Epic Real Estate Investing - 10 Things to STOP Doing If You Want to Be a Millionaire Real Estate Investor | 1081

Episode Date: August 5, 2020

Real estate is the final frontier where the average person has a legitimate shot of reaching a millionaire status! However, regardless of the abundance of the opportunities that real estate offers you have to STOP doing certain things in order to create wealth for yourself! Therefore, in today’s episode, Matt shares 10 specific points that you want to GIVE UP so YOU can become A MILLIONAIRE REAL ESTATE INVESTOR! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is Terrio Media. Success in real estate has nothing to do with shiny objects. It has everything to do with mastering the basics. The three pillars of real estate investing. Attract, convert, exit. Matt Terrio has been helping real estate investors do just that for more than a decade now. If you want to make money in real estate, keep listening. If you want it faster, visit R-E-I-Aase.com.

Here's Matt. Hey there, Epic Investor. It's Matt Terrio from Epic Real Estate, where we show people how to invest in real estate with an emphasis on retiring early. Now, you don't have to retire, but it's certainly nice to have the option too. Just ask Enrique Santana in Southern California, as he now has that option. And crazily, he did it with a single transaction, which is pretty remarkable. not typical results, but you just never know. If you get armed with the right plan and you've got the right activities and the right

habits that you're conducting on a daily basis, and you got back it up with a little bit of focus and a little bit of persistence, you know, stuff happens. You know, they say luck is when preparedness meets opportunity, right? Well, sometimes you just don't know where that opportunity is going to show up. but if you're prepared, when it does show up, you can take advantage of it. So you don't have to retire early, but it's certainly nice to have the option. This is the epic real estate investing show. And I do this show because I know that most people are living a life of financial sacrifice

and betrayal. So we've built a system here that creates an opportunity for your money to work harder for you than you did for it, saving you and your family from a lifetime of financial worry. And I know that real estate works. And I just believe everyone deserves a chance. That's why it's here. That's why this show is here. It's why I've been here.

Start, we're in the middle of our 11th year. Let's see, we've passed 10 years. So we're between 10 and 11th. So that would call us our, also I would call us our 10th year or 11th year. Whatever. It's over a decade. And so if this is your first time here, really glad that you found us. And if you like what you hear, make sure you hit the subscribe button before you go.

And if this is not your first time here, welcome back. And thank you for sharing this with your friends and family. Love that about. You. All right, something I forgot to do last week was to acknowledge all of the RIA Ace rock stars inside of our Facebook group and some of our other epic community members. So this was back on, let's see if I'm doing this correctly because I've missed one. Okay, yeah. So back of the week of July 24th, that was Friday, July the 24th.

So it was the previous week there. We post our wins every week, by the way, inside of the epic Facebook group. And John John Stoltzvist, not this week specific, but just realized a phantom win. He's got a fourplex that he purchased two and a half years ago with an incredible seller finance terms. And he realized a 300% ROI on appreciation alone. And we've also been able to increase gross rents by $650 in that time frame. So congratulations, John John. And then Josiah finalized an adoption today.

And really good man, good family, and taking in some kids and doing the good thing. And then after three weeks of being in Wichita, Kansas, they're heading home and they sold a Kansas property while they were there via seller finance and collected a $10,000 down payment. He was under contract on four properties as a real estate agent while he was there also and got under contract a fix and flip this week. So perfect. Doing his business virtually while he's out building the family. I love it. Mike Harger, renegotiated deal with help from us here at the Epic Community. Congrats, Mike.

And then Devin. Devin's back on track. Devin Williams, two duplexes under contract, a two-unit property under contract, sub two, and fingers crossed, found a bank that will likely lend to me. This will for sure be the biggest win. Awesome. He's also got another property there that I know about separately. He's going to think about turning into a short-term rental down in Florida,

in the beach communities of Florida. And then Brandon, house under contract with seller financing, and it's a good enough deal for him to move into and be paying the same amount. as he was for a one-bedroom apartment. That's fantastic. And then Chris Warren back at it again. No closings that week, but they did get 14 offers out, two purchase agreements, six sale agreements, and have three closing scheduled next week for $14,000, which would have been this last week. And we'll check to see how he did. And then Dan Abraeu, been working for a while on a couple really big projects in Chicago. He's got three deals scheduled closing in the next two weeks. The first two were nurtured over five months.

exactly, because I know he's been talking about it for a long time. For a five-month-long deal with the relationship with a seller, he's got one closing Tuesday on a portfolio of nine properties for $375,000, seller finance with $180,000 down. And total monthly rent of $11,500, putting the cash on cash return on the first year at 26%. Smoking. Nice work, Dan.

Number two, signed option to buy 13 properties for $650,000. One-year option, same seller is above. total monthly rent of $15,790. So right there. So this is a good example. It's kind of like what I just said around Enrique Santana. He found one seller that had a bundle of properties, I think it was 14 properties. And he got the financing all coordinated.

And just that one deal alone gave him enough money to replace his day jobs income. And here's Dan with just two deals that amount to more than a million. box and then it's looking like, let's see, $27,000 a month of income. So Dan could probably certainly quit his day job as well with that once that's done. And the last thing that he did, he got signed contract on two subject two properties that will need slight rehab, extra strategies to sell forward with wraparound mortgage to a family unable to get a loan, spread expected from $250 to $450 on the wraparound. That's $250,000 or $450,000. That's probably the payment, $250 to $450 on the payment.

Good. Well, congrats, y'all. Nice, nice work. And then this week, this past week, Wayne, I believe this is John John's nephew, I think, is the relationship. He closed two deals this week. Just had his first deal two weeks ago, or his biggest deal two weeks ago, and he's got two more this week. So one, they ate grand spread. And then the second one is a single family in local town bank agreed to stick their neck out and give you him a shot. It's under contract for 70. Bank appraisal came out at $1.28. It's a $30,000 line of credit in there. So since my closing cost didn't amount to $5,000, I got a small check at closing, projected rent $1,200 a month. So fantastic.

Brendan McCaw locked up a sub two deal today, had lunch with a new private money lender, one week out to complete his first rehab. Very good. Josiah back on it again. bought another rental with only $2,400 out of pocket, cash flowing with the tenant, listing as a realtor this week under contract with 24 hours for $10,000 over asking. Very good.

Another private money lender added, or maybe that's property manager, PM, property manager. Let's see, tenant who stopped paying left the property and I didn't have to go through an eviction. Well, that's always good news. And then the troubled tenant only cause of not paying in time caught up on back pay and paid August rent. Well, there you go. You're all caught up. And then Chris, he did actually close on those two small wholesale deals and put a couple more under contract, started interviewing transaction coordinators. Everyone doing the right things, still sharing their wins.

And so if you're sitting around waiting for this pandemic to pass, there's people that aren't sitting around and they're making it happen. Just consider. Just consider. All right. So today we talk about real estate here. Obviously, it's a real estate show. But I've said this more than once, and it's probably one of the main tenets for the show's existence, being that real estate, it's the final frontier where the average person has a legitimate shot, a realistic shot of reaching millionaire status of creating some real wealth for themselves. However, regardless of the abundance of opportunity that may exist, becoming a millionaire real estate investor will forever exceed one's grasp unless they give up 10 specific things.

I came up with 10 specific things. Because we talk a lot here about what there is to do, but those new to-dos won't make much of a difference unless you can stop doing these 10 not to-dos, we'll call them. Right. So before I get to those 10 things, according to Gary Keller's book, the millionaire real estate investor, I'm leading a course right now, an online workshop with Joe McCall on creative financing, and someone had asked me what's my favorite book or my favorite real estate investing book. and I had it here handy. I was able to show it right on the monitor.

It's Gary Keller's book, The Millionaire Real Estate Investor. And, you know, according to that book, the road to becoming a millionaire real estate investor progresses through four specific stages. One, think a million, two, buy a million, three, own a million, and four, receive a million. So stage one, to think a million is that, that's stage one. So you just have to shift from a consumer mindset to that of, of a producer mindset. That must occur in order to even start this journey.

The mind, it's a huge part of it. It just really is that the actual tangible, tactical things to do aren't that complicated. They're not that sophisticated, at least to get by it and do really well for yourself. But it's the mindset behind them that's where that really creates the magic. So you've got to shift your mindset from consumer mindset to that of a producer mindset. Then stage two, buy a million. Now, obviously, if one is to become a millionaire real estate investor, one must eventually buy a million dollars worth of real estate.

But you don't need a million bucks to go buy it. As we've been discussing here over the last several months on all the different creative strategies, you just want to control enough real estate or a million dollars worth of real estate. And you can do that straight across the board with very little to any money down at all if you're finding the right sellers. If you're doing the right marketing to the right people, that is not out of the realm, not even remotely out of the realm of possibility.

So you just want to be able to buy a million dollars and that could just be controlling a million dollars worth of real estate. And that sets you up for stage three to where you actually own a million dollars of real estate. Because there's a difference between being on title for real estate, value to add a million dollars like you actually do in stage two, then actually owning a million dollars of real estate, what is stage three? So you want a million dollars of equity. And it's in this stage where you really make that happen. But to buy the a million, you just start acquiring, start controlling,

whether that's through seller financing, whether it's through subject to, whether it's positioning yourself with lease options and stuff like that. You just want to get control and you want to get your name on that title. And then you want to go ahead and work that debt down to where you have created a million dollars worth of equity. And you can work the debt down. You can buy it a discount and buy it with equity already in place. You put a tenant in there. The tenant pays you each month.

You pay the debt down that way. And that's how that works. So you can kind of go back and forth from stage two and stage three several times. But then it leads us to stage four. And that's to receive a million dollars a year of passive income from your real estate. And this is the final stage. And typically, it begins with just. one property, say, generating $200 a month, and then gradually you add another, and you add another,

and you add another, and you keep building. And the commonly undervalued concept of cash flow, it keeps most investors from ever holding on to that first property long enough to add another one to it. And tragically, they never reached this stage. and that's where I've, you know, I've been not shy of sharing my thoughts about flipping properties versus holding them. I understand we need to flip properties to create some cash, but the quicker you can hold those properties, the faster you are going to get there. And it's that one little property, that first one, that $200 a month property, it just seems like that's not even going to

move the needle in my life. Why do I want $200 a month that I could flip this thing and put $10 grand in my pocket right away? And, you know, that's obviously $10,000 of cash is a lot more than $200 a month for how long, though, right? Because it's really comparing apples and oranges. You got to compare the apples to the oranges to the oranges. And you'll find out that that $200 a month has a higher, much greater value than that $10,000 of cash. We've talked about that a lot before, so I'm not going to go deep into that. But whether you're conscious of these four stages or not, every millionaire real estate investor will experience them.

sometimes in perfect sequence, and then sometimes most of the time not. The number of detours and obstacles within real estate investing that can throw even just the savviest of investors off track, you know, the number of those have yet to be determined. In other words, the number of distractions are countless. And I've experienced more than I can count, that's for sure. And as I've been making the journey of the millionaire real estate investor over the last decade, looking back, I can clearly see points where my progress picked up significant pace once I decided to give up certain things. And I came up with 10 specific things that I'd given up that

were really holding me back. And now that I'm conscious of these success stealers, I can confidently see myself reaching this fourth and final stage. I'm in the middle of it somewhere. I haven't totally passed the finish line yet of the millionaire real estate investor. And I was say I'm making big leaps this year. So I'm shooting for two years. It could be a little less. It might be a little bit more. The whole COVID thing threw a whole giant monkey wrench into the whole program. So it's making a little bit tougher to project. But we're still moving forward pretty quickly. And I mean, I'm certainly going for it. So I tried to put these things that you must give up. I've tried to put them in a logical order. But if you've been investing in real estate for any

length of time, you've probably come to recognize that the numerous aspects of real estate can be extremely illogical, as much as they can be logical. So in no particular order, here are the 10 things that you must give up to become a millionaire real estate investor. Number one, give up getting ready to get ready. Just stop that because no one is ever ready. You'll never know it all. so don't try to before you start. The conditions will never be perfect. Just start. Travel as far as you can see.

And I promise, once you get there, you will see further. It's infinitely easier to steer your way to success while you're moving than it is by sitting still at the starting line waiting for the gun to go off. Right? Great book. Ready, fire, aim. Just do it. Number two. Give up following the crowd.

because if you do what the crowd does, you're going to get what the crowd's got. And for the most part, it's not too appealing. If you want something above and beyond what the masses have, you'll have to do something above and beyond what the masses are doing. So analyze your own personal resources. Take a look at your time. Take a look at your money.

Take a look at your knowledge. And then take a look at the market that you can most easily work in. And take that information and match it up to a strategy that best suits you. For example, if your cash is limited, your cash resources are limited, don't try to break into buying foreclosures at the courthouse steps because it seems to be what everyone else is currently doing because you need cash to play that game. So it might not be the strategy for you right now if that's your situation.

And, you know, just be careful of what it seems everyone else is doing because seems is the operative word there. It seems, and that's very, very. rarely the case. Reality looks very differently than what goes on in our heads. Number three, give up timing the market. Give up timing the market. Nobody has a crystal ball. And for those that do, they're not sharing what they know. And I suppose that depends on how much of a, I don't know, a conspiracist theorist you are. But if someone has insider information as to what the housing market is actually going to do, it's just that. It's insider information.

and it's remaining on the inside. So for all tense and purposes, let's just say that nobody knows what's going to happen, nor do they know when it will happen. And besides, time in the market, it's gambling. And gamblers don't become millionaire real estate investors. Don't wait to buy real estate. Buy real estate for its cash flow and wait.

The law of supply and demand, it's so far in your favor that this advice, it can't fail. The best time to get started in real estate was probably 20 years ago. The second best time, it's right now. Right. And if this advice does happen to fail, the world's going to have a much bigger fish to fry than salvaging real estate portfolios. So buy, buy, buy.

You know, when I talk about that, because you might be thinking, Well, we might have some bigger fish to fry. We got this crazy election coming up, and these protests aren't quieting down very much. And who knows where this pandemic is going to leave us, those are some pretty big fish to fry, Matt. But if you look at the collapse of the Russian Empire, the people that came out on the other side that pulled through, not that it was easy, not that it wasn't uncomfortable, the people that pulled through were business owners and owners of real estate. So even in the time of a country collapse, real estate was there to save those people. All right. So this is good advice.

The law of supply and demand is in your favor. And it's just one of those basic human needs that we all need. We all need shelter. Right? We need a place to lay our head and raise our family. It's not going out of fashion or style anytime soon. Not in my lifetime. All right.

So give up time in the market. Number four, give up searching for the silver bullet. This is a biggie. You know, there are four world events. I hope to see before I die. The first one, the discovery of Bigfoot. I have him fascinated with Bigfoot for some reason, and I just want to know whether he does or does not exist.

The suspense is killing me. So that's number one. The second thing, I want to know if there's life and outer space. Gosh, if you see what the Pentagon just released. recently. The Pentagon, not Fox News, not CNN News, not someone's post on Facebook. No, the Pentagon said that they are in possession of crafts, not of this world. Now, I don't know what that means, but it means that someone else built it that didn't live here. So that's the second thing. So that might happen. Who knows? The third, the discovery of the Loch Ness Monster. I want to know.

if that one. There's a couple of those big lake monsters floating around that I would like to know if they exist. And the fourth would be the discovery of the silver bullet of real estate investing. As much as I hope to witness these events before I die, not really holding my breath. I think there's a chance for that alien one though. I don't know. The governments might be prepping us up for something. But there's no silver bullet. Investing in real estate, it's hard work. And it takes an inordinate amount of drive, determination, and persistence. With that said, though, it's a very simple business. And I think that's why it appeals to a lot of people. I mean, certainly the money earning capabilities and potential there are very alluring. But it's pretty darn simple to

understand, right? And when it comes to our business, we just have to, first, you got to generate a lead, right? You got to find people that have the ability to sell a property. And you need their contact information so you can contact them. So you generate the leads. Then you evaluate the deals. And then you just submit offers. And one of the offers that get accepted, you close the deal and then just manage your exit strategy. Pretty darn simple, right? Not easy. You know, as if you, as soon as you get started, you're like, oh, this is a little bit more difficult than I thought. But it's not that difficult. It really isn't. What's difficult is the persistence and the consistency. That's the difficult part. The business itself is not difficult, but it's you that get in your own way that makes it

difficult. So just knowing what you're going after and being committed to it, being determined to get it, and then just be persistent and consistent with your actions, the right actions. And it's totally worth it. I mean, if you can accomplish in three or four years what most people do in 40 years, or unable to do in 40 years, I should say, then that's worth it. And oh, this is the other thing. You got to talk to a lot of people. You have to talk to a lot of people. Never forget that this is a people business. Every piece of real estate you buy or sell will be from or to another person.

And the majority of the silver bullet things that are out there, they all really revolve around trying to eliminate the person from the transaction. It's not happening. I mean, it might be some cool technology that puts you in contact with the person, but you still have to talk to them at some point, right? It's a people business. So if you really insist on discovering the silver bullet, look within and work on your people skills more than anything else. Right.

So that's number four. Number five, give up emotional decisions. There's no room for emotions in investing. It's just math. Successful real estate investing, it's founded on facts, numbers, performance, and management. So give up your personal preference. references and regard to what others will think about your investing when making your investing decisions. Either it's going to make money or it's not. As long as nobody is getting hurt in the

process, that's all you should be concerned with. You are an investor and that's what an investor's job is. It's to make money. Buy low, sell high. Emotions, they can cause you to buy higher and sell lower or cause you to do no deals at all. All right? So there's no room for emotions in investing. It's a math equation always. It's just pluses and minuses. All right.

So I'll get to number six in just a second, but let's take a break for Miss Mercedes Torres and her deal of the week. Hello, it's time for a deal of the week by your trunkey girl Mercedes Torres. This week's deal of the week is an awesome three-bed, room two-bath, single-family residents in Pleasant Grove, Alabama. This house is 1,456 square feet and situated on a huge lot of 9,200 square feet. This property sold for $128,000. It rents for $1,200,000. It rents for $1,200 a month, bringing in a whopping $7.9 cash-on-cash return. Congratulations to Byron and Lois.

You guys landed an epic deal. For properties like this and more, go to cashflow savvy.com, download the frustrated investors guide to passive income or simply scroll to the bottom to the weekly featured deal of the week. Have an epic week. All righty. Thank you, Mercedes. information on the deal of the week and others just like it, go to cashflow savvy.com and download the frustrated investors guide to passive income. All righty, let's resume. Number six, giving up believing

that debt is bad. Unless you are already independently wealthy, you will have to take on debt to build your real estate portfolio and become a millionaire real estate investor. Otherwise, you're going to have to do something to make boatloads of cash so you can put it in real estate. And when you do it that way, that removes one of the great wealth creators of real estate, and that's leverage. I mean, I'll give you this, consumer debt. That's bad. I mean, give up charging the shopping sprees, the vacations, and the fancy dinners on the credit card. You know, Susie Ormond and David Ramsey, they get it right every once in a while.

Consumer debt is bad, but business debt, however, is good. And this is where they get it wrong, particularly David Ramsey and his partner in crime, I think it's Chris Hogan. They believe all debt is bad. They even say, I'm not even debating it. I'm stating it. They believe all debt is bad. And I look at the, I said, I have this statistic here on the podcast, maybe it was a year

ago, two years ago, and I was citing it because I just heard it from somewhere and I was sharing it with you. And I'm going to botch this up, but I'll still make the point that of the 500 Fortune 500 companies, I think it was only like, out of all 500, there were only like, what, 12 or something that had no debt. So that's what you call a clue. That's what you call a hint. That's what you call evidence

that business debt is good. And I did not do the research, but I would bet those 12 or so companies, it was a very small number. I don't know what the exact number was, but it was a very small number in comparison to the 500, that they didn't start that way.

They took on debt to get started. They leveraged something from somewhere to start their empires to get into the fore. Fortune 500. So business debt is good. It's good as long as the money you've borrowed is earning a higher return than the rate at which you are borrowing it. Make sense? Whatever you use that debt for has to make you more than it costs you to borrow that money. You'll need to leverage people's money if you expect to become a millionaire real estate investor while you're still young enough to enjoy your

millions. Otherwise, it's just another job. It's going to take you 40 to 50 years. Can you imagine what it's like to how much work and saving and sacrifice you'd have to do to pay cash for every single property? It'd be like, shoot, you'd have a terrible life with just not enjoying any of life's luxuries or comforts, all the great things that were provided here in the United States of America. You wouldn't be able to enjoy any of that because you'd have to be saving all your money to buy that next house. And it might be five or six years in between each house.

and then you take that and that's what eight houses owned free and clear by the time you're 40 or 50. Gosh, you can do that in a year with leverage. Leverage is one of the key reasons real estate has created more millionaires than any other industry or any other investment vehicle. So embrace leverage and learn how to use it powerfully and responsibly. I inevitably will get the response. Well, what if the tenant moves out and you can't afford the payment? I said, well, then don't take on that one. It's like, I use the word responsibly there.

Okay. So focus on to why it will work, not why it won't work, because it's obviously worked for more people than anything else. So if you're going to shoot a bunch of holes in this one with all of the hypothetical negative scenarios, then what else you got left? This is the final frontier. So make it work. Focus on why it will work and not why it won't.

And speaking of leveraging other people's money, that leads us to, number seven on our list of the 10 things you must give up to become a millionaire real estate investor. Number seven is give up doing everything yourself. In the beginning, you may have to. But you want to start leveraging other people's stuff. In addition to leveraging money, you need to leverage other people's wisdom, other people's time, an effort to reach your millionaire real estate investor status. For every successful real estate investor, there is a power team of professionals behind them that make everything happen. And you might be your power team in the beginning, but you need to build your business with the idea of building a team with it. There simply

just aren't enough hours in the day for you to build your real estate empire on your own. So stop trying to. Give it up. This was actually one of the tougher ones out on this whole list for me, because I was a little bit of a control freak. And it's a lesson that I learned painfully from the music business. I did everything. I made the beats. I went out to the clubs at night to scope new talent. I would write up the contracts. I would sign them. I would do the accounting, which I was terrible at. I would do the marketing and the packaging. I even designed on Photoshop our own album covers. I did it all. And I worked nonstop. Now, I loved it, by the way. And it never felt like work to me. But I think about what maybe it could have been different. Maybe I would have reached my

P. Diddy dreams that I was envisioning for myself all the time if I stopped trying to do it all myself. So I just think that's a good general lesson for business. The smartest businessmen are surrounded by even smarter people. All right. So give it up. Number eight, give up immediate gratification. And this one actually wasn't too difficult for me to learn. as a real estate investor. But when I was in the music business, it was tough. In fact, I was all down for immediate gratification. It's probably why I filed bankruptcy at the end of that term.

But for most investors, the first time that they flip a property, it's going to be the first time they've earned a big, significant amount of money like in one lump sum. And it can be very exciting when it happens for the first time. Actually, it's pretty darn exciting. Every time it happens, that never really goes away. but with this excitement comes temptation. And at the end of a successful transaction,

it can be very tempting to celebrate and reward yourself with toys and trips that you couldn't previously afford, but now you can, right? So like, why not? Let's go have fun. Let's go enjoy it. Don't do it. Nope, not yet. Not yet, at least.

Because inside of real estate investing, money is a tool. You know, we use this within our society as well to have a lot of fun. but it's really a tool and you've got to think of it as such inside of your investing. It's a tool to execute your next deal and the next until you reach your goal. So with discipline spending and reinvesting of your profits, your journey to receiving a million, it's going to be swifter. And there will be plenty of time for your toys, trips, and other temptations soon enough. So be careful.

Give up the immediate gratification. One thing I started doing and I wish I wouldn't have started doing this. so late in life. I just started doing about two years ago when I finished the book, Profit First, one of my all-time favorite books by Mike Mishlowitz. It's become pretty popular. It's really made the rounds like a few years after it was released. Then it really gained some traction.

It's all around paying yourself first. And so when money comes in, it automatically gets sent to another bank, another bank account. Actually, I have a few different bank accounts. it all gets divided amongst. And it goes to banks automatically where it's difficult for me to access it. It's still liquid. I can get it anytime I want, but I don't have an online account there. I got to get in the car.

I got to drive across town. I got to stand in line. I got to fill out the little withdrawal slip if I wanted to ever access that money. And that's by design. And that little money that I designate, it's not a big percentage of what I make all the, what I make each time we close a transaction. but it's adding up. And I'm in a position to where I've never been before to where I'm not panicked.

I'm not losing sleep. I mean, even when I was in the height of my music business and I was making, you know, lots of money, I was going to say it was very inconsistent. But I made a good chunk of money. And the bank account was big. And still, I was always worried and stressed about it because I knew I was only as good was my last release and I needed that money to run the business and to produce the next record. And then promotions were coming up and the magazines had to pay for the magazine ads,

which were just eating into me every single month. Kind of getting off subject there. But pay yourself first. You'll really thank yourself and it's amazing how quickly it adds up. And then if you want to go out and gratify yourself in some way with a vacation or a new toy or a dinner out with the family, then you've got that special account that you've set aside

that where you can do that with. Right? Number nine, give up swinging for the fences. I've seen this a lot. You know, taking down that ario tape of 500 properties and you're out and you're networking and trying to raise capital

to take over these 500 properties or resurrecting the dilapidated 20-story building down the street and just because you read art of the deal by Donald Trump, where he took that first building and turned it, I believe he turned that apartment building into condos, was kind of his first big deal. Or developing that 1,000 acres of swamp land, because it's got this glamorous allure. And all of that can make for great stories and it can make for outstanding paydays.

But it's not uncommon to think of becoming a real estate millionaire with just a swing or two of nature. That's why it's so alluring. Like, gosh, Matt is this laid all this out and I got to buy this one little house here, $200 at a time and keep doing it and adding on top of each other. That sounds like it's going to take forever. If I did this one deal, boom, I would be there with the one big deal. This is what I have found. And a couple times from personal experience, and they've been my biggest losses, by the way. And I thought, well, maybe it's just me. Maybe I didn't do it right. But I have a lot of associates and friends, and I've been able to witness this happen over and over again to people as well. Over time, you're going to find these deals.

They rarely pan out for the investor working their way to that millionaire status. In fact, the only people I know who hit home runs like these are those who have already made their million. And for them, it's not even a home run. It's just another day at the office. So save yourself that time and frustration. Work within your own office. parameters to create your million by doing deals that generate four and five figure profits. If you do that, you'll stumble upon a baby home run every once in a while just by the nature of the business. Like, for example, Enrique Santana stumbled upon that little home run.

And boom. Fortunately for him, it was his very first swing at the plate. And then, you know, Dan Abray, who's been working on these two little baby home runs for a while and they've worked out, but it took him five months and he's got all of his eggs. in that basket and thank God I worked out for him. But just kind of, just go ahead and just stay within the parameters of what you do, flip your properties, hold your properties, keep doing that over and over. You're going to cross paths with one of those home runs every once in a while just because that's what happens in this business. And before you know it, you will have arrived.

Then I see nothing wrong with swinging big. Your existence doesn't depend on it and you've collected enough experience to where your odds are now greater at pulling it off. That's why I don't see anything wrong with swinging big. Because if it's going to cost you your whole business, then I would be really, really, really concerned, all right? Or I'd be really, very cautious, is what I'm trying to say. So that's number nine. Let's see, we got 10 of them, right?

Let's do one more. Number 10, this is a biggie. Give up being right. Give up being right. There's a saying I borrowed from somewhere, I don't know, years ago. And I can't remember from, or, originally where, but I borrowed it and then modified it a bit, adopting it as my own little mantra. I can be right or I can make money.

I can be right or I can make money. I think there's a version of that inside of a marriage. I can be right or I can be happy. But inside of real estate, it's I can be right or I can make money. Because as a real estate investor, you're going to counter a number of different personalities. different perspectives and agendas and situations, different circumstances, and sometimes a combination of all of the above. And these differences invariably lead to multiple events of miscommunication and disagreements

and sometimes flat out hostile arguments and disputes. And the more heated they get, the more likely you are to end up in front of a judge. And we live in a litigious society and real estate can be a litigious place to do business. And nobody wins in court. Nobody wins. I mean, even if you win, you lose. Because after the attorney fees, your time, the opportunity costs, the stress, it's never as profitable if you had taken the high road up front. I mean, even when you know you're right, even when you did everything right, sometimes you just cross paths with jerks.

Take the high road. It's always cheaper. Avoid court altogether and just move on to your next deal. Being right, it slows you down and it's expensive. And it costs you more than just money. Costs of your time and stressed. I mean, the older I get, the more, I understand what, you know, living stress-free is the value in that.

And the opportunity costs, oh my gosh, that's huge. That's like unseen thing, an unnoticed thing. Because you're so focused on court and defending yourself and being right and fighting and talking to your attorney and showing up and getting dressed and going to court and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Opportunities are just slipping right by. That could have made up the difference and then some. And you've been much more happier for it.

So give up being right. So there you have it. The 10 things you must give up to become a millionaire real estate investor. Do with this information what you wish, but I encourage you to learn from these and others' mistakes because you won't be here long enough to make them all yourself. Famous why his words of Mr. Mark Twain. And I, after the music business, I subscribe to those. And I pay attention to what other people say, particularly people that are more advanced than me and further along and have what I have or have what I want, excuse me.

I pay attention. I listen. And if they say, don't do it, I ain't doing it just because they know. They've been there, done that, and they'll give you the pros and cons and, you know, just learn from other people's mistakes. That's all I'm saying. All right? So if you found this episode valuable, who else do you know?

That might also, there's a good chance you do know. someone else I would. And when their name comes to mind, go ahead and share this with them and ask them to click the subscribe button when they get here and I'll take great care of them. All righty. That's it for today. God loves you and so do I. Health, peace, blessings, and success to you. I'm Matt Terrio. Living the Dreaming. Yeah, yeah, we got the cash flow. Yeah, yeah, we got the cash flow. Yeah, yeah, we got the cash flow. You didn't know home for us. We got the cash flow. This podcast is a part of the C-suite radio network.

For more top business podcasts, visit c-sweetradio.com.