going to sit on the couch waiting to play his primary sport, which was baseball. Even though joining the swim team was not his first choice, he learned to love the sport for several reasons. He said it is a sport that you absolutely get out of it what you put into it, and because it is individual in nature, there is no hiding behind a talented teammate. With his love for the sport, he began coaching, which very naturally led him into teaching. He talked about how his upbringing helped develop creativity, which helps him find different ways of interacting with and reaching his athletes and students.   I then wanted to explore some of Mike’s coaching philosophies. He had given me several famous quotes he lives by and we proceeded to walk through those. First, he said that it is very important to have a philosophy and not just a plan based on Bear Bryant’s quote, “Show class, have pride, and display character. If you do, then winning takes care of itself.” That led to a lengthy discussion about having your values as the foundation for everything you do and then formulating a plan from that core. A person’s ethics and morals don’t change based on circumstances, but if you make a plan before examining what you believe in, that could lead to dishonorable or damaging decision-making. We discussed how important a person’s character and integrity it is and how much easier it is dealing with people of virtue.   Coach John Wooden famously said, “Things work out best for those who make the best of how things work out.” We discussed the importance of not trying to control the uncontrollables. Mike said that sometimes finding out what you can and cannot control can be difficult, but it vital to keeping your stress level low, enjoying life and succeeding. We discussed how appropriate this message to our current world situation and the wide range of people’s reactions to social distancing and quarantine mandates.   Coach Venos then talked about trusting the process and his own personal motto of “It’s not about winning but being the best” which is born out of Pat Summit’s famous quote of, “Our emphasis is on execution, not winning.” Regardless of your business, it is important to stick with your philosophy and goals, be flexible when required, but trust in your abilities, in the work you have put in, and that things are going to work out. We need to take the perspective that life is a journey, keeping the big picture in front of you, even when faced with obstacles.    We talked about the New England Patriots system and how they built a dynasty on trusting the process, even while not having the most talented players and having to adapt to different strengths.   The quote of, “Get comfortable being uncomfortable” attributed to the Navy Seals led us into a conversation of the Seal officers we know and many of their admirable qualities, especially in times of challenge. The ability to rise to the curre

In this episode, I am joined by Chris Arnold. Chris is the Co-Founder of COSA Investments, one of the largest wholesale companies in the DFW Metroplex. COSA is operated and managed by a US virtual team which has allowed Chris to run his company while living in Tulum, Mexico. He is also the founder of Arnold Elite Realty which is a cutting-edge boutique brokerage consisting of a team of seasoned agents. Most recently Chris has launched his REI Radio coaching program. This program is designed to teach real estate investors the marketing stream that everyone knows about, but NO ONE is doing!   Chris contends that having a real estate business can afford people freedom of time, freedom of resources, and freedom of location. Even though he started traditionally by representing buyers, Chris soon branched out and has become very successful in one of the most cutthroat markets in the country.   As we are currently in a sellers’ market, the real estate business is very competitive, but people who are building their businesses now are in great shape and poised to really thrive. This is why I wanted to talk to Chris about his business processes and how he promotes and grows his business.   I asked Chris to explain to me his business flow from the point of when they first get a lead. He used the analogy of the bus. You have all the seats on the bus that need to be filled (referring to positions that need to be filled in your company), but as the boss you have your butt in each one. As a leader, Chris said quickly find that you need to “fire” yourself as quickly as possible from each seat by finding a more qualified person for that particular spot. This can be humbling, but is necessary for him to be able to operate his business at the visionary level.   Chris stressed that they have had to develop really good systems for every aspect of their company’s process, and he pointed out that EVERYTHING is a system, even a routine as simple as getting up in the morning. Some processes they have implanted which have proven to be very successful are answering calls live and not allowing them to go to voicemail, having their prospecting assistants pre-qualify leads, and upon discovering a hot lead, the call is transferred automatically to the acquisition manager. They do this using Grasshoper software and you can find the website link at the conclusion of these show notes. Chris said they do not contract any properties without first doing an inspection, so the acquisition manager will recommend which ones need to be scheduled. They employee their own inspector, so the whole process can be complete within 48 hours. Whenever possible, the acquisition manager will complete the deal over the phone, again to decrease time delays and increase scalability.   When I expressed surprise at their company’s ability to close deals over the phone, Chris said it all starts with belief. People in this business need to overcome the myth that you have to meet in person and begin to develop their skills for connecting with people over the phone. Of course, he says it is not black and white and that older people may need a handshake and smile, but even if 50% of their business is done over the phone, that markedly increases their scalability. They employ two full-time people responsible for closings and pushing deals through the title companies, and a director of dispositions who is solely responsible for re-selling properties. All of this allows them to boast of a contract to close period of 23-25 days, when most companies are more in the range of 50-75 days.   I then asked Chris how they are finding your leads and he talked about the four marketing pillars they concentrate on: online marketing, direct mail, co-wholesaling, and their most effective strategy, radio ads. Chris pointed out some interesting facts about radio ads including how there is virtually no competition in this medium, it is cutting-edge for finding property, it is a trusted vehicle for advertising, and fits well with their target audience of consumers 50+ years old. They have found that when you advertise on radio you have instant credibility and achieve something akin to celebrity status. After quite a lot of split-testing, Chris has found that they get far more leads with the ads he has recorded himself versus using someone well-known, with a recognizable voice.   I asked Chris to tell me about some of the lessons they have learned about radio advertising in the nine years they have been using it. He said the biggest thing is that people automatically assume they cannot afford it, but like with real estate, they do not pay retail for airtime. Chris says the key is to do research and find the pertinent reports on a station in order to negotiate effectively. Like anything else, being an intelligent buyer is incredibly important.   We then discussed other ways of finding deals, including co-wholesaling. We compared our experiences and stre

In this episode, I’m joined by Andy McFarland. Andy is not only a successful investor and mentor, but also a close personal friend. He and I have traveled together as members of the 7 Figure Flipping Mastermind, and his stellar character and willingness to encourage others to succeed have aided him in his journey to becoming a self-made expert in the world of real estate.   I first asked Andy to talk about how the world of investing has changed in the last 5 years, the strategies he’s implemented, and the lessons he’s learned. First, and most importantly, Andy emphasizes the necessity of authenticity within the business. This applies not only to your customers, but your employees, or as Andy calls them, his team. We discuss the (understandable) tendencies of newcomers who are looking for that hidden gem or technique that is sure to help them rise to the top, forgetting that being genuine is what really ensures success.    Andy talks about the dangers of cramming sales techniques down the throats of your customers and how that always ends in disaster.  Of course, profits matter. Sales matter. But people matter much, much more.   In this business, it’s not uncommon to have high turnover rates. Andy and I agreed that our teams look much different than they did in the beginning, and more often than not, for good reason. People tend to move on to new avenues and adventures, and what was right for them at a previous time may not be in the future. Andy’s business and team have both changed in big ways since their origin, and he’s grateful for the lives he’s been able to touch every step of the way.    Andy also advises leaders to never forget to stay current. He told the story of his struggle to push through a period of frustration with his team, who wasn’t implementing certain strategies he was advising. They were never unreceptive, but he noticed that they weren’t attempting the encouraged methods. In hopes of understanding their resistance, he went back into the field himself and discovered quickly that the game had changed. His employees had adapted to the new industry, and he had failed to keep up. When he began reconnecting with sellers, he began to feel the benefits of this human element for the first time in a long time.   We then dove deep into the blessings of what we do, and why we do it. As a man of faith, Andy believes that God has used his position in this business to meet true, human needs. He recalled a incident of a seller who was in deep, financial decline. Some investors, Andy says, may have been tempted to walk away from the deal, fearful that the investment wouldn’t be worth their while. Others may have even taken advantage of this man’s desperation. However, Andy chose to show grace and compassion. He listened to the man, and worked alongside him to make a plan that would help him to pick himself up. Though the money made from this investment wouldn’t be outrageous, humanity took precedence and Andy was able to bless this family in a way that only he could, simply because he took the time to listen. We ended the discussion on the issue of comparison. Many step into this business with a hope of having more time for what matters to them: time with loved ones, things you enjoy, etc. However, they fall into the never-ending circle of wanting more simply for the sake of having more. When people have a 1 million dollar company, they then want a 10 million dollar company, and then a 100 million dollar company, and so on. Making more money almost always leads to spending more money if you’re not wise, and won’t bring satisfaction like knowing that you live a life loving others well and impacting them positively.   Andy is the guy in our 7 Figure Flipping Mastermind group that we call “the rabbit” because people are always chasing after him for the big secret of success, or simply because his realness is so attractive. Give this episode a listen to hear his best-advised tactic, which really isn’t a tactic at all.    For more information on our 7 Figure Flipping Mastermind group, feel free to contact me and I’ll make sure to get you more information. Notable Quotes: “What have I learned over the years? The people matter. The people matter in all aspects of the business. Your business is your people.” -Andy McFarland   “What I want most is have an impact on people’s lives. Not a thousand people’s lives. I want to have an impact on one person’s life, one at a time. And if that happens a thousand times great. -Andy McFarland   “There are few people I know in the industry who truly do right by people intentionally and for no gain… or leverage. I think people need to hear that.” -Mike Simmons   “I’m not at all saying don’t try to make money and grow your business, because you should, because you can do more good that way. But I think building a company that provides income for those who work for you feels better than closing a d

Do you need help investing in real estate? Do you understand how to grow, scale, and profitably build your company into the business that you want it to be? You’re in luck! I’ve been working for the past several years with some of the most successful real estate investors in the industry and from around the country. Names such as Andy McFarland and Bill Allen, along with myself, have built a program called “Seven Figure Flipping.” This exclusive mastermind and coaching program is designed to get you and your business to the next level. Interested in finding out more? Email me at [email protected] with the subject line “help,” and we’ll get on a call together to see if this program is a good fit for you and your business. In this episode, I interview Susan Lassiter-Lyons. Susan is an investor, entrepreneur, author, and investment coach to assist people in creating wealth. She’s the CEO of Lassiter Publishing Group, a financial publisher specializing in income and growth opportunities. If you’re looking to succeed, read Susan’s book Getting the Money. She reveals her step-by-step approach to getting money. This is not for people who can quickly get money from lenders, this is for the start-up entrepreneur who is interested in building their capital and wealth, but they don’t have the start-up money. Susan is very candid in her methods and leaves nothing to spare in her book. She explains, in detail, how to grow from a one-person team to a larger company and how to find and secure the money for your company to thrive. Susan first dives into money lending and how you should view money lenders. Don’t look at money lenders as an all-powerful entity. Look at them as personal investors - they are sharing with you their money because they can’t do the work you are doing. Check your mindset when you are asking for money - how are you viewing yourself concerning the person who is investing in you and your company? Next, she moves into identity and how many flippers don’t want others to know they are flipping. We call this the “secret identity.” Listen in on how my wife and I were caught flipping houses at Sunday dinner with my family. Listen in to find out how being passionate and excited about your company will create energy around you and make others want to invest in your company. Learn about how you can leverage yourself and your level of expertise into larger syndications. Find out about the concept of being “big time” on how to be able to “shoot higher” with your business to be able to scale and grow.

In this episode I discussed the 10 things every successful real estate investor knows. These are things that you should know as well. Please check this episode out because these are all things that I have learned over the last 10 years and have spent the last 4 or 5 years teaching other people to help them reach their goals!

In this episode I interview someone who I respect quite a bit, Nate Johnson. Nate is an incredible businessman and the COO of Blackjack Real Estate, the company owned by my good friend Bill Allen. Nate runs the operation of that company and is a phenomenal operational mind and is responsible for helping Bill grow that company from $1,000,000 to $3,000,000 in just 3 short years. Nate has tons of experience and insight into what it takes to affectively and successfully grow a real estate investing company.This is not an interview that you can afford to miss!

In this episode I talked to Jesse Trujillo. Jesse is a real estate investor in San Diego. I met him in October of this year at Flip Hacking Live which was held in San Diego. Jesse is a very smart investor and a great guy, but what is really interesting about his business is that he will do 80 deals this year (flips) Without spending a dime on marketing!! You have to listen to this interview, especially if you're struggling to find deals and worried that you don't have enough of a marketing budget to grow your company. Jesse blows all of those myths out of the water!

In this episode is all about building the business that you want. Not the business that other people have told you you should want. Every decision we make in our companies have in effect on us, our free time, and ultimately the business that we end up with. I want to make sure that everyone listening to this podcast is clear on what they want and what that means when it comes to building their business

This episode was all about my experience during the Flip Hacking Live week in San Diego! This was an incredible event that featured dozens of highly successful real estate investors, and also some incredible national speakers that blew everyone's mind! There is no week of the year that makes me more excited about the next 12 months then Flip Hacking Live. I'm going to breakdown some of the highlights and tease some of the upcoming features that I will be having on this podcast!

Today I'm talking to some incredibly intelligent real estate investors. Thery are primarily wholesalers, and have an incredible system for generating leads. Not only are they generating high margin leads, But they are closing most of their deals over the phone! These guys take analytics and business metrics to a new level. They have managed to transform their business into a highly profitable machine that allows them to not only kill it in their market, but in remote markets as well!

In today's interview I talked to Tyler Jensen. Tyler is a friend of mine and an incredible real estate investor. He is a pure house flipper, and has transformed his flipping business and created an ultra efficient flipping machine that is now been able to do a full rehab project in 7 days! That is a unbelievable accomplishment and I'm excited for him to breakdown how he gets it done. You don't want to miss this!