Real Estate Investing Mastery Podcast

I absolutely don’t want to knock people who are struggling right now. But if you’re interested in never receiving a stimulus again, I want to help you. There’s a reason we call a job, a J-O-B, or Just Over Broke. Stop living paycheck-to-paycheck. Stop grinding for that W-2 money. Let’s lay out the exact plan you need to follow to guarantee yourself $75,000 a year in income. I want you to be brilliant at the basics, so let’s not overcomplicate everything you need to do to succeed in real estate. I’m going to focus on the simple things you can focus on no matter what direction the market is going in, and I’m going to include a super simple marketing plan that will build your lead pipeline.If you’re ready to make yourself “stimulus ineligible” going forward, you should be closing between one and two deals a month. Working backward, that means you need to make 30 offers for every deal that closes, and that means you need to make 3 offers a day. This is completely doable and totally within your control. We’re going to break down what you need to do on a very granular level so you can see what you can control to make this happen.Leave no lead behind in your quest to change your future in 2021. And stay tuned for part 2 where we make it even easier for you to crush your financial goals.What's Inside:—Working backwards, you only need to talk to five sellers and make three offers every single day.—Don’t worry about filling your day up with a second job; we’re talking about all of the different ways to outsource your marketing.—How I use Zillow to figure out a rough estimate for lease options, owner financing, cash offers, and tenant buyers. —Your speed to income is directly proportional to the number of offers that you make.

Even though Gavin and I offer coaching programs, we know that some of you don’t need a coach. What you really need is someone to help you set up your systems so that you can plug yourself into it and take off.Gavin is taking half of what he does for his one-on-one clients and offering it as a standalone program. If you’re looking for a better system or any system at all, connect with Gavin. You can hash out where you are and where you want to go, so he can help you fill in the missing pieces to get your real estate business moving along.Gavin is going to ask you questions like:—What is your situation?—Are you overwhelmed?—Are you stuck somewhere?—What are you having trouble with?And you’re going to work together to get you unstuck. Make sure you like and subscribe to Gavin’s channel for more of his current deals. And be sure to check out his website for building out a real estate system.What's Inside:—Fill in the gap in the middle of where you are and where you want to be with a system with Gavin.—How Gavin’s new website gives you personalized one-on-one attention to give your business a boost.—Why a system will help you scale up faster.

This podcast was your chance to ask Matt Theriault and me anything about creative financing, and we gave it to you straight. From questions about evicting tenants to whether the bank will repossess a subject-to loan, we clarify any confusion you might have about how creative financing works. If you’ve invested in a few real estate courses, it can be easy to get overwhelmed with all of the information coming at you. I want you to find the answer to your questions today, and then go out there and start talking to sellers.Different markets are going to require different strategies. While Texas won’t allow sandwich lease options, that doesn’t mean that creative financing strategies are completely off the table. It works that way across the country; creative financing gives you options to meet whatever situation you come across in markets all over the country.How do you find subject-to homes? I used to go through list providers looking for homes that had been bought in the last 3-5 years with FHA or VA loans because I knew they had little to no equity. And then on top of that I’d just layer some additional motivation, like needing to move, and you have a list of people who might agree to a subject-to.Building a real estate side hustle while you’re still working a full-time job can make marketing harder. After all, how are you going to answer the phone when your boss is standing next to your desk? Just a short phrase on your postcards inviting sellers to call your toll free number 24 hours a day is a simple solution. People have no problem leaving a message, especially if they can leave it any time of the day.Do I prefer Trulia, Zillow, or Redfin? How do I build my own lists? What’s the best marketing for lead gen right now? I’m laying down the knowledge for free in this episode, so don’t miss it.|What's Inside:—Which is better for your real estate strategy: Regular tenants or tenant-buyers?—Because this is a marketing business and not a real estate business, you have to learn to talk to sellers.—If you’re new to real estate and you’re just completely overwhelmed, this is the one thing you absolutely have to focus on.

What is it that you want your life to look like? What’s your ultimate outcome? When you have this vision fixed in your mind, it’ll help you push through the mental barriers you and maybe even the people around you will try to throw up constantly. Gavin says deciding on your ultimate “why” is also going to help you fix on a strategy that moves you toward your goals.Some real estate investors want that huge team all set up in a swanky office, and others want to stay lean and mean throughout their whole careers. What you decide on is totally fine, but it’s going to influence your real estate investing strategy. Teams build different portfolios than a one-man crew. Do you want to be a buy and hold investor? Maybe a fix and flipper? Or some other flavor of real estate investor? No matter what you decide, there are two questions that Gavin and I feel every real estate investor needs to ask and answer for themselves:—What is your “why”?—What is your exit strategy?In the beginning, you’ll need to decide if you have more time or money. Because whatever you have more of is going to help you determine your strategy too. When we get down deep in the trenches of real estate, we have to have a solid hold on our “why” so that we can make decisions that help us build the kind of life we want. What’s Inside:—How to match up your marketing with your real estate investing strategy.—Gavin talks about how you have to adjust your marketing if you have more time than money. —Why Gavin thinks having a solid “why” is going to keep you going when things are tough. 

Don’t get sidetracked by the news about the retail market. Matt Theriault and I want you to focus on off-market conditions because that’s where real investors play. When we market to sellers, we’re looking for disease, divorce, distress, death, debt, and all of the other reasons that homeowners get desperate to sell.If you’re not marketing correctly in a distressed market, you’re missing these sellers. That’s why Matt wants you to separate on-market data from off-market decisions, and he shares some of his insights for how that will play out in the next year as the market pretty closely mimics the 2002 real estate market.Are there situations when a different kind of creative financing works better? Or just makes more sense? Matt and I spin out some scenarios based on our experience that should help you see the flexibility that creative financing offers distressed sellers.A big question you’re going to keep coming up against is: Do you need equity in a home to buy it from a seller? Depending on the market, I say that if it cash flows, then it doesn’t matter how much equity it has. Supply is still down so much that real estate investors are going to be able to create deals that they couldn’t have even dreamed of after 2008.Stay tuned for part 2 when we continue to answer your questions about navigating financing in the 2021 real estate market.What's Inside:—When should you use the three option letter of intent?—Why you need to separate on-market data with off-market decisions.—When house cash flows, it doesn’t matter how much equity it has.—Adjusting your marketing will help you continue to find people who haven’t listed their homes yet but are struggling with the 7 Ds.

Do you think direct mail is dead? Rick Ginn thinks you’re wrong.Disruptive marketing like texting and cold calling is being legislated out because the public hates them so much. But direct mail is still a legal and acceptable way to get in front of a lead.Rick has spent tens of thousands of dollars testing his Rapid Offer System. He wanted a unique and creative marketing system that engaged prospects and gave him a chance to make an offer on their house. Every response Rick got to his postcards boiled down to: “Take me off your list” and “What’s your offer?”.That’s when he had his “Aha!” moment.Rick created the Rapid Offer System to help real estate investors improve their marketing and learn how to talk to sellers confidently. You can follow the links to the bare bones of ROS if you want to get started on your own, or you sign up for the whole course which includes:—5 modules—Weekly live training—Deep dive into seller psychology—Personal CoachingFor anyone who puts in an order with me, Rick will send you a free t-shirt for getting in on the ground floor. I’m not saying you need to hurry to purchase the ROS system, but I do want you to know that early adapters always beat out the competition. Get your Rapid Offer System up and running before everyone else realizes that direct mail is not dead.What's Inside:—The biggest thing you need to understand about sellers is that they want to be engaged.—Offering too little and too much is going to affect your response rate, but Rick has some tips for deflecting the negative engagement for a seller that’s insulted by your offer.—The writing is on the wall for certain unpopular forms of lead gen marketing, so don’t be caught unsurprised when you need to pivot away from them.

In part 1 of my conversation with Michael Jake, he laid on me a lot of the mistakes that he made through the last recession. If you want to know how to navigate through this next recession, be sure and check out that podcast. Part 2 is all of his advice for newer real estate investors who are learning the ropes. Michael’s been rubbing elbows with real estate legends for years, and he drops names and resources like crazy, so if you’re ready to take your real estate education to the next level, listen up.Eventually, everyone settles on a real estate strategy that they love because it fits their needs and their market. For Michael, who’s in a market with a large military population, that strategy is buying single family houses. At the height of his investing career, he had over a hundred houses, and he and his wife managed them by themselves. Even if you’re just a beginner, you need to understand property management. Michael drops his favorite tools for keeping track of his properties and his tenants.This piece of advice is for anyone who finds themselves underwater: Even if you’ve ill-timed the market, if you hold onto the house for long enough, it’ll rebound in price. You need to worry less about the equity of a home and think about the bigger picture. As your tenant is paying down the principal, you’ve got depreciation, amortization, and growth as factors that need to be considered over just the straight income.And finally, one of Michael’s favorite investing strategies is using a Roth IRA to purchase real estate. There are strict rules around what you can and cannot do, so check out any of the seminars, books, or gurus that Michael recommends. If you’ve got a creative deal that you’d like a fresh set of eyes on, connect with Michael on his website.What’s Inside:—By having less houses, he has more cash flow simply because there are less expenses and less maintenance to deal with.—Michael’s criteria for a subject-to deal.—How does he protect himself from the mistakes he made in the last housing downturn?’—You don’t want the cheapest home with the income factor; you want the house with the biggest growth factor. 

The best investors to learn from right now are those who’ve gone through at least one downturn because they’re the ones who are prepared for the next one. When the country slid into the Great Recession, Michael Jake owned 78 houses, and he was sure he was recession-proof in a military town. Almost overnight in 2008, Michael’s houses dropped 20% in equity. And that’s when he started to get worried. He tried to keep tenant buyers in the house and hold on tight. He bought credit repair kits for his tenants and his wife taught finance classes all in an effort to get the tenant buyers over the finish line. Gradually, Michael and his wife started to change their management style, moving from rent-to-own to a more traditional property management. They started charging less money, but went to a much more rigorous application process. Tenants, Michael says, are like employees. They’re just another point of leverage in your business. If you want to bring in rockstar tenants, then you need to learn how to attract them to your properties. Today, Michael's’ tenants stay on average for 4 ½ years, and they have less wear and tear on their homes. Knowing now what he does about real estate, there are a lot of things Michael would’ve done differently to make it through the crash. He was so focused on the drop in house prices that he forgot to factor in how depreciation and a buy-and-hold strategy far outweigh a temporary price drop. Pay attention to how his real estate philosophy has changed as he’s matured. And don’t forget to tune in for part 2 of our conversation.What's Inside:—Credit repair kits, classes, and mentoring are just a few of the ways that Michael tried to help his tenants qualify and purchase the homes they were living in. —Michael’s partnership with his wife means all of his ideas are grounded in reality. —Why Michael completely changed the kind of tenant buyer he put in his houses, and how that’s helped slow down his turnover rate.—Dealing in a market saturated with VA loans and transient military families, Michael has extensive experience with sellers who have no equity, but who must sell.

Brandon Turner is passionate about teaching others how to invest in real estate so that they can build their dream life. As the author of several real estate investing books and as a podcast host, he’s created reliable content for years that real estate investors turn to on the website Bigger Pockets. But after a conference with some friends, he realized that he needed to level up his business.There are dozens and dozens of ways to become a millionaire in real estate, but so many investors get stuck on trying out every niche. As a result, they’re spread too thin to really dig down and create a scalable system that builds wealth. Brandon decided to start investing in mobile home parks, not because he thought it was the absolute best niche, but because he was ready to focus on one segment of the market.Starting with the big picture and working backwards, Brandon realized that he needed to build a syndication to meet his goals, but he’d never done it before. Some of you might be in this same spot, so listen carefully to how Brandon found the right people to help him raise $5 million. Once he’d bought some property with the fund, he went back to work to raise $10 million more so he could keep growing.Brandon never stops teaching. This episode is full of advice for new and seasoned investors, plus Brandon drops the names of books and websites that he’s read or written that will help real estate investors with their marketing, investing strategies, property management, or raising hard capital. Do yourself a favor and connect with Bigger Pockets for more of Brandon’s knowledge.What’s Inside:—Leaving Washington state pushed Brandon out of his comfort zone and forced him to strategically design a real estate business that didn’t need him in the day-to-day decisions.—Rather than spreading yourself over a half-dozen different kinds of real estate, Brandon advises you to focus quickly on just one. —With no experience in joint syndication, Brandon lays out the steps he took so that he could raise his first $5 million.—The best (and worst) real estate deal that taught Brandon why he’s worth more than $10 an hour. 

Derek Dombeck loves creative deals, so when a friend offered him a defaulted note that he wanted to unload, he jumped at the chance to be in first position. For only $4500, he was poised to take possession of a 4-bedroom, 2-bathroom house on an acre of land in Wisconsin.But this wouldn’t be the Deals Gone Bad series if something terrible wasn’t about to happen. The first hint of trouble was that the owner didn’t want to meet Derek at the house. He chalked this up to a slight hoarder problem, and he ordered the dumpsters to get ready to clean out the house. Then he found out about the back taxes. And then he got into the basement.This house had $125,000 in ARV, and the back taxes equaled about $18,000. It was a solid deal. But it wasn’t hooked up to city water or sewer. In fact, the ten inches of water in the basement indicated that it wasn’t hooked up to anything really. And the contractor Derek had hired to clean out the house refused to touch the floating furnace and open pit of sewer.The work Derek had to put into this house to get it ready for anyone else to buy it was tremendous, but he couldn’t have done it without his local networks. We talk about how much stronger an investor can be when they are plugged into their local REA or mastermind. If you’re not a part of a real estate investor network, then you absolutely should stop putting it off. Newer investors have no idea what it’s like to have the real estate market go south, and they’re going to need that mentoring to get through the next year.If you’re in Wisconsin, or you’re interested in Derek’s Generations of Wealth cruise in 2022, send him a message at [email protected]'s Inside:—Why you want to have an open relationship with the town treasurer, tax department, or city hall.—How to spot a hoarder in 2 easy steps, and why you need to be prepared for the worst.—The importance of a local REA, local networks, or relationships with local real estate investors who can help out in a pinch.

Nothing is worse than paying too much in taxes, or forgetting to pay your taxes and having the IRS on your tax for back taxes. I could tell you some stories about some of my tax planning mistakes, but I’ll save it and instead let Prime Corporate Services lay down 3 ways you can save on taxes this year. I’ve loved using Prime Corporate Services for 20 years, and I recommend them to all of my clients.Every serious investor needs to understand how to set up your business the right way, but they often put it off until some imaginary goal is met. Whether this means an LLC, an S Corp, or some other structured entity, getting legal protections around your business will also save you in the tax department.When you call and schedule a free consultation through the link on my website, Tommy’s company is going to cover:—Saving more money on taxes.—Protecting yourself from business liabilities.—Taking advantage of different funding options for your business.|Some of these tax strategies are going to address deductions and depreciations, while others will focus on contributing to retirement funds and HSAs. If an expense is an ordinary or necessary expense for your business, it can often be justified as a write-off. Tommy and his team are going to help you find these expenses to save you money.Start 2021 off right with a little tax preparation that will help you keep more of your money. Prime Corporate Services will give you support for a full year if you sign up with them, and while I do get a commission if you go through my link, I want you to know that I recommend them because I love working with them.What's Inside:—It’s not about how much money you make, but about how much money you keep.—Deductions and depreciation strategies that will save your business money in 2020.—Why you need to build up a separate credit profile for your business.—The benefits of a SEP IRA, including why you should consider flipping deals inside the SEP IRA.

In this special episode of the Real Estate Investing Mastery Podcast, I talk to my good friend, attorney, and real estate investor Jeff Watson. Jeff shares about this crazy strategy where you can take a few thousand dollars, put it in this tax-sheltered financial tool, and use it to help other investors... all while seeing a good return on your money.Our webinar is on Thursday, December 17th @ 12pm EDT (9am PDT) or 10pm EDT (7pm PDT). You won't want to miss this so RSVP now!JoeMcCall.com/jeff

We grow the most through the pain because when we figure out that we’ve fallen on our face, we never want to do that again. At the height of the market, before everything crashed in 2006, Brad Weimert bought a couple of multifamily units in Indianapolis, Indiana. Everything looked like it was going to go up forever, and the banks were happy to loan him the money for what he thought was a great deal.It took Brad a little while to figure out that just purchasing real estate wasn’t building a passive income. The quad barely cash flowed even when it was full, and he certainly hadn’t taken into account the cost of repairs or capital improvements. If a property is only bringing in money when it’s full, that’s a massive red flag for any functional investor. But as a newer investor, Brad didn’t have a mentor to point that out.Is it reasonable to think that the value of the property will increase? Sure. But it won’t increase forever, and if it starts out overvalued, then it won’t ever increase enough to make up for the overvaluation. Now if a property is cash flowing, then what the property is worth is irrelevant. Still, Brad held on hoping things would turn around for the property.For 8 years, Brad paid tenants to live in his units. He worried that if he stopped paying, then his tenants would get evicted. He thought that he should keep his word to the bank. And he lost tens of thousands of dollars a year.Avoiding an expensive mistake like this is in your best interest. Don’t take advice from some 23-year-old investor, no matter how confident and smart he sounds. Older investors can help you see the market cycle and avoid the trap of properties that suck the profits out of your business.What's Inside:—In the lending world, the appraisal can send your loan in the wrong direction.—Does morality figure into paying off the banks on an overvalued property?—Taking advice from a seasoned mentor can help you see a property through the lens of the market cycle.

Looping your wife in on a new property is one surefire way to avoid buying a dumpster fire. Jay Adkins learned that when he bought a sob story and a rural home from a down-on-her-luck seller for $6500. Investing in small towns can be a solid way to build a portfolio, but there are some pitfalls you’ll want to avoid.When Jay and Annie bought the house, it wasn’t entirely sight unseen. They did have pictures, but they didn’t realize just how old those pictures were. The moment Jay saw the house for the first time, he knew that paying for a $350 inspection would’ve saved him the headache that this house became.Not only was the heat turned off, but it was winter and the pipes had all burst, including the hot water heater. And getting a construction crew out to the property, which was 2 ½ hours away from their home, was more difficult than Jay and Annie anticipated. Sending crews out to the town meant an overnight stay so that they could get in a full day’s work.Included in this saga (which you don’t want to miss):—Three separate tenant buyers—Depressed manufacturing Ohio town—Plus a muskrat in search of nutri-grain bars—And a murder in the back alleyJay and Annie love putting tenant buyers in their homes, and they see it as their mission to help low income homeowners get into a house. They talk about the requirements they put in place to protect their investment and give their tenants a running shot at cleaning up their credit and applying for a home loan. They fix and flip, wholesale, and offer lease options, all with heart and humor.What's Inside:—How Jay and Annie structure land contracts with a property.—Are you a little nervous about investing in small towns? You shouldn’t be.—How they help low income homeowners get into a house.—The difficulties of getting handymen or Realtors to work in a small town.

The mentor of my mentor is Tim Grimmett, a St. Louis area investor since 1999. Earlier this year, TIm purchased a house for $5,000. The kitchen was burned out of the house, but it had good solid bones. He knew it’d only take about $7,000 to get the house into renting condition, and when all was said and done, he could rent the 3 bedroom house for $850.The morning after the closing, Tim woke up and remembered that he needed to purchase home insurance, so he contacted his agent who agreed to back date the coverage to midnight. Then Tim’s assistant called to say that at 7 pm the night before, an enormous tree had fallen on the house.According to real estate law, the moment you sign at the closing, that’s when the sale is consummated. Even if the money hasn’t transferred, everything that happens to the house is your responsibility. Luckily, with Covid shutdowns in place, Tim had nothing else to do but get this house back into shape.Doing good things in your community will come back to you in spades. Again and again in his story, Tim talks about making choices that he knew were right,even if they took him more time or cost him more money. These choices ended up blessing him and the people around him in surprising ways.If you want to work with Tim, or you’re interested in partnering with him for a couple of St. Louis rentals, you can reach him at [email protected] or (314)-283-6022.What's Inside:—Tim’s very specific requirements for a house really help him drill down exactly what he needs to do and how much he needs to spend to get it rented.—Because of redlining in St. Louis, Tim recommends FCB in Illinois as one of the few banks that will loan in the areas he likes to buy in.—Building a reputation in the community helped Tim again and again; with neighbors, with City Hall, and with his hard money lenders.

For six years, Lisa Even has worked specifically with distressed properties in the Phoenix market. Weird clouds on the title or city violations don’t scare her because those usually mean that the seller is having a harder time getting rid of the property.This particular property was vacant and had a number of city violations, which made it a hot lead because it meant that it wasn’t being taken care of at all. At the time, Lisa went and physically knocked on the door of the woman who filed for probate because that’s how she operated at the time. Up until this time, she’d always operated under the assumption that someone who filed probate was an heir to the estate.Except for this property. The long-time tenant had attempted to quit claim a deed from herself to herself, and you cannot actually do that. Well, you can go buy a form from Office Depot and pretend, but the title company isn’t going to go along with your plan.And yet, even though the quit claim deed wasn’t valid, the long-time tenant did have a verbal agreement and one other very important ace in her sleeve: she’d paid the property taxes for years.Finding the real heir to the property and dealing with another heir that had dollar signs in her eyes was a challenge. And even though the roof was caved in on the property and the house would have to be bulldozed, there was enough potential money in the deal that Lisa kept at it until she had it under contract.What's Inside:—Don’t be scared of visibly distressed properties, or properties with tricky legalities, as long as the spread is big enough.—Why more than one violation makes a property a hotter lead.—How a long-time tenant can gain a claim on a rental property, even if they have no legal contract.

Bill Allen has turned house flipping into a 7 figure business with his companies 7 Figure Flip, Flip Hacking Live, and Black Jack Real Estate. He takes pride in the rehab work his company does, so when he was accused of selling a house with rotten siding, he felt like his reputation was at stake.The Boca Raton house was a difficult flip from the beginning. As a larger, nicer home in a vacation area, buyers could afford to be picky about what they wanted because there were plenty of houses to choose from. During the rehab, Bill came across some wood rot because, like many homes on the ocean, the constant exposure to rain and damp ocean air wreaks havoc on the siding. But after three separate inspections, Bill felt confident that he’d done his due diligence to repair the house.Maybe it was the fact that he was a “big, bad flipper”, or maybe it was his high-profile in the real estate world, but when a lawsuit tracked him down two years later, Bill knew that the charges were false. He was determined to make the situation right, even if it meant personally purchasing the house back from the buyers.But wait, there’s more. Because after a while, Bill decided to sell the house again, but two weeks before the property closed, a hurricane hit Florida. Currently locked in a disagreement with the insurance company, Bill has some tips for investors whose markets are vulnerable to natural disasters. And even though nothing has turned out smoothly with this house, Bill feels that he did the right thing in protecting his good name.What's Inside:—Being in a high profile business, having a real estate coach, or being a real estate podcaster are all factors that might come into play when you’re threatened with a lawsuit.—How buying a high-end house in a low-end area limited Bill’s choices for buyers.—Does paying more for good coverage really matter with hurricane insurance?—Rebuilding after a hurricane might take creativity and ingenuity to protect against future hurricane seasons.

I’ve always said there are 3 keys to success in this business: marketing, automation and delegation. Gavin and I have been working together for 5 plus years now actively doing deals and these three keys are our holy grail. And after all these years in the business and living up to those 3 keys, we’re now known for setting up the marketing, the systems and the people to do the work for us, in spite of us.Gavin and I are doing deals left and right which may sound like we’re both putting in a lot of hours of work. No, we’re not. We’ve got marketing, systems and people in place doing all that for us virtually. This can happen for you and your real estate business too.So, we’re doing a real quick, fast, easy, cut and dry and super simple implementation model where we take our systems, give them to you, set them up for you and help you get started in making money. So if you’re ready to kick start your REI business or need more information, go to:https://REINetwork.com/systems

In 2010, when the real estate market was still a little wild from the crash, Justin Lee found a great deal from another wholesaler. After a 45-minutes drive to see the property, he felt pretty confident purchasing it outright with cash. The property closed with no hint of trouble, until he went to sell the property and Deutsche Bank stepped in to say that he didn’t even own it.Scammed out of the cash, Justin had one thing in his corner: he’d purchased title insurance. For a year and a half, the lawyer’s fees piled up as Justin battled with the bank over who actually owned this house. And the title company picked up the bill.Justin is a huge, huge fan of using title companies to protect his transactions. After nearly losing the entire $270,000 he’d borrowed from a hard money lender, Justin talks about why you should always buy a lender’s and an owner’s policy. Not only does it protect your money, it also relieves you of the months and months of stress, plus the time you might have spent talking to the FBI and law enforcement.What kind of title company is best for your real estate transaction? That’s going to depend. Some title companies are just better at different kinds of transactions. So protect yourself from scammers by not skipping the title insurance to save a few bucks.What's Inside:—How to use the title company to increase your authority with sellers.—It doesn’t matter if the seller has the deed; put your trust in the title company—Why Justin doesn’t do tabletop closes anymore, regardless of how trustworthy the other buyer or seller is.

With every sibling seemingly in agreement, Ester Telles from Ester Buys Houses held a Zoom meeting to agree on a purchase price for the family home. But one reluctant sibling decided to throw a wrench in the plans.With 7 siblings, there are bound to be family dynamics going on behind the scenes. One of the siblings was going through a bankruptcy in secret, and her bankruptcy was going to complicate her part of the deal. But she didn’t want anyone else in the family to know. If you’re sneaky about a special deal, karma is going to get you, says Ester.Ester’s had more than a few lessons that she’s learned over the years. She shares about the first and only rehab deal that she did with a couple of partners. That whole saying of too many cooks in the kitchen also applies to rehab jobs. Too many bosses giving orders caused tremendous scope creep and confusion. And in the end, how many wholesale deals could she have done in the 4 months it took her to get the rehab job done?Getting sidetracked by deals that were dragging out over months caused Ester to stop her marketing. I call that the kiss of death because marketing is not like a switch that you can turn off and on. It’s like a pipeline that needs constant leads pouring in.Ester knows when to walk away from a potentially disastrous deal. Listen to how she decides when to cut herself loose and move on to a better, less headache-filled property.What's Inside:—What it’s like to wholesale a strip joint.—Why a motivated seller who’s desperate for cash can change a whole deal.—Stepping out of her comfort zone to do a rehab job, Ester learned the hard way about scope creep.

When he went looking for a way to free himself from cubicle-hell, David Ounanian settled on the BRRRR method: buy a house, rehab it, rent it out, then refinance it and repeat it all over again. With each house estimated to cash flow at $200-300, David knew he just needed a small portfolio to replace his W-2 job.But of course, this is the Deals Gone Bad series, and you know that simply picking a strategy and finding a house is going to be the easiest part of the deal. After months and months of analysis paralysis, David’s wife insisted he pull the trigger, so he bought a $45,000 house in a class C neighborhood. The wholesaler he purchased the house from told him it would take $20,000 to make the house liveable, so David gave himself a conservative budget of $25,000 to get the job done.How much would you estimate for foundation damage? Or new clay sewer pipes? Or repairing a chimney? Or pouring a new driveway to comply with a brand-new city ordinance? As the costs began to mount up, David thought he was going to lose absolutely everything on this house.David shares how a mentor or an investor friendly agent would’ve helped him see the big costs of the property, and how he prevents getting sucker punched by a laundry list of repairs. For my listeners, he’s provided his Excel spreadsheet for estimating the true costs of repairs so that you will never be surprised when repair projects start to eat away at your profit.What's Inside:—How a simple $150 plumbing inspection could have prevented some very expensive sewer repairs.—Talking to fellow local investors can help you see common problems in certain areas or types of homes.—The careful and methodical approach David takes now to prevent a repeat of his first BRRRR deal.

Even though Harry King wasn’t a newbie to real estate investing, he realized that having a coach would help him break through some barriers. Harry had been buying short sales, and he didn’t have a marketing plan in place to provide a steady amount of leads for his company. Combining our marketing plan with his massive action-taking-self has really exploded his growth.Calling up cold leads, nurturing them to warm leads, and keeping track of hot leads all take time. And Harry often finds himself juggling 60+ leads trying to keep them fresh. He and Gavin talk about how he manages his time to maximize the work he needs to put into his leads.Listen to some of Harry’s biggest takeaways from working with us, including:—Improved accountability—Contracts and support—Implementing a marketing plan—Better time managementYou can literally hear Harry’s phone voice keep the conversation that he and Gavin are having on an even keel. Harry credits that smooth voice for helping him control conversations with sellers. As he explores his new real estate niche, Harry’s able to use the systems we’re teaching him to give himself a better work/life balance.What's Inside:—How Harry uses time blocking to actually free up more time.—Harry’s best piece of advice for changing your real estate niche.—How Harry prioritizes his leads, and what he’s learned about marketing from Gavin.

The deal’s numbers seemed solid to Rick Ginn from Flip with Rick from the start. The house’s PITI was $960, and the rents in the area were between $1400-$1500. It had great cash flow and the seller didn’t want to make another mortgage payment. Because she didn’t have enough equity, Rick did a subject-to on the house.Rick does not love being a landlord. He has a hard time saying no to tenants, and he’s inclined to believe their stories. So he turned to someone else to help him get his new property rented out. And when a buyer offered to pay a year’s rent upfront, Rick was just thrilled.The first inkling he had that something was going down at the house was when he saw his company’s name and a picture of the house on the front page of his town’s newspaper. The next clue was when the FBI called him up to talk about his role in their newest drug bust.It’s hard to decide which was more stressful for Rick: the potential damage to his reputation or the real damage he had to repair on the property. With six HVAC systems and a massive gun safe to get rid of, Rick spent months and months trying to get the property back into a liveable condition. And of course, reconnecting the electricity to the power grid was incredibly hard when the power company was ticked off at him.This deal took a lot of confidence out of Rick, and he generously shares how he changed his real estate strategies to make up for the weaknesses this whole experience exposed in his business. Pull up a chair and listen closely so that you can avoid the litigation nightmare that proceeds a drug bust.What's Inside:—As the self-proclaimed, “worst landlord in America”, listen to Rick’s advice about how to avoid wrecking your properties by outsourcing your weakness.—Great cash flow can potentially blind you to other problems in a subject-to.—How Rick vets tenants and property management companies today to protect himself from himself.

A two-for-one package deal seemed like a dream come true for Jazmine Gittens. There’s already some difficulty finding properties in Newark, New Jersey, so Jazmine was thrilled when the landlord assured her that both properties, which were located near each other, were also in similar condition.In fact, Jazmine was so confident about the houses that she scheduled both open houses within thirty minutes of each without ever having stepped foot in the second house. But the minute she walked into the second house, the smell just knocked everyone back and her buyers turned around and walked out.Even though she was a newer real estate wholesaler, Jazmine had some amazing protections in place. She used every tool at her disposal, and you’re going to learn why you should:—Do your own due diligence.—Collect earnest money deposits.—Continue marketing in case deals fall through.—Assume that every house needs a full gut rehab.Deals can go bad, but when you put in some guardrails like Jazmine did, deals can also be redeemed. Even if you’re a virtual wholesaler like Jazmine, you need an inspection contingency to protect you in case a seller lies to you.What's Inside:—Having an ironclad contract protected Jazmine more than once when the deal kept heading south after unexpected contingencies kept popping up.—As a hardcore cold caller, Jazmine also makes sure that everything single seller gets an offer so she has something to follow up on.—Why you need to assume that every house needs a full gut rehab.

How do you sell a property when you know someone died there? Even better, how can you even conceal it when the real estate investors are on the property when the body is discovered?Any deal can be rescued when there’s enough meat on the bone to account for extenuating circumstances. That’s what Nick Perry says about the $75,000 spread he was expecting from a motivated seller in Louisiana, but that turned into something else entirely when someone disappeared on the wooded property.There’s always some risk when you’re wholesaling in your own city, but virtual wholesaling can get even more exciting when you don’t know the history of an area or a house. Nick talks about the lessons he and his team learned when they had to manage a rocky deal long distance.Going forward, he’s put in some additional steps to protect himself for the next time a body might turn up on one of his properties. I hope you’re loving all of these stories because the advice coming out of them is absolutely golden. For a copy of all of the Deals Gone Bad, text the word BAD to 313131 for access to my mind map, and all of the best highlights from this series.What's Inside:—No matter how bad the situation is, remember that the numbers don’t lie.—Why Nick pivoted out of Austin, TX and into virtual wholesaling.—Nick’s strategies for buying and selling in small towns.

When a Realtor contacted Todd Toback about a deal that was falling through to see if he wanted it, he couldn’t see any downsides. The California house was built next to a landfill, sure, but it was worth $550,000 and they were selling it for $180,000. Even if he just rented it out forever, he’d always be in cash flow heaven.But when it came time to rent out the home, Todd didn’t want to pay a property management company the first month’s rent. So he listed it himself on Craigslist. Todd wants you to know one of the biggest lessons that he learned is that landlords should never be dealing with tenants. From the beginning, his tenants had his personal phone number and access to information that put him on a path to a crazy lawsuit.When you’re a one man show, then you’re in a sea of information and you can’t figure out where you’re at. You have to be good at marketing, at rehabbing, at being a landlord, at contracts, and everything else. Instead, Todd says you should figure out which of the four areas of real estate you’re good at: acquisition, disposition, marketing, and accounting. For the other three areas, partner with someone else or hire it out.Narrowly avoiding $68,000 in legal fees, Todd now puts a lot more layers in between his investments and his tenants. As a real estate investor, you need to do what you do best. For Todd, that’s locking up deals and empowering other people. Leave property management to the experts and save yourself time and money by hiring that out.What's Inside:—If a deal is too good to be true, then maybe there’s a toxic waste dump next door.—How you can figure out what you’re best at and focus in on that.—Don’t be scared to invest in other people.—For more epic Deals Gone Bad, text the word BAD to 313131.

Coming out of Louisville, Kentucky, Beau Hollis has not one, but three bad deals for you to feast on today. There are so many lessons you can learn from Beau’s generous sharing of some of his biggest mistakes, so I hope you’re taking down notes so that you can avoid the litigation nightmare he’s been through.One of my favorite sayings is “A lack of humility leads to humiliation.” Beau’s very good at finding deeply discounted properties, getting them under contract, and having a proven exit strategy. Rather than wholesaling or even wholetaling a hoarder’s home in a great neighborhood, he decided to rehab the entire property. But he didn’t get the scope of the work to be done in writing beforehand, and every mistake led to a more costly mistake.If you need private money to refinance and get out of a project, you need those relationships already in place before a refinance becomes your only choice. That’s why networking and talking with people on the phone should be one of your biggest priorities. When Beau realized he was overextended, he could turn to those networks he’d already built.Beau’s two lawsuits could have been easily preventable with a simple addition to every contract. He talks about the two clauses he puts into every contract that he makes sure are signed and notarized.If you’re interested in the mind map for the Deals Gone Bad series, text the word BAD to 313131. There you’ll see all of the episodes, plus tools and checklists that previous investors have shared so that you can avoid their mistakes.What's Inside:—How to find a real investor friendly attorney.—Why you need better contracts in place, and a few tips for where you can find some.—The dangers of borrowing hard money for a poorly planned and poorly executed rehab job.—Be careful about what you think you’re good at.

To protect himself against a worst case scenario, Shane Garza from Shane the House Buyer had built in a $10,000 contingency plan to replace an aging septic system. But replacing the septic system in a 1962 house is actually not the worst scenario you can find yourself in when you skip the due diligence. Imagine having no septic at all, including no tanks, no way to hook up to a city sewer, and soil tests that prohibit you from putting in a septic system.After concluding that the only way to fix the problem was to purchase the house next door for $200,000, Shane received a little mercy from another investor. Shane talks about the lessons learned from this septic debacle, including why local networks and local hard money lenders can help you avoid these pitfalls.He recommends that newer investors get in the back seat and go along for the ride until they feel comfortable. Use those local relationships to find mentors who will steer you away from expensive mistakes. And whatever you do, don’t skip the seller’s disclosure statement from the original seller.Shane experienced what we like to call “deal bias”. That’s when you’re so sold on a deal that you can’t see the warning signs flashing in front of your face. Today, he’s written up a list of questions that he and his partners have to answer to prevent their emotions from crowding out common sense. If you want a copy of his questions, you can text the word BAD to 313131 for a copy of my mind map for this whole series.What's Inside:—With the voice of experience, Shane shares questions every wholesaler should ask before signing on the dotted line.—The big, huge expenses that will sink a house’s profit, including Shane’s own expensive lesson.—How deal bias will cloud your judgement and what you can do to overcome it.

One of the reasons that Gavin is able to travel around the US is because he’s set himself up as a virtual wholesaler. His team is all over the world supporting his business and sending him warm leads that are ready for offers. He interviews two of his VAs today to talk about their training and strategies for having natural conversations with sellers.Gavin really believes that the money is in the follow up, which is why he invests so much time and training in touching base with sellers who aren’t quite ready, but might be soon. Tools like my CRM REI Simple and Podio help his VAs keep good notes to refer to when they call a seller back. It’s going to be rare that a seller is ready to commit to an offer on your first contact, so if you don’t have a system to track your conversations with them, it’ll be harder to build that rapport that you need.LJ and Ralph give their best tips for nurturing conversations with sellers, and working with a virtual team. Gavin’s going to try an experiment where he goes back to a CRM that he hasn’t touched in two years. He’s going to see how many deals he missed out on because he stopped following up, and he’s going to see how many deals he can close on leads that are two years old. Sign up for his emails to follow along for further proof that the money is in the follow up.What's Inside:—Gavin’s VAs talk about what the difference is between cold calling and nurturing a warm lead.—The scripts that the VAs use when they call a phone number attached to an LLC.—How the VAs train and support each other.

Don’t overcomplicate finding the ARV. In fact, don’t over complicate or over think anything about real estate. In the last episode of my Virtual Profits Workshop, Gavin Timms and I are going to teach you the most uncomplicated strategies you need to get started and scale up in real estate.At this point in my real estate career, I can just glance at pictures of a house and know exactly the kind of repairs it will need to be put back on the market. You don’t need to waste your time by driving out to a property and inspecting it. I’m going to teach you my super simple equation for estimating the after repair value that will put you within 5-10% of the actual price.There are three ways to make cash offers. And since I want you to make a minimum of five offers a day, you should get really comfortable with these three methods because they’ll make your life a lot easier:—Use the MAO formula.—Calculate the average of the lowest 4 solds times 80%.—Ask your local investors what they’d pay for it and then subtract ten grand.Unlike the cash deal where you can only negotiate the price, in a lease option price you have 5 or 6 different levers you can pull to change the price. You can even negotiate that you won’t pay the rent for a year. The choices are only limited by your imagination and the motivation of the seller. I’m going to walk you through some different scenarios, including not paying rent for a year, that you could propose to your seller.One of my most valuable tools is my team of VAs. Investors are spending too much time behind the computer. You should be in front of sellers making them offers, and I’m going to show you how to build a team around VAs so that you can get the most use out of your time.What's Inside:—The two main types of lease option deals.—The formula for figuring out a sandwich lease option offer.—Here are the three things your VA should be doing.—How to scale up in your real estate business.

Our students Gigi and Steve are both proof that there is no certain mold you have to fit to be a real estate investor. As new wholesalers, Gigi and Steve both came from very different backgrounds. An ER doctor, Gigi picked wholesaling because it was a completely new field that challenged her. And Steve had to learn to embrace technology, or at least find some ways to work around his technophobia.Both Gigi and Steve have built teams that play off their specific strengths. Steve loves talking to sellers, so we’ve created a team for him that just feeds him homeowners ready to sell. A master at building relationships and rapport, listen to how Steve is able to find a new buyer in only a half hour, and still manages to close a property on time.Gigi is willing to try anything once, and that’s how she found herself with her first double close that let her make $24,000 without bringing a dime of her own funds to the table. We built a team around her that helps her improve her follow up system and stay on top of the offers she’s made.Real estate investing really will work for anyone who takes the time to build a team and a system. Our job as coaches is to help you plug in the holes in your business, just like we’ve done for Gigi and Steve. If you’d like to see if we’d be a good fit for your business, send us an email and we’d love to see if we’re a good fit for each other.What's Inside:—Offers hinge on a seller’s motivation, not on your actual offer.—See how Gigi and Steve build teams around their personal strengths.—How Steve was able to find a buyer for a deal that fell through in only a half hour.

Our criteria for a deal always starts with: Can we find a buyer for it? By focusing on what your buyers want and shopping for that target, you’ll always be able to sell your lease options. In part 4 of our Virtual Profits Workshop, we’re going to cover how to find buyers, and how to talk to sellers.There are two main reasons that you can’t sell a deal. Most commonly, it’s just straight up overpriced. If the house is on the market for a couple of months, you’re going to have to come down in price to get it to move. The second reason is that you’re not marketing it in front of the right people.So let’s talk about how to get more eyeballs on your property. Facebook Marketplace, Facebook Buy/Sell/Trade groups, bandit signs in front of the house, and the classics Craisglist and Zillow are still great places to advertise a house. Property managers and Realtors are also great resources for helping you build a buyer’s list.Gavin is a master at helping sellers talk about their motivations for selling. Before you pick up the phone you need to decide: What do you want from your phone call, and how long do you need to talk to get that information? By focusing on the four pieces to a deal, you can decide what kind of offer will work in that situation:—Situation and motivation—Price—Timeline—ConditionWhen you pick up the phone, set the agenda up front. Tell the seller what you’re going to ask, and then give him a chance to say no. Gavin and I talk through a couple of role plays so that you can see how to naturally get the information you need to make an offer and then make your exit.What's Inside:—You never want to rely on one buyer’s opinion.—How Gavin creates the criteria for a list to call.—Why I absolutely love local hard money lenders.—Hear us role-play a couple of scenarios so you can see just how easy it is.

When a tenant stops paying the rent, a landlord has to get the eviction process started by filing papers with the court. When one of Scott Meyers’s customers stops paying for their storage unit, Scott just puts a padlock on their unit, and then he can sell everything and recoup his costs if they can’t come up with the rent. Self-storage is a whole different ball game in real estate, and that’s why Scott’s been all-in for nearly thirty years.Forget the picture of tin boxes on the edge of suburbia. Today’s self-storage units are bright and shiny, climate-controlled units in the middle of town next to churches and shopping malls. One in ten households rents a storage unit, and they’ve become so essential that they’re now considered a part of a city’s master plan. When the economy’s booming, self-storage units are in demand to handle all of the extra stuff people are buying. When the economy’s down, they’re still in demand as folks downsize apartments or move home briefly to make it through a rough patch.For both banks and syndication partners, self-storage units are an attractive asset to have on the balance sheet. The depreciation rate on a self-storage unit is 20% greater than an apartment building, they cost less to build, and they can be rented for 10 cents more a foot. Self-storage facilities also have the lowest default rate of all commercial loans.How much work is it to run a self-storage unit? For every hundred units, it’ll take 10 hours a week to keep it running. It’s not a set-it and forget-it kind of business, but it definitely only needs a light touch. Scott was dropping all kinds of gold nuggets of real estate wisdom today, so if you’d like more information on how to add self-storage facilities to your portfolio, make sure you check out his websites.What's Inside:—The easiest and fastest way to invest in self-storage is by buying an existing facility in a secondary market.—The strength of the project matters more than the strength of the borrower in self-storage.—Community banks, credit unions, and savings and loan institutions are better banks to work with on these projects.—How an SBA loan can be used in self-storage projects.—Marketing plays a big part in a self-storage facility’s success.

What marketing is working best TODAY? Watch me go live in a brand new market, and start over from scratch, in a 30 day challenge - https://www.NewMarketChallenge.com/30days

There are two things you can actually control: the market you’re going into and the marketing you’re going to do. By focusing your goals on metrics you can have an impact on, you have the chance to move your business forward faster. In the third part of our Virtual Profits Workshop, we’re going to make a simple marketing plan with actionable goals, so pull out your workbook and commit to your personal success. Rather than trying out every kind of marketing under the sun, I want you to narrow it down to two choices by asking yourself questions like:—What does my end buyer look like?—What kind of marketing works in this particular area?—Have I given this particular marketing 100% of my effort?Working backwards, we’re going to illustrate how much marketing you need to do to yield a steady flow of leads from cold calls. Using this strategy, you’ll be able to determine how much money and time you need to spend to get the results you want. You don’t want all of your eggs in one basket, so choosing a couple of different channels will protect the leads you get.We’re also going to cover how marketing, automation and delegation will give you more money, time, and freedom. I resisted for years the move to a CRM, so if you’re like me, the longer you put off the trifecta of these time management tools, the longer you put off your success. Gavin and I are going to share how we use these tools to create a stress-free life.Sit down with us, make a simple marketing plan, and take massive action. There are opportunities coming for real estate investors who have a system in place and are ready to scale. Is that going to be you?What’s Inside:—The average calls a VA can make per hour, and how that translates into leads.—Giving the seller more options puts you in a position of trust. —Why you absolutely need to have a CRM.—Where are the buyers buying houses in your market?—Using two or three offers improves your rapport with a seller. 

Once you’ve figured out your “why”, then you’ll have yourself centered on the rock-solid reason you want to get up and work your real estate business every day. And in this episode, you’re going to see how important having a “why” is when you see how motivated our new students Chris Arnold and Chris W. are. We’ve only been working with them since May, and you’re going to see why they’ve had such phenomenal success.Very quickly, Chris Arnold realized that real estate is a numbers game. Once you get this concept in your brain, you can work backwards from there to plug in just how many leads you need so that you know how many offers you have to make every month. In the beginning, Chris sent three offers to every buyer: a wholesale lease option, a sandwich lease option, and a wholesale offer. But even though he adjusted his offer strategy when he found a better way, he never slowed down on how many offers he made a month.Having this much success in just a few short months was not an accident. Chris and Chris share how mindset and motivation propelled them forward, and they share advice to help other new wholesalers push through the noise they’re going to encounter as they build their businesses.Don’t just sit back and listen. Take the opportunity to make real, actionable goals as you listen by downloading the Virtual Profits Workshop workbook and plugging in your goals. Chris credits some of his success to a previous goal setting virtual seminar of ours that made real estate strategies suddenly click in his brain.What's Inside:—How Chris Arnold used the numbers game to build a strategy that would build on momentum.—As newer investors, Chris and Chris share their favorite places for finding leads.—Approaching this as a job has really helped Chris Arnold build up success very quickly.

Make sure you download our workbook for this series, and then get ready to sit down and do some serious planning for your real estate business. You’re not going to sit there and listen to the melodious tones of Gavin and me chat about real estate. This interactive series is going to help you dig down into where you’re at, where you want to go and how your real estate business is going to help you get there.In this first part, we’re going to get you to focus on revenue-generating activities that will yield bigger returns. Earning big right off the bat will help you keep the momentum going because if you’re not getting to one deal a month, then it’s going to be even harder to get to five or ten.Your speed to income is directly proportional to the number of offers that you make. That’s why the foundation for success is contingent on how many offers you make every month. I caution you to not try and think for the property owner because you can’t predict what they’re going to do and why. But you can control yourself by making offers.We’ll talk about strategies to use like:—Being a deal finder and not a deal creator.—Finding deals in small towns.—Searching for better markets.—Moving to virtual wholesaling.Having a solid “why” is going to help you stretch out of your comfort zone to make those phone calls when you’d rather be watching TV. Gavin and I are going to share some of our students’ reasons for investing in real estate so that you can get your foundation in place to prepare you for a profitable real estate business.What's Inside:—Drilling down on your “why” to help you stay focused even when it gets hard.—What is the number one rule in real estate?—The three keys to success in this business.—How Gavin softens up reluctant sellers.

Something exciting to look forward to next week! I'm going to take on a new market challenge where I go into a totally new market - somewhere I’ve never done a deal before - and start from scratch! And I will document the entire process on daily videos so you can watch the entire process, step-by-step, starting from me doing market research to getting leads all the way to marketing for buyers and sellers.This is only for $100 and if you joined my first New Market Challenge before, you get a coupon for 50% off! You get access to all the videos and I will be doing 4 weekly coaching calls to answer your questions throughout the 30-day challenge. This starts on Monday next week, Nov 16th.Go to newmarketchallenge.com now!https://www.newmarketchallenge.com/30days

If you haven’t yet had a deal go bad, I can promise you that it’s coming. You’re going to have a deal that’s ready to close, but the title isn’t clear, or you’re going to have a house fire that turns everything on its head. Chris Arnold is one of our coaching students, and after just five months, he’s already got some epic stories.Chris had lined up a solid deal with an absentee landlord when a tenant’s barbecue grill caused a disaster that sent everyone scrambling. Suddenly Chris had to figure out if the house was salvageable, while he was fighting off the wholesalers who specialize in fire.The magical phrase that Chris uses for buyers and sellers to keep the deal flow going is “What’s it going to take?”. Listen to how he uses the relationship he’s built with the seller to help everyone walk away feeling like they won.If you’re a wholesaler who’s making a lot of offers, then you’re guaranteed to see some bad deals. Don’t sell yourself short by offering too low and watching your profit get whittled away as unexpected expenses crop up. Chris suggests you double check your numbers after the seller accepts, but before you sign the contract. But no matter what, you have to keep your word to the seller, even if you only make a thousand dollars. Your reputation as a wholesaler is on the line.I love Chris’s enthusiasm for real estate and his go get ‘em attitude. If you’d like to work with Chris, you can contact him at [email protected]. Get today’s episode, and all of the notes and resources from my other Deals Gone Bad episodes by texting the word “BAD to 313131.What's Inside:—How Chris keeps his marketing momentum going.—A few ways you can use other wholesalers to find deals and leads.—What to do when a property catches on fire.

If you haven’t had a bad deal yet, then you haven’t been in real estate long enough. It’ll happen for you, don’t worry. Even with experience, Jonathan Rexford bought a real dud that became the only subject “to” house that he’s ever returned to an owner in thirty-three years of investing. It’s a lesson in doing a little due diligence, especially when it’s a property that’s outside your area of expertise.When the subject “to” first came across Jonathan’s radar, he had a lot of disposable cash, so he just directed his bookkeeper to write a check for the property. And in fact, every time a problem showed up, he just had the bookkeeper keep paying the bills. But writing a check doesn’t get rid of a problem.After months of trying to get the house rented, Jonathan finally drove up to see what the holdup was. Immediately, he realized that the beautiful 1920s home, which should have rented for $1422 a month, was surrounded on all sides by low-income apartments. Neglecting to get a street view of the property he’d purchased without visiting ended up costing him about $65,000.If you’re going to purchase a subject “to”, Jonathan advises you to have multiple exit strategies. Ask yourself:—Can I rent it?—Can I retail it?—Can I owner finance it?—Can I use a lease option?After this, Jonathan realized that he needed to always have someone with some skin in the deal with him who could act as his feet on the ground. As the king of the subject “to” world, Jonathan invites you to join him in his Facebook group.If you loved this story, don’t miss the rest of my Deals Gone Bad. For access to my mind map for this series, text the word “BAD” to 313131.What’s Inside:—The minimum groundwork you should lay down before buying a property sight unseen.—Why you absolutely should not be writing checks to make problems go away.—Stay ‘til the end when Jonathan shares his 5 pillars of funding.—What force-placed insurance is.

The promise of easy money and $54,000 turnkey properties were too much for Vasmi Boddu and his friends to resist. So in December 2017, they purchased a package of four properties in Indiana. With promises from the turnkey company that they would be ready for tenants in three months, Vasmi and his partners sat back to get ready for their mailbox money to show up.You’re going to get a real estate education in one of two ways. You can either hire a mentor to help you figure out what a good deal looks like, or you can stumble through expensive mistake after expensive mistake on your own. Vasmi chose the latter method, and he’s learned some important lessons, including how to correctly run the numbers on a rental.How much cash flow is enough? Vasmi thought $200 a month per property would get him quickly to that sweet spot where he could sit back on the beach with his family. But as a real estate newbie, he didn’t know that he needed to factor into those numbers property insurance, rehab costs, property management, and vacancy rates. And when the original turnkey company didn’t even finish the rehab on time, Vasmi’s horror story began.Don’t miss out on the rest of my Deals Gone Bad series. By texting the word “BAD” to 313131, you’ll be able to access the notes and mind map for this series, including the videos from Bigger Pockets that Vasmi recommends to all of his new real estate investor friends.What’s Inside:—Vasmi’s classification system for A, B, C, and D areas.—What to do with cheaper, lower end properties that are under $100,000.—We discuss Vasmi’s best options for some of his properties: lease options or tenant buyers?—How to deal with Class D tenants.

Someone once told me that “Smart people learn from their own mistakes and wise people learn from the mistakes of others”. If you’re following what you think is a smart strategy and you find yourself spread too thin, then it’s time to look for someone who’s wise and has already risen from the ashes of a monumental real estate crash-and-burn. You might know Mark Dolfini from Landlord Coach, but you may not realize that at one point he was $100,000 in credit card debt and just steps away from bankruptcy. Beginning in the late nineties, Mark was able to start investing in using the best strategy ever: OPM, or other people’s money. But just because you can purchase a property and cash flow a little, that doesn’t mean that it’s a good deal. Mark is open about some of his biggest mistakes, including how he didn’t give himself enough room for expenses and what being over-leveraged on time looks like. Today, he’s a lot more careful about how he figures out CapEx on his properties, and he walks me through some of the factors that he ignored when he first began investing. I hope you’ll love this series and learn from these tales of caution. If you’d like to see my notes of all of the different ways you can have a bad deal, text the work BAD to 313131, and you’ll be able to access my mind map for this series. And don’t worry, I’ll keep adding to this interactive mind map as I interview people, so keep checking back on it as I add new ways people can wreck a deal and almost blow up their real estate career. What’s Inside: —How Mark figures out the future expenditures for his properties. —Why it took years for banks to extend mortgages to Mark again. —What being over-leveraged on both time and money looks like.

Boron Capital Investment has been in business for 14 years with over 300 transactions and $100 million dollars under management. But Blake Templeton follows a unique investing strategy; it’s one based on King Solomon’s wisdom, and it informs nearly every decision that Blake makes. What does good stewardship look like to you? Blake was flying high in 2006 with flips, renos, and crews working under him. He was making money that he’d only dreamed of, but when the bank decided to foreclose on eight properties all at once because they needed to call in their notes, he realized that he needed to listen to a higher power. Growing with wisdom as you build your real estate kingdom might be a different way of looking at capitalism, but Blake was sincere about letting God into his life. That’s why he dove into the study of King Solomon, the world’s first trillionaire, to see what ancient wisdom looked like. With multiple streams of income on every property, King Solomon taught us that creating a system or a product that everyone has to use only increases his only stature. For Blake, that translated into investing in wedding venues. He shares how he used the lessons he learned from Solomon in his real estate portfolio. If everyone else doesn’t know what to do, but you’re listening to God’s wisdom, you’ll see the right way open up in front of you. And if you’d like a copy of Blake’s book The Solomon Way, you can text SOLOMON to 31996 to get some of that wisdom for yourself. What’s Inside: —The moment that changed Blake’s real estate business from a money-centered approach to a God-centered approach. —How to get Blake’s book The Solomon Way. —What vertical integration can look like in real estate. —Blake’s prediction for the next 6-24 months.

From our own experience, over 90% of our deals come from the follow-up, and not from the initial first contact with a lead. Gavin estimates that he has over a million dollars sitting in his CRM, and he’s found a way to tap into that network and make his marketing dollars work for him. When you’re talking to a seller and you hear “No”, remember that no really means “Not now”. There’s only one kind of dead lead, and that’s when the house is sold to someone else, or they’re threatening you with a lawsuit for contacting them again. Gavin’s going to get your ideas flowing as he talks about: —How often to follow up —How to keep track of your leads —The kind of questions to ask to find a seller’s motivation —Following up on other wholesalers’ leads too. Gavin estimates that there are millions of dollars sitting in your CRM, but if you’re not following up with your leads and keeping them warm, you’re flushing that money away. If you want to see his case study about how to pry money out of your CRM, sign up for his emails so that you don’t miss it. What’s Inside: —Gavin’s methods for digging down and finding a seller’s true motivation. —How often should you follow up, and how long will it take to close on a lead? —Using your CRM to keep track of your leads is going to put you ahead of the game.

You don’t have to be limited to your own market. That’s the beauty of virtual wholesaling! Gavin Timms sits down with our coaching client Brian Blanders about how he chose his virtual market, and how flexibility has helped him close a deal with a motivated seller. Identifying which of the four main motivations every motivated seller has helped Brian realize that he had to change his offer to make the deal work. Everyone you’re going to talk to has a different reason for wanting to sell their house, and that creative financing offers we teach you will let you meet them on their terms without sacrificing your own profit. Balancing a full-time job and his new real estate investment side hustle has required Brian to get smart about his systems. He literally doesn’t have time to do it all and he can’t drive out to the property on a whim, so he has to delegate out tasks and trust partners and contractors. Listen to some of what he’s learned about choosing contractors for this out of state fix and flip. Brian’s wholesaling plan changed big time when he realized he couldn’t slap some paint on the property and put it back on the market. You can really see how having a growth mindset allowed him to pivot and smart flip his first virtual deal. We work with coaching clients every day to give them the tools they need to knock their deals out of the ballpark. What’s Inside: —What’s the difference between wholesaling and fix and flips? —How to find a great crew in your virtual market. —Why Brian went looking for a private money lender.

95% of lawyers don’t understand trusts because they don’t teach this in law school. So you may get push back on whether a trust is allowed in your state or if you can form your own trust. Since 1968, Randy Hughes has been a landlord and real estate investor in central Illinois, and he teaches real estate investors how to protect their assets and their privacy by placing them in trusts. If Randy could shout this from the rooftop, he would. “You do not want to buy in your name!” he insists. You absolutely must buy in a trust to protect your real estate portfolio. In addition to the legal protections given to trusts, privacy of ownership is becoming increasingly important. Can you imagine having a tenant knock on your door and talk to your children because you’re not there? Now, because many lawyers don’t understand trusts, Randy wants you to be aware that every state doesn’t treat them the same. There are no federal land trust laws, so that means you can form land trusts in whatever state you prefer. And some states simply have friendlier land trust laws. One of the main reasons to set up a trust is not to escape your responsibilities, but to protect your assets. Because when you’re threatened with a frivolous lawsuit, what kind of recourse do you have? After 50 years in real estate, Randy’s seen all kinds of lawsuits. He knows that having a hard asset like real estate makes him a target. It doesn’t cost anything to set up your own trusts, but you do need to know how to do it. If you need help, you can contact Randy through his website and then rest easy at night that your heirs won’t have to struggle through probate when you pass. What’s Inside: —Why Randy’s ultimate tax strategy is death. —What’s the difference between an LLC and a trust? —When you go on a deed with someone, you put all of your own assets at risk for their liabilities. —When you should create a trust in a different state, and what your options are.

Whether or not you’re a Realtor, you can use the strategies we’re going to talk about today. And listen, how people are finding real estate is changing, so you need to be ready to change with it. Ben Mizes wanted to test his theory out about the different strategies buyers are using, but he wanted to do it in a pro-broker way. That’s why he came up with his platform List With Clever that connects brokers and sellers. When someone’s selling a house, Ben has a lot of questions for them so he can send them the perfect broker for their situation. He wants to know, “What’s important to you when you’re looking for a Realtor?”. Usually, a seller is looking for one of these four criteria: — They want to sell quickly. — They want the highest offer. — They want an experienced Realtor. — They want to save money on commission When Ben brings on Realtors to his platform, he screens them by looking for those who are faster at turning over properties or who specialize in a property or area. His site is free for agents, and will normally yield 3-8 referrals a month in an average, normal Midwestern market. Ben has some really amazing tools on his website, including a rental property calculator that takes into account nearly every possible scenario. No more guessing on whether a property will cash flow or forgetting to take into account the long term capital improvements. What’s Inside: —How local banks can help you with finding properties and property managers. —Become a referred agent with Ben’s website no matter where you’re at in the country. —Ben walks me through his very detailed rental property calculator. —The advantages for wholesalers and brokers for using a platform like Clever.

Now that you’re an entrepreneur, it’s easy to fall into the trap of putting out fires every day without ever really getting anything done. But if you apply the 80/20 principle to your business, you’ll be able to sharpen your skills on the activities that yield the most money, and pass on the ones that waste your time. For me, the 80/20 principle means that I’ve been focused on my podcast for the last 9 years, and it’s been good to me. I’m not scattering my attention across different channels and picking up or dropping random marketing tactics. I know what works for me. If you’re ready to explore what will work for your business, great! But I’d suggest you focus on just: —One customer, —One problem, —One traffic source, —One conversion tool, —For one year. I have a friend here in St. Louis who is hyper-focused on 2 bedroom brick houses. That’s it! That’s all he likes to buy. And the truth is, this strategy has paid off for him. So let’s brainstorm some ways today that you can focus in on the 20% that will improve your business. What’s Inside: —How to maximize the time you spend on your business. —Why applying the 80/20 principle to your business will help you earn more money. —What the 80/20 principle looks like in my business.

Real estate and senior living can be like peanut butter and chocolate if you do it right. But it can be a terrible disaster where you come off looking like a jerk if you mess it up. That’s why the approach you have when you talk to buyers and senior living professionals must be completely different than the normal real estate investor approach. For 22 years, Phillip Vincent has been a fix and flipper in St. Louis, and for the last 9 years, he’s focused solely on the senior living niche. From the moment a family finds out that mom has to move into a senior living facility, that family moves into crisis mode to take care of her. And as they figure out which home to place her in, they realize that they can’t afford to do it unless they sell all of her stuff and her house. That’s the point when Phillip steps in. He buys grandma’s house as-is and flips it. Every time you see a crane go up to build a 280-bed senior living facility, you should also be seeing the hundreds of homes those seniors need to sell so that they can move in. And while a family might want to sell their mom’s house on their own, it can be incredibly hard for them to juggle cleaning out a home, finding a contractor to rehab it, funding the gap between grandma’s pension and the senior living facility she’s living in, and doing all of this from out of town while still managing their regular life. Phillip has carefully cultivated relationships with a variety of stakeholders across this industry, but he wants to warn you to be careful in this real estate niche. Family dynamics, guilt, and trust are delicate issues you have to work around when you make offers on senior homes, but when folks realize that you can unlock the equity in grandma’s house, then you’re a godsend in their world. What’s Inside: —How to get referrals from inside the senior living community world. —The secret to getting your mom into a community that takes Medicaid. —The approach Philip takes to networking with attorneys and senior living facilitators. —The difference between pre-probate and probate leads.

In my podcasts, in my books, on my webinars, and in my coaching business, I teach people how to start a real estate business. I’m not teaching you anything I haven’t already tried, succeeded with, or failed at. I’m the real deal here, and I want you to succeed too. In fact, I guarantee my courses because I figure that if you’re not making money, then I shouldn’t be making money. All I ask is that you finish the course you purchased. But I would guess that about 5% of people who buy real estate investing courses actually do anything with them. 5%! Real estate is not a hobby and it doesn’t have some magic button that will make it easier. You do actually have to put in the work to reap the rewards. Many years ago, I was a course junkie too, so I know how easy it is to always purchase a course and never act on anything the course teaches you. Listen up to how I broke free from that cycle and started changing the course of my life. Our coaching client success rate is between 65-75%, and there’s a specific reason for their success. Our coaching clients have a key quality that makes them far more inclined to take action on our course, and that’s why we love working with them. No matter what everyone else around you is doing, if you keep pushing ahead by making offers and following up, you’re going to succeed. What’s Inside: —Why our coaching client success rate is so good. —When it’s time to stop buying courses and go back to investing in the stock market. —The number one personality trait all of our coaching clients have.