In this episode, we talk about where & how to find good VA’s, the best tools for VA’s to make phone calls, the different types of marketing you can outsource to a VA, how to pay VA’s & how much, how to manage projects, some mistakes to avoid, etc, etc.

In this episode, I give a few examples of both—those who listen and those who failed to listen. One example I give is of a public personality who got in a lot of trouble for talking too much. But then I also know those who have this listening thing down pat, and the many benefits they gain not only in business, but in their personal lives as well.

There’s a good reason why God gave us two ears and one mouth. So we can listen twice as much as we talk!

At this time, Jack is doing no direct mail marketing at all. Know what his marketing method consists of? Calling ads on Craigslist. And that’s exactly how he came upon the deal he describes in this interview.

Jack brings to light the importance of making calls and answering the phone. In other words—the “power of the phone.”

One time, he was unaware when he first called about a property that it was a commercial property, but once that fact came to light, it didn’t faze him in the least. The property was located in a small out-of-the way town in Montana and was on the verge of foreclosure. It was definitely a distressed property.

I grill Jack pretty thoroughly on exactly how he made this deal work. (Would you believe lease option?)

Jack makes the point that he simply did what he’d learned from our coaching calls and my REIM podcast.

This guy has made over $1M in assignment fees, and you’ll never guess what his marketing strategy is. It’s the TTP Method. This is the perfect strategy for those of you who are low on funds.

You’ll have to listen to find out!

This is something that I talk about all the time. My friend, Claude Diamond, also emphasizes this method.

Another point that Brent makes is that he likes to be on the offensive—not the defensive. This method allows that!

We start out discussing how direct mail marketing is tougher now than it was a few years ago, but that doesn’t give us an excuse to fold and quit. We just have to look for ways to be more creative.

Many investors are sitting on hundreds (sometimes thousands) of old leads—doing nothing with them. They believe they’re worthless.

Gregory has jumped on this by teaming up with investors to call their old leads and partner on the profits. At first, he has to convince them that the leads truly do have value. (Because they usually say, “There’s nothing there.”) After he starts closing on 2 or 3 deals a month, they begin to get the picture.

He’s presently working with several investors across the country, and looking for more. He has a team of experienced callers in place to call the leads.

As I’m always saying, “The fortune’s in the follow up.” And Gregory’s proving that it’s true.

And, it got me thinking about the subject of this episode, and that’s going back to basics and keeping things simple. The 3 most basic elements of real estate investing are: marketing, talking to sellers and making offers.

It doesn’t get any simpler than that. It all comes down to marketing—that’s the core of your business. Without leads, you’re dead in the water.

I’m also reviewing great questions for sellers, then I go on to give ideas for making offers.

A lot of good information here.

I’ve been thinking about how many investors virtually ignore property managers and Realtors. These people are a fantastic source of leads for both buyers and sellers, so ignoring them could mean missing out on a lot of potential profits.

Property managers, for instance, will know when burned-out landlords are ready to sell. You could refer business to them… plus, there may be an opportunity for a private lender among those landlords. Make friends with property managers. Take donuts to them; take them out to lunch.

With regard to Realtors, I know of several investors who send emails and voice blasts and are closing deals regularly. Remember there are many listings that have been on the MLS for over 30 to 60 days (for many reasons). You come in and offer to take on those properties, Realtors are delighted. I give several ideas of ways you can have an in with Realtors.

Time to step up and build ongoing relationships. Only good can come of it.

In this episode, I’m coming at it from a little bit of a different angle. I heard this on someone else’s podcast recently: “The speed of income is directly related to the speed of implementation.” So, if you’re one of those whose action plan is: ready, aim, aim, aim, aim… it may be a long time before you see any cash flow.

I offer a much better strategy.

Never be afraid of making mistakes. This is how you learn and how you refine your business model.

Start implementing. Do what you can. Now.

It seems I’ve made the same error on both—attempting to be too aggressive on the price of the rent. They’ve both been standing empty for a little too long for my comfort.

In this episode, I’m sharing a little hindsight and giving good tips about managing rentals. It’s important to have a good property in a good neighborhood and price it to match other rentals in that area.

While landlording can be frustrating at times, I still believe that buy-&-hold is a necessary part of building long-term wealth in real estate investing.

So, I’ve been thinking about mistakes that beginning investors make. In this episode, I’m actually zeroing in on what I feel is the #1 mistake newbies make.

It’s nothing complicated. In fact, it’s quite simple: failure to take action!

I speak from experience since I was the world’s worst when it came to buying another course and another course and yet another, but never putting into action what the courses taught me to do. You don’t have to spin your wheels like I did.

Don’t make the mistake of waiting until you have everything down pat. You’ll make mistakes along the way. That’s okay. Give yourself permission to make the mistakes, then learn from them.

The solution is to take massive imperfect action!

Do it. Today!

But the real subject of this episode has to do with a conversation I had with one of my coaching students. He followed my instructions regarding marketing, he has a property under contract, and is looking for a cash buyer. So far, so good.

Then he commented that he was disappointed that the cash buyers who responded did not sign up for his email list.

Red flag.

I then explain why this is faulty thinking and why building close relationships with buyers is crucial to your success. It’s a phone call that’s needed. Not an email. Good information here about how to interact with potential buyers.

He’s a wealth strategist, an educator and a financial freedom fighter.  He’s the president and CEO of Valhalla Wealth Financial and creator and host of the popular business and investing podcast, Cashflow Ninja.

MC’s mission is to help as many people as possible eliminate the control that banks and financial institutions have over their lives. He does this by helping them build their wealth in a variety of ways—outside of Wall Street.

He believes the best way to achieve this in the Information Age is by reclaiming the banking function in your own financial life through structuring an efficient cash flow management system and creating and building assets that provide multiple streams of income.

His approach to wealth-building is quite a paradigm shift from what we’re used to hearing, especially in the area of the use of life insurance. Some of his strategies may be totally new to you.

MC grew up in South Africa and came to the U.S. in 2001 with just a few bucks and a great sense of adventure. That sense of adventure has never waned as you’ll hear on this episode.

I wanted to use this episode to announce that Shaun and I will be doing another coaching training at the end of July. This is to help those of you who are considering branching out into the field of coaching. A good friend, Steve Cavanaugh, who is a great coach in his own right, will be with us for the event.  If you’re interested, use the link below.

Also in town for Shaun’s event was Christina Krause. There’s a recent episode on Real Estate Investing Mastery podcast where I interviewed her and discussed her service, Postal Impact. I share the kind, complimentary remarks she said about my listeners. (That would be YOU.)

Remember to make a note about the coaching workshop coming up later this summer in July. Use the link below to get more information.

I’m on my way to take my daughter out to eat in this episode, and I wanted to share with you her insights regarding the rules of business.

This episode may be short, but it’s profound.

I concluded Part 4 by talking about how I was drowning in debt, and how, at the time of the crash, I owned houses that I owed money on. I couldn’t keep good tenants in them—many failed to pay their rent, then trashed the properties.

Then, I learned about lease options. Lease options meant I could bypass ownership. The more I learned about lease options, the more I liked them. I then wondered if I could wholesale them. The concept fascinated me. This led me to ask more questions and seek more counsel in order to do them right.

Soon I had other people doing all the work, and the money started rolling in. In one 3-month period, I made more from investing part time, than I made with my full-time job. It was time to quit. That was yet another landmark day.

Soon, I had so many people asking me about my system, I started the podcast and my coaching program.

I encourage you to keep a journal of your journey so you’ll have a story to tell. You’ll always want to remember how you got started and how far you’ve come.

To review just a bit, I owned 14 (or so) houses when the crash hit; and every one of them had been purchased wrong. I had subject to purchases, some with bank mortgages, and some with private lenders involved.

I can say that I never caused a 30-day late payment to show up on the credit reports of my subject to properties Many were late, but not that late. I was faced with a serious lack of cash flow. I sometimes missed my own mortgage payments to pay on these properties.

In desperation, I accepted anyone as a tenant, never checking their background. In a few months of not paying, they’d leave or I’d have to evict. And, of course, they’d trash the place on their way out.

Ever experience a panic attack?

You may wonder why I didn’t just wholesale a few houses and get some quick cash. I explain my mindset in that area. Then I talk about how that entire mindset changed.

This part of my story is truly the “watershed” moment.

When he made some expensive mistakes, he wound up living out of his truck for a time. (He was too embarrassed and ashamed to tell his parents what he’d done!)

Through the tutelage of a caring real estate coach, Phil was eventually able to live the life of freedom he always wanted, moving to a waterfront mansion in Florida. But rather than rest on all of his personal success, Phil wanted to do more deals across the country and to help others achieve what he had accomplished.

This passion led him to begin coaching investors—and then partnering with them and splitting the profits 50/50. The next step was to set up his business, which he calls Freedom Mentor. The name depicts his secret to success as well as his goal for each person he mentors. He wants all of his coaching clients to experience a life of freedom.

Along the way, Phil has “collected” stories of deals that have gone bad (both his and his students’ stories), and tells them so others can learn.

I really thought I was doing well. Everything looked good on paper. I owned about 14 homes at this time, but I bought them all wrong. The major mistake I made was that I ignored the fundamentals. If you’ve ever heard me say, “Stick with the fundamentals,” now you’ll know exactly why I say that.

I was way overleveraged, and when the crash hit I went down with it. It was an incredibly stressful time in my life. Now I was faced with vacant houses, plus one actually had a fire, and others were trashed by the tenants.

I struggled through this time, and as painful as it was, it’s a wonder I stayed in the business at all. But here I am, older and wiser!

I hope others can learn from my mistakes.

So now I’m driving home in this episode—the 2nd part of my series about looking back at the early days when I first started in this business.

It was in 2005 that I took a huge step and bought into a coaching program. It was a LOT of money, and my wife and I agreed that we’d put it on our credit cards.

It was “farmed out” coaching (they outsourced to another company), but it was not bad coaching. It’s just that I failed in the follow-through. I discovered I was scared to talk to sellers.

What do you do if one course (or coaching program) doesn’t work out? You buy more. And I did.

I finally started buying houses. But I bought them all the wrong way. When you hear this, you’ll know why you always hear me say: “You can manipulate a spreadsheet and make it say anything you want it to.” I made the number say what I wanted them to say.

As a result, I painted myself into a corner with foolish mistakes.

I’m telling it all!

But I’m not talking about the dentist – at least not totally. I’ve been doing a little reminiscing about the early days when I first got started in this business, and that’s what I want to talk about. First of all, I think it helps other people to hear the experiences of those of us who’ve been around awhile.

And also, I like to remember the people who were instrumental in teaching and encouraging me. I took a number of great courses that gave me insight and strategies that contributed to my current success.

And it’s never a bad thing to recall the ups and downs of my journey. It’s been a road of hard knocks, but I kept on pushing forward.

Mine is not a short story, so I’m breaking this up into several parts. This will be Part 1. Part 2 will be coming soon.

Christina’s been in this business since 1999, and she’s done about every type of deal there is, but now she works only with probates.

If you’re not clear on what a probate lead is or what a probate deal is, it’s working with an estate after the owner has passed away. That estate often includes a house, but the heirs aren’t interested in keeping it. It may be a confusing time for the family, and they need help in knowing the best way to divest themselves of this asset.

Christina’s company, Postal Impact, offers probate leads to clients. These leads are particularly difficult to get because every county in the country has different rules and regulations. Postal Impact does the legwork to get these types of leads.

Her company’s specialty is the ability to quickly test many different types of mailing strategies. This might be the difference between first class and pre-sort, or the size and color of the envelopes, or even how to address the envelopes (pen or marker).

While probate leads are the most expensive, they tend to be the most lucrative. There are fewer probate leads to be found, but they prove to have a higher percentage of closed deals.

Postal Impact offers a complete done-for-you mailing package for investors.

That’s exactly how Tony Javier operates his real estate investing business. His company, Professional Home Buyers, is located in Wichita, Kansas, where Tony was born and raised. His long-standing dream of living in San Diego came to pass once he fully staffed his office with reliable, trustworthy people.

In this episode, as Alex and I grill him, Tony covers all the details of exactly how his company started and has grown over the years. We were especially interested in how he works around the fact that Kansas is a non-disclosure state. Wouldn’t that make things tougher when it comes to having access to good lists? It doesn’t seem to be slowing him down, as his company fixes & flips over 100 houses a year.

Tony is definitely a sterling example of an entrepreneur who has learned how to build a team, how to run an operation and how to keep his hands off of the mundane.

What tasks come under Tony’s jurisdiction? You might be surprised to hear how few there really are. For instance, he explained that their CRM of choice is Podio, then admitted he’d been on the program one time.

Now that’s a great picture of delegating!

But that’s not the subject of this episode. I just saw a post on Instagram from my friend, Matt Theriault, called the Lead Generation Commandments. Matt’s a great teacher and I like his materials.

There are 6 of these commandments. All are good, but I focus on 2 in particular.

The first is: “Don’t buy – shop.” Don’t fall into the trap of becoming the desperate motivated buyer. Your position is to have a shopping mindset.

The other one that rings true with me is: “Automate what you can and outsource the rest.” This has been my mantra for many years. And this is the reason why my business can literally run itself while I’m away.

The idea for this In Your Car episode came when I was listening to Rick’s episode #161. His podcast is We Buy Houses Radio. Rick is a master at knowing how to talk to sellers and especially how to ask all the right questions. (The “why” questions.) When you ask the right questions, you know quickly whether the seller is motivated or not.

One of the key warnings Rick gives is to not allow the seller’s problem to become your problem. You’re not there to be part of their problem; you’re there to offer the solution to their problem.

But on to other things…

I’ve heard this Patton quote before, but just had someone recently bring it to my attention again. And I can’t help but see the clear correlation with how I teach about the real estate investing business.

“A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.”

Another way to phrase this (which you’ve heard me say many times) is: Take massive imperfect action. Perfect is never going to happen.

This was brought home to me once again when a student asked a far-fetched “what if” question during a coaching call. These types of anticipatory questions will slow you down and bring you to a standstill.

I’m not pointing fingers because I used to do the exact same thing.

Get rid of “what if?” Focus on “what next?” And you’ll go further faster.

These notes showed me that the course was great; the coach was great, but I was filled with fear—which manifested in excuses.

Anyone relate?

I do some reminiscing in this episode. I had forked over a lot of money for this course, but when I failed to close any deals by the time I completed it, I felt like a real loser. But looking at those notes, I saw that the tasks the coach assigned were simple ones. It was me. I failed to take action.

I guess that’s why I keep on encouraging each one of you. Just do it! No more “what if?” No more “yeah, but.”

Take imperfect action each day. Then refuse to quit.

I’ve been remembering back to when I first started out. I paid a coach to let me come to his business and just hang out, to learn all he could teach me in a short time. I remember what a difference that made. I was the only one with him; I had all his attention; he answered all my questions directly.

Now I want to turn around and do that for another investor. All the details are here—how we’ll do your marketing for you, set you up with a VA, create your CRM and publish your websites. But the most important part is the one-on-one private attention that I will pour into this candidate.

If that sounds like it would be a good fit for you, send an email to support@joemccall.com and get in touch. Put “Hang Out With Joe” in the subject line.

Sterling and Will formed a Mastermind alliance, and Will imparted lessons from his years of experience in managing well over 500 units in historic apartment complexes.

At Holdfolio, Sterling focuses on building strong investor relations with clients, property acquisitions and creating strategic and directed marketing campaigns to grow their brand. Sterling is hands-on about creating value for other investors. This is evident in his many informative blogs on the Bigger Pockets website.

Sterling shares about how when he started out in wholesaling, rather than settling for a simple fee, he negotiated for a percent of the ownership. A strategy that has served him well.

I met Gavin (who’s a Brit, by the way), at one of the workshops that I held in Spain. That was just over a year ago, and now we’re working partners. I’ve always been impressed with Gavin’s story of how he first started, because he had absolutely no background in the real estate industry. In fact, his career had been in golf, and more specifically as a golf coach.

He started attending groups where investors hang out. He had no money for marketing, but he is a sharp salesman.  With this in mind, he offered his services as one who could call other investors’ old leads. Wait till you hear how he cashed in on his strengths to become an asset to other investors. What a great lesson in the fact that you don’t have to have all the pieces of the puzzle in order to get started in this business.

Another aspect of Gavin’s story—that so agrees with my own philosophy—is that he knew what he wanted as a lifestyle. Because he was settled in this decision, he then built his business to support that lifestyle. And this is how he and I teach the coaching students who come to us.

We also discuss how our coaching program functions, and the steps you can take to see if you’re a fit for this program. We have story after story of our students who are doing deals, simply because we lay out the pathway for them, and they follow it!

As I sum up the experience, my one bit of insight is this: I wish business schools would bring in actual owners of small businesses to teach and share, as opposed to focusing so much on mega-corporations. My take on that is in this episode.

But another subject I discuss is my reflection on my many years of teaching and coaching, how the people who want my time for free, turn out to be the ones who seem to appreciate it the least. I’m a giving person, and I want to be generous, but I also want to be fair.

I’ve seen students who start out with virtually nothing, but turn into super star investors. There are others who, because they are starting with nothing, seem to feel that others should pave the way for them.

The further you get into this business, the more you’ll be faced with the same dilemma. I think you’ll like the solutions that I offer here. There are other ways to help someone on their way up, than to just hand over all your time with no exchange of value.

Learn to respect your own time. Don’t give it away carelessly.

I remember all too well when I was in Corporate America, how excited I was when I’d worked my way up to 2 full weeks of vacation. And how bummed I felt when it was over, and when I’d used up all my personal days. It was so frustrating.

Then I remembered back to when I’d just quit my job to go full time in real estate investing, how different it felt to go away on a trip, and then extend the time away if we chose to do that.

The difference was like night and day.

In this episode, I talk about the idea of living a lifestyle where you don’t really have to make a distinction between work and vacation. Yes, you still have to work hard to get your business going, but once you have systems in place, more and more of your time will be your time. Not the company’s time.

It’s a great goal to strive for.

In more recent years, Steve pulled back and re-assessed all he was doing and his core values. In this episode, you’ll hear him describe how he “scaled back in order to grow.” He could see that he was doing “all this stuff” for everyone else. He began to lay it all down and went through a massive shift in direction. The money isn’t in the labor, he realized, or in the doing.

He also shares the strategic methods with which his company came through the 2008 crash virtually unscathed. Much has to do with watching and understanding the market swings. A strategy that all of us can learn from.

Today, Steve is no longer willing to spend long hours at work. But his business is still growing. He warns against “growing for the sake of growing.” He no longer owns a brokerage; he no longer sits through a multitude of departmental meetings.

While he and his partner both enjoy rehabbing (making old houses new again), they are concentrating on wholesaling because it’s less labor intensive. He’s now living his lifestyle.

Andy successfully operates his investing business in a highly competitive market: Phoenix. He combines his investing business with a lending division, and coaching/mentoring. While you might look at how his business is thriving now, you’d be amazed to learn the hard knocks he had to push through to get here.

Andy literally grew up in the world of real estate as his father was a contractor. However, his passion was football. His life-long dream was to get a football scholarship. That part of the dream came true. But all it took was one knee injury (almost before he ever got started) to end that dream.

He then teamed up with a wholesaling business that he helped pull out of a deep hole of debt. After several years of being in the black, he was ready to part ways, but the partners made it difficult. Instead of fighting them in court, sensing the coming storm in RE, he chose to just walk away and start over.

After building his own growing and successful business, it was rocked from the inside by embezzlement of epic proportions. Recovering from this blow, he decided to turn to coaching, which had always been in his heart to do.

You’ll hear how Andy combines his businesses, how his team works and how he operates a successful wholesaling and fix & flip business in this highly competitive market.

If you’re a little down on your luck, you’ll be energized by learning about Andy’s ability to turn things around and then flourish.

In this book, he states that, “Your only job as a business owner is to think and make decisions.” He’s been in the business a long time and knows what he’s talking about. Ron has had struggles just like everyone else in this business, and he shares about those in this book too.

The concepts in Ron’s book coincide with the release of my Automated Wholesaling 2.0 program, which starts soon. The details of what I will be sharing, as well as how the course is set up, are all covered here.

I originally offered my Automated Wholesaling program a few years ago to my coaching students. Now it’s updated and will run for 5-6 weeks. It’s available and affordable. Check out the link below, read the details and sign up.

Early on, Corey saw the success of a real estate investor who lived on the “garden island” of Kauai, a visit which he refers to as magical.

Corey jumped into real estate investing, which resulted in a rocky start. Then, stepping back for a time, he became a financial advisor with Edward Jones. He made it through the “door-knocking” stage, all the way up to having his own office. But even with that success, he wasn’t satisfied. In his heart, he wanted to be in real estate. After being fired, he had no choice!

The best place to start for quick cash is wholesaling, and that’s exactly what Corey did and he never looked back. He’d learned about networking with Edward Jones, so he put that knowledge to work. He was totally committed; ready to find a way to win with real estate.

The big turning point happened when he accidentally gained his first private investor. That was a game-changer. Learning the ins and outs of raising capital, he very soon raised over $2M. But that was just the beginning.

His big goal was to graduate up to multi-family properties. That came when he changed, “I wish I could,” to “How can I?”

To date, Corey has flipped, renovated, converted, acquired and sold over $21 million in real estate in Arizona alone. He’s also been involved in the ownership and management of over $13M nationwide commercial and residential properties throughout his career. Kahuna Investment’s current multifamily portfolio totals over 334 units and is valued at over $11M.

How can that happen?

It happened because:

It’s how I’ve designed my business (to run without me), and I have all the right systems, and the right people in place to carry out all the necessary tasks.

In this episode, I cover a few of the aspects of this deal. The list that was used, how that list can be accessed and how the systems are set up. Even more details regarding this case study are available via the web link below.

I’m going to be opening wide the door to this type of business-building in the upcoming re-release of my Automated Wholesaling program. I’m calling it: Automated Wholesaling 2.0. Added to my own teaching and sharing, I’m bringing on board several of my clients who are out there crushing it. Some are doing better than I am. (Which makes me really happy, by the way.)

I’d love to use your deal for my next case study!

In this episode, I share a few guidelines that will take the “overwhelm” out of the picture. I call it the “silo” system. The point is to create one workable system. Just one. Once you perfect that one system, train a VA to do it and let them take it over. There’s your first silo. Only then should you move on to the next.

This is definitely one of the subjects that will be covered in detail in my New Automated Wholesaling 2.0 program. This program will be starting soon. Click the link below for more information. Registration will be limited, so don’t wait!

Because I was doing deals virtually while being out of the country, and because it was working seamlessly and almost effortlessly, I really wanted to share these systems with others.

In this episode, I go over how I first came up with the design, the questions I began to ask, and how I built my lifestyle business. My goal was to have a business that fit my lifestyle, rather than trying to fit my life around my business. (Most people have it totally backwards.)

Now I’ve refurbished and updated everything, so it will now be known as Automated Wholesaling 2.0. I go over many of the details of how it works, focusing in on my 3-step plan.

There’ll be no 1-on-1 in this program, instead we’ll have one-day-a-week group coaching calls where all questions can be answered.

I understand that you may have to do those computer tasks early on, before the deals start bringing in the cash flow. But as soon as you can, hire a VA and start outsourcing.

The only automation you need to be using is for voice memos to your VA (such as Voxer), giving instructions on what their tasks are. Then you’ll need a private email just for the two of you so your VA can let you know the tasks that are on the schedule for that day.

There are many ways to focus on the 20% (remember the 80/20 rule). What would happen if you spent 100% of your time on your 20%?

Also in this episode, I talk about my new, expanded done-for-you, business-in-a-box. I share the details of how it works. I think you’re going to like it!

In this episode, I’m again reminding you that you should always be building your buyers list. Always be marketing for buyers.

A friend of mine, a successful wholesaler in Phoenix, gets tons of deals from other investors. Why? Because they don’t have a great buyers list and they’re in a panic because they have a deal they need to sell and time is running out.

Don’t let that be you.

It’s so much easier to shop for what your buyers want, than to sell them what you have.

Josh and Jess talk about a deal where the buyer was in Guatemala, Central America, while they were in Africa, and the property was in the U.S. That’s a good, nope – great example of virtual wholesaling.

Married for about seven years, Jess and Josh have two children, and Jess homeschools both of them. It’s a real balancing act to carry out their missionary work, teach the children and work on their real estate business at the same time.

They concentrate on 3 U.S. markets and are averaging about 3-4 deals per month. Their business model is having active bird dogs working for them, as well as maintaining partnerships.

(They are now in 6 markets, since the podcast was recorded!)

While partnering together is fairly recent, Josh has been active in the real estate world for over 12 years. In that time, he’s built up a strong buyers list, which serves them well right now.

They’ve been particularly active since the recent devastating floods in the Baton Rouge, Louisiana area. It’s always their goal to invest into the areas that they love the most, and the Gulf Coast fits that description.

It’s their desire to help other people fulfill their dreams and visions by using virtual real estate investing to do it. So hear how they do it right here!

I enjoy these workshops because I keep them small. People get to know one another, and they have opportunities to share and exchange ideas. One of the ladies in attendance told us about her strategy of holding a “round robin” auction for option deposits for her lease options deals. I was impressed with her success.

Aside from my workshop report in this episode, I get into the subject of risk taking. This came to me for two reasons. The first is that at the workshop, my wife and I were reminiscing about how scary it was when I first decided to quit my engineering job and go full time with real estate investing. (She seems to remember it better than I do.)

The other thing that precipitated the thoughts on risk taking is that I’m in an academic setting taking the last class for my MBA. I’m amazed at how many in the academic field are “stuck in school.” I talk about the difference between “street smarts” and “book smarts.”

Why do people choose to stay in a comfort zone and avoid taking risks? I offer a few ideas.

Also, take note of my new Implementation Coaching program that I’m launching. For now, I’ll take only two clients. I’m giving all the details.

First off, I share a strategy used by one of my coaching clients whose market is not only high-end but is also highly competitive. He was able to turn what might have been a dud, into a very lucrative deal. And it’s a learning opportunity for all of us.

Then I talk about the need for you to get on every buyer’s list that you possibly can. That may sound crazy, but wait until you hear why I make that statement. Such an easy way to find deals.

The third nugget that I hand out in this episode has to do with using the site RedFin. How to search for potential deals, then how to work and build relationships with the Realtors who list those properties.

There are so many ways to get out there and hustle. Nothing works until you do. I’m handing out free ideas. What will you do with them?

Now, here’s the kicker… my client is outside of the U.S. That can become a little overwhelming.

So in this episode, I’m talking about a workable plan that will open doors for him in this new market, even though he’s thousands of miles away. It’s the same plan that I’ve used for years, both at home and when traveling with my family.  You can easily implement this simple plan in your business as well.

Additionally, I’m getting ready to re-release my Automated Wholesaling program. It will be offered in modules rather than all at one time as I’ve done in the past. Stay tuned for that new development.

And for those who are interested, another Wholesaling Lease Options workshop is coming up soon. Check out the link below. I keep these workshops small, which means it’ll fill up fast.  My guest speaker at that event is John Jackson.

I’m also musing about developing a new software. A few late-night thoughts that could eventually affect you and your business.

I wanted to have Brian back because he’s been doing virtual investing for several years now, and doing it quite successfully. Brian lives in Colorado, and his target market is Nashville, Tennessee, where he used to live.

He attributes much of his success to the fact that he knows the Nashville market. His advice to others is to practice doing deals remotely in their own hometown. In other words, do deals without leaving the house. What a great way to know if you can really pull it off.

Brian talks about the nuts and bolts of his business, such as how he hires, who he hires, and how he tracks their performance. He has a great technique for hiring great acquisitions managers, because as you might know, hiring the wrong person can be quite expensive.

Having staff members from all over, Brian shares how he keeps in touch with his entire team.

Early on, when I was first getting started in the business, Shaun was my coach and mentor. I observed as he got started coaching others, and how the coaching part of his business slowly evolved.

Shaun admits that at first, he had no knowledge of setting and keeping boundaries nor about charging for his services. Those two problems alone almost caused burnout. He’s come a long way since then, and he and I together want to help others start their own coaching businesses.

Shaun and I know that a person can be a great coach, but lack the skills of marketing, selling and making conversions. We want to train you on all aspects of the coaching business.

Shaun and I are business associates, we’re actually neighbors and we also share a love of coaching (we love helping others succeed). It’s for this reason that we’re putting together another coach training workshop. This will be our second, and it will be held in our hometown of St. Louis.

Shaun’s coaching has expanded from working with real estate investors to coaching high-end business owners. I add that to emphasize that this coach training workshop is not solely for coaching real estate investors. This training will benefit anyone in any field.

Shaun and I both have successful coaching businesses, which means we know the inside workings of how to build the business. This can include the importance of selling, marketing and converting prospects to become your clients.

In this episode, I’m driving home from the airport after a weekend at a Mastermind conference. My friend and mentor, Russell Brunson, heads up the Inner Circle Mastermind group. If you’d like to know more about this amazing person, I encourage you to go into the past episodes and listen to my interview with Russell. He’s incredible.

The list of businesses that people are involved in (and getting rich in) is enough to boggle the mind. And this is what got me thinking about how easy it is to look at other businesses and think, “I could do that.”

But I always go back to the realization of what a powerful business we have in real estate investing. In this business, we have less risk, we invest less time, have need for fewer resources, and yet it’s more accessible than most any other business out there. (Hear my account of the homeless guy who started investing!)

So, I encourage you not to get distracted. Stay laser focused.

Grant is a serial entrepreneur and founder of Real Estate Marketing University, an online media training company. Grant is known to be a maverick leader and an innovative marketing strategist unafraid to lead companies in new directions.

He’s helped over 400 companies, entrepreneurs and business owners actualize their dreams through hands-on learning. Grant has a strong entrepreneurial spirit, and he’s constantly striving for RESULTS in his clients’ businesses.

Grant is a marketing guru who loves to explore all the possibilities of many different types of marketing. You’ll learn new strategies of how you can make FB ads work for you, no matter your niche in real estate investing.

Grant also tells about his new marketing software that he’s just now unveiling. Grant and I will be talking more about this powerful product in an upcoming webinar. More details coming soon.

The title of this episode is derived from a college professor I had way back in my early years of studying to become an engineer. “Bullroar” was his favorite word to yell at us when we made excuses. (He was an ex-marine drill sergeant, so – quite good at yelling.)

That’s what I want to yell sometimes when I hear people moaning complaining, and making excuses instead of just getting out there and taking massive action. But I don’t yell.

My words (instead of bullroar) – “don’t quit.”

In the class, we are assigned to help a client ramp up his business, and I could see where my being in the “trenches,” handling my own business affairs on a daily basis, allowed me to have a unique perspective. I also saw where the textbooks can miss it, and how it’s best to find someone else who’s doing what you want to do – successfully – and modeling their techniques.

But bottom line (as I’ve said many times), “marketing is everything and everything is marketing.” I’m seeing it even more clearly while talking to this client, and in the materials presented in class.

Keep your marketing message clear. Keep it simple!

Brian hails from Birmingham, Alabama, and he is intent on remaining in that area. Having bought and sold over 100 properties, Brian understands the Birmingham market as well as anyone.

Alex and I learn Brian’s story as we interview him in this episode. He started in the business in 2012, and has been involved in both traditional real estate and real estate investing. One of his first projects was a 6-unit, which he looked to for passive income. After realizing it was taking too much time and cash, he turned to wholesaling.

He built up a wholesaling business, then launched his own brokerage. Once those two businesses were running without his involvement, he turned to developing a local REIA, which he calls, “ALAREIA.” Due to his love of teaching, Brian’s passion is to create a local network for investors, supplying teaching materials and bringing in keynote speakers for educational purposes.

Brian’s core business belief is to give, give, give. This is evident by what can be seen (and heard) on his Facebook page, the ALAREIA venue, as well as his podcasts.

Brian Trippe is definitely one to watch (and learn from) as he continues to build his business and his following.

This didn’t come from me. I picked it up from Tom Krol. But It makes so much sense and is so full of truth.

It’s time to stop getting sucked into a pit of excuses. Having no money is no excuse. I talk about several options to get leads coming in that do not cost. Or cost very little.

Realize that it’s okay to make mistakes. I know what I’m talking about because when I started out, I did NOT take massive action. I was too scared. And I wasted a lot of time.

It doesn’t have to be that way for you.

John certainly didn’t start out with an aim to be a top-notch sales person, and he shares the chain of events that moved him in this direction. First it was sales, then on to sales consulting and team building, then training real estate investors, and subsequently into real estate investing himself.

He talks about the “marriage” of marketing and sales, and that you can’t have one without the other. Selling is easy to learn, John says, when you have the right training, the right tools and systems, and the right scripts.

When it comes to building your own sales staff, you have to know when to begin hiring and what to look for in your team members. John has the inside scoop in this department.

This is your chance to learn from an actual Investor who just happens to also be a sales expert.

That got me to thinking, so in this episode, I talk about how important it is to stay true to your core values. Stick with your course. Do what you know and stop trying to please everyone else.

So what if you choose to stay with wholesaling for your entire career? If that’s what you love to do, then be true to that.

I think a lot of us change our course simply because it seems that’s what we’re supposed to do. Not so.

I have my VAs calling old leads that my local wholesaler got from a Realtor friend. At first, not much was happening. But then we got an appointment to meet with the owner of a house worth $900k. You just never know.

It got me to thinking about how a person could simply deal in leads. Partner up with wholesalers and be an agent for calling old leads using MOJO Sells. There’s a lot of money out there just laying around in the form of discarded leads.

If you partner up with a Realtor, be sure you work only with the good ones.

With the digital tools available (such as ClickFunnels), it’s time to think outside the box.

It was in 2011 when Brian first learned about wholesaling. He was working in a grocery store for $9 an hour, having walked away from a corporate job to spend some time soul-searching. It was during this time that he happened to find a property for a wholesaler and was paid a cool grand for 2 hours of work. Quite an eye opener and a game-changer. He was ready to go all out.

Brian shares with us how his business evolved… and how he pushed through those early fears, which as he freely admits, include him being terrified to talk to sellers on the phone.

We learn that Brian is a real numbers guy, going to great lengths to know his KPI (key performance indicators). He uses what he terms a “financial forecast,” in order to plan ahead so there will be no nasty surprises when the business fluctuates.

While Brian started out in wholesaling, today his business leans more toward rehabbing. Or more specifically wholetailing, which is a hybrid between traditional wholesaling and retail. As he says, houses that go on the MLS have a much larger pool of buyers than wholesaling.

Brian also has a love of teaching, mentoring and coaching. Because this business changed his life for the better, he’s ready to share with others.

The main subject, though, is an upcoming webinar where we’re unveiling the Automated MOJO Program. As most of you know, results from direct mail marketing have plummeted recently. This is forcing investors to return to the “old fashioned” process of calling and talking to sellers.

But this is SO time consuming. What’s the answer? That’s what the Automated MOJO program is all about. The program allows you to call a greater number of potential sellers in much less time. I go into detail of all that’s included in the Automated MOJO Program.

In the upcoming webinar, we’re actually doing live calls. This means you’ll hear exactly how I talk to sellers, and you’ll be surprised how simple and easy this process can be. You won’t want to miss the upcoming webinar.

How about you? Can you relate?

I’m realizing I need to make better choices. I have so many other options, and I discuss several of them. Some of these options you may relate to as well.

Let’s all determine to stop listening to the angry voices! We’ll all be better off for it.

In this episode, I make the point that this is true of us as investors—we tend to hide behind texts and emails. But we’re missing a big part of business-building when we fail to use the phone to talk to people.

I recently attended an internet marketing event hosted by Russell Brunson of Click Funnels. (A few months ago, I even interviewed Russell on one of my podcasts. Check out the link below.)

While at the event, I also met with Grant Wise who’s doing amazing things for investors regarding Facebook ads. (I’ll be scheduling him for a podcast interview soon.) What I learned from Grant points back to what I said about personal phone contact. Success is more than just a good ad—it has to be backed up by a real live person. (Sorry, I called him Garret Wise, but it’s Grant!)

Justin is one of those “survivors” of the 2008 crash you hear about. He was working as a mortgage broker making big bucks. Once the crash hit, he lost everything, including his $500k condo and his $90k Lexus. He wound up living with a friend and sleeping on the couch.

Even though he was broke, and broken (emotionally), he still had the faith that he could make it in real estate investing. His saying is: “You have to believe it before you see it.”

It took 9 months to do his first deal, but he hung in there. Two deals the first year, 20 the next, 46 the next, and it went up from there. His is a great example of doing what it takes and never giving up.

From mindset, Justin moves into discussing tactical strategies. Lists to go after. Ways to get started with little or no cash. He asks, “How bad to you want it? How can you go from good to great?”

His company continues to expand and grow every year.

Don teaches different business entities how to create their story for a strong presence in the marketplace. The one thing he said that stuck with me is: “If you confuse, you’ll lose.” He also talked about the way the brain “burns calories.” Strange concept, but it rings true.

Interesting that this should come about at the very time when I’m intent on simplifying my coaching focus, as well as my business focus. Simple is always better.

The weekend provided me with downtime, plus the opportunity to learn new information. I also got to see a few of my investor friends in the industry.

All made for a profitable experience.

In a way, this episode dovetails into my previous episode #155 where I drove home the point that investors need to listen 3 times more than they talk. And I used a recent experience with a sales rep to substantiate my point.

Brian is the total opposite of the salesperson I encountered. At the restaurant, Brian asked the name of the hostess (and remembered her name), and did the same with our waitress. As we were having lunch, Brian was asking me questions… and listening. It was not all about him or his recent successes. He was genuinely interested in me and what I had to say.

Brian’s investing business is thriving. I point out 3 reasons that I believe contribute to his success. One, as you may have guessed, is his listening skills.

The thing to remember when you’re talking to sellers—this is not about you.

Since we’re looking to do more marketing for our partners, I want to learn about Facebook marketing. When I saw an ad that had to do with FB marketing, and the training was targeted to real estate investors, I wanted to know more.

I set up a time for the call, and this guy I talked to provided me with the perfect example of how to lose a sale by not listening. I was kept on the phone for 45 minutes, listening to his sales spiel, but all the while he failed to ask me the right questions.

I used to say you need to listen twice as much as you talk. After this experience, I’m more convinced you should listen three times more than you talk.

I’m also sharing a few great “positioning” questions. He who asks the questions controls the conversation.

My student had been slammed with questions by her leasing agent, and they were all “what if” questions, taking conjecture to the nth degree. It was bothersome to this student, who then began to wonder­—what if those imagined things really did happen? It’s clear to me that this was not the best leasing agent for someone doing lease options. And that’s what I told this student.

If, years ago, I had listened to every person who said, “No, you can’t do that,” or “You have to do it this way,” I would never be where I am today in this business. I just refused to listen.

Besides this case in point, I cite yet another example where a mortgage broker was giving out misinformation to an investor.  This just proves that you have to be doggedly determined in this business—and don’t take no for an answer.

You’re the boss. This is your business!

Scott’s market is higher-end homes that are upside down and/or overleveraged. Their buyers have the income for a substantial down payment, and to even make monthly payments. All that’s missing is the ability to qualify for a conventional loan. These are buyers who can put down a sizeable deposit, and are serious about owning the home.

Scott and his team at Little Pink Houses of America spend quality time with the buyer at the outset to ensure they have a better-than-average chance of qualifying within months, rather than years. Hence, Scott refers to their business as lease purchase, rather than lease option. A lease option, he says is just a test drive.

The deals benefit the seller and buyer, and of course, Scott’s business as well. It’s all about helping middle Americans attain homeownership in a non-traditional way. Scott says they have created a “blueprint for success.”

You’ll be captivated as you listen to me grill Scott on each detail of how his business operates, and especially how they are set up to avoid being accused by the Real Estate Commission of operating without a license. No stone was left unturned to totally operate within the guidelines of the law.

I’ve always said that lease options are easier than other real estate investing strategies, but I have to quickly add—they do take longer. It takes time to build up momentum. This means that you must constantly be digging the well. (Marketing.) The pipeline must always be full. That way, if you lose a few deals along the way—which you most definitely will—it won’t matter so much because you have all these other leads coming down the pipeline.

If you need cash in a hurry, then lease options would not be your best choice for starting out in real estate investing.

They take time to drive to the property to meet with a potential renter, and it’s a no-show. Or that potential renter has odd work hours and can only meet with you early in the morning or late at night. Or you show the property a half dozen times and still no renter.

That landlord has no life. It’s enough to make an investor want to sell every rental they own.

Divyesh Panchal, has been in the industry for over 10 years and owns 140 units that he has to keep rented. He was that kind of landlord who was struggling with these issues but said, “This is not acceptable. There has to be a better way.”

To find the “better way,” he turned to his friend, Daniel Dawson, and between the two of them, they developed the “Key Please” program. Their goal is to “bring landlording into today’s world.” In this episode, Alex and I interview both Divyesh and Daniel.

Key Please is a creative system. Landlords who use the Key Please program are not brought into the picture until that potential renter has had a background check, has actually seen the property (accessed using a special code) and has expressed a valid interest in the property. What a time saver!

The program is also a boon to those who are looking to rent. It’s convenient, quick and easy. It helps all parties involved.

Key Please is in a state of ongoing development where more and more steps are being automated. What used to take days, now takes minutes. This means less time for a unit to be unoccupied and quicker income for the landlord. This is in addition to all the time and work that is taken off the landlord’s plate.

Key Please allows the landlord to get his life back. Check it out.

In this episode, I’m driving home from the first session of my last class. This is the capstone and will probably require much more time than I originally anticipated. (Like most things do.)

Something that was said in class caused me to start thinking about strategy versus operations. Oftentimes, we get so involved in the day-to-day operations of work that we forget to step back and lay out our strategies.

This is why a coach is such a great benefit to investors; they help you envision the bigger picture. My investor friend, Todd Toback, has a coach who is strictly a business coach—as opposed to having a real estate investing coach. He says it’s made a huge difference in his investing business.

I’ve come across a new concept when it comes to strategizing. Rather than planning out a year in advance… lay out plans for every 3 months. I’m learning about this from a book I’m reading, The 12 Week Year.

Fascinating concept.

We covered a number of areas with my main focus to keep it simple. Wholesaling lease options really is a simple investing strategy.

A great deal of time was spent on how to talk to sellers… how to control the dialogue, how to handle objections, how to turn questions around by answering with a question and so on.

We did live calls, which gave a graphic depiction of how it all works. We demonstrated Mojo Dialer, the auto-dialer that expedites the whole process. I always reiterate that the calling may not be fun, but it’s the key to success.

We divided into groups and created offers using the 3-option offer that I teach, which provided good practice. My motto: “He who makes the most offers wins.”

The next Wholesaling Lease Options workshop will be March 31–April 1. You can sign up now.

And, at the end of this episode I give a message to any Realtors who might be interested in partnering with me to do lease options. If so, email me.

But that’s not my subject for this episode. I’m talking about my favorite way to fully automate your business. As most of you know, I’m a systems kind of guy, but there is a downside to being fully dependent on tools and systems. The first is that you may be stuck in front of the computer all day. The second is that sometimes the third-party integrations break down and it may be a month or more before you discover the problem.

There’s a better way. And that is with your own local virtual assistant. I go through the details of exactly how to work with your VA. My thought is that “sometimes the best automation can be a virtual assistant.”

You’ll be surprised how much more smoothly your business will run, and how fewer leads will fall through the cracks. My other saying is, “No lead left behind.”

With a good VA, you should be good to go.

I really like the “workshop” environment and enjoy getting to renew old acquaintances and make new ones. In the past, I conducted what I called working workshops. We got down to business and worked. However, I’ve since taken a new approach.

Now my workshops are more like a Mastermind event. We use the “hot seat” approach where we take one investor and ask about problems he might be facing. Then, as a group, we start batting around ideas for solutions. The attendees love it.

I purposely keep this particular workshop small – with 20 to 30 people. By keeping it small, not only do we get to know one another, but everyone gets their questions answered.

I’ve tentatively set the dates for the next workshop for March 31–April 1. If you’re interested in joining, let me know. I can assure you – they fill up fast.

Mitch Stephen, who hails from San Antonio, TX, has been in this business since the 1980s. And if you think he’s learned a few things and perfected a few things in all those years, you’d be 100% right.

The reason Mitch’s business model hits home with me, is due to the way he avoids all the traditional paths that most investors take. He avoids banks, finance companies, house inspectors, appraisers, Realtors, and yes, even contractors. You’ll learn about how he deals with his staff, his approach to the homeowner/potential seller and his marketing strategies. I also relate to his desire to free up his time by delegating and outsourcing.

Mitch works with private money and he shares exactly how he finds the funds, and how he does his contracts with the private money lenders.

Mitch developed the unique software program (that some of you may be using), called Live Comm. It was born out of desperation because he couldn’t find anything out there that did all the things he wanted to do in lead follow-up.

He’s not only an investor but an educator as well. He’s an author and a teacher. His coaching program accepts only a few clients because he works with each one personally.

If you don’t have pen and paper in hand as you listen, you’ll be kicking yourself. The entire episode overflows with amazing information. Some of which, I guarantee, you’ve never heard before.

The reason I say it so often is because I see the problem so often. What problem? The problem of overthinking. Overanalyzing, Overcomplicating. The “what if” questions are rampant. In this episode, I address this issue.

I see it happening with my coaching clients. They get going in their business, then they’re suddenly paralyzed with fear. Fear that they might make a mistake, or mess up a deal, or whatever…

Here’s another great quote. This is from Tom Krol. “Take massive imperfect action.”

What he means is this—allow yourself to make mistakes. Allow yourself to be imperfect. How else will you learn?

Also in this episode, I explain the new plan I’ve laid out for our coaching program in 2017. It’s going to be greatly simplified. I think you’re going to like it.

In Part 1 (ep. #146), I laid the foundation of the importance of outsourcing. In this episode, I go into great detail on how to start with simple systems and scale up.

Most investors freeze at the thought of hiring a VA. But those who follow this step-by-step system find that it’s easy and highly effective. The key is to begin with one component and get that one down before doing anything else. You can’t scale up until this step is completed.

Once you teach your VA your system, you can put it on autopilot. I even go so far as to ask my VAs to create systems on their own. This is part of the scaling up that you won’t want to miss.

At this point, my main assistant actually manages all my VAs, so now even that task is off my plate. This is how I gain the freedom that defines my lifestyle.

Yes, I’m referring to outsourcing. In this episode, I’m focusing in on how vital it is to outsource those $5-an-hour tasks as soon as you can. You will never make any headway if you spend hours on the menial tasks.

You’ll hear me share how I took my first baby steps into outsourcing. (And at the time, I had a mentor who did NOT adhere to the outsourcing concept at all.) Yet, when I did get into outsourcing, it changed my business completely. It was amazing.

Because I’m so adamant about outsourcing and have much to share on the subject, this is going to be a 2-parter. You’ll thank me. Really.

Murphy’s been doing lease purchasing for almost as long and I’ve been in the investing business. He started out as a mortgage broker, then became a licensed real estate agent. He was doing okay as an agent, but once the 2008 bust hit, he realized he had to change strategies to survive the crash.

After the crash, all of a sudden thousands of people were unable to qualify for conventional mortgage loans. That’s when he came up with the idea of building a business around lease purchases. (I call them lease options, but Murphy calls them lease purchases. But all the same thing – just semantics.)

Murphy has refined his business to a well-oiled, smooth-running machine that is highly successful. You’ll hear how he learned — by trial and error — what to do, and what not to do to benefit his bottom line.

This guy answers his own calls— something that is extremely rare in this age of technology. And he doesn’t work with a large staff. He has one other agent that he teams up with and that’s about it. No matter how you look at his business model, you can’t argue with his success.

This is a saying that I wish I could say is an original by me, but it’s not. However, it’s a concept that I hammer home to my students every chance I get.

In this episode, I tackle this subject – again. Take a good look at your own business and make an honest assessment. What are you investing into your marketing in terms of time and money? Never forget that this is a business and not a hobby.

Making offers is part and parcel of the marketing in your business. You’ll hear me tell of an amazing situation where making an offer paid off for one of my students. And how long he had to wait for the payoff.

Should you send an offer to every seller you contact? You’ll like my answer to this question…

I’m driving home from the Mastermind group meeting that we hold here in St. Louis, and as I listened to the other investors talk, I thought about who is making deals in this business. It’s the ones who get out there and make things happen. They hustle; and they don’t take no for an answer. That’s my focal point for this episode.

There’re a number of ways investors do business that are not readily understood by some title companies, or some attorneys, or some mortgage brokers. When you’re told this can’t be done (or told it’s not even legal), what do you do? Quit and run? Whine? Make excuses?

How bad do you want it?

But what I’m actually talking about in this episode has to do with a podcast I heard recently. It’s by Mike Dillard and was about The One Thing concept. The One Thing is the title of a book authored by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan. I’ve read a portion of the book and I’m very impressed. It’s mainly about setting priorities and staying focused. Keller and Papasan are two empire builders who know what they’re talking about.

As you’ll hear, it all begins with a Disney Dream Board, where the priorities are identified, and grows from there. Then, you delegate so you start to build a business that lasts. A business that doesn’t need your direct involvement in order to succeed.

These concepts made my brain explode – in a great way. See if you feel the same.

Alex is a veteran investor, and a successful one at that. He’s replete with techniques and strategies that have helped him become a success. He’s well known for finding the “hot spots” to go where the money is.

We’re going behind the scenes to see exactly how his business works.

His business model is set up in three parts, designed to maintain steady income at all times. (One of which is the field of new construction.) You’ll learn about his team, how he markets, how and what he outsources, and his ideas on follow up, plus a lot more.

Alex and I also get into an extensive discussion about how to use old leads. You’ll definitely get good ideas from this part of the interview.

This is why in my coaching programs, I use scorecards for my students. This offers a tool to keep the numbers in the forefront at all times.

Also, I’m back to my regular “urgings” about prospecting, making calls and making offers. (Well, maybe a little stronger than urging.)

You’ll see what I mean…

Sorry if that sounds negative, but it’s a fact — a fact that you will do well to pay attention to. In this episode, I give a few examples of when people have come at me with accusations that were totally unsubstantiated.

This is why I titled the episode, “You Can’t Fix Stupid.”

There are going to be people in this world who are bent on complaining and causing mayhem whenever and wherever they can. They are not to be feared, but so you’re prepared, I’m sharing how to handle these types of challenges. (Some can be pretty intimidating.) You can’t “fix” them; but don’t let them stop you.

I’ve been in the business long enough, so I’ve faced my fair share. One that I’ll cover was quite recent. But I’m still here; still in the business; and still making money.

You can too.

In this episode, I reiterate (because I’ve talked about this before), how beneficial it is to have your license and how it can greatly enhance your working with lease option deals.

I’m also driving home the point of how much easier it is to find what buyers want, instead of trying to sell them what you have in inventory. I liken it to taking orders at a restaurant. When you know what your buyers are looking for, you can serve it up to their specifications. So build up your buyer’s list.

In this next year, I’m also streamlining my coaching services to help my students close on their first deal as quickly as possible. My goal is to keep it simple.

And, I have another level coaching program where I work one-on-one with my students. I’ll help you set up all your systems, then work with you on a personal level to help make your business a success.

Seller financing is a subject that has long fascinated me, and I believe that’s true for many other investors as well. Seller financing is a strategy that opens so many doors for so many opportunities. Add to that the fact that it helps sellers and buyers alike. Many properties that otherwise might sit empty are sold due to seller financing. In their business model, Mike and Tim always offers seller financing to every seller.

eXp Realty is a fairly new innovation in which Tim and Mike are involved. This cloud-based company offers licensed Realtors amazing perks that are lacking in many other, more well-known brokerages.

Those of you who are regular listeners to this podcast know that I often encourage investors to get their real estate license. I feel it’s well worth the time, expense and effort. Tim and Mike are in full agreement. During the interview, they share a number of innovative ways in which being licensed has expanded their business.

From their position in eXp, they bring on other Realtor/investors and equip them with tools to scale their businesses and aid in their success.

As I said, there’s a great deal of information in this episode.

We all know how easy it is to get excited over something (such as your new real estate investing business), but what happens after the steam runs out?  What are some practical steps you can take to keep up the momentum of excitement?

I shared the first five steps in Part 1, and in this episode, I go over the remaining five. Each of these is actionable steps that you can take immediately.

You’ll also hear me share about a great book that I’m reading, The 12 Week Year. A fascinating concept.

In this episode, I share one of Cody’s memes that caught my attention the other day. It’s a Top 10 list of actions you can take to help you stay motivated. I go over the first 5 here and expand on each one.

Also, you’ll remember a few weeks ago, I announced a New Year giveaway. The contest is over and I’m announcing the winner! It was a fun contest, and I plan to do another in the future. So stay tuned.

This is what I see so many real estate investing students doing. They pay big bucks for courses but fail to follow the instructions. And usually it’s because they feel they know how to do things better than the experienced expert.

And actually, this describes how I operated the first 3 years of being in the business. In this episode, I tell my journey of failure after failure, which caused major frustration, simply because I failed to follow directions. And then, I explain how I finally found success.

I also go into detail about the upcoming changes in my coaching program. The idea is to make it even simpler and to create better ways for each student to be held accountable for their actions. It’s going to be geared to help more students than ever before.

I’m excited about it.

David is best known as the owner of BanditSigns.com, a company he’s owned off and on since 2000. He’s a huge proponent of marketing with bandit signs for his own business and regularly puts out about 100 per week. That has been his practice almost since the beginning of his investing career.

In his early years, David admits he was guilty of something many beginners do: chasing deals. Then he learned to focus on what brings in the income. He learned to invest in marketing first. (Not wasting time doing the free stuff.)

In this episode, you’re going to learn about a number of creative financing practices that probably never even occurred to you before. David has developed strategies to keep his money building up into ongoing passive income. One of these is what he calls “sub-3,” which is a step beyond “sub-2” deals.

The question he began asking himself was not, “How can I increase cash flow now,” but rather, “How can I increase my income for the next 20 years?”

Another key strategy that has contributed to David’s success is that he never buys a property until he has buyers ready to buy it. In other words: “Never buy before you sell.”

This information-packed interview is one you don’t want to miss.

So in this email, someone who was going through one of my courses wrote to complain that having a video in the course that was 11-months old was “outdated.” Now perhaps this person had a good point, but my thought was this… I wondered if what he considered to be an outdated video was going to prevent him from being successful in this business.

This led me to thinking about so many people who purchase courses but never close a deal. Those who truly do take action are such a small minority. The concepts and principles are so simple, I find it hard to understand why people don’t get it. Like this one guy, they seem to get hung up on things that don’t really matter.

Plus, in the coming year, I’m taking steps to make changes in my coaching program – to make it even more simple and even easier to follow. You’ll hear the details in this episode.

In this episode, I’m driving to a friend’s house to deliver my wife’s great homemade chicken noodle soup because a member of the family is ill. This got me to thinking about the joys and rewards of giving.

How does the act of giving factor in to your business? Your life? Your core values?

Well, I’ve got some interesting insights about all this. And I’m sharing a couple of excellent books on the subject of giving.

I can remember the feeling of safety and security in the college environment, and how scary the big old world looked out there. It’s easy to just stay in that place and keep on studying but never applying the knowledge.

In this episode, I take this principle and apply it to real estate investing. It’s so easy to get comfortable buying one more expensive course or attending one more expensive weekend workshop. But what good will it do if no action is ever taken?

Among my coaching clients, the most successful are the ones who take a little knowledge and jump out there and do what they’ve learned.

Are you one of those action-takers? If not, this is a good time to begin.

I know there are those of you who are revving up your real estate investing businesses, and you want to quit your day job, but there’s a fear that’s holding you back. That fear of releasing what is known and what is comfortable. Believe me, I remember that feeling well. But remember this — there’s no such thing as job security these days.

When I started in real estate, I was living paycheck to paycheck from regular job, and I was always concerned about what would happen to my family if I were fired or laid off. But oh, the feeling of freedom and exhilaration when at last I began to earn more from real estate than from my J.O.B.

In this episode, I discuss the issue of quitting your 9-5 and going full time with real estate. Are you ready? How will you know? What’s holding you back?

First of all, Don has his own wholesaling business through which he averages about 3 to 5 deals per month, at an average profit of around $8k. He works with a wholesaling partner in his target market and they split the net profits. It required several tries for him to find the partner he could trust, and one who got his vision.

Working with a wholesaling partner, Don saw the need for a solid CRM program where everything was out in the open and transparent. His program of choice was Podio.

From there, he went on to tweak the program, and then created a service for other investors. The “REI Automation Squad” offers an automated Podio suite, which takes the work, worry, time and stress out of setting up the program.

The system automates leads and lead follow up, which allows investors to spend less time at the computer and more time doing what brings in the revenue.

In less than 10 minutes, I’m sharing it all – how to get the leads, how to connect with the seller and what to say. Then I explain the process of making the offer and the paperwork to present to that seller.

From there, I talk about finding the tenant buyer, the importance of qualifying and what to say to that buyer. Then, how you can get your cash from the deal, step back and go on to the next.

And there isn’t any complicated, confusing information.

I know when I first started out, I was a course junkie. It took a while before I understood that I kept on studying, and buying another course, and then studying some more, so I wouldn’t have to get out there and take action. It slowed my progress down. Plus, too much information can become confusing. And confusion delays action.

If there are others of you who are stalling in this way, then this is the episode for you.

So how did a young guy from Sydney, Australia, wind up in the U.S.? In Toledo, OH, of all places? And how did he zoom to the top of his field in just a few short years? After all, he quit school at 14 and doesn’t even have a formal education.

As Engelo himself says, he’s a go-getter. At one time, he was a professional soccer player but quickly realized that that career would be very short. He wanted something solid and long term. After reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad, by Robert Kiyosaki, he was certain that real estate was the answer.

After being mentored by an investor holding a net worth of over $100 million, Engelo came to the U.S., built Ohio Cash Flow and did $1,000,000 in revenue.

Engelo has properties in Kansas City, Toledo, Dayton, Cincinnati, as well as several foreign countries. He focuses on offering turnkey rentals to investors, allowing them to own rentals but doing none of the work.

His newest innovation is to build a brokerage to serve Realtors, called List and Sell Realty. This concept is just now getting off the ground. It’s an idea – and its time has come. Most Realtors work hard, but lose much of their commissions due to exorbitant fees from their brokerages. Engelo wants to change that picture.

As I said, this episode is jam-packed with an amazing amount of valuable information.

You’ll hear me give detailed tips on how to narrow and target your search, and the best sources for these lists. Plus, I explain the approach to take with these property owners in order to get the best response. You definitely want to interest them in seller financing.

As an added bonus, I’m giving the URL for my newest website, “Free Wholesaling Advice.” As the name implies, I’ve set it up to give free advice. You’ll want to check this out.

He simply took the instructions I give in my Automated Wholesaling System, and ran with it. Shawn is from Maryland, but does deals virtually in Indianapolis. He uses a local investor just like I teach in the course.

In this episode, I share not only his tribute to the system, but also his personal approach to the business. I especially liked his phrase: simple consistency. That’s it in a nutshell. Keep it simple and stay consistent.

This is more than just Shawn talking about the system, because there are several takeaways that I came away with. You will too.

There’s a Realtor in my local area of St. Louis, who is crushing it in this niche. I’ve watched him through the years and his system amazes me. It’s simple and powerfully effective. He spends very little on advertising and/or marketing.

He’s reaching out to those people who want to buy a house, but cannot due to credit issues. Most have enough cash for a lease-option deposit and are about a year or two away from being able to get financing.

You’ll hear me explain some of the details of how this guy operates. And I’m hoping to interview him for a future episode.

When I say good neighborhoods, I mean they were areas in which conventional bank loans were probably not a viable option, but yet they are nice blue-collar areas. Most of these properties looked like they didn’t need much work, if any.

In this episode, I give a number of great ideas for ways to offer creative financing options for these types of homeowners. If they’re offering to lease or rent, that tells me they’re flexible. You can use that to your advantage.

Take these ideas and run with them.

Ron LeGrand started out in the business in 1983, and is still doing deals today. He became a legend mostly due to his penchant for training others. Early on, he began creating training materials and made them available to up-and-coming investors. This, plus his now-famous weekend seminars, has been responsible for the success of many.

As Alex and I interview Ron, it becomes even more obvious how knowledgeable he is about this business. His passion has never waned. He tells that he’s been through 5 major real estate cycles in his long career and was able to buy houses and make money no matter which point the cycle was in.

Ron was one of the earliest gurus to begin using systems and outsourcing to cut down on his workload. His motto: “The less I do, the more I make.” At this point in his career, he works about 5 hours a week and buys 2 to 4 houses a month.  And he says he does only one thing — makes decisions.

You’ll hear the details of many of Ron’s successful strategies — especially how he puts together his lease option deals. The amount of the option deposits he pulls in is astounding.

At the close, Ron announces details of his upcoming Annual Summit held in January at Daytona Beach.

But what complicated the situation was that this student allowed himself to get bogged down in minutiae that brought in no revenue. I’m referring to tasks such as setting up Podio, spreadsheets and websites. I go into great detail on how to set up a 3-part marketing plan, how to quickly do the comps, how to find free leads and how to create a “folder system” for leads. Super simple.

And, of course as always, I remind everyone of the basics that must be done on a daily basis: contacting sellers and making offers. Without that, nothing else really matters.

In this episode, I reflect back to how I, step by step, started outsourcing. I realized that I wasn’t the best at calling sellers; I wasn’t even the best at meeting with them in person and negotiating a deal. And when it was up to me to call them back to follow up, days might go by… Well, you get the picture.

When it came to marketing, I never paid much attention to it until my current pipeline dried up. That meant there was little or no consistency. Obviously, I needed help to run my business.

I’m hoping this will cause you to take a serious look at your business day. How are you spending those hours? Are you doing what makes the most income? Or are you hung up on doing the mundane chores that any outsource person could do?

Think about it.

In your area, there are a number of cash buyers — investors who have cash and are out there buying up houses. Among them, you might find one who would agree to hook up with you in a business agreement.

They fund the marketing, and you take care of all the marketing campaigns, the leads, meeting and talking to sellers and the follow-up. I explain the details of how such a setup could work and how it could work on a trial basis.

Right there’s your cash flow for marketing. Try it and see. And remember — no excuses!

Wow! What a question.

Also, throw this into the mix — this investor is working in 3 different highly markets. That makes things a bit more complicated.

In this episode, I make an attempt to answer this dilemma by throwing out several great options. A couple of strategies I suggest are (i) to spread the marketing over two or three months and (ii) to focus on only one market and one strategy for the time being.

Several of the strategies I talk about cost nothing at all! If you’re short on cash for marketing, you have to think outside the box and get creative!

As usual, I reiterate that you must make 5 offers a day, no matter what marketing you’re doing.

As Alex and I interview Pat in this episode, you can hear his passion for what he does. He’s doing what he loves and does a great job at it. Pat says, when he walks into a trashed house, he feels right at home. Creating something beautiful out of something that’s in disrepair is his calling in life.

It’s wasn’t all a bed of roses for Pat, because when he started out he just took a leap. He quit a great job and moved from California to Arizona. The reason being, he knew if he were comfortable in his old job, he’d never take action. So, he forced himself into the investing business. At the time, he knew nothing about networking or how to leverage the knowledge of others. That would come later.

Eventually, he started working for a large realty company as a project manager, and then starred on their rehabbing TV show. This became his hands-on education experience. When he was ready to go out on his own, he knew the business.

However, it was a stretch for Pat to realize he did not have to do it all. He had to adjust to being the businessman – and learn how to hire his crews.

Another passion of Pat’s is coaching and helping beginning investors to break through their fear barriers… especially the ones who spend a fortune buying information on how to do this business, but never take action. Those are the ones he enjoys helping.

Throughout the interview, Pat is giving out nuggets of techniques and strategies that he uses in his own business. As well as the value-system upon which he builds that business.

So, my listener now wants to know how to handle this, and in this episode I give the answer.

This situation has to do with positioning. If you have to justify who you are, your experience, and your years in the business, you’ve just lost the game. This means you’ve switched over to selling a service. You are not selling; you are buying. They are the ones who need to sell you on their house. You then must qualify them.

This is the position you must take and maintain as you talk to the seller. You stay in control of the conversation. If they ask about you and your experience, you turn the tables and ask more questions about their house.

It’s a simple, but important strategy to use.

In this episode, I review ways that you can hone your skills when talking with sellers. What to say; what not to say. How to get the experience.

One of the things I always suggest is to find another investor (or a close friend) and role play. It’s a great non-threatening way to build up your phone skills.

Always keep in mind, this is not complicated!

“Your success is directly proportional to the number of offers you make.”

And guess what? I’m saying it again!

The reason I keep repeating it is because it’s crucial to your business.

In this episode, I’m talking to you as though you are one of my new coaching students and this is our initial call. I go over a number of the most basic steps to get started.

And by the way, I offer a number of perks to my coaching students such as receiving my courses for free and attendance to my workshops at no cost.

My main goal in coaching is to guide my students in the process, and hold them accountable.

I go over the basic steps one by one, and I even throw in an awesome ninja stamp trick to save money on your mailings.

In Part I, we got to know Jimmy and Bob and learn how they operate their business. In a few short years, they’ve expanded their portfolio to more than 100 homes in the St. Louis area, using mainly the lease option strategy.

In this episode, however, we switch subjects to life insurance. What in the world does life insurance have to do with real estate investing? That’s what Alex and I were asking. As you will notice as you listen, I have very little input in the conversation, because all this is new to me. I found it both fascinating and compelling.

Jimmy and Bob explain how an investor can use a whole life policy as a source of liquid cash to fund deals. In doing so, the investor is able to see interest from the policy, and profit from the deal, earned simultaneously. They discovered this when the banks no longer wanted to work with them unless they had X-amount of cash in reserve. They then used the cash available in their life insurance policies, because banks viewed it as a liquid asset.

However, the more attractive aspect is to educate private lenders on how they can use their whole life policies as a vehicle to become your lender. Then they, too, can increase their earnings on investments. Jimmy and Bob have raised a great deal of capital using this strategy.

This is a power-packed episode. Bring pen and paper!

Well, that’s exactly what I’m doing. I will be giving away an iPad Mini. But that’s not all! Along with the iPad, I’m giving away my entire Wholesaling Lease Options course. This course normally sells for $1,497, but you have a chance to get it free!

The qualifier for the giveaway is that you leave a review on my podcast site. (Of course, we’ll need to see proof of your review. But that’s a simple process.)

At this time, I have very close to 300 reviews for my podcast and I’d like to take it over the top — past the 300 mark. This giveaway could cause that to happen. I plan to announce the winner on January 1, 2017.

How about you?

Well, in this episode, I’m covering several areas including what it means to be a good coach. I talk about workshops past – Shaun McCloskey and I conducted a coaching workshop where we taught others the ins and outs of the coaching business – and about upcoming workshops as well.

Shaun’s been in the coaching arena for about 10 years, and I’ve been coaching for about 6 years. So together we bring a huge amount of knowledge to the table. You’ll hear me going over some of the requirements necessary to be a good coach.

I’m interviewing Rod Khleif whose specialty in real estate investing is multi-family properties. But this veteran is not just talking about his specialty — he’s giving out information and advice that all investors need to hear.

Throughout his years in the business, he’s personally owned and managed over 2000 apartments and homes. Quite a record. Rod has the “been-there-done-that” T-shirt, and, as he states, with all the band-aids to prove it.

In 2006, he was worth millions, and by 2008, he not only lost it all, but was in debt. What a painful experience. Rather than call them failures, he prefers to call them life lessons. The best lesson is that Rod never even considered quitting. And now he’s back stronger and smarter than ever before. According to Rod, it’s easier the second time.

Before the ’08 crash, Rod was neck-deep in single family dwellings, but during the crash, the properties that came through unscathed were his multi-family properties. Another good lesson. That’s why he enjoys teaching on the subject of investing in these properties.

In his career, Rod has survived 3 real estate contractions — none so devastating as ’08 — but he learned from each one. Because of those experiences, he gives eye-opening instructions of how to prepare for and survive the next one.

In this episode, I go into detail explaining powerful marketing strategies using Craigslist. The neat thing about these strategies is that I’ve been using them since 2008. So I know they work!

We conducted a few of these techniques live and on-the-spot during my recent Wholesaling Lease Options workshop. One has to do with texting. Now that’s a winner you can start using today.

Previously, I’ve used these workshops to walk people through my teaching on wholesaling lease options, but this time I took a different tack. Realizing that my course is available for anyone to purchase and study, I chose rather to spend time explaining exactly what each investor needs to do to make deals happen.

One attendee shared that she spent about an hour and a half just coming up with comps. Listen to this episode as I explain how comps can be gathered and reviewed in about 10 minutes or so.

Working with the group in this manner, it was almost like a Mastermind Meeting. Everyone was sharing ideas — some of which were even new to me.

My main message was: This is simple; don’t overthink it

What I’m focusing in on is the main difference — as I see it, talking with investors nearly every day — between the ones who are moving forward in this business and the ones who just can’t seem to get it off the ground.

It’s not knowledge, although that’s important. It’s not people skills, though that too is important. It’s not negotiation power, and yes, that’s also important. But none of it matters if you’re not doing this one thing.

One of the first is the announcement that I am now donating all proceeds from the sale of my courses to a particular charity. You’ll see why I’m so passionate about this charity and the great work that it accomplishes.

I’m also on a bit of a rant about scarcity-minded people. It bewilders me how anyone could ask for a refund for an information-packed course that is offered for only $97. In all the years that I’ve been investing, I’ve never asked for a refund for any course I took. There were a lot of them and some weren’t so hot, but all of them had at least some value.

I also talk about my decision to stop offering payment plans for the larger courses. I’ve discovered that payment plans help no one. You’ll hear me explain why.

This business is not difficult. Anyone can do this. Just step out and do it.

That’s why I invited the Legal Wiz, Bill Bronchick, for this episode…

Alex and I have our questions ready, and Bill delivers the goods. How many people do you know who have a foot in both camps — serving as an attorney and as an active real estate investor?

Not many. Bill is in a class of his own. Because he’s been actively investing since 1990, that makes him a true veteran in the business.

Ever have someone tell you that wholesaling is illegal? Or that a certain investing strategy is practicing without a Realtor’s license? Ever have an attorney warn you to stay away from creative financing or subject-to’s?

Has it all been a little disconcerting and terribly confusing?

As Bill says, “There’s so much misinformation going around…” But you need answers, and the answers you’ve been looking for are in this episode.

Does that sound familiar? Has that been true with you?

In this episode, I explain exactly what it took for me to finally go out and close a deal. (Which netted me $13k by the way.) You’ll laugh when I tell how scared I was to even call the seller back. (A seller so motivated, she called me 3 times.)

All during those 3 years, I was the one who was bellyaching that this stuff doesn’t work. I guess that’s why I have such a heart for newbies. And why I create so many teaching podcasts.

Well, just so you know, I’m still using bandit signs. And they work! In this episode, I tell you how I use bandit signs in my business, and how I avoid problems.

It does amaze me, however, that it’s illegal to remove a political sign that’s been posted. But for us as investors, it’s illegal to put them out. It doesn’t make much sense, but it is what it is.

Use wisdom, be respectful, but don’t stop using bandit signs. They do work.

True to form, I just received a question on my Podcast Hotline on the subject. This question more specifically is: How do you get that deposit money if you decide to step out of the equation? And how does the tenant buyer then use it for a purchase credit?

Just in case that’s been a puzzler for you as well… I explain this issue in great detail.

I know that many of you have been told this whole thing isn’t even legal. Don’t listen to those lies. I’ve been doing lease options — with the option deposits — for years and have never had a bit of legal problem.

My lengthy, and highly informative interview with Jonathan and Aricka Brazer covers just about every advantage you could possibly think of when it comes to lease options. They share how they got started and why they wound up focusing mainly in this area of real estate investing.

I met this couple only a short time ago and was immediately impressed with the success of their business. They’ve been steadily building their portfolio right here in my hometown of St. Louis. At this time, they hold nearly 30 houses occupied by tenant-buyers. You’ll hear them clearly explain the 3 areas of potential income available with lease options.

Jonathan and Aricka have established strong guidelines and operating procedures that allow their business to thrive. This includes carefully selected neighborhoods, a strict screening process and minimum dollar amount for monthly cash flow for each deal.

I guarantee this episode will supply you with ideas for techniques and strategies for easily entering into this investing arena. It will definitely move you to take action.

So why would I — someone who’s a full-time investor — attend a Mastermind that’s not about real estate investing? It’s because I’ve learned that nearly all entrepreneurs have many things in common… especially when it comes to building a successful business.

I encourage you to network with those who are in other types of businesses. You’ll be surprised at how many ideas and strategies you can glean from such sessions. It will help your business in ways that might surprise you.

The other thing that’s been on my mind is an email that came to me from someone who appeared to be concerned about the fact that I teach about lease options so much. His fear is that, due to my teaching, there’ll be so many investors out there doing lease options that it’ll flood the market and there won’t be enough business to go around.

You’ll love the way I answer this and address his concerns. If you, too, are concerned about competition, there’s no need to be. I’ll share with you how you should look at any and all competition.

Even though she’s done nearly every type of deal in real estate investing — and has been doing so since 1999 — at this time, she markets only for probates.

When a family member passes away and the estate goes to probate court, oftentimes it will include a house. It could be a very nice property, but the heirs are not interested in keeping it. They need help in knowing the best way to divest themselves of this asset.

This is where investors enter the picture. But where can these leads be found? And once they are found, how are they handled?

That’s all covered by Christina in this packed interview. See, probates are quite different than any other lead, which means they are handled differently…

You’ll see why Christina is so enthusiastic about this facet of investing. So enthusiastic, in fact, that she now has her own company set up to help other investors from all over the country get access to probate leads. Wait till you hear what all her company offers to investors. You’ll be amazed at that and all the valuable information she’s sharing about probates.

What’s all the uproar?

It’s about Haim’s strategy for gleaning the MLS for leads. His is a proven system that is working. Not only is he closing deals (and doing it virtually), but he’s building relationships with Realtors in multiple markets.

Recently, Haim and his family were on a trip to Japan, and while he was there, he was closing deals. This works.

It’s time for investors to stop viewing Realtors as the competition. They have what we need – sellers and buyers. We have what they need – deals where they make both sides of the commission.

The best part of Haim’s system is that much of the work can be outsourced by hiring VAs to comb through the MLS for leads.

His system has been so successful that he and I have decided to put together a plug-and-play program that is now available. But only for a short time, because these are strategies that should be shared with only a few.

Alex and I are meeting for the first time face-to-face, in person. And then, to top it off, it’s our first time recording an episode together in the same place. Quite an event.

Alex and I are chatting about the Extreme Freedom event and a little bit about the content of our workshops. Among the background noise and our casual chatting, we pass off a few great tips for you as well.

And, we’ve already started thinking about putting on future events ourselves. Stay tuned for that…!

You’ve probably heard me say before that “you are in business to make money today.”

By that I mean if a seller is not motivated, not ready to do business, you don’t waste time on that person. They may be ready later, but you must move on to the next potential seller. Because you’re in business to make money today. (I got this saying from Claude Diamond.)

So, I was in a rare situation, but I was given the impression that this particular seller was motivated and ready to sell. And in this episode, I explain exactly what happened.

Instead of making sure all that information was correct with one quick phone call, I drove to the house. As you listen, you’ll learn the rest of this interesting story…

Look, once you begin to ask yourself this question: Is this going to make money for me today? — it will help you prioritize your tasks for the day. It will also help you move through phone calls quickly. You should be able to tell within a few minutes if the seller is or is not ready to do business with you today.

The first stems from an email from one of my clients who was upset because she unexpectedly wound up paying $2,600 in closing costs. So, I’m explaining how that mix-up could have been prevented from the outset. This may help you if you find yourself in a similar situation in the future.

Another student was asking my advice about how he could advance his business since he worked nights and slept in the daytime. In his mind, there was no available time to work on his business. You can probably guess my response…

My first response, of course, is: “How bad do you want it?”

No matter what it is, if you want it bad enough, you can always find a way.

So, I’m reviewing a few examples of ways to get creative and think outside the box. The tasks that you’re unable to do or don’t have time to do – you contract out.

I’m also sharing some of the steps I had to take when I first started out in this business.

Look, if you want it bad enough, you do whatever it takes.

If you’re too young, I’ll clarify that I’m referring to the antennae that people placed on top of their TV sets — back in the day — in order to get better reception.

Likewise, I encourage all of you to keep your rabbit ears antennae up at all times to get the best reception.

To be honest, I really just wanted to sit there and read a book on my Kindle, but this lady kept right on talking. So, I not only tell you about how she opened up and presented herself as a potential private money lender, but I’m also sharing a number of other great conversation starters.

When you’re in a group of people and someone asks, “What do you do?” always be ready with an answer that will present you in a favorable light as one who can help put their money to work with good returns.

Alex and I are meeting for the first time face-to-face, in person. And then, to top it off, it’s our first time recording an episode together in the same place. Quite an event.

Alex and I are chatting about the Extreme Freedom event and a little bit about the content of our workshops. Among the background noise and our casual chatting, we pass off a few great tips for you as well.

And, we’ve already started thinking about putting on future events ourselves. Stay tuned for that…!

Is your phone like a cactus — too painful to pick up?

Do you put off making the calls you know you need to make — simply due to nervousness?

Well, this episode may help you…

Would you believe that after all this time, I still sometimes struggle with nervousness? It’s true. I say that to let you know that it’s natural and that you’re certainly not alone. But there are a few mind tricks I use to push past that nervousness.

One key is not to overcomplicate the process. Keep it simple, focus on making offers.

Make 5 offers a day. Simple, simple.

I talk about these great systems in this episode…

This involves ways in which your VA can send emails to Realtors. I call these “soft pass” offers. Case in point, I give the results of the actual response to one of these simple emails.

Once a system is in place, once your VAs know what to do, the next step is to scale up. Your ability to make offers grows exponentially.

We’ve all heard of the 80/20 rule, and it’s so true. It’s always going to be the laser-beam-focused 20% that will bring in the most of your deals.

Why then, do newbies (and sometimes even the veterans) get bogged down in the minutiae — spending hours on small tasks that are simply busy work?

I hone in on this subject in this episode…

Get your head out of the minutiae and step back and get the big picture. If your business has slowed down, this just might be your solution.

Marketing Automation Delegation

I’m fired up about all this because I’ve recently been back at the drawing board, creating new systems. I always get excited when I’m in creative mode. Once I have a system created, then I teach it to my VAs.

So in this episode I tell you exactly how I do this.

You’re also getting in on a whole lot of strategies — and the steps on how to carry out these strategies.

This episode is crammed full of actionable ideas.

As most of you know, I’m nuts over lease options. So when I have the opportunity to talk with another seasoned investor doing lease options – someone I can learn from – well, that adds up to a perfect podcast episode.

Matt’s been doing lease options for over 15 years, and although several of his strategies differ from mine, still and yet, the service he provides to buyers and sellers is much the same as mine.

With lease options, we are connecting with sellers who can’t sell their home, and buyers who are unable, at the time, to get a conventional loan. We then, help sellers to sell, and buyers to buy.

It’s a win-win-win all around.

Matt talks about the best way to get started in this arena, explains how he operates his business and what team members he has. He calls lease options a great, solid, steady business, and a good way to make a living in real estate.