Epic Real Estate Investing - 5 Points to a Stronger Real Estate Business Strategy | 301

Episode Date: October 2, 2017

Epic Real Estate Investing presents the five checkpoints to a stronger real estate business strategy. Learn to avoid the mistakes that cost real estate investors time and money with strong choices in these five areas. Put these strategies to work in your real estate business for better operations, stronger deal flow, and maximum return on investment. Join today us to master your systems and strategies and put your focus into finding profitable real estate deals. ______   The free course is new and improved!  To access to the two fastest and easiest strategies to a paycheck in real estate, go to FreeRealEstateInvestingCourse.com or text “FreeCourse” to 55678. What interests you most? • E.ducation • P.roperties • I.ncome • C.oaching Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is Terrio Media. Broadcasting from Terrio Studios in Glendale, California, it's time for Epic Real Estate Investing with Matt Terrio. What's that? Hello. And welcome to the Epic Real Estate Investing podcast. This is the show where I show people how to escape the rat race using real estate. And to make this happen for you, the first step, very simple, just shift your focus from making piles of money to creating streams of money.

That's where it begins. And you only have to do that once and embrace it and your escape from the rat race is going to move at least 10 times faster than those that choose the alternate path. And to get started down that path or restart it, if you will, if that's your situation, I've created a free course just for you. Go to free real estate investing course.com and you'll get a crash course on how to find deals and the two quickest and easiest strategies to a paycheck in real estate. and stay tuned here each and every week, and I'll show you how to put that paycheck to work for you in a way that it works harder for you than you did for it. All righty?

So November 2nd, 3rd, and 4th will be your last chance to catch the greatest real estate investing event ever. Epic intensive weapons of mass production, where for the last time we'll be covering how to get the highly potent and powerful tools and methods every real estate investor can use to find more motivated sellers, buyers, and private lenders, and as little as 60 seconds.

Even if you think you've heard it all before, you have not. I assure you that. And as soon as you register, get instant access to Epic Fast Formula at $10,000 and 30 days or less. That's yours. And this is all taking place on November 2nd through the 4th in Birmingham, Alabama. Early Bird pricing is now open 75% off only for the next 25 people. As we reach capacity, the pricing will continue to go up. So reserve your seat at Epicintensive.com.

here each and every week virtually, I want to meet you in person. So to do that, go to epicintensive.com get your seat and I will see you on November 2nd in Lollabama. All righty, so picking up from where we left off last week and turning you into a badass real estate investor. You know, last week you got the overview of the badass investor plan. And this week, we're going to start to narrow our focus and dig into the details, the nitty-gritty. We're going to get to the meat. So you've got the plan. Now let's talk strategy, okay? Your real estate business strategy, your real estate investing strategy. As there are five choices you must make before your strategy is really solidified, okay, before you even have a strategy. Because if you skip this part or if you do this part wrong,

if you get it wrong, you're going to be pretty frustrated with a whole slew of frustrations. You're going to be losing deals to slow decision making, losing deals to indecision. Is this a deal or isn't it? Should I evaluate by the amount of equity? How much equity is enough? Should I evaluate by the ROI? What makes a good of ROI? That's all the frustration comes in from those questions that go on your head and it results in slow decision making, losing deals. And also, you'll be, you'll be working hard, but seeing no real light at the end of the tunnel. You know, I'm making money here, making some money there, and I see the correlation between my efforts and the amount of money that I make, but it really feels an awful lot like a hamster wheel with no end in sight. There's no light at the end of

the tunnel. I can't see it. I'm working, but I don't see it. And, you know, you're constantly second-guessing your market. The grass is always appearing greener on the other side. You know, should I try investing virtually, or should I just stay put and do it right here where I live? You know, the fear that's underlying there is you know, you know a confused mind does nothing. And you are seriously confused if you get this part wrong, not to mention totally overwhelmed. And you don't want to be confused because you want to do something. And you know what? Confused mind does nothing.

You know what? Most people want, what you want. You want to know confidently whether a deal is worthy of your time or not. You want to be able to make quick decisions to compete and beat your competition to getting contract signed. You want your hard work to get you closer to your freedom goal. You understand that this is going to take some effort. You're not afraid of rolling up your sleeves.

but you don't want to do it forever. You want to take your foot off the gas at some point and preferably sooner rather than later, right? And you want to market with plenty of opportunity, one that will support you, your family, and your dreams, your total vision for life. You know, ultimately you aspire to have a reliable investing strategy that you can confidently build a business around.

And that's what we're going to talk about today. So what makes up a badass investor's strategy? Okay, what makes it up? Well, there are five points to a solid investing strategy, really five choices that you're going to have to make to solidify this badass investor strategy to put this to work for you. All right. So point one, choice one, cash or cash flow, to flip or hold. Ultimately, it's your financial goal that's going to determine which is best for you. Okay, so cash or cash flow.

Point two, picking your market, choosing your market, the ideal market. Where should you invest? The best market is the one that you're actually going to work and you're going to work consistently and you're going to work that with focus. with focus. You know, if there are people in the market and those people live in houses, there is a business there to be made. The most frequent question that comes up around the subject is, you know, should I work in my backyard or should I work virtually? Should I go wide? Should I go deep? What should I do? Right. So that's number two. Number three, property type. What, what's the ultimate property type for you? What should I invest in? Should I invest in single family or multifamily,

self-storage, mobile home parks, notes, duplexes, commercial property, strip malls, what should I do? What type of property should I invest in? Okay, so we're going to talk about your property type. We're going to talk about the definition of a deal. What is a deal? What is your deal specifically? What constitutes a deal to you? What's a good enough amount of equity to go for?

What makes a good ROI? What needs to be in place to actually define a deal so you know whether that's going to work for you or not? Is that going to get you closer to your financial goals or not? And then the fifth thing we're going to talk about is finding deals. You know, the big distinction or the difference between doing real estate and finding real estate deals. You've got to focus on finding deals. I mean, there's no shortage of information available, whether it's through books or gurus or mentors or seminars or workshops on

on how to do deals, on how to do real estate. But, you know, regardless of what type of real estate you decide to do, you must focus more on the finding of deals than the doing. For when you get good at finding deals, the doing becomes infinitely easier. It almost takes care of itself. All right. So which one of those, the five do you need most? Which one you need most? Is it deciding whether to go for cash or cash flow, should I flip or hold, which market should I invest in, what property type should I invest in, what's my definition of a deal? How do I know if it's a good deal or not?

And finding deals. Help me find deals. Okay? So which one of those you need most? And let's go ahead and we'll cover each one of those right now in detail. So number one, cash or cash flow? Okay. So piles of cash, streams of cash.

That's pretty much what it means there. If you get this part wrong, though, I mean, you're... I mean, you're going to be working hard. You may even, you might make good money. You know, certainly hard work is rewarded in this business. But the freedom that investing in real estate provides, it's going to allude you. It'll never be yours. It'll always exceed your grasp.

But if you get this part right, financial independence will be yours. It will be yours. And it'll be yours while you're still young enough to enjoy it. You know, I shared with you Parker's story on Friday. I mean, he's only 26 years old. only been investing full time for a couple years. That's about how long we've been working together. And although he's nowhere close to being done,

he is already financially independent. He is receiving enough monthly income from his rental properties to cover his and his wife's monthly expenses. You know, he's moved across the country to spend the winter months in Colorado and he and his wife, they're living on their passive income while still running their real estate investing business virtually.

And, you know, here's the essence of the where he and I began, It's the words I speak each and every week right here on the show. He took it to heart. They weren't wasted on him. And those words being, shift your focus from making piles of money to making streams of money. Those are the key words. Shift your focus from making piles of money to making streams of money. Just do that one time, one time only, and then back that focus with correlate action.

And once Parker got that, he embarked on a mad sprint. to build a stream of cash. And in just about 12 months on the nose, he had done it. His monthly stream of income had surpassed his monthly expenses. And now he's focused on creating his pile of cash. Don't do what the rest of the world does.

You know, make the pile first to create the stream. That's why we all go to work to create this giant pile of money so it will spit off a residual income. They go to create or to make the pile to create the stream. Flip the script on them. Flip the formula. Turn it backwards. And create the stream to make the pile.

to make the pile. The speed there to financial freedom, it's 10 times faster. And if working the rest of your life is your financial goal, then choose cash. If financial independence is your goal, choose cash flow. Make it your intent with every deal

that comes across your desk to hold it for cash flow. If after you analyze it for the amount of cash flow it can create, if then it doesn't make a good fit for your income portfolio, then choose cash. for that particular deal.

But always choose the cash flow first. All right? So that's number one. Point one. Number two, the ideal market. You know, where should you invest? And when deciding to choose the market you're going to work, you know, if you get this part wrong, you end up thinking and working so much harder than you need to and drastically

delaying your gratification if you ever accomplish your goals at all. But when you get this part right, you're never short on opportunity and you consistently make a profit with every deal and your business grows. You move forward. So how do you choose the ideal market? What is there for you to do? Well, the best market, the very, very best market for you is the market that you're actually going to work.

Okay? And I'm not being facetious or flippant. I'm not being a smart ass there. No. I mean, if you're just getting started, I strongly suggest you work as close to your primary residence as possible. Here's why. if you're learning to invest and invest virtually,

if you're learning those two things simultaneously, you're taking on two brand new skill sets at once. And although that's not impossible to do, as that's exactly what Epic Pro Academy member McKenzie Kelly did. I'd give her strong and established business experience. I'll give her that experience, much credit for her ability to succeed as quickly as she did. but if you do that, you will have to adjust your expectations for the most part.

You're going to have to adjust your expectations of speedy results. You're going to lower your standards of when you're going to get those results for the most part, meaning learning those two simultaneously, investing and investing virtually. It's going to result in a larger learning curve, that's all, and it's going to be an increased time for you to see your results. So just keep that in mind. As you dig deeper into your real estate investing, you'll invariably bump into the Grass's Greener Syndrome as well.

You know, it's going to appear that, you know, the other guy or the girl, other girl has it much easier in their market, right? And it's probably the most common question I get. Where should I get started? And people make that decision and then they hear someone's story and all of a sudden they're attracted to that market over there because it seems easier. And that may be true. Maybe it is easier there.

I mean, it may be easier to work the city and the county offices for records and permits. It may be easier to access responsive marketing lists. It may be easier to find good help in the form of property managers, contractors, and lenders. It might be easier for you to really kind of mentally wrap your mind around this business because the prices are cheaper. I mean, it may be easier to find neighborhoods with a lot of activity. So, but there's another side to that easy market.

you know, often the easy market can be, it can be difficult to getting properties sold or rented due to a lack of, you know, desirability for the area. It can be difficult to find adequate profit margins. I mean, you have to do more deals. You have to work harder to make the same money as neighboring markets. Easy. It's often accompanied by difficult. Okay. And on other factors to consider is, you know, is the market sustainable?

Is the timing right? where's the biggest upside, which market has the biggest upside? Where's the appreciation happening? Are there jobs there? Are people, are they moving in or are they moving out? How does the local government support the area? You know, there are a lot of things to consider when choosing your ideal market. And here's the rub.

You know, it's rare, very rare that you'll find the best of all of these key market factors working in unison. Right? There's always, there's always good and bad with every market. and you can really kill your whole business through analysis paralysis before you ever get started. I mean, you never get started because of it. So here's what there is to do. Understand that if there are people in your market and they live under roofs, there's opportunity there. In every market, there is a relative low price of which you can purchase and a relative higher price of which you can sell.

The objective of the real estate investor, right, to buy low, sell high. You can do that in any market. It's relative. It moves up and down together. So those two very important factors are in every market. So where to start then? Well, here's some guidelines. I'm not going to leave you hanging.

I'm not going to just say, don't do this or don't do that. But here's some guidelines. Look for the closest blue-collar neighborhood to your primary residence or where first-time buyers are attracted to. And the reason being is it's in these types of neighborhoods where you'll find the most activity, the most buying and selling is going on there. because people are moving in, and as soon as they move in, they can't wait to move out, right? So it happens, whether, you know, for a multitude of reasons, whether it's the neighborhood or

they're in that transitional stage of life where they're looking for, you know, some stability and then they want to move up as soon as life gets better. That's just where the most activity is. The greatest opportunity for you to do deals is there, either as the buyer, either as the holder or the seller. Okay, you've got ample amount of opportunity in those types of markets, regardless of which side of that transaction you're on. And you'll typically find more opportunity and options in these types of neighborhoods. If you happen to live in such a neighborhood, perfect. Start there and go deep for a while.

Okay. With the more experience you get under your belt, the more you'll learn which of all the different market factors we discussed, you'll start to learn which of those factors are most important to you in reaching your financial goals. And then you can make educated and experienced adjustments down the road accordingly. But don't wait to get it all right before you take that first step. Because, I mean, you just can't steer a parked car. And so if you start with that neighborhood, the wheels on the car start going. You start getting some fuels.

You start getting some momentum. You're starting to put some money in your pocket. And you're getting experience. And you can go ahead and steer from there. Okay. Very much what Epic Pro Academy member Richard Haynes did. He hasn't been on the show for a long time. He's one of our very first guest, actually.

So I guess it's been several years. Still a very good friend of mine. And he started investing in the inner cities of Los Angeles. Right? So he lived on the west side. He drove all the way to inner cities to do his business. And he learned the business there. And he put some really good money in his pocket.

He did a lot of business there in the form both of piles and streams of money. And he gradually moved west back towards where he was living, where he's now doing luxury fix and flips. You know, he's flipping $2 million, $3 million homes now. I think he just turned 30. So the ideal market is where you'll, actually get started and work. Okay?

And the sooner you get started and the sooner you get working, the better. Okay, just get out there, find that type of market or the closest market you can that fits those parameters and get going. All right. So once you found the market, what type of property are you going to be looking for? What should you invest in? Single family, multifamily, self-storage, mobile home parks, notes, duplexes, commercial, what type of property should you invest in?

And this is a really important question because if you get this part wrong, if you mess this up. You could find yourself jumping from one property type to the next and never really getting a strong foothold in one type of property or one type of asset class and then end up building a very volatile or a volatile unstable business if you build any real business at all. But when you get this part right, you're going to join the most successful and wealthiest real estate investors in the world. There'll be many areas in your business of which you want to follow a particular idea. and that idea being go deep before you go wide. Don't try to get too big, too fast.

The wheels that can fall off the bus. But if you go deep before you go wide, those wheels are on their solid and you can actually ride that bus. So make sure you're solid and efficient and whatever it is that you're doing before venturing into the next thing. Whether that be your market

or your team members or your marketing and including but not limited to your property type or your asset class. Okay? So here's what I mean. The difference between a single family residence and a 12-unit apartment building, the difference between the two is much bigger than just 11 doors.

There's a lot, there's a big difference there. And the difference between, say, that 12-unit apartment building, it's very different than a 50-unit self-storage facility. Yeah, they're all real estate, but they're all accompanied by their own nuances that determine whether or not they become a good, or bad investment class for you, whether or not they are the ultimate property type for you. So if you're just starting, I'd recommend a single family house, single family houses that

be in the property type because they're just easy to understand. They're simple. You know, everything is smaller. Everything is easier to manage. And it's a great education as well as a fantastic living. So if you're just getting started, start simple and get some experience under your belt. If you've been investing for a while, I'd look at whatever you've had the most success with or even whatever you've enjoyed the most and just get better at it. Get more efficient managing it or get more efficient with the system that you use to acquire, fix, and sell. Okay. Go deep before you go wide. Additionally, like choosing the right market. When it comes to investment class or property type, what you're going to find here is the grass being greener

on the other side of the fence, that exists here. It can sidetrack you. It can thwart your efforts here just like it does anywhere else. So understand that they all work. All of these property types work. There is a way to make money on all of them. A lot of money on all of them. Whatever asset class or property type you choose to dedicate your folks and resources to,

understand there's going to be a place in the process where it gets tough. That's where I'm talking about. The grass is always greener because, you know, you'll start with single-famination. and you'll go to some sort of event on, you know, mobile home parks, and it has a really sexy appeal to it. And you're like, wow, I think I'd rather do that. And then you start doing that a little bit and you realize, oh, my God, this is work. And then you go to the next event or you read the next book or listen to the next podcast

and they're talking about, you know, multifamily properties. And it has a really sexy, attractive appeal to it. And you're like, I think I want to go do that. So you go do that. because the grass seems greener over there and you realize, wow, I have to water and fertilize this grass too. There's work over here to be done.

So understand that there's going to be a place in the process in every one of those property types where it gets tough, where there will be a dip. There's going to be a dip there. And if you don't know what a dip is, I'm not going to go too deep into the dip. But a great book, really short book, really fast read by Seth Goat and called The Dip.

It's required reading for all of our follow-through crew members. but it would be a great book for you to read before you even get started if you haven't gotten started yet. So with all that said, though, you should diversify your portfolio. I'm not saying just choose one property type and stay there. But I want you to go deep and get good with that one property type before taking on your next. You know, for example, and I've kind of shared this story along the way over the last few years here. I started with single family properties. I did really well.

And I'm still doing really well with single families. We're crushing it. But then I jumped into multifamilies about four years ago. And four, maybe, I guess close to five. I've been telling the story for quite a while. And I jumped into them way too fast, way too wide. I mean, I went from no multifamilies to having a 14-unit building, got a 50-unit building, and then a 44-unit building, and then I got an 8-and-a-10-unit building, all at once,

and they all needed to be fixed up at the same time. But they were just giving them away. So I was like, I'll take them all. And I just went too fast, too wide. and I had to back out of them. And I lost a significant amount of money while I did that. And up to that point, I hadn't lost a penny in real estate. I used to brag about it here on the show.

I've never lost a diamond real estate because I was so good at single family. I knew exactly what I was doing. I knew how to get in. I knew how to exit. And I've never lost a penny until I ventured into multifamily. And I made that costly mistake of just thinking that the acquisition and the management of single and multifamily would just be the same, or at least very small. similar. I was like, how different could it be? It's just more doors, right? It's just one roof with more people

living under it. I didn't invest in my multifamily education in the way that I did the single family education. And I was forced to get my experience, to get my education from that other school, that other school that no one likes to attend, the school of Hard Knocks. And no one likes to attend that school because it's painful and it has a much higher tuition. And not only did, I make a bunch of mistakes with multifamily. If I had educated my a little bit more before taking that first step, I think I probably would have discovered it to be an asset class that I didn't really want to get into, at least not at that time. So I learned from that lesson.

I started using notes more of my business. I got educated in notes and it was about three years ago and started doing a little bit more seller financing and whether I was acquiring or selling with the seller finance notes. And that asset for class performing for me right now performing very well. And so now I'm educating myself on land as I'm prepared to add that to the portfolio in 2018. So that's my situation. That's my progression. But I went deep before I went wide.

And that's the hard lesson I learned in there. It was very painful. But that's my situation. What do we do about yours? What do we do about yours? Well, there is no perfect property type to choose. If you're just getting started, go simple. go single family, go three bed, two bath.

That right there represents the highest demand in both flipping and holding from both buyers and tenants. And if you don't like the idea of single family, if you just want to start with something different, then choose something else. That's fine. But choose and stick to it until you get the entire process from acquisition to disposition down solidly. Okay? Understand it's going to be work. You're going to hit the dip. So just choose one and forge through it and get good at it.

And if you've been investing in a while, look at whatever you're going to be. you've had the most success with, whatever you've had the most fun with, and just get better at that. Get more efficient managing it. Get better at acquiring, fixing, and then selling that type of property. Get better with your systems. Just go deep before you go wide. All right.

So that's what I have to say about property. The definition of a deal, you know, what is a deal? It's, I had to stop. I had to say no more. And I felt kind of bad saying it to certain people. But my inbox just used to fill up with people sending me their deal. can you look at this? Can you tell me if it's a good deal or not? And the answer is always, I don't know if it's a good deal or not. It depends. What are you trying to do? Where are you going?

What is this? What is that? I have like a hundred other questions to ask you before I can decide whether it's a good deal for you or not. And I just didn't have time to go through all of those in a way that would have been responsible, to give responsible answers. So what really comes down to is you need to understand what is a good deal to you. You need to establish your own definition of a good deal. what's a good enough amount of equity to go for, right? Or what makes a good ROI? What needs to be in place to define a deal? A badass investor knows their definition of a deal.

And I want you to know yours as well. A badass investor is a shopper of deals. They measure each opportunity up to their own minimum deal standards. If it doesn't get over that bar, boom, they don't do it. They're shopping for the deals that do, that meet their standards. So if you don't know your minimum deal standards, you're not a shopper. What you are yours is a buyer. The best investors, the badass investors are shoppers.

So for a property to be a deal to you, it should be in your market. It should be your property type. And it should produce cash or cash flow to your liking. And I say to your liking because it's your choice to what type of cash or cash flow makes a good deal for you. It's your choice to decide how much cash or cash flow you're willing to get up and go to work for. Here's what I mean. If you're going to flip a property, what is the least amount of money you're willing to accept for the amount of work it's going to take? And again, there's no right or wrong answer here.

Numbers are going to fluctuate to markets and price points. But, you know, for example, if I can flip a property quickly without having to do much more work than just, you know, shuffle paperwork, I don't know, $5,000. That might be my minimum. If I just got to shuffle some paper and I can process that transaction, put $5,000 in my pocket, that might be my minimum. You know, if it's a flip for 4,000, there's no deal. I either have to negotiate the extra $1,000 to meet my minimum standards or I just move on and I pass on the deal and move on to the next one. If I'm going to take ownership of a property, if I'm going to tie up some of my money,

if I'm going to put in some rehab work and I'm going to do it in, I don't know, three months or less, $20,000 might be my minimum deal standard for a deal like that. and I have a sliding scale for myself for everything that kind of falls in between. But those numbers, they might be, and here's where it's like, it has to be your definition. And those are just examples, by the way. Those numbers, those might be solid deals for you. You might say, okay, cool, I'll choose those. Right?

I'll do those every single day of the week. Sounds fantastic. And then there might be, those might be such small amounts of money that you're not, they're not even worth your time. Okay. So that's what I mean when I say you get to create your own definition. Another example for a property that you'd want to hold on to, instead of flip, you might not accept anything less than a 15% cash on cash return. Or you might define your hold standards at nothing less than $300 a month of positive cash flow.

So you can evaluate that by a return percentage or you can evaluate that or define your deal by the monthly cash flow spits off the dollar amount. Your definition of a good hold deal, it should really be fast. on the return your money is currently generating. I think that's the best way, especially if you're building your wealth, if you're building your cash flow, you want to look at that percentage of return, how hard your money is working for you. You know, like if you're just getting started and say your money is sitting in the bank, right? And it's barely squeaking out a 1% return. I think it's like 0.08% return or something like that. It's so ridiculous. It's

not even a return. But let's just, I don't know, we'll be generous. We'll give you 1%. if you found a property to buy and hold at 5% that'd be a five times of an improvement, right? But if I've got a portfolio that's averaging 10%, that'd be cutting my, that'd be going backwards. So just depending on where you are, that 5% might be five times what your money's getting right now or might be half of what your money is getting right now.

And that's how it's going to end up to be a different definition for everybody. Or if your money is, say, in a mutual fund, producing an 8% return. it might not be worth it to liquidate it for that 5% right it might not be worth it to liquidate and invest in a property for anything less than say 12% or if you've been investing for a while in the and the dozen or so properties you've got in your portfolio you're averaging a 15% cash on cash return you might not hold on to any property that produces less than 20%. So your definition of a deal is relative to the current return your money and or investments are producing. You should have these numbers in your head as you're you should have these numbers in your

head as you evaluate deals. Just because something may produce a profit doesn't mean you should do the deal. Just because someone is willing to give you their property doesn't mean you should take it. There could be a cost to doing those types of deals. If it doesn't meet your standards or someone just gives you a free property, you know, even if it does produce a profit, there's a cost like missing out on better deals, a deal more worthy of your time, a deal more worthy of the money that's going to take and the risk that you're going to assume.

Establish your minimum deal standards for both flip and hold deals, and stick to them, and then just be a shopper. Badass investors are shoppers. And you can adjust those along the way. Your standards should improve the more that you invest. But establish those minimum deal standards for you, but for the two categories, if you're going to flip the property, what's the minimum amount you're willing to take?

If you're going to hold on to it, what's the minimum amount you're willing to receive? And stick to those standards and just be a shopper of deals. Measure every single deal against those standards. standards, and that's how you make quick decisions by knowing what's a deal to you up front before you ever see the deal. Badass investors are shoppers. I want you to be a shopper. All right.

Now, now that you know what a deal looks like, what's next? What's the fifth point? You've got to find them. You've got to find deals. Okay? This is part of the strategy. You've got to find the deals, and it might sound simple or obvious right now, but it's not. Because this is where many people get sidetracked and they look.

lose focus on their investing strategy. You know, they listen to a podcast, they read a book, they attended a seminar, they overheard someone talking at work, they got some advice from a member of their ARIA club, and they start their business or restart their business in the hot market that they heard about over there, or in the hot asset class they were told about over there, or using the bulletproof strategy so-and-so is using over there, and they get so caught up in and make their strategy decisions based off of what it looks like to do deals. That's where their focus goes.

You hear it all the time. I do short sales. I do multifamily. I'm a wholesaler. I do lease options. I buy mobile home parks. You hear all varieties of this at your Ria club. Anytime you're in a group of other real estate investors.

Everyone knows how to do deals. But when you discover how many of those people are actually doing deals, you discover how many of those people are actually doing deals. like none of them and the evidence will come to light when you share with people about a deal you just did. I mean, the evidence being you're going to have a captive audience. You're going to have a bunch of little boys and girls with puppy dog eyes staring up at you, hang on every word. You're going to be holding court as everyone is absolutely fascinated that you actually did one. Everyone is so focused on doing deals that they forget the most important part of the equation or the most important part of the entire business.

They put so much focus on the doing that they failed to learn how to find the deal. And my point here is, I don't care what your strategy is. I don't care what your asset class is. None of it matters if you don't know how to find deals. There's no shortage of information out there of how to do deals. But the gurus, the mentors, the speakers, the coaches of all the sources of information that are available on real estate, they all fall short in teaching people how to do. how to find deals.

It's typically the beginning portion of the program or the book or the information, and then it gets deep into the doing. And that's the common denominator of all real estate investing. Right? You've got to find deals. You can't do the deal unless you can find it. And the point here is finding the deal is the most valuable skill of a real estate investor. Finding deals should be an integral part of your investing strategy.

It's the most lucrative skill. If you don't have this skill, you're going to pay too much for real estate. If you do have this skill, people are going to pay you too much for real estate. Finding the deal is the most valuable skill of a real estate investor. Some will say it's your people skills. Some will say it's your skill in raising private money. I've heard it all. And I disagree with all of them.

Because if you can find deals and you can find those deals consistently, people's skills. people skills aren't so important because when you find deals, everybody finds you and everybody wants to be your friend. They're trying to sharpen their people's skills so they can get your deals. Raising private money? Not so important because when you find deals, people with private money, they find you. They've got to have a place to put it. All righty? So find deals.

And you know, I remember the first time I had a conversation with my student, Nathan Price, and of his primary concerns was his higher-end market in Washington and building a business that would afford him the ability to quit his full-time job as a nurse so that he could spend more time with his family during the day. He worked the graveyard and then he slept all day while his family was awake. So that he just wanted to take control of his life and live on his terms. And after a little less than a year, focusing on these points, of strategy, these five points of strategy. He was finally building his stream of passive income

while stacking his paper, building a solid business backed by a sound strategy. All right? So, not that this is about him. I just want to, he had all of these concerns that we discussed today. And he wrapped his mind around him. And then once they were in place, he just moved forward. And a year later, he's in control. He's got a very successful real estate investing business. I haven't talked to him about a year now. But the last time I talked to me was, I don't know, he was posting pictures of checks everywhere that I could find him, or everywhere I saw him on Facebook. And, you know, he gave us a nice video for the last intensive on the really creative strategy he's done.

And he's crushing it. So in summary, because we let's let's sum this up. We've gone on a little longer than I expected. So to choose your strategy. First, you've got to choose cash or cash flow. Okay. Second, choose your market. Third, choose your property type.

Fourth, choose your definition. of a deal. And once you've made all of these choices, focus on the fifth point. Find deals. That's part of choosing your strategy. Make it your strategy to find deals. And to find them consistently, what you need, you need a lead machine. Every badass investor needs a lead machine. And we're going to start building yours next week. All right? So if you meet me back here and you do what most people won't do for the next 12 months, you'll be able to do what most people can't do for the rest of your life. So to meet such people, to learn what they did and how they did it,

I invite you to go to epiccasestudies.com. There's a bunch of them over there. Go to epiccasestudies.com. Hear their story. You're going to find their people just like you with all the same thoughts and concerns and challenges that you have, and they have done it. All right?

So meet me back here next week. We'll start building your lead machine. God bless to your success. I'm Matt Terrio, living the dream. You've been. listening to Epic Real Estate Investing, the world's foremost authority on separating the facts from the BS in real estate investing education. If you enjoyed this show, please take a minute to visit iTunes and share your thoughts. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time here at Epic Real Estate Investing with Matt Terrio.

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