Epic Real Estate Investing - Creative Closing with Josh Swanson | Episode 162

Episode Date: June 29, 2015

Today Matt is joined by Epic Pro Academy member, Josh Swanson, who is attracting wholesale buyers by helping them finance his deals! Learn his secrets on today's podcast!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is Terio Media. Broadcasting from Terrio Studios in Glendale, California. It's time for Epic Real Estate Investing with Matt Terrio. Hello, and welcome to Epic Real Estate Investing, the place where I show people how to escape the rat race using real estate. All you got to do, do is one thing to shift your focus from making piles of money to making streams of money. Change that one thing just one time, and you are on your way to finance. freedom. Now, it's not the most exciting path, but it is the fastest. And once you get there,

life then becomes exciting. That's what we're doing this for, right? That's why we get up every day and do what we do. Got a very interesting tweet this week, this past week. Actually, a set of tweets, a set of tweets and emails and Facebook messages from a podcast listener trying to track me down to track down the free course. And, you know, I feel like I've just, I've mentioned that so many times on this show, I mean, from day one. But maybe I haven't mentioned it in a while. So maybe I can't take that for granted that I've talked about it over and over and over again. But it hasn't gone anywhere.

It's still exactly where it's always been. So if you two are looking for the free course I've provided since the very beginning of this show, it's still available. In fact, it's new and improved. I updated it a few months ago. I think I talked about it a lot. Made a lot of announcements then. And you can find it at free real estate investing course.com.

It's the same location it's always been. It's new and approved. It's in a more shortened format so you can get through the material faster. It walks you through just the meat on how to do a wholesale deal, specifically how to make $10,000 in the next 30 days or less. I left out all the fluff. There's no rar-rots, just plain and simple, to the point, how-to stuff. And that's available to you for free at free real estate investing course.com. All righty.

a lot of awesome activity going down inside the private Facebook group for Academy members. I mean, every day something just amazing happens that, you know, continues to amaze me because that's what amazing things do. They amaze you. And I'm really impressed by the quality of the group with regards to how giving they are. I mean, they, and how helpful they are with each other. There's so much exchange of information. And I mentioned a while back about a certain member who is using Epic Fast Funding in a very

creative way to close more deals. And I've asked him to join me here on the show to share with you in case you aren't a member of the private Facebook group. And if you would like to be, you have to become an academy member first. That's how you become a member. But I asked him to come on the show so he could share it with you as well in detail, exactly what he's doing. So without further ado, please help me welcome Josh Swanson to the show.

Josh, welcome to Epic Real Estate Investing. Hey, how's going, Matt? Very, very good. So you had a very exciting experience that you shared with inside the private epic Facebook group. And I want to talk all about that. You've come up with a pretty creative way to use the resources we provide here and close deals. But if you can just first start off by give me a little bit of a background on you, how you got started in real estate investing, and bring me up to date to what your business looks like today.

All right. Sounds good. I mean, I'll try to make it's brief. It's kind of a long story. but a couple of things that's happened in my life. You know, I, you know, kind of did the whole, like, first part of the rich debt, Bordiad thing, you know, it seems like so many of us did.

And I was actually a pilot, you know, kind of the same as Robert Cusaki, and then I read the Rich Dad Portia, I was like, oh, shoot, you know. So things started changing. I started going, basically I went to, like, a couple, like, real estate things where, you know, these expensive gurus are telling me, like, to call the banks and, you know, speak to the asset manager and talk about their non-performing assets, and then they just be granted this kingdom of, you know, this vault. I opened up a secret vault for you if you knew that secret.

You know, just this is stuff that doesn't really work. And so I just kept studying and studying. And then one day, you know, it was actually kind of like a low point in my life. I mean, I was still flying with the airlines is not making too much money. The first few years there you don't. And I was actually in Orlando, I'd moved here to try to get into real estate, you know, for the buy-and-hold market, the rentals make a lot of sense out here. And I got just got really broken.

I was, actually one of those, like, blood banks, don't even plasma, just feel, like, grossing me, like, trying to figure out something to listen to. Again, it was, like, real estate podcast, and then I see, I ran across years and just, like, listening to it, and, you know, they listened to all of them, and then I just, been falling in for years, and that just changed everything for me, and turned into it. I can say, like, you know, just paying money and doing this stuff that doesn't work, and then I'm wholesaling full-time.

Quit the airlines finally, I could afford to you, and making more money than ever. Fantastic. So you're wholesaling full-time now? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. How long ago did you quit your job with the airlines? Six months ago I made the official transition. I was kind of like, you know, on sick week for a while or something. And, you know, it was basically that just finished up.

And I was making a lot of good money in wholesale and things getting better than ever. So this time couldn't afford to work anymore. Got it, fantastic. You know, a lot of people are looking at real estate and wholesaling and flipping and as, you know, That's what they want to go do. They want to make that transition from their daytime job to becoming a full-time wholesaler, at least a full-time real estate investor. How long of a transition was that for you?

And what were some of the challenges for you doing that? It depends. I mean, it was probably harder than it needed to be following you. I mean, drastically speed of the process. I mean, if it wasn't for your programming, it's better than anything I've ever paid any kind of money for. it actually worked and made sense, move at the speed of instruction, like all kinds of things like that. It's learned so much following you over the years.

So that's sped up. I mean, you know, if you just take the time, pay attention, and focus and really dedicate yourself to it, I mean, you can do it fairly quickly. But you definitely have to follow someone like yourself and really, you know, take the instruction and use it. So actually, yeah, do what you learn. Yeah.

Yeah, I don't talk about it, actually. You know, I think the phone call, send the letters. Okay, perfect. So what was the first thing you did to start generating leads? Actually, I was trying to do it. You know, I was trying to meet people and stuff. So I became a real estate agent down here in Orlando. And one thing led to another, and I got involved with a wholesale real estate brokerage.

It's called Altura Investments. And what we do is it's basically just wholesaling, but under like a real estate brokerage. Okay. And so, you know, that really kind of got things going. And, like, when that applies to the job, they're like, okay, well, we have these signs that you have to stick in the ground, you know, and, you better stick them. You better do 100 a month at least or, you know, you're going to fire you. And, you know, to me, before, I was, like, trying to do, like, some bandit signs and dummy signs and stuff. You know, just try to generate things on my own.

And I could pay, like, $5 for one. It was all, like, a course, I stick one sign. And here these guys are giving me, you know, telling me if I didn't stick at least 100 a month, I'm fired. I'm like, oh, my God. You know, it's awesome. So you gave me all these signs. I'm just sticking them everywhere, and the funds just ringing off the hook ever since.

Got it. So the thing was there was actually somebody there to force you to put the signs out. Yeah. Well, I mean, and to give them to me for free, because it was just always the money thing. You know, it's always like $10 short, you know. Like, I said I'd go buy, band it spends like one at a time.

Right, right. It was just, I was doing, I don't know, the best I could at the time, but now I had a supply. and also the guy, you know, if I didn't, I was fired. Right. That's good.

I would have done it anyway. Us humans are sometimes a little bit more, or frequently more motivated by the pain of being, say, quote unquote, fired than we are by pursuing the pleasure of, you know, a paycheck and, you know, a life of freedom. Oh, yeah. You know? So that accountability, I see it based on what you've shared with me so far is, is probably a big reason for your success.

So today, how many, you've been doing this for, six months, on average, how many properties are you wholesaling a month? This last month was my best month. On six closings coming up, our boss, another thing, Peter, kind of Glenn Garry and Glenn Ross over there a little, but you have to do three a month or you're fired, at least be involved in one side of the transaction, either acquiring the property or being the one to sell it and get the check. So, yeah, so, I mean, one a week we're basically considered like average.

Okay. All right, so you're still working for that company? Yeah. Okay. Very good. And they give you all of your marketing materials? Yeah, absolutely. Except any kind of letter campaign.

They don't do that. Which is probably why I still haven't done that yet, but that's the next thing. I mean, I bought stamps and looking red, can't find the right list. All right. So everything that you're doing right now to do six closings a month is based off of just bandit signs? And Craig's List. In Craigslist. Actually, yeah, actually, I got my girlfriend involved.

She, uh, the property to begin just makes Facebook ads or Craigslist ads and everything She's real creative with it and, um, you know, to be honest,

like that's kind of every place the band signs all together, you know, that and then, you know, sometimes we'll get an off market property put it on post list or something. Uh-huh.

And, uh, so yeah, that's... Okay. Basically it. So what, what part of Craigslist are you guys posting in?

Just the, uh, for sale by owner. Just for sale by owner. Really simple? Yeah. And, you know, you get a lot of,

a lot of mixed reviews. on Craigs. A lot of weird going to get a filter out of course. Of course. It is Craigslist. Yeah. It's not the Holy Grail.

You do have to weed through a lot of crazy stuff to get to the good stuff. So how are you finding your motivated sellers then? Are you finding them on Craigslist now as well? Actually, down here in Orlando, we can still make a full-time living just on Ariot and thanks for closures. Okay.

Very good. Yeah, it's 99% or probably about 90% in the last. Okay, so is this why you're still with the that company? because you need access to the multiple listing service? Right. Yeah, part of the system, yeah. Got it.

All right, so you're finding properties on the multiple listing service, REOs and through the banks, and then you go and put, you are writing a contract on your own behalf, like you're the buyer? No, no, we have, like, investors that'll, you know, be our buyers. Okay. Who actually, you know, we'll close if they need to or whatever

or do the transactional funding. And then basically, like, the markets can still go down here lately. Like, we're taking stuff with zero inspection, you know, just closing every time. You know, 99 times out of a hundred. Everyone's a lot of course. You know, the deals just not right. The house is really that messed up. Mm-hmm.

You got to give it back. Okay. So, all right, I hear a little bit more information every time I ask a question. So I'm trying to get down to the bottom of this. So how are you different than just a real estate agent then? if you already have buyers in place and you're just fine and stuff off the multiple listing service. Because we actually buy and sell.

So you actually buy the property and then resell it? Everything's under contract, yeah. Like every property we have is not. You know, no one can just, you know, call the realtor and compete for the property with us. Got it. So, actually everything, our investors have, you know, locked up to buy and then, you know,

if we can get them, you know, enough of a spread, you know, for our cut, too, then, you know, they sell it off to the other guy so they can do the flip or, keep it as a buy-in-hold. Okay, I understand. Cool. All right.

It's very different, but hey, if it pays, why not? I mean, the principle is the same. Just the compensation structure is a little different. That's all. Yeah. Super. I understand. Okay, so just recently, you were posting inside the private Facebook group

about how you used Epic Fast funding to close a deal. And it was a very creative way that you did that. Can you walk me through that? Yeah, well, you know, whenever we have our, our buyers come out and, you know, often times or whatever, and they talked about, you know, wanting to invests on the property, and they're short on money,

and, you know, the main thing they always say is dollar financing. Well, blah, blah, and, you know, a lot of times their deals don't go that way, especially their bank foreclosures, obviously. So, pitch hard money a lot. And, you know, I mean, you've stayed on your show like countless times when you, you know, compare to it to,

epic fast funding, you know, blows away, hard money. You can get it for basically free. You don't have to put down 30% or anything like that. So it made a lot of sense for these people. And so we signed them up. And my psycho story is not good enough. I didn't actually qualify. So I wasn't able to go through the whole process. And so I didn't exactly know what it was, but I knew like you were behind it. So it had to be good. And sure enough, it worked for them. But the only problem was we, at the situation where their money just wasn't ready in time for closing. And they thought it was going to be, but then all of a sudden, you know, they missed something in the program or whatever,

and I got stuck, so I just reached out for help, and then, you know, I thought one of the other club members would answer me, but then you came in and you were like, you know, here I got you, you know, I'll take care of it, and, you know, you help me because it was just like an emergency situation, you know, it was awesome, you know, you're right there in my bag. Cool, cool, cool, and I'm glad I could help. I didn't realize it was that big of a deal. I didn't know that was that much of an emergency. for you, so I'm glad I did help.

And it always sucks to lose deals based on dumb little you know, what do they call? Technicalities. Yeah, I mean, it wasn't like, you know, it wasn't like a $40,000 hit or anything like that. It was still like a big one. And the short sale would have actually been sold.

The people who got foreclosure, there's no more extensions with the bank and so. I mean, that was just like the final closing date. Oh, we totally would have missed. And it weren't they were able to get. These people were smiling from year to year, they gave me a hug. They're like, you guys did it.

You came through, and they were like basically practically $0 out of their pocket, I think. And then they're halfway through their flip and, you know, getting ready to do more all year. And it was awesome. Sweet. That's been a great tool. So now you're using that for your buyers as an alternative to hard money. Yeah, that's the primary thing. Like, even if you have the cash, you know, as long as they have a FICO score and, you know,

good stated income, you should just do it. Right. Love it. Making it happen. So tell me about your future. What do you see for the future? Do you see yourself staying with this company forever, or are you going to eventually go out on your own?

I hope they retire with them, but in two years. In two years? Yeah, and that's kind of the goal with the company. I could say you can't afford to work there. Too long because, you know, you learn the process and start making so much money. And, you know, it gets really cool. Then, like, train us and stuff.

But, you know, it just happens. Like, a lot of people just make a lot of money and start doing their own flips. and, you know, retiring early. That's my dream, you know, to get out of the rat race and everything. All right, so you're going to retire in two years. So are you acquiring buy and holds as well, or what's the plan for that?

That's the plan, you know. That's like something like I really want to start getting more like your methods for getting the seller financing. And, you know, that's another thing in this next year is one of my goals for the year. It's really learn how to start getting some of that. It's the only way I could really afford to do the business. buying a halt right now. But yeah, absolutely. Just cash flow and, you know, get a few.

Fantastic. Well, thanks for sharing the story, Josh. If people wanted to get a hold of you, if they're inspired by your story in any way, or maybe they want to do business down in Orlando, how would they reach out to you? The best way it would be to, I think almost everyone on the Facebook page has my number, but my best email address is Joshua Guampton 13 at Gmail. Joshua Swanson 13 at gmail.com. That's it.

Super. All right. And then everyone is also connecting with you in the private Facebook group as well. So if you're a member of the Epicadopor Academy, then you have access to Josh there also. All right, Josh. Well, thanks, bud. I appreciate you sharing your experience with us. And let's do it again sometime.

Awesome. Thanks again, man. Thanks for everything. And I didn't even get to touch on it, but that turnkey investing podcast you have is also another huge school. Oh, thanks, dude. Thank you. That's freaking awesome. You want to teach someone about Real State?

You know, it's like, let them listen to that and then sell them buying all. All right. I like you. I want to bring you on more often. Prom all my stuff for me. I appreciate it. All right, bud.

Have a good one and we'll talk soon. Yeah, you too, man. Take care, man. Thanks for having me. Contrary to popular belief, a lack of funding is not the biggest barrier to starting a business. It's excuses.

But don't let a lack of funding be your excuse. We are epic fast funding. We'd like to fund your business with up to $150,000 in revolving credit lines. If you've got 60 seconds on a solid credit score, you could have access to your funds in as little as seven days. Go to Epicfastfunding.com to fill out our 60 second application. It's fast, it's simple, up to $150,000 in as little as seven days. Go to Epicfastfunding.com.

All righty, that's it for today. I'll see you next week or catch me tomorrow on Turnkey Real Estate Investing. 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. This podcast is a part of the C-suite Radio Network. For more top business podcasts, visit C-desweet Radio. com.