
The Essential Life Cycle of a Real Estate Investor
“Long ago, I realized that success leaves clues, and that people who produce outstanding results do specific things to create those results. I believed that if I precisely duplicated the actions of others, I could reproduce the same quality of results that they had.” –Tony Robbins
Re-read that if you need to. It's pretty profound really.
And after 16+ years in the real estate game and personally knowing hundreds of investors now, I can attest that it's just as true for real estate investors as anyone else….
Success leaves clues.
What's more–and most people don't realize this–but there's actually a surprisingly specific path that pretty much everyone who makes it big in this game ends up walking–kind of an ‘essential life cycle' for successful real estate investors.
So naturally it stands to reason that you'd get a serious leg up if you (i) could know what this real estate investor ‘life cycle' really looks like, and (ii) could see precisely where you are in this cycle, and be aware of the dynamics of what's coming ahead.
Think of it this way:
You know how, when you walk into a new mall you've never shopped in before, you have basically two options to get where you're going (which is of course Auntie Anne's Pretzels, cause admit it you know you want one):
Option 1: Wander around until you eventually stumble upon it.
Option 2: Use the mall map.
I mean for me, it's a no-brainer–I'll find my way a heckuvalot faster by first perusing the mallscape, observing where my stores-of-choice are located, and of course, orienting myself from this little guy…
So you go right ahead and meander around until you find what you're looking for if you want to, but by that time I'll have already scored the best pretzel. (That'll learn ya.)
A ‘mall map' for real estate investors…
I turn your attention to a recent webcast in which we (Patrick & JP) dove into precisely this: The Essential Life Cycle of a Real Estate Investor.
The big idea here centers mostly around understanding the 5 major milestones every successful real estate investor must hit at some point, and how a sooner-than-later grasp of them can flat-out accelerate your success. Plus we also get all up into some other fun stuff like:
⟶ The flaws of the “tool-belt” approach to investing,
⟶ Being a specialist vs generalists
⟶ Doing REI as a business vs. a hobby
⟶ Working in vs. on your business
⟶ Breaking the solopreneur barrier (and why you really must)
⟶ Operating at your highest point of contribution
⟶ The 2 leading linchpins (of awesome success or epic failure)
⟶ Biggest, most common obstacles that sabotage investors
So Look…
If any of this stirs your interest, then feast your mind on the video below. We dove in headfirst, then opened up for a solid, anything goes Q&A in the second half (we love doing that). I think you'll find it enlightening…
Pro Tip: This is a full webinar, so it's a tad… beefy. If you're short on time or attention span, try using the lower-right “gear” shaped icon to speed up the video and watch it faster. Or alternately, you could slow it down and make us sound like we've had a few too many–whatever floats your boat I guess.
Video Transcription:
JP Moses: Alright guys, it is 2 minutes after the hour and I am super pumped to be here with you guys tonight. Patrick and I both had a marathon session last night, and as you just heard Patrick say, this is the 2nd of 3 consecutive webinars.
We really rocked it out last night… some percentage of you were with us, some of you missed out on last night, but we covered A LOT of stuff. I'll run through the highlights here just to let you know what you missed, before we jump in for tonight.
But I want to say too, you're in for more of the same tonight… it's not going to be the same presentation. We're going to actually cover entirely different stuff—but at the same level of authenticity—the same level of keeping it real and pulling from our own worlds what we've learned over the past 27, 28 years together, cumulatively, in real estate investing.
So, internet high-five, glad to have you guys here. And so first off, again, I want to thank you for being here with us because we're grateful for you. We're grateful for the opportunity to serve.
If you were with us last night, you know that the chance to do this and have the ability to speak from our experiences into your world is something we cherish. It hits high in our values. So there's a lot of other things you could be doing right now… but you're here with us investing your time and your effort. And we're very grateful.
We're going to make it worth your while tonight. The only thing we have for sale tonight, much like last night, is more big ideas. More big ideas that we hope to challenge you with, to inspire you, to sharpen you and to hopefully shape you for the better. The cost is only your investment of time and mind share with us this evening.
Patrick Riddle: Near the end last night, someone typed in the question panel: What does this cost?
Nothing.
We're just bringing you this training. Last night, tonight, tomorrow night for free. We’re here to not only bring you some awesome training, but also answer your questions and share some of the new awesomeness that we've got just waiting for you.
JP Moses: In our last episode of AwesomeREI last night—we got real. We showed you some of our embarrassing bits, maybe not the ones that come to mind, but we did open up and share from our past some of the speed bumps, some of the downright dips that we've experienced.
You heard Patrick talk about facing everything that could go wrong in real estate… did go wrong. I didn't go into that aspect of my story, but I, too, have been through some very similar experiences a number of years ago.
I shared a different aspect of my story that went back to my childhood and how I was wired with some limiting beliefs, thanks to some experiences I had as a kid. But we were vulnerable and that's what we want to continue doing—keeping it real.
We focused last night on one game-changing idea and that idea is that there are 2 great days in a person's life:
- The day you're born.
- The day you discover why.
Your why is a clear sense of purpose that inspires you to do what you do, and we gave you some specific questions…
I challenged you: Before your head hits the pillow to consider those questions and to really think through them to try and uncover your reason why. The fuel in your jet pack—your why is intrinsically tied to your values.
We talked a lot about my values and Patrick's values, and we also talked about where those values synchronize and the critical importance of really understanding your values.
And we answered a bunch of your questions last night. We're planning to do more of that tonight because we really love doing it. And, we announced the release of AwesomeREI.com: real estate investing for…?
Patrick Riddle: Awesome people.
JP Moses: And that's you guys.
Patrick Riddle: JP let me just take a moment for any of you who weren't there last night… that was the first time that we have let our tribe know about our brand-new website and company name.
Private Money Blueprint has been the name of my education company since forming and we've come out with a various products and programs over the years from the Private Money Blueprint home study course, Private Money on Demand, Investor Profits on Demand, 10 Hour Wholesaler, among others.
And this is our transition.
We are now AwesomeREI, and all of our products and programs are now under that umbrella. Yes, you still have access to all the training products and programs. You can still access them in the current members areas where they live.
We are going to migrate those over to the AwesomeREI site down the road, but I'm not quite there yet. After tonight's training, head over to AwesomeREI and check it out, because we've got some stuff waiting for you…
There's a couple—what we call—Knowledge Bombs. These are not just your normal articles. They're not just your normal blog post. These are meaty, finely crafted deep. We're talking in-depth and actionable training that's there for you to dig into, with many more on the way.
And one of them is the 33 Ways to Build a Ridiculous Cash Buyers List. There's another one, the 47 Awesomest MLS Keywords for Real Estate Investors to help you dig into uncovering deals off of the MLS. And we've got so much more coming down the pipeline.
We're psyched and we're glad to share this with you because it's been in the works for a long time, and yes, we’re doing it for you. We're doing it to bring you more of just a taste of what you're going to get tonight. Much more to come.
JP Moses: Okay, so a couple things I noticed in the question box that I want to touch on that I think are going to help some people…
A lot of people are saying: I can't see your faces. I see the slides and then vice versa.
We're broadcasting both our cameras and my screen … if you go off of full screen, you should see the whole thing. But play around with the settings. You should be able to see both of us right now on your screen.
Also, Clive says, we're not old enough to have those years in real estate. Clive, we’re older than we look. And by the way, it was a cumulative number. I have 15 years. Patrick, you have 13 years of experience…
Patrick Riddle: I just turned 35. Bought my first house when I was 22.
JP Moses: That's right. And I'm 40. So, we're a little older than you might have thought.
Alright, so in this episode tonight, we're going to cover the real estate investors essential life cycle—and this is something that it's much better to learn early than later, because you get to see where you are on the mall map of real estate investing.
I wish I had known about this thing—it would have been very helpful: the 5 major milestones that every real estate investor must face at some point in your career, and the 2 leading linchpins of your awesome success or…
Patrick Riddle: Epic failure.
JP Moses: It could go either way—facing the real estate investors biggest obstacles…
We're going to discuss, briefly, some of those biggest, most common obstacles and identify and obliterate them—which kind of touches back on what we talked about last night and still ahead tomorrow night, avoiding the tactical trap that almost investor gets lured into at some point…. and the 3 axioms of awesome. Those are off the shelf tonight, for tomorrow night.
Patrick Riddle: Same time, same place tomorrow night. And if you've already registered, obviously if you're here, you registered for tonight's training, then you should receive that invite and link tomorrow as well. So we'd love for you to join us tomorrow as well because we've got more coming at ya.
JP Moses: Alright, so we are ready to really dive in here…
This is a picture of a Patrick and I, when we did indoor skydiving recently. Hence the dive connection.
Engage with us tonight, set your expectations, whatever they are—especially if you weren't here last night, you probably have a preset expectation of some sort based on somebody else that you've experienced.
Set those expectations aside, open your mind and dive in with us. Make a note of your questions, write them down on a piece of paper in front of you. And then we're going to open the floor here in just a little while to answer your questions.
The questions might have to do with what we talk about tonight. It could be anything, though, any real estate investing question or mindset question or business-building question. Nothing's off the table, we're just going to open up and have a free for all at the end.
Going invite you to share and care and don't forget to be awesome
Patrick Riddle: And you know what you're going to learn tonight is some foundational information, some knowledge from our experience. If you're looking for some shiny new tactic where you can make a million dollars yesterday, that's not what we're doing over here.
We're going over foundational stuff to help you make sure that you've got what's needed in place to then build up from there.
JP Moses: David says: So there's hope for me. I’m 61.
Yes, David, there's hope for you at 61.
Nate, I'm seeing your questions—wee can't really answer all the questions at the start. We're going through the presentation, so we may not be able to acknowledge you right away. If you have questions, please, it's best to save them till the end if you can, because we're not going to be able to really follow them very well until we get to that point.
So who are these cats? Anyway, we did this last night. I feel like it would be an injustice to those who weren't able to be there if we didn't take just a moment for anyone who doesn't know both of us to kind of encapsulate a brief Reader's Digest version of how we got into real estate.
Patrick Riddle: Alright, rapid fire…
I heard about real estate investing while I was going to college. Read a book, even though I was not a reader, and it just opened my eyes. Shortly thereafter, me and a couple friends bought our first investment property and made a brash decision… and quit college after 3.5 years, and I've never looked back.
I've been self-employed ever since I've been investing. And, although I do look young, I've been at this thing for over a decade. Everything from:
- single-family
- multifamily
- apartment buildings
- bankruptcy deals
- probate
You name it, I've probably done a deal like it. And I love sharing, and anything that I can share to make a positive impact in somebody else's life—to help them make a breakthrough, help them do something that they didn't think possible… close a deal, quit their job, go full time into real estate, whatever—that's what does it for me.
JP Moses: I'm actually going to hop out of the presentation and just show you guys this. It's apropos at the moment.
If you go to AwesomeREI.com and you go to our version of the ‘About Us’ page… there are bios for Patrick and me, as well as the rest of our Team Awesome. So you can just click it, toggle and find out a little bit more about us if you care. This is not really about us, but I just want you to know that's there.
So, I got started in real estate investing 2000–2001, I don't really remember which one it was when I actually started doing deals. But it all happened… it all started rather, when I read Rich Dad, Poor Dad. A friend of mine shared that book, man, The Cashflow Quadrant with me, and it blew my ever-loving mind.
I just remember all of the hard-wired entrepreneur that was inside me, all of the self-employed that I had just wasted on bright shiny object after bright shiny object, suddenly had a form and a shape that made sense.
This guy got started in real estate. I'm going to get started in real estate.
So I dove in. I started on the internet, as I'm sure a lot of you guys did. I learned everything I could on discussion forums, as this was way before Facebook. I, eventually, kind of dipped my toe in the water, and I also started and ran my local REIA group at the same time, and I ran that for six years. I tried a lot of different things… I've done a little bit of about every type of deal you can imagine:
- notes
- lease options
- rehab
- I was a Realtor for awhile
- I listed REOs
Fast forward, I eventually stuck my flag deep into wholesaling and that is my sweet spot. I'm a firm believer that you want to do a niche in real estate that's a good fit for your personality—for the way that you're wired.
And wholesaling is a great fit for me and my personality. I'm a good starter. I'm not a good finisher. So I liked the velocity of wholesale deals.
Our company here in Memphis focuses exclusively on wholesaling. We don't do any other type of deal. We are an inch wide and a mile deep on wholesaling. We do about 3 to 5 a month. It varies a little, sometimes more. And we are somewhere north of 450 transactions.
So, that's us in a nutshell. And that at least gives those who don't know us an idea of where we're coming from.
Let's continue with today's Knowledge Bomb #2. It’s for people who are trying to build a business, a real estate investing business, not a real estate investing hobby.
Now let me tell you what I mean by that. There's a BIG difference.
A real estate investing hobby is when someone who knows how to do a deal does a deal. Maybe they do a few deals.
A business is something that exists completely separate from real estate investing. It’s not just an entity, but it is a way of thinking.
And, if you are a hobbyist, if you're interested in just doing deals, making some extra money, there's nothing wrong with that.
But tonight is most specifically for those who really want to go all in, and they are trying to make a business out of this real estate investing thing. What we want to do is help you understand that you are here wherever here is for you.
If you'll notice in that little cartoon that guy’s at the mall, right? He's looking at a mall map. And think about it… when you go into the mall, let's say you want to go to a shoe store and you walk in and you're like, ‘Okay, I've got to find the shoe store.’ Do you just start walking around? Just like looking at all the stores, maybe go in all the stores and say, ‘You guys sell shoes?’
No, you find that mall map, that big display… and you look for the little red dot. It says you are here. That's what we want to help you do tonight. We want to give you a picture of the mall map of real estate investing so that you can see where you are on that map.
And in doing so, you will gain an edge—an edge over yourself… over the version of yourself that just wanders around in the mall and takes a heck of a lot longer to find out where it is you're trying to go.
It's going to shorten your learning curve. And hopefully, you’re gonna be playing and winning the game much faster and easier because of that—because you understand the game board a little better.
Patrick Riddle: That's a really good metaphor. Just internalize that a bit—if you're at the mall, and you're looking for a shoe store and you're just wondering around kind of aimlessly and getting distracted by other stores in the food court and whatever else…
It's the same thing in real estate. When you don't know where you're at and where you're headed, it's pretty hard to get there.
JP Moses: Yes it is. You might get there eventually, but you're going to wander around a lot. You're going to stumble, you're going to fall more than you need to.
Included in these 5 major milestones—we're going to cover the 2 leading linchpins. I talked about that already… so let's jump into the milestones, the 5 major milestones.
What is a milestone?
Well, it's a noun and the first definition is: a stone set up beside a road to mark the distance in miles to a particular place. Now, it's a word that's become so commonly used that a lot of times we forget about the literal meaning of the word… but that gives you a good visual picture of what it actually has been in the past.
Today when we talk about a milestone, what we usually mean more is an action or event marking a specific change or stage of development.
Milestone #1: That light bulb moment.
(And by the way, if you're here with us, you have probably already experienced this first milestone, right?)
It's when you first realized that real estate investing could be the vehicle to get you from wherever you are right now—to wherever it is that you want to be.
Now it is a kin to the spark that we discussed yesterday. If you remember last night we asked you guys to chime in and actually tell us what was the spark that first got you into real estate investing. As you can see on the slide here, a spark is that first motivating reason that got you into real estate investing.
The light bulb is that defining moment that actually struck that match.
And so for you, it could be anything…
- Maybe you saw Carlton Sheets on late-night TV and you nervously picked up the phone and dialed the number and talked to an operator and went through 42 upsell attempts. And then maybe that's still sitting on the shelf in shrink wrap. (I've heard a lot of stories like that.)
- Maybe you went to a free hotel seminar, and you were pitched an idea and given a dream of what real estate could accomplish for you.
- Maybe it was a book that you read, like it was for Patrick and me.
- Maybe it was a TV show that you saw, Flip This House, Flip That House, Flip Your Momma's House.
Whatever it is—that light bulb moment is a huge milestone and you’ll always remember it. It's kind of like a big turning point. So just go ahead.
Patrick Riddle: Can I go ahead and share just really quick what my initial sparks and light bulb moment is?
JP Moses: Yeah, that's exactly what I was actually gonna ask you to do.
Patrick Riddle: Well for me, the spark was much earlier on, just growing up as a kid and realizing that the mold that society tries to put you in: go to school, get a job, work for somebody else all your life and maybe retire one day when you're 65+, so then you can do the things that you want to do—that never made sense to me.
So just the mindset at an early age was seeing what my parents did: going to a job every day, working toward someone else's goals, being on someone else's timeframe and whatnot and having to ask for time off… none of that made sense.
So for me, the spark was just the mental process of knowing that I was a little bit different… that I didn't think just like that employee mindset. And the light bulb moment didn't actually happen until I went to a bookstore after a friend had met a local investor who was young, who owned some properties and told them about appreciation and some other benefits of real estate…
And we went and got a couple of books, peeled back the page—I had never read much of anything before that—and it just spoke to me.
And at that moment I was like, “This is it! This is the way out of the rat race in the mold.”
And that was it.
JP Moses: And for me just too, to connect those dots…
My spark was being wired as an entrepreneur from youth, watching my dad as a self-employed person and enjoying the benefits of having him around and having him able to participate in those important moments in my life.
But at the same time, if you recall from my story last night, seeing what a poor business man he was and how much we struggled financially. We were evicted twice, growing up, it was two of the most traumatic times in my life.
Simply because my dad didn't know how to run a business.
He knew how to paint a picture, a beautiful picture, phenomenal artist, I mean mind-blowing artist… but couldn't get business because he didn't know how to do business.
So I knew I wanted to be self-employed. I want those benefits. I wanted to be self-employed or an entrepreneur, but I didn't really know what entrepreneur was… but I wanted to be a self-made guy.
Be my own boss is probably the best words I had to put to it, but I don't want to do it like my dad.
So, I had all that energy and stuff inside me. And as I said earlier, I tried a lot of different things, multilevel and sales positions and none of it clicked.
But that light bulb was when I read Rich Dad, Poor Dad and thought, “Oh wow, this makes sense. Now I have a channel that I can pour all of this into.”
And that was my turning point.
Patrick Riddle: And if you want to share your light bulb moment or what sparked you initially toward that light bulb moment, toss in the question panel, we'd love hear it.
JP Moses: Yes, please do. I'm keeping one wandering eye over here on the side to try and see if I can deal with any immediate questions that come in.
So Milestone #1—that light bulb… you've all been through the door of the mall already. You're in the mall. The light bulb moment is like walking in the door. So that's behind you, right?
Milestone #2: That first dollar in real estate investing.
Even if it’s just $1, it's so exciting. It is so incredibly exciting. But it's also critical.
Patrick, I want to ask you to chime in and tell me why… elaborate on why that first dollar is so important.
Patrick Riddle: I can remember when I first saw in that bookstore some of the claims and titles of the books: Make Your First Million in Three Years with No Cash or Credit. A lot of the claims that you hear are a little hard to believe.
We're hard-wired through the media and through a lot of the negativity in the world to be skeptical. And a lot of people are a little bit jaded, and so it's easy to see some of the claims, and then think, “Yeah, Right.”
And you probably have some of that head trash… that voice inside your head that's questioning whether or not it's possible at all for anyone.
And if you're able to get through that, then you think, “Okay I think it's possible for someone.” Then you got to get the point where you think it's possible not only for someone else—but it's possible for YOU.
Have you ever had that voice telling you that you're:
- too young
- too old
- not smart enough
- not qualified
Because of … fill in the blank.
Making that first dollar—it just changes things, it shatters your paradigm. It's a HUGE paradigm shift.
One of the first deals that we flipped, we actually got paid some of our profit upfront at closing. It was a killer deal, and the way that we brought in a partner to fund it… we got a check at closing with some of our profit and we were just blown away.
Just mind-blown.
A whole new world of opportunity.
Making that first dollar it, it creates a whole new belief system, that you can then build upon that actually supports your goals. The proof that you have that not only for yourself but also for others.
A lot of times you deal with those naysayers… and having proven that the concept is real and making that first dollar—wow, huge confidence-builder! And so critical to the process.
JP Moses: It really is. It shatters those limiting beliefs that you have had up until that first dollar is in your hands:
- I don't know if this is really right for me.
- Can I really do this?
- Do I have the right stuff?
Or, the limiting beliefs that others put upon you, and it cements a new limiting belief.
You have to have belief inside you that says, “Yes, I can do this.”
There's a reason when you go into some small businesses that you see the first dollar they made in a frame on the wall. It's because it means so much. It's so motivating.
It's proof of concept to you and to other people who have been the naysayers who have been the fire cultures in your life—and it gives you this infusion of confidence that you can ride.
So, some of you I know who are here with us tonight are on this side of that first dollar and you haven't tasted it yet. You don't have the benefit of that infusion of confidence that it can give you. You don't have proof of concept and you're still wrestling with the same level of limiting beliefs that you have for some time—and I just want to offer you hope that it's there.
You will get there, and we want to help you get there. Those of you who have been across this milestone, you know what I'm talking about and you're like, “Preach it, brother.”
Patrick Riddle: Do not quit. You can do it and you'll get there. Just keep moving forward.
I mean, really all you gotta do is commit: Every time you get knocked down, every time an obstacle surfaces—you face it, you get back up and keep moving forward and don't let anybody else tell you can't do it.
Don't let the little voice inside you tell you, you can't do it for x reason, fill in the blank. That doesn't matter. It's not true. You can do it and get to this milestone.
You can do it. This is what everything else can build off of—just making that first dollar, getting that first deal closed.
JP Moses: Alright, so Milestone #1 is the light bulb moment.
Milestone #2 is that first dollar, that first deal.
Milestone #3: I affectionately refer to as The Niche Hitch.
And if you look at the little picture here:
Help Wanted!
Jack of All Trades, Master of None.
To complete 80% of half of the list of some of the jobs that need repair.
So this is basically finding and focusing on a niche in real estate investing. And this is a really hard milestone. It often takes the first 1 or 2 years in the game to really get to this point.
And the fact is, a lot of people actually don't ever get to this point—and they go under because of it.
Now, it's the opposite of what you may hear referred to as the “Toolbelt” or the “Toolbox Approach” to real estate investing…
The toolbelt approach to real estate investing is basically you trying to learn all the tactics and strategies that you can, so that when you're generating leads or you're out looking at houses or whatever, you can pull out the right tool for the right deal at any given time. You can just whip it out and do this type of deal over here and this type of deal over here and it sounds really great… and actually, there are some experienced investors who pull that off marvelously.
I'm not saying that it can't or doesn't work, but it is an approach that will destroy you when you're new. Because what happens when you're new—you had that spark, you have that light bulb moment, you get into real estate investing, and then all of a sudden you go, “Hold it!”
Patrick Riddle: You’re in the mall and you don't know where you're at…
JP Moses: You see exactly how many stores there are and you go, “Whoa, I really thought maybe this was just a shoe store and there's like 49 different shoe stores here. I don't even know which shoe store I need to go into.”
So you start trying all the different shoe stores to see which one's going to have the shoes that you're going for… you get into the rabbit hole, and it gets deeper and wider and deeper and wider, and you get overwhelmed with bright shiny objects and information, and you just had no idea how many ways there were to skin the real estate investing cat.
I've been there. I was there for a long time early in my career. I can tell you about that overwhelm.
I said this last night, it's normal. It's natural. It's a part of the process. Everybody goes through it.
You know, 50 years ago somebody wanted to learn real estate. They just found a local investor, and they learned to do what that guy does or they just figured it out on their own.
Now, we have so much information vying for our attention that as soon as you get on the first person's email list, next thing you know, you’ve got 50 emails a day about 50 different tactics and strategies…
And I know, some of you guys are like, “Ohhh, that hurts, because that's my inbox today.”
Patrick Riddle: When you have a niche, you've got a filter for those 50 emails.
JP Moses: You absolutely do.
The toolbox approach doesn't, though. The toolbox approach has you as a Jack of All Trades, unfortunately, a Master of None.
I want to talk to you for a second about a specialist and a generalist.
Think about this for a moment. In any trade, who makes the most money? A specialist or a generalist. It's the specialist. So let's think about it…
Who makes more money?
- You’ve got a dentist versus an oral surgeon.
- You've got a general practitioner physician versus a brain surgeon.
- You've got a guy who does construction versus a guy who crafts spiral staircases.
Who demands more money?
Specialists almost always outperform generalists, and in the real estate investing business, if you can make it your mission—this milestone is to figure out what kind of specialty you're going to have.
Maybe you're going to be a wholesaler, maybe you're going to be a rehabber or maybe you're going to do lease options… but you're looking for 1 to specialize in, instead of trying to wield all those tools at once.
For the sake of time I need to keep pressing through this, but I trust me, Patrick's heard it. I could keep going and going on about this because I am very passionate about this topic.
You must commit to finding and focusing on 1 strategy at first. You master that 1 before you move on, and you get that 1 to where it's effortless, like breathing, you don't even think about it.
It will massively accelerate your success—and understand as you do this, trial and error is okay. It's a normal part of the process.
I started in rental properties. If you heard my story last night, and I was not a good landlord and I had to actually experience it to realize that it's not a good fit for me… I wouldn't have known that conceptually if I hadn't gotten in and gotten my feet wet in it.
So there is going to be some trial and error and that's okay. It doesn't mean you screwed up. It's just part of the process.
Patrick Riddle: And whenever you really niche down, like if you're going to be a wholesaler, then be a wholesaler who focuses on properties in xx kind of price range, in xx area, catered to xx kind of buyers.
Get specific.
And the more specific that you get, the easier the business is going to be. And then you just stick to that, become an expert at it.
JP Moses: Now, you'll hear Patrick and me talk a lot about wholesaling because that happens to be the niche that’s a good fit for the two of us. And that doesn't mean that we're a 1-trick pony. It doesn't mean that we think everybody always should be wholesalers.
There is a model and a method that's the best fit for you, your personality, your strengths and weaknesses and your market—and your mission to get to this milestone is to uncover that.
Milestone #4: REI CEO. This is where it starts getting fun.
I've already talked about a business versus a hobby, right? A real estate investing hobbiest is somebody who just does deals every once in awhile, maybe here and there, make a little money.
I actually knew a guy who only ever did 1 real estate investing deal and that was it. He didn't have to know anything about hiring somebody or building a team or anything like that. His knowledge level to do that deal was very minimal. He had to understand a tactic and a strategy and that was it…
He could throw that fishing line out, catch 1 fish and then go home. And that's actually what he did.
But doing a deal isn’t different that building a business. So you need to understand different things for building a business.
It requires you to begin thinking like a business owner, like a CEO. It requires you to start behaving differently than someone who is self-employed and it's really a whole different skillset and a whole different mindset than simply doing a deal.
It involves learning how to work not just in your business but ON your business. And thanks to a fantastic book, The E-Myth, it’s such a popular thing to say. But for years I was a big fan of the concept but really didn't know how to do that.
I couldn't figure out how to get myself out of that day-to-day, out of urgent things that were pulling on me at any given moment to actually step back. And I don't have time, unfortunately, tonight to really dig in deep on that. But that's one of my passion topics is to help people get a structure over what that has to look like.
And it has to happen if you're going to run a business like a CEO and across Milestone #4.
Patrick Riddle: So many times it's easier to continue working in the business and doing whatever the thing is versus building a system and training someone to take over that system that will then do that thing for you for the rest of time.
It's a lot quicker just to continue doing the thing. And sometimes people are afraid that someone else isn't going to do it as good as they do it or isn't going to do it exactly how they do it.
So there's definitely work getting to this milestone… getting from working in the business to working on it is a transition that a lot of people struggle with.
It's so worth the read: The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber. Awesome book that’s going to serve you well.
JP Moses: In the REI CEO arena, I've noticed that it's a vast minority of people who seem to be able to start in the real estate investing business with the CEO hat on. Most of us are not automatically wired to think and behave like a CEO.
Just a very few people I've seen do it very quickly in their business. So don't be surprised if it is a struggle for you. It’s like trying to get a dog not to go back and eat its own vomit… they do it and you don't want them to do it, but you see it, and you're like, “Oh, don't go do that!”
As you start to pull away from some of these things, don't be surprised if it's hard and you just want to go right back to it.
Speaking of which, there are 4 markers in the REI CEO Milestone that I would like to shine some light on for you. I think this is going to add some additional clarity to this step. So we're going to drill just a little bit more into this milestone.
Marker #1: Breaking the solopreneur barrier.
Solopreneur is kind of a new word. I started hearing about it maybe the past 4-5 years. And it's pretty intuitive…
I think it's an individual entrepreneur who basically works by himself. He runs the entire thing. He wears all the hats.
So what it looks like when you break through the solopreneur barrier is you not wearing all the hats anymore. And in order to do that, you need systems and you need to learn about team-building.
Those are the 2 ingredients that you have to focus on… that you have to cultivate in order to break through that first barrier of being a solopreneur.
Patrick Riddle: Can I mention a couple of things there? For me, at this milestone, a couple of the first team members I brought on board who helped me start to move in that direction, toward the marker was:
- Hiring an admin—somebody to take over the administrative work, handling a lot of the mail, payables, receivables, paperwork, setting up property files, run errands around town, go into the bank, pick up the mail.
There are so many $10 an hour things that have to be done no matter what business model, what niche, you choose… that was one of the first people who I wanted to bring in to just to get a lot of that crap off my plate, because that's not what I enjoy doing. It's not what I'm good at—organizing and detail work.
- Bookkeeper and/or accountant— lot of times entrepreneurs are wired to where we're not really numbers people. And the numbers are vitally important. So maybe you get a bookkeeper and/or an accountant on board with you to get that off your plate, so that you won’t worry about the books.
A lot of times, people will still have it on their plate and procrastinate and not want to do it, and put it aside and put it aside and put aside… and it becomes this big beast and bear of a task—when it doesn't have to be—and all that mental weight that's filling your head to where you can't think of actual money-making activities. It’s so worth it. Takes some of those hats off, please.
JP Moses: It took me a lot of years to finally actually do that, even after I changed my belief that I shouldn't be doing it all. It took a long time for me to actually take those hats off. I can tell you, I struggled with this for many years because I struggle with chronic perfectionism…
For a long time, I thought my perfectionism was a strength. It's not. I believed that my ability to do everything and do it right… yes, takes longer, but I was going to do it right, gosh, darn it. I really thought that was an asset—and it was keeping me stuck in the mud.
What it took was me seeing other people who got in the business much later than me, far surpassing me, like blowing past me. And that hurts when you see somebody who got in the game 2-3 years after you… and then boom, they're a rock star real estate investor. And I'm going, “What the crap, what am I doing wrong here?” I had some real honest talks with myself where I said, “What's the difference between them and me?”
I had an experienced investor, one of my first mentors tell me, “John Paul, you know what, you know more about real estate investing than I do.” And this guy had been in it for 25 years. He said, “But I make 10x the money you do. Let's talk about why.” You want to talk about a come to Jesus Moment. It was like, whoa!
Patrick Riddle: That's a mentor right there. Someone just tell you like it is. That's solid.
JP Moses: Yes. Alright, let's continue…
So, breaking the solopreneur barriers…
Marker #2: Breaking the self-employed barrier.
Not sure if you’re self-employed or unemployed? So what does that look like?
Well, before I get there, let me describe what the self-employed situation looks like. When you begin to break the solopreneur barrier, you start as Patrick so eloquently put it…
You start hiring people to do stuff for you, you start outsourcing and out-tasking. And what that means is you're looking for somebody who could take some of the work off your plate. And ideally, it's the things that you don't do very well or that you hate doing. And you begin to define these kind of contractors as part-time people or VAs or whatever to hand this stuff off to.
Well, what you create there initially is a wheel and you're in the middle. You're the hub of that wheel. So everybody on the team comes back to you to ask you questions, and it kind of feels good because you're the guy or gal with the answers with the answers.
You're the one who can solve everybody's problems because you know better than they do how it should go. You're just starting to become comfortable with the fact that they can't quite do as good a job as you. Maybe 80% is good. You can live with that, but you still know better than they do…
So they come to you for answers. They report to you, you're in the center of that wheel. That's a self-employed person with a team around him. It's not a CEO. It's a self-employed person.
So when you begin to break through the self-employed barrier, what it looks like is you are not the hub of the wheel anymore.
- First, know that there are better systems—that's the first ingredient.
- Second, you need an empowered team. You need to be cultivating people who aren't just taking marching orders from you and doing what you tell them to do… but are actually being given some decision-making power, some authority to think.
One of the best things I ever learned about this was from a guy who talked to me about this exact concept. He's a lot further down the road than I am, and he said that whenever his employees come and ask him, “What do I do about this problem?”
He explained that a self-employed person says, “Here's your solution.” What he says is, “What do you think we should do?”
And he listens, and they start saying, “Well, I think we should do this and one, two, three, four, five…” And he says, “Okay, do that.”
And most of the time, even if it's not exactly what he would have done, if it's close enough, he'll let them run with it… because it's more valuable to have your team conditioned to think and believing that they have the ability to actually do a job that you've hired them to do on their own without being tied to your apron strings.
This is BIG stuff, guys. I hope you're grabbing this. This is a HUGE paradigm shift…
When you begin to have a team of people around you who can think for themselves, then you can begin to condition people to take responsibility, to take initiative and to actually be better at their jobs than you would be at their jobs.
Then, you put your big boy pants on. This is big stuff. And it also involves accountability.
Because as I said earlier, you're going to want to go back and start answering their questions and solving their problems… you're going to find a tendency to put yourself squarely back in the middle of the wheel—the hub of the wheel. And you're gonna have to pull yourself back out because you just can't stay there for the health of your business.
And you're going to have to have people who are further down the road than you are who are speaking truth to you. Just like the guy who gave me the advice to get my employees thinking for themselves.
I had another guy recently say: The best place to be as a leader is when he is not having to solve everyone's everyday problems because that means he's done a good job teaching them how to solve their own problems.
Patrick Riddle: Oh, well, I was just thinking back to early on in my business, and I was at the beach playing volleyball, and I was getting so much done… I was killing it—closings and all the marketing and lead generation and fielding calls…
And it's quite a quite a good feeling as you start to move through these milestones, just to allow other people to do stuff for you.
JP Moses: My wholesaling business has evolved over the years, and I've worked with different people at different times. The guy I'm working with now, James, he's been a friend of mine for years. He was my best man at my wedding… high level of trust and close friendship.
But a couple of years ago he really didn't know much about real estate investing. So when I first brought him in, my intent was for him to be the day-to-day guy. I had to teach him how to do the business—big picture stuff and minutia—but I want him to be the day-to-day person who calls sellers back, who goes out and sees houses… I'm going to run this business from the CEO seat.
And it took me a while to figure out what shape that needed to take. It took me a while to get him accustomed to that. But I'll tell you what it looks like at this point—and we're still refining it constantly—but at this point, James and I focus on the marketing.
I basically come up with and deploy the marketing strategies—I don't want him thinking about leads. I do the marketing and I also make sure that the finances are taken care of. I don't do them because it's not my strength, but I do have a bookkeeper that does it, and I meet with him once a month. We just forward him everything—save it for him. I meet with him once a month, but he's under my umbrella.
I meet with James… we have a standing meeting for 90 minutes once a week. And all throughout the week, he makes decisions on what houses to look at and that kind of thing. But, any questions he has for me, he saves them on a notepad, and we deal with them all at one time as much as possible.
Now, we're not perfect with that, but we're getting better and better with it. And it has been an immense pleasure to finally build a wholesaling business where I'm able to sit in the CEO seat and run it from above and think about how a business needs to run, not just who do I have to go talk to today to do a deal?
So that's just a little snapshot, as to what that can look like…. As your REI CEO with your highest level of contribution.
So what do I mean at your highest level of contribution?
Well, I recently read a book. I'm reading it for the second time now, called Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg Mccowen.
I highly recommend this book. It is definitely in one of the top 5, maybe one of the top 3 business books that I've ever read. This book has really helped clarify for me the difference between the trivial many and the essential few. And it applies to about any area of life or business that you can imagine. I would not do it justice if I tried to describe the book in detail, but I just want to say you need to get this…
One of the biggest mantras of the book is what it takes to have you as a business owner operating at your highest level of contribution, so that you're really only doing the things that are the most important for you to do—the most fitting for you to focus on where you can contribute the most.
One other way to say that is: your highest and best use. That's a really important concept. So what does it look like? It looks like your business largely running without you on a day-to-day basis. And that is possible. It may not feel possible, but it is possible.
I know so many investors at this point… I've had the privilege of being mentored by them…they have businesses that run almost entirely without them. One of the first people I ever knew who achieved this was Nathan Jurewicz. Remember when he put the Short Sales Riches course out years ago? He took the short sale idea, but he didn't just put out another short sale course (his course is off the market and defunct at this point)… but the beauty of his course was he said:
“Here's how you do short sales a little bit, but here's the real beauty
of what I do—I don't do any of the work.”
He hired people who did every single part of the process for him, for a cut of the action. He only made 20% of any of the profit of any deal. And a lot of people were like, “What in the world?! Dude, you're only making 20% but you own the business! Why are you only making 20%?”
And he said: “Because I don't have to do any work.”
Patrick Riddle: That's like the famous John D. Rockefeller quote…
JP Moses: So, what do you need to have at that third marker of operating at your highest level of contribution?
You need clear vision for what that looks like and how possible that is. You need to understand the 80/20 principle—but not just in general, you need to understand it very specifically.
In fact, there's another book I want to recommend..
Patrick Riddle: I found my quote, Rockefeller said:
“I would rather earn 1% off 100 people's efforts than 100% of my own efforts.”
JP Moses: Yes, I love it.
Another book recommendation: 80/20 Sales and Marketing by Perry Marshall.
So this book takes this Pareto principle for business owners and drills into it to an extent that will expand your mind more than you really probably even could imagine it would.
For example, it talks about how if you take the idea that 80% of your results are going to come from 20% of your effort or 20% of your work… yf you look at hat 20%, you can actually break that down fractally into another 80/20…
Meaning that in that 20%, 80% of the results within that 20% will come from 20% of the work. (I’ve got to make sure I'm not getting my numbers mixed up there and then you can go even further.)
Now, I know that may sound a little ethereal, but this is big-picture CEO, high-level stuff.
Get this book and get Essentialism.
Patrick Riddle: Yeah, I've read the 80/20 book and it's pretty awesome.
JP Moses: Highly recommend them. You can get them on Amazon. (We don't get paid for doing that, okay?)
And it also takes lots of practice to operate at your highest level. It is not something that most people do automatically or easily.
Alright, so that's milestone #4.
Here we are at the 5th milestone.
Milestone #5: Scaling your business.
So why is scaling your business so critical? This is next-level stuff… when you have cultivated the team and the systems and the tools, you've built those things up… finally, you get to the point where things become the most fun of all—where you have the time and the skill to add new tools, to add new streams… and that's really being an entrepreneur when it comes down to it.
You get to do that without diluting your core business or having fallout in your core business.
This is when the tool belt approach can make sense. You can create a new specialty, focus on a new niche. Build on what you're doing, up to another level. You can focus on fewer but better deals. You can create a whole new business.
I am very blessed at this point after 15 years to have my hands in actually 3 different businesses, all of which are in the real estate investing space… but 3 different and unique businesses that I have the privilege of being part of.
And that's not something that you can start out with. But that is the beauty of getting to the point where you can start to scale and expand and spread your wings to the new horizons. So that is the 5th milestone.
Patrick Riddle: So, many people have gotten to milestone #2 and they’ve made the first dollar… they're looking into new specialties and other opportunities that are coming their way—and all of a sudden, they realize where they’re at… what milestone they're approaching, and take this to heart: put it into action, because it will make such a big difference for you.
JP Moses: Okay, I'll restate the milestones here in just a moment…
I misspoke earlier… there are 3 markers (not 4).
Okay, talking about those 5 milestones:
- light bulb moment
- first dollar in real estate investing
- finding and focusing on a niche
- learning how to be the CEO of your business
- scaling
There's no shame, regardless of where you are. These are the five milestones. It doesn't matter where you are. Just find your place. Where are you on the mall map?
JP Moses: All right, let's turn the corner here… we're nearing the part where when open up for questions, but I want to cover these 2 linchpins of your awesome success or epic failure. These are 2 things that just don't get enough air time in the real estate investing space, but they are so important.
What the heck is a linchpin, though? We use the word, but what does it really mean? The linchpin is that thing… it’s the pin stuck in the hub, and if you pull that pin out, then what happens? The wheel falls off, right?
So it's a pretty important little pin.
Linchpin #1: You must commit to always sharpen the ax.
So, what does that mean, Patrick?
Patrick Riddle: Well, the first bullet point there says, CAN I. Way back when I was first diving in to investing and reading books… that first year I read Tony Robbins’ Unlimited Power, and we also got one of his CD sets.
So, the letters C A N I stands for: Constant And Never-Ending Improvement.
And, at my office at the time, I set it up on the bookshelf, so that every single day as I walked in, it just slapped me in the face and reminded me the importance that if you're not growing, you're shrinking…
And the importance of always improving yourself, no matter what level of investor you are and how good at negotiating or lead generation or team building—there's always more to learn.
And, realizing that and being open minded to new things and learning more, it's so vitally important. Makes such a big difference.
JP Moses: If you look at the second bullet point here on this slide, there's a reference to the Japanese word Edward Deming or Kai Zen. (I'm not sure exactly the pronunciation.) This word means ongoing incremental improvement and expansion of knowledge.
And it's actually where CANI came from… it's where Tony Robbins got the idea for CANI. It dates back to post-World War II. And one of the things that America did was help rebuild Japan's infrastructure. And as a part of that process, a lot of our entrepreneurs and business leaders were sent there to help them get industry going again.
So, Edward Deming introduced the Japanese to this concept. They put the word Kaizen to it and it's this idea of focusing on just taking the next step forward… always being committed to taking the next step forward.
Well, we've come up with another version of that and I can't say that this is our original idea. This is a colleague of ours who came up with this.
So, life with constant incremental improvements daily is fantastic, but what if those improvements were focused and self-directed? Very intentional, deliberate, but not random.
Then you have constant and never-ending deliberate improvement or CANDI.
So take that Tony Robbins, stick it on your card!
So, to refer back, you may recall last night we walked through these core values of ours and this is actually on our website on the About Us page of AwesomeREI.com.
Core values number 5 and 6, always be students, not just teachers and always keep improving, learning and grow. And these are the 2 that really speak to this linchpin, 1 of always committing to sharpen that ax on an ongoing basis.
So what does that look like for us? And this is not about us, but I think if we pull from our own experiences, it can help crystallize for you guys what this might look like for you.
What does CANDI look like in your day-to-day right now, Patrick?
Patrick Riddle: CANDI to me looks like…
Well, a lot of times I will start my day off reading… if I'm at an appointment or at lunch, I will have a book with me. One that I just finished recently is Ready, Fire, Aim by Michael Masterson. Awesome book. And especially where I'm at in business, it just spoke to me.
When you continually feed your mind new information and books and inspirational stuff—you emotions and your day is going to go up and down—but when you're feeding your mind with stories of people who broke through despite the odds and achieved great things, you’re filling your mind with new ideas.
I'm always reading. I just finished one the other day called Smart Cuts. I just started a book called the The Boron Letters by Gary Halbert about copywriting. I got Triggers by Joe Sugarman.
And C A N D I for me, my constant and never-ending deliberate improvement also includes… well, lately I've been killing podcasts, loving it, subscribed. I'm subscribed to a number of podcasts now… and in the shower, in the car, whenever I can fit some in, turn your car into Automobile University.
If you don't think you have time where you can soak up some knowledge—you're wrong, you're not trying. Try Audible, it’s really cool. If you don't like reading, maybe you can listen to more and soak it up.
Also, never-ending improvement for me… I'm going to a Mastermind meeting. It's a paid Mastermind group in San Diego. I'm going to be there with people who are far ahead of me in business… and there's always more to learn. There's always more that you can do to grow.
I just implore you to dive in and find the modality of learning that you like most. Maybe it's videos, maybe it's audio, maybe it's reading, maybe it's multiple things… force yourself to do it if you have to for awhile until you develop the habit, until you start to enjoy it—you'll get there.
JP Moses: Hope here says, “I know what you mean as a math teacher and a pastor's wife. I go to bed feeling like I've been sucked dry.”
I've been there, we've all been there. Also, Mike Miller says, “2 books a week has changed my life and business.” High-five, man! Yes, bam! Absolutely. Couldn't agree more.
JP Moses: Okay, so what does it look like for me? What does constant and never-ending deliberate improvement look like?
Well, first of all, it means routine, for me. Anybody can be selfish and do stuff for yourself, but when you're actually going to focus on improving yourself, it means that you'd have to focus on the important instead of the urgent…
You have to set aside time to focus your attention and your time on the important, which is developing yourself rather than the urgency of things that are pulling on you constantly. The to-do list, the phone calls, the texts, the emails, whatever it is that you feel like is pressing on you to get done that day… that's a really hard thing to do at times, especially if you're in a place of need.
It's hard to pull away from the urgent. And the best remedy for that is a routine. It is cultivating a routine where you have a set period of time every day that's reserved exclusively as a sacred time to pour into yourself.
I cannot tell you it is not a luxury to do this. I cannot tell you what an important thing this is for you to do and the profound way it will exponentially amplify your efforts in every possible arena of your life.
One of the best things I think you can do if you struggle with that concept at all, seeming realistic, is to read this book, The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod. Go get this. In fact, I would put this above any of the other books that we've recommended, personally. I would say read this one first.
It’s a quick read, not a very long book. It had about the same impact that Rich Dad, Poor Dad had on me. It gave me a this really clear way that I can apply what had been just good ideas up until that point.
The need to spend time picturing an ideal day and visualizing that. The need to spend time learning how to do things like meditating. It's not a real Eastern philosophy type of book, but that's something that had been on my list of things to want to learn, and it gave me a framework in which I could learn to start doing that with a routine.
It really pushed me through some limiting beliefs about being a morning person. I've never been a morning person. I've always resisted the idea and had these self-imposed limiting beliefs that I'm just not a morning person. I'm a night person.
Well, when I read this book, I drew a line in the sand. I got about halfway through and I said, “Okay, I'm a morning person now.” Just like that. And Patrick, because we work closely together, have I stuck to that?
Patrick Riddle: Yeah. There were a few things that you just said… all of a sudden one day you're like, “Hey, by the way, I was this and now I'm this.” Nice!
JP Moses: I'm so awesome because of what was put in this book—it so simply but profoundly turned my thinking. That's the best thing I can talk to you guys about that’s made the biggest difference on constantly learning.
Patrick Riddle: One thing that I've really enjoyed over the past year and a half…. there's 3 or 4 different fellow entrepreneurs who are in Charleston here, we've got a monthly get-together and we pick an epic beer spot…
Josh Brown and I are the ones who started it, and we invite a few people to join us. It's a chance for us to get together on a regular basis and share what we've been doing in our businesses and share what's working.
JP Moses: Oh my gosh, there's no off switch in my brain sometimes… you should name it Beer in Business.
Patrick Riddle: Ah, that is pretty good! We actually named it MOM: Meeting of the Men.
JP Moses: Beer in Businesses is better.
Patrick Riddle: That's pretty good.
JP Moses: Okay…
Linchpin #2: Identify and obliterate obstacles.
Just take a moment to absorb that, it is mesmerizing.
So, here's the problem… you have a crapload of obstacles in front of you as a real estate investor. Just trying to find a way to make ends meat or just trying to get through milestone #1 or #2 or #3 or #4 to get to #5…
You have so many obstacles between where you are now and where you're trying to get. And most people approach those obstacles by taking them as they come. They're kind of passive and maybe they have a can-do attitude. Maybe you're like, “Nothing's gonna stop me. I'm just gonna find a way through or around whatever obstacles come,” which is great.
It's a great quality to have, but they're still reactive rather than proactive. Here's a better approach. Expect those tough obstacles, so that you're not waylaid and demoralized by them…and an even better approach is to identify your likely obstacles in advance and pre-know how to obliterate them.
Pre-know, how do you do that? Well you gotta be like a psychic playing whack-a-mole… that game where the mole pops up and you're like bop, bop, bop, bop, bop. I was never very good at that game.
Well, so what does that mean? It means that you know where the mole’s gonna pop up because you've been given a precog vision of it. So don't just stumble forward solving problems and obstacles as they come… be aware, be prepared and intentional about it, not passive and reactive, and basically don’t get sucker punched by them.
So here's a pro tip on how to accomplish that: Stand on our shoulders.
Last night, we laid this out very clearly… the reason that we created AwesomeREI.com is because it is among our chief values to pour value into other people's lives, and to walk alongside our fellow real estate investors and entrepreneurs and help them along their journey.
Help them learn not just from the successes that we've enjoyed, but the mistakes that we've made. Not just the wins that we've had, but the bloody losses that we've wrestled with as well. That's a huge part of our values and it's very rewarding for us.
So, we're offering you the opportunity through AwesomeREI.com—I got nothing to sell you tonight except this idea—we want you to learn from us. We're not perfect either. We still make mistakes and screw up.
I just did a webinar for our Insiders on a training call about 7 mistakes that we made on this one deal… but as the mistakes happen in real time, we're going to share them in real time, and we want to share them in a way that's unique and special and connects with you where you are, not just the pie in the sky real estate dream.
Yes, it exists. You can accomplish so much through real estate investing. You can achieve that life that you have wanted for so long that you deserve. You can achieve things that are so out of reach for most people who don't have the itch that you have to scratch… but that's not it.
If that's the only side of the story that we ever tell you, we're doing a huge disservice. The other side of that coin is you're going to earn it and you're going to earn it with some scars, but it's worth it and we want to help you lessen those scars and heal them when they occur—and in doing so, it's going to be very rewarding for us as well.
So, you have the ability to learn how to be a psychic at whack-a-mole by standing on our shoulders and learning from the moles that we've hit in the past or that we haven't hit.
Alright, so let's continue. Common obstacles. I think we just need to blow through these real quick for the sake of time, Patrick, I'll ask you to do that please…
What you're about to hear are some of the biggest, most common obstacles.
We've had the opportunity to walk alongside a lot of investors. I told you I started and ran my local REIA group. I've known literally hundreds and hundreds of people who are just getting started in real estate investing, and I know that's not all of you. We have a lot of people here who are experienced as well, so you'll know exactly what we're talking about here.
These are some of the biggest, most common obstacles that we see people facing. Go ahead my friend.
Patrick Riddle: Well, sure, We'll talk through some of them here. And if you have experienced in the past or you are experiencing presently any of these obstacles, it's okay. We've been there before.
Some of them listed here—finding a good mentor, how and where to get started—if you were on with us last night during the Q&A, we had a few different questions that all kind of centered around that… the how/where to get started kind of obstacle.
You've got fear holding you back potentially, and that's a huge thing. That's that inner head trash. The limiting beliefs… lies that you may have accepted from people telling you couldn't do something or lies you've told yourself just because of things you've believed are not possible for you.
Perfectionism. Like JP.
One of the questions that was in the box earlier that I saw was asking you, JP, how you got over that obstacle of perfectionism. Was there any one little thing in specific that put it over the edge for you?
JP Moses: Shame. It was shame. It’s what I alluded to earlier, when I saw people who I knew, #1 didn't know as much about real estate as I knew, and #2, they weren't as good at the things I was doing in real estate as I was… and I saw them blow so far passed me so fast—and all they were doing was throwing as much mud against the wall as they could as fast as they could.
And because of that action, that momentum, that a lack of perfectionism—but energy, sheer raw energy and momentum, they were able to achieve a lot more than I was able to achieve. Was the quality of what they put out not as good as mine? Heck yes. Mine was a lot better and anybody would tell you that, but they achieved the success that I was not achieving.
And I was ashamed of that, frankly, when I finally saw that and I was faced with that reality. So that shame was enough for me. That, plus other people who were further down the road and mentors of mine who were able to look into my scenario, into my situation and say, “You are your own worst enemy with this perfectionism.”
And, it's not just a matter of me hearing one time that somebody else doing it 80% or 70% or 50% as good as I would do it, is better than me doing it. It's not just one time I had to hear that. It's like a million times.
I had to hear that and make incremental steps in that direction. And that was a very painful process for me. I still struggle with perfectionism, but now I've tasted the goodness. I've tasted the fruit of running a business like a CEO. And I know what that's like and I can't go back.
Patrick Riddle: Well then, like a couple of the other obstacles here that I just mentioned, like fear and how we're gonna get started… even with information overload, just like with fear, remember this quote by Mark Twain:
“Do the thing you fear most and the death of fear is certain.”
So, just taking action, ready or not, even if you don't know if that action is right… that's going to allow you to pull through a lot of these obstacles. For me, one of the things that my two friends and I got started with early on is, we put into place and accountability system, where if any of us asked the other one to do something that would help the business out—we just had to do it.
There wasn't a choice. And my friend went through the newspaper and circled all the FSBO ads, and he just threw the paper at me and said, “Hey, call all these leads and prequalify them.”
And I've been reading some books and courses, but the butterflies stirred up inside me and I was scared, because I've never done it before. And then I did it… and I stumbled and fumbled a little bit, and then I did it again… and I got a little better. And I did it again… and again… and again. And I got through that first little action.
Get another local investor who's at or around the same level as you—to be your accountability partner. A good friend of yours or spouse, whoever. Just simple accountability can help you break through fear and get through some of that info overload…
You're just taking action and doing something. You don't need to know exactly how or where to get started. Just get started. That's it.
- Get out there and network.
- Go to investor meetings.
- Talk to people.
- Call sellers.
- Call For Rent signs.
- Just get used to talking to people.
Other common obstacles, analyzing deals… doing deals you should and shouldn't do… Bright, Shiny Object Syndrome…
If you find a niche and really create some focus on the business model, the strategy that you're going to implement, the type of property price range area… if you're laser-focused and know exactly what you're going after with a strategy in hand, then bright shiny objects are not going to be so bright anymore…
They're going to be kind of dull. You're going to have a filter that gets rid of those bright shiny objects because only a few of those might funnel into the specific niche and core that you're focused on.
Other obstacles:
- consistent lead generation
- knowing how to build that power team
- asset protection as you build your portfolio and your business
- systematizing
- outsourcing
- bandwidth and mental bandwidth
You might get through an obstacle at a certain milestone, and then it may resurface again in a milestone down the road. So it's a process. A lot of times, different fears will pop up as you get to the next milestone. It's just a matter of continuing to push forward and identifying it is an obstacle. Realizing that, and then moving forward.
JP Moses: I can tell by keeping an eye on the comments and the questions, that a lot of what we're saying is really hitting home with a lot of people. I'm not surprised but I'm glad. And, I'm super thrilled to see you guys continuing to engage with us. We are an hour and a half in, so clearly this is striking a chord with a pretty large contingency of those of you who are investing your time with us here tonight. So I'm glad.
Let's continue to a critical truth—and that is that almost all obstacles that you're going to face are inside you. I don't know if you've picked up on this, but we really haven’t given any real estate investing strategies in last night’s or tonight's training, not even a single one.
And that's because these issues that we are camped out on, though, they are some of the most important issues you can ever tackle—have nothing to do with how to do a deal. They have to do with the 12 inches of real estate between your ears (or however many depending on the size of your head). It's you're thinking…
I have known hundreds and hundreds of real estate investors over the past 15 years and every single one of them who has gone belly up or who died on the vine trying to become a real estate investor has done so because of some form of self-sabotage, not because they didn't understand how to do a real estate deal… or they didn't have the right tactic on hand… or they didn't have the right entity set up… or they didn't have an understanding of how to handle the tax implications of doing business… or they just didn't understand how to get enough buyers.
That stuff is important, but it's tactical stuff that, ultimately, will not determine your success or your failure. It's the stuff inside you, which almost always leads to what we call the tactical trap, which is where we're going to pick up on tomorrow night.
Patrick Riddle: Tomorrow night, we're going to go over the tactical trap. Many investors, ourselves included, have fallen into it before, and we're going to break that down for you and show you how to avoid that once and for all.
JP Moses: So as we turn to Q&A, we turn into taking your questions. Here's your action plan… here's our challenge to you…
Action Steps:
#1: commit yourself to always sharpen the ax for constant and never-ending daily improvement.
#2: Always play precog whack-a-mole with your obstacles. That means identifying and obliterating often and early, which means knowing the obstacles that are coming before they've hit you, which means learning from other people who are further down the road than you are.
Commit yourself to those 2 things.
We’ll talk about avoiding the tactical trap tomorrow night and the 3 axioms of awesome.
It’s time for A's for your Q's.
I do want to point out one thing before we jump into the questions… if you go to our homepage at AwesomeREI.com, scroll down… see this section that says most recent Knowledge Bombs? I want to direct your attention to the first one, time for something awesome, these have very action-packed information for real estate investors. This first one is the underlying foundation of the whole shebang. And I want to direct your attention further down on that blog post… where we talk about how this goes down.
So we start off up here… we're probably not talking about what you're expecting. Hopefully, we’ve already established that our goal here is not a stodgy real estate website or somebody who's always trying to shove whatever the latest and greatest thing is down your throat…
We want to be real and vulnerable. It might help you in your journey as a real estate investor, because that scratches an itch for us… and the dirty little secret of real estate investing is that when it comes to the education and information and training side of things—most of what's available nowadays has a certain sticky film to it.
Am I right or am I right?
It's sad but true. Real estate investing has got issues that anyone who’s been around this place for more than a few days knows pretty darn well. We've touched on some of this stuff.
So, the certain sticky film that exists with real estate investing today: It's the late-night infomercials… the questionable hotel seminars… that pie in the sky promise of the easy button solutions… offering to make all your wildest dreams come true with little or no actual effort from you.
That is not what we're about. And I just want to make that very, very clear. If you've been with us tonight, I think you get that. We're not trying to demonize other people—a lot people do that kind of stuff or colleagues of ours—but we just want to be sure that you understand that we're in this for you and we're in this together with you.
We want to help you succeed.
That's hugely important to us. We're all about creating win-wins. We want to have a lot of fun and not take ourselves too seriously at every turn, as often as possible. We want to be committed to constant improvement and sharpening each other along the way. Things like honesty, integrity, authenticity. They actually matter to us.
We want to teach you if you don't already know, how to have an abundance mindset, not a scarcity mindset, and the value of having a positive impact and making a real difference.
If you remember, that's my personal vision statement—making a difference in other people's lives. So it hits really, really hard at home with me. So that's what this place is all about and before we turned to the questions, I wanted frame that and make sure that you understand it. That's where our heart is.
So, having said that, I think we're ready to turn to some Q&A. Let's do it…
Can you tell me about landlocked property?
We're looking at a piece of property that appears to be landlocked.
Well I guess it depends on what you want to do with that property. What it is that you are hoping to accomplish? Typically, landlocked property—for anyone who doesn't know what that means— is that you have to go through someone else's property to get to your property. So there's no driveway. There's no, there's no easy way to get access to it without going through somebody else's property.
There's a reason it's not very desirable because you can't get to it easily without working something out with the owner. And I would say I've looked at some landlocked properties before in areas where I was looking for lots… but I couldn't get past that. So I don't have a magic wand I can wave to say, “Here's the answer that nobody else has ever told you….”
It's problematic if you're looking to develop it in some way, yourself, as opposed to flipping it. If you have plans for that land, then it may be that you can go to the owner of one of the pieces of land around it and get them to slice off a piece of their property, pay them—obviously they're going to need to be compensated for that—but slice off a piece of their property that gives you access to whatever road or access that somebody in that property would need.
So it kind of depends on what you need, but unfortunately, that's about the best I have to give you. In terms of my experiences, I've not done a lot with landlocked property, and I don't know any way around that. Patrick, do you have anything else to add to that?
Patrick Riddle: I don't have any experience with that type of property. So I don't have anything further to add.
Let’s see, we got one from Brian, for someone just starting:
What's the best way to figure out what niche to try and pick up?
That's a good question. I think it has a lot to do with where you're at financially today—is quick cash important to you or are you okay with your cash right now and you're looking more for long-term wealth building?
That's kind of an easy question that will put you into entirely different directions—depending on what makes sense for you. If you're looking to generate cash right now, to build up reserves, to build up some capital for your business—wholesaling, fixing & flipping—one or the other may make the most sense.
If you're happy in your job and you're just looking to have some real estate investments on the side, then maybe the buy & hold approach is more beneficial or makes more sense to where you're at today.
JP figured out, after buying some rental properties, that that kind of business and landlording was not for him. He had to dive in and get his feet wet a little bit to figure that out before finding the sweet spot with wholesaling.
You might end up dabbling a little bit, and then figuring that out after you take some action. But I would say financially based on where you're at, picking a strategy that's gonna make the most sense in the short term.
JP Moses: I'm going to add to that. I think you should have 6 months to just learn, to soak in, to absorb everything you can about everything you can. If you feel overwhelmed, don't stress. Just know this: this a lot! It's overwhelming.
But go to every REIA meeting, go read books, whatever seems interesting and exciting. Absorb it, but don't feel like you have to be in a rush to do anything with it. We said this last night, I do NOT recommend that people who are in a dire financial situation… who have to get a wholesale deal done because they’re in a financial emergency and if they don't do it, the world's gonna end.
And I'm not trying to minimize those people and the places that they're in…. but that's not how you get into real estate investing. You don't make good decisions when you're in a place of extreme need like that. So give yourself time. If you're in financial triage, find another way.
Besides building a business to deal with that financial triage… build a business by giving yourself 6 months to think and learn and read and listen and don't feel like you have to take action on anything.
After 6 months of doing that and committing yourself to absorbing, then say, “Okay, based on what I think I like and what seems like it might make the best sense and what seems like it might get me where I'm trying to go…. maybe there's these 3 things that are possibilities.” And pick one and try it. Just throw the mud against the wall. Just say, “Alright, I'm going to scoop these other 2 off to the side. I'm going to go for this one. I'm just going to go for it and see what happens.”
Give yourself another 6 months to try it before you judge it, because you're going to have to go through a learning curve as well. Then assess it and say, “Does this make sense? Am I discovering what I thought I loved about this? What I don't love? Am I discovering that I didn't know that I hated this activity, but now I know I hate this activity, so this is not a good fit for me?”
Give yourself permission to then pull out if it's not a good fit for you and go try another thing. That's how the process needs to look. Take the pressure off yourself to figure it out right out of the gate. That's my recommendations in addition to what Patrick said.
Patrick Riddle: I'll take a quick question here from Michael:
What do you do with a team member who doesn't honor their agreed terms?
Well, if you're having difficulties with communication with the team member… and you're having trouble even setting up a time to talk to them… or if they're running late or just don't show—I think that's a good sign that it may not be the right team member.
And it’s god to see that before you get in deep with them, to see that they're just not a fit. It may be a matter of priority and importance, and it may not be on the top of their list. So I would question whether or not to go ahead and seek out a replacement for that team member.
JP Moses: Got a question here from Norman:
Can you explain the contract process with a subject-to existing loan, when trying to wholesale a property in which the seller still owes money on it?
So I'm going to jump in and give my thoughts on the subject-to existing loan. What it means for those who don't know is: When you take over the deed, you have somebody deed you the property without paying off the underlying mortgage.
So if I have a house, I have a mortgage and I'm in a bad place and I just need relief. Some investor may say,
“Hey, you owe a lot on your property, so I can't really pay you cash for it, but you’ve got a decent interest rate and a pretty low payment, so it might make sense for me to do something with the property if you just let me take over the payments. So if you'd let me take over the payments, just go ahead and send the deed over to me. I'll start making the payments to your bank, and then I'll profit from it another way.”
That's kind of a subject-to deal. There was a time earlier in my career when I was very drawn to that approach. At this point, I am not a fan of subject-to deals unless it's a short-term scenario. For the sake of time, I don't have time to go through the process and the contracts of a subject-to deal…
There are things like the due on sale clause that you have to take into consideration, and there's tactics you can deploy. That's really the subject, frankly, of a whole training program. We don't have one, but I would recommend before you ever attempt a subject-to deal that you actually go through some structured training on subject-tos.
I would not take the advice of anybody on a late-night webinar who can tell you in 5 minutes how a subject-to deal works. I wouldn't then go and attempt it. I think you owe it to yourself to treat your business like a business and learn how to do it.
So that said, I'm a fan of subject-to transactions only in the short term, meaning for a month or less. I think the risk is greater than I'm comfortable with for long-term deals… and there's a lot of people who I'm friends with who would really disagree with that. But that's my preference. That's my personal opinion and what I advise people.
Patrick, do you have any other perspective on that?
Patrick Riddle: With subject-tos, I once was more of a fan than I am now. It's a lot of responsibility taking over someone else's loan that's in their name. And if things end up going south, you could really negatively affect somebody.
And there are cleaner, easier deals out there—there are a lot of different strategies. It may be a good strategy for you, but I think like JP said, getting some in-depth training on that to see if that's the route that you want to go is probably smart.
Okay, good question from Brian:
My biggest fear is networking and going to investor meetings. My fear is that they'll see me as a rookie and eat me alive. How do you get through that fear?
JP, you want to start?
JP Moses: A couple things…
1: I'll say that there are people who will eat you alive.
Part of my story is that one of my early mentors basically fleeced me and took advantage of someone who didn't know what he didn't know. He got me into a lot of those crappy rentals and convinced me that it was a fantastic investment—and I'm not trying to put responsibility on him, I'm a big believer in taking responsibility for my own actions—but knowing what I know now, he did not handle our relationship in a way that was conducive to building someone up for a long-term success.
So I think that you're justified in feeling a little bit cautious… I say that just because I don't want to totally dismiss what you're feeling, but having said that, I think there's a healthy sense of not blindly trusting just any experienced investor who says, “Hey let me show you the ropes.”
At the same time, I think that most of your fear is just a fear that you need to push through. It's not something that you can let hold you hostage. You don't need to fake it till you make it. You don't need to pretend like you're more experienced than you think that you are. Just be honest, be authentic.
Patrick Riddle: Yes, you can be a rookie. You can be new. You can not have any experience. You can never have done a deal. It doesn't matter. Just be you being new. Let people know, “Hey, I'm newer to real estate.” It's okay.
Just go and meet people, get out there and talk to them. At the same time, you might meet somebody who doesn't have the best interest in mind, and you're going to meet plenty of people who do—nice people even willing to share some of the movers and shakers. So just get out there and be yourself and just tell the truth that you're new. It's okay to be a rookie.
JP Moses: And I would say as you do that, don't feel like you have to hide who you are, but also be cognizant of not being needy. That's one of the more destructive things that you can do is, if you walk up to any investor and say, “Hey, can I take you to lunch and pick your brain?” Be polite and find a way to give first. Listen…
Find a way to give something of value first if you can, because most of the experienced investors you come across are going to be used to newer guys coming at them and saying, “Hey, I just want to pick your brain.”
I could tell you the number of people who ask to take me to lunch…I don't want anybody taking me to lunch. But at the same time, I want to help people grow and learn in their real estate investing business.
So find a way to give first and then use the law of reciprocity to your favor. Hopefully that helps you out.
I’ve got a question here I'd like to turn to. It's from Brian:
Since you guys answered my question last night and helped me understand what direction I want to start my investing in—wholesaling—what do you recommend I do to get started?
I'll just say right off the bat, we're not here to sell you anything tonight, and I said that at the beginning and I mean that there's no sales pitch… I really don't want anybody to think that we're trying to get them to pull out their credit card…
At the same time, in answering your question, we do have a training program that I think might be good fit for you. It's called 10 Hour Wholesaler. The first part of the core training is like Wholesaling 101, one video that will give you the fundamentals of wholesaling in general. And then the second part is our friend, Justin Wimont's business model of 10 hour wholesaling, which involves joint ventures with other wholesalers—and it’s basically a much shorter path to makng money in real estate.
So if you're interested, if you want to check that out, we do have a video that you can watch and see if you think it's a good fit for you. Go to AwesomeREI.com, scroll down to these 3 little circles right here: “I want to start wholesaling. I want more seller leads. I want private money.” This little happy house here… if you'll click on that, you can find out a little bit more about 10 Hour Wholesaler and see if it's a good fit for you.
It's very important to us to keep all of our training programs within reach of people. So it's not going to break your bank, if you think it's a good fit for you after you watched the video… that's my recommendation to you.
Anything to add to that, Patrick?
Patrick Riddle: Negative, nothing to add there. I'll just jump into the next question…
I've got one here from EC Investment Group who asked:
As an ex-landlord, how do you prepare for income loss from renting?
A huge part of this is preparation on the frontend… when you're buying the property and running all your numbers and being very conservative with what may actually happen on the backend.
Conservative by overestimating repairs, conservative by overestimating potential vacancy and not looking to just buy a property just so you own a property. If you go out there and buy a fully leveraged property that barely by the skin of its teeth maybe can pay for itself… that's a good recipe for losing money.
Just make sure that going in, you factor in ALL the costs and your exit strategy. If it's a property that you're planning on bringing in-house as an actual rental property that you're going to be the landlord on for a while, make sure that you factor in all the costs and ask someone else to help you run those numbers and figure all those costs if need be.
Daniil Kleyman has some analysis software, a free version and a paid version. We talked about it last time just for a second, but it could be a good start for you just to make sure you're factoring everything in.
JP Moses: At the same time, I want to say that you're going to lose money. This is not a venture that you get into thinking that the right way to do it is to never screw up. A necessary part of the process of success is making mistakes. And when you make mistakes in real estate investing, it can cost you dollars and you want to minimize that, obviously. You want to be savvy and you want to learn from other people and you want to shorten that learning curve for any type of business you're trying to build.
But at the same time, and this goes back to what we said earlier, expect that you're going to face some dips. If you were here with us last night, you know that Patrick and I shared some of those dips that we'd been through.
I dare you to go to your local REIA and find any successful real estate investor in the room who's been at this more than 3 years and who has success… and if you look back in their past, if they are honest with you, they will have been through some losses as well. They will have lost some money on some deals. They will have had some scraped knees, some bruises and bumps that they've had to endure.
That's being an entrepreneur, but the prize is worth it. So just because you screw up on a deal,—you don't want to do that, obviously—but just because you screw up on a deal doesn't mean that this whole thing was a mistake. Hopefully that makes sense.
Everything you said is true, Patrick. I just want to season it with the expectation, a little dose of reality.
Alright, Ralph says:
I can hardly believe you're not out to make money from all of us. This is almost too good to be true. I'm a 10 Hour Wholesaler student. I haven't done anything with it, but instead I went for the bright shiny object of hiring a $10,000, 6-month mentor. Not so impressed at this moment with him.
Well that's unfortunate, Ralph. Let me say this: I am not anti coaching. We don't offer coaching currently, it may be something we'd look at down the road, so I just don't want you to think I have an agenda when saying I don't think $10,000 is excessive for quality coaching… if you get the value that you should get out of a coach or a mentor.
At the same time, it sounds like you're not. And that is very unfortunate. I also feel that a lot of newer investors move into coaching way too fast because of fear.
I have a couple of coaches, actually. Coaching is a critical part of the process of success in my opinion. But you shouldn't go into a coaching relationship with someone because you have a fear of doing anything on your own.
You should go into a coaching relationship because you realize: I'm at this level, this guys at this level, I'm all in already, and this guy can help take me to this level. That is worth it.
Is it worth $10,000 to pay to invest in someone who is light years ahead of where you are and who can shorten the process of you getting from where you are to where they are? Absolutely it is.
However, if your decision is predicated upon the fact that you're just afraid to do anything on your own… that fear is so paralyzing you just need someone else's confidence on whose coattail you can ride.
So, I don't know your situation enough, Ralph, to know if that's what you did, but I hope you didn't do it that way. And I just want to say in general, I'm a fan of coaching, I believe in coaching, but I see a lot of people who spend way too much money on coaching before they really even understand what wholesaling is, for example.
Patrick, what's your perspective on that?
Patrick Riddle: My perspective is that I have not been listening. I've been answering questions in the box private.
JP Moses: Fair enough. Well, let's move on then to the next question.
Patrick Riddle: Dennis asked:,
Have you heard of Private Money Goldmine and do you think it's a good resource?
Private Money Goldmine is a source of potential private lenders. I do know the guy who runs the site… and I know someone that my buddy knows locally who got a lender and funded a deal here in Charleston from Private Money Goldmine.
It's basically a data source and you can pay to have access to a data source monthly. You could also learn, for instance, one of the things that our course Private Money On Demand teaches is how to find private lenders through public records.
So you can learn how to go in there and any city, get the list yourself manually, and then have a good list to mail instead of paying anything monthly. Like anything, it could be worth testing if you think it's worthwhile. I don't think it's necessary for sure.
JP Moses: I got a question here from Mike:
Any suggestions on bringing sellers into reality and negotiating in today's market?
By the way, Mike, you been very interactive with us tonight, not to minimize anyone else, but I've seen like a 1,001 questions and comments from you, and internet high-five to you buddy, because I appreciate that.
So, bringing sellers into reality to negotiate today's market… so I'm going to read between the lines there and say that you're struggling with getting whatever sellers you're talking to, to agree to sell to you.
And my suspicion is maybe you're just not dealing with motivated sellers. If you're dealing with motivated sellers, they’re sellers who don't just want to sell, but they need to sell because they're in a bad way. If you are dealing with those kinds of sellers, then it becomes easy, frankly, to do that.
So my suggestion is: become better at getting a better quality lead of a more motivated seller.
Patrick Riddle: Yes, I'm with you on that. I'm a huge fan of generating a lot of leads, and then being picky and only working with people who are highly motivated and have equity… there's room in the deal. That's my preference. I prefer not to mess with short sales or have to create room in deals.
Okay, let's do a little bit of a rapid fire here. And we are still gonna be here tomorrow night. This is part 2 of 3 in our training series this week, bringing you the awesome.
Here’s a question from Mrs. Hall:
Can I advertise a house for sale even if I have no contract signed by the owner?
JP Moses: No, absolutely not! That's an easy one right there. Not only can you NOT advertise a house for sale if you don't have a contract with the owner, but even when you have a contract with the owner, you can't advertise a house for sale because you don't own a house.
You can advertise a contract for sale.
And that's an important distinction in today's environment. You're not going to hear that from a lot of people who re teaching wholesaling who haven't kept up with that—but we've learned that in real time in our business, the various state real estate commissions are becoming more and more cognizant of what wholesalers are doing…
And there's nothing wrong with what wholesalers are doing, it's legal, but the real estate commissions tend to vie for the best interest of a Realtors and having a Realtor… protecting the space that they feel like Realtors should own… and what wholesalers do legally definitely fits within a spectrum of things that they would prefer only Realtors be doing—and because of that, they are squeezing into the wholesaler space…
And a part of the outcome is that we don't advertise houses for sale anymore in our wholesaling business. We only advertise contracts for sale. It’s a small but in very significant difference. We also don't advertise our houses publicly. We don't put our houses out on Postlets.com. We don't put our houses on Zillow.
I've seen this happen recently, we don't want Realtors calling us saying, “Hey, my client saw this house on Zillow and they’d like to see it.” And then I say, “Well, I don't know. I'll work that out…. I don't own it, but I have a contract on it.” And they go, “What?! What are you talking about?”
And then they call the real estate commission and say some guy advertised a house for sale that he doesn’t actually own. And then the next thing you know, you get a call from the real estate commissioner saying, “I'm going to bury you.”
It's happened with more than one person whom I've known. So the verbiage you choose matters.
I'm not trying to scare you, but at the same time, I do want you to be aware of some of the stuff that we're learning and how it plays into these questions.
Patrick Riddle: Norman says:
Since I joined your 4-week class last Monday—Investor Profits On Demand—I have 2 deals under contract already. I love how you have amp sessions between the weekly course, which allows me to keep real estate wholesaling on the forefront daily through listening to videos. I'm nervous about closing with the title company. Can you explain the process, with me having the contract from both the seller and buyer?
So, I'm not sure if you've checked these videos out yet, Norman, we do have one part of that program that goes over filling out the person's sale agreement and another one that goes over filling out the assignment contract. We go through the transactional steps in details there.
Since we're running short on time here, I would say first check out those amp session videos because those are going to help you out. And if you need early access or have any further questions, hit up our support area, and we'll help you with the other details there. We want to make sure you can get those to closing!
JP Moses: Alright guys, I see a little comment here from Sharon: “Thank you, JP and Patrick, for this forum. I found it extremely beneficial and learned several things, which were new to me. Thank you. And I'll look forward to tomorrow's session.”
And we do too! I would encourage you guys to make sure and join us tomorrow night for the last of our 3 sessions. And I had a hard time sleeping last night, because I'm so juiced because I get so excited when I start doing this kind of thing. So I really appreciate you guys investing the time with us tonight and being part of this with us. I hope it's been valuable to you.
I hope that you have been able to take to heart what we've shared and understand that it comes from our hearts. This is not just us trying to sell you something. There's nothing wrong with us selling you something, right? We've told you we have products available on the website and we're going to be releasing more products in the future, and we’re going to release a lot of stuff for free in the form of Knowledge Bombs.
Everybody's got something for sale. You're trying to sell a house at any given time. We're all capitalists, I think, but we want you to be walking further along the path of success because of your interactions with us. So, I appreciate your encouragement. I appreciate you chiming in and letting us know that you're with us.
Any final thoughts buddy?
Patrick Riddle: Maria said: “You guys are awesome sauce!”
Good stuff…
We are going to open it up to Q&A again tomorrow night, and you've got our support too… if you've got an urgent question that you want to hit our support with, go ahead and send it that way. We got your back.
JP Moses: Alright, see you guys tomorrow night. JP and Patrick outta here.
Patrick Riddle: Hey, Queen if you're still on here, you asked if the 10 Hour Wholesaler was our product or if we just sell something comparable…
10 Hour Wholesaler is a product that we've published. Justin is basically one of our publishing partners, he is the person behind the 10 Hour Wholesaler. He had a great idea to bring what he was doing to the masses and came to me, and we decided to basically publish him.
If any of you have a product idea at some point down the road, come to us because you could be our next Justin Wilmot. If you're doing something awesome, if you've got a cool business model, we’d love to share it, potentially with the world.
Alright, thanks for all the comments guys. You are all awesome. It's great having you here and see you tomorrow night. Same place. Bam!
Thoughts?
We'd love to hear them–please share below.
Oh, and PS: This was part 2 of a 3-part series we did. We'll post part 3 soon, but if you missed out on our Part 1 webcast on Finding Your Investing ‘Why', it's definitely worth checking out too.
I’m a 72 year old always self employed general contractor who’s body is now failing him from all the abuse this business has done. I’ve been way up and way down. I’ve wanted to do REI for years but neve known how to get there. I bought this as my “Mall Map” to get started. I want to do foreclosure fix and flips. I have the suppliers, the knowledge of how to get it done and I just need the road map of how to do this from start to finish.
Great session guys,
I really got a lot out of it. Looking forward to the next one, and THANKS
very much for taking the time to really care about others and sharing this very helpful info
Hey Wilson, that’s great to hear. Glad you enjoyed!
– Patrick
Sure wish you would put these in mp3 so people who can’t afford the time to watch videos
could benefit from your wonderful material.
Philip, if you want an mp3, you can learn how to convert the youtube video to mp3 by googling “how to create mp3 from youtube video”.
– Patrick
@Philip, yes as Patrick said, there’s abundant ways you can do this. I just Googled “YouTube to MP3” and got a whole pile of options for doing it. Here’s one I plucked right off the top of the list for ya: http://www.youtube-mp3.org
I want to know how to start at the beginning. I have no training at all. I need to start at the very beginning. Please have someone contact me. I see all the great ideas. But I need to start at the first word.
Hey Leon, right now, I’d suggest that you soak up as much info as you can – read books, blogs, watch videos, listen to podcasts – and start surrounding yourself with active real estate investors – go to your local real estate investment association, go to a foreclosure auction, tax sale, etc. Based on your needs and goals, choose an investment strategy that suits you best right now. For many beginning investors, wholesaling is a great place to start. Here’s a really meaty blog post on wholesaling if you wanna learn more over on Justin Wilmot’s blog… http://www.justinwilmot.com/wholesaling-for-quick-cash-explained/
– Patrick
i would like to talk to a person not a webanar
Hey Wayne, if you have any specific questions you want to run by us, you can contact our support.
If you want to focus on networking with other investors rather than studying training, call any investor marketing you see in your local community (bandit signs, newspaper ads, etc), join your local REIA, go to a foreclosure auction.
– Patrick