Epic Real Estate Investing - EPREI 013 : A Crash Course in Real Estate Investing

Episode Date: September 30, 2011

Investing in real estate is painfully simple, yet you might've heard, "but it's not easy." Both statements are true. On this episode, Matt provides a crash course in real estate investing success and sums it up in 3 simple steps. If you miss the first step, the other two steps don't matter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Epic Real Estate Investing Podcast, episode 13. You're about to meet a man that can show you how he took control of his life and financial future and how you can do the same. He's never been on TV. He's not a millionaire, and he does not know Donald Trump. He is a full-time real estate investor, newly discovered author, and family man. He does not report to a boss. He creates his own schedule and takes his family on a few vacations every year.

He got started investing in real estate with almost no money in a really crummy credit score, and he's going to show you exactly how he did it and how he continues to do it. You will have to work. You will have to be responsible. However, laying by the beach sipping fruity drinks is a reasonable goal without further delay. Your guru. Sorry. Your guide to a better life through real estate investing. Matt Terrio.

Hello and greetings from the epic real estate investing podcast, the podcast that will show you how to create wealth through conventional and creative real estate investing, so you'll have the option to realistically retire in the next 10 years or less. And enjoy the good life while you're still young enough to do so. My name is Matt Terrio, author, full-time real estate investor and family man. Boy, am I a family man now? I'm really, really feeling it.

My son is putting me to the test. I'll tell you that. But I'm working it out. Everything's going to be all right. Now, if this is your first time listening to this show, you're going to want to do two things. First of all, welcome. I'm glad that you're here. But you're going to want to go back and listen to episode one to get the gist of what the show is all about and why it's here.

I mean, everything that we discuss from this point forward is just going to make so much more sense to you if you do that. And two, download the free real estate investment. course, how to do deals, no money required, and you can get that at free real estate investing course.com. It's a step-by-step course of which I reveal everything that I do. I want you to get a head start with this. It reveals everything that I do, everything that I say, everything that I use, including the documents and the contracts to invest in real estate using no money or credit. And that's yours for free at free real estate investing course.com.

Okay, I actually got a little re-energized after last episode to start negotiating a little bit more in my life outside of real estate investing. And I got a great story, is a quick one, but I got a great story. This one little thing, it saved me $2,200. You see, right now I'm in the middle of putting together an investor workshop in Southern California called Cash or Cash Flow. And if you want to check it out, you can go to cash or cashflow.com. Anyway, this past week, I had to reserve the venue for this workshop.

And when I was speaking to the catering director, she had stated that the room was going to cost me $1,500 per day. $1,500 per day. And my immediate response was, ooh, ouch. And that's not the magic of this. The magic is not in going,

ooh, ouch. Well, a little bit of the magic, but that's not the real magic. The magic is staying completely quiet after you do it. I mean, in these situations, the person that talks first

is the one that typically loses. So I just waited. It seemed like forever, but it was probably only a couple of seconds, and she had said, oh, why is that out of your budget? And I was like, yeah. And then she had asked me, well, what is your budget? And I had said, like, a third of that.

And she said, oh, okay, well, I guess we can do that. So just like that, with one small little gesture, I saved two thirds of my room fee. Actually, after it was all done, it was a little bit more than that. The one little gesture paid me $2,200, $2,200 of real, cash I got to keep in my pocket. That's real cash value. So in your deals, look at these little gestures that I share with you. Look at these comments and use the questions that I give you and look at them as real cash value. You've got to use them to get the cash back. And if you have no idea to what

I'm speaking of, you're going to want to go back and listen to our last episode, episode 12, how to find the money. Okay? So let's get on with today's episode. So based on the feedback via email in the comments on my blog post, I've got a few things that I wanted to touch on. I received some interesting comments of which I think there are some valuable lessons intertwined, or maybe invaluable lessons. You see, last week I wrote a blog post titled, 10 Painfully Simple Steps to Improve Your Real Estate Investing. And it was meant to be a little sarcastic, and I can see that some of you didn't appreciate

the sarcasm. But then again, actually, it wasn't really that sarcastic. You see, the 10 painfully simple steps to improve your real estate investing are, well, the first one is write offers. Now, that's probably not a groundbreaking tip for you, as it's an obvious one, right? I mean, you need to write offers in order for you to do deals. There is no transaction without first writing and presenting an offer. However, look that in a slightly different way. It could be an extremely groundbreaking tip, that tip being to write offers.

And here's what I mean. I mean, how many offers did you write last week? How many offers have you written this month? How many have you written this year? Or, how many do you plan to write this week? Or most importantly, how many do you plan to write today? How many offers are you going to write today? Is it even in your plans to write at least one offer today?

If so, great. But hold on for just a minute. If it's not in your plans to write an offer today, why is that? Why not? I mean, only you can answer that question, and you don't have to answer it out loud, but answer it and just answer it to yourself. And be honest with yourself. If you don't plan to write an offer today, why is that? Not enough leads? Why don't you have enough leads? You've got something better to do? Okay, but is it really something better or are you procrastinating or avoiding doing the work? Do you lack the belief that your offer will be taken seriously?

Okay, understandable, but why is that? Is it that you don't know how to write an offer? Is it that you don't know where to get a purchase agreement? Why is that? Or do you plan on writing offers tomorrow? I'll get to it tomorrow. Or next week. You see, what I'm getting at is fear.

Fear stops us. and sometimes it's not so obvious on how it does because fear it comes in all different shapes and sizes and labels fear can be disguised by I'll do it tomorrow it can be disguised by I don't know how it can be disguised by nobody will help me it can be disguised by the market in my area is different that would never work here

or it can be disguised by I don't have any money it can be disguised by oh I'm gonna wait till the economy turns around or this type of stuff doesn't work in this type of economy, or it can be disguised as I have terrible credit. I mean, there are countless ways in which fear shows up in this business, or in our lives for that matter. Here's one thing that I know. If I were able to guarantee each and every one of you right now

that the very next offer you would write would get accepted and you would complete that transaction putting $25,000 in your pocket, I'm confident each and every one of you would figure out how to do it. Or you'd figure out how to make the time to do it, to write that offer right now. I mean, if you wouldn't jump to it and go write that offer right now, that guaranteed offer, I mean, you're probably independently wealthy, right? Or maybe you accidentally stumbled upon the wrong podcast and you have absolutely no interest in real estate investing.

Is that it? I mean, are you really waiting for a guarantee? Or are you waiting for someone to knock on your door and present this deal on a silver platter? I mean, let's get straight. There are no guarantees in real estate investing. And there are no guarantees in life. That's simple, right? Nobody is going to do it for you either.

Nobody. Everyone has problems of their own. Everyone has challenges of their own. There's a great song by the hip-hop group, Public Enemy. And Flav of Flav, he takes the lead on this song. And in the hook, in the chorus, Flav repeatedly says, I can't do nothing for you, man.

Flav got problems of his own. Now, as harsh as that may be, that's the real world, especially the business world. I mean, it's summed up in one perfect little sentence. I can't do nothing for you. I've got problems of my own. You've got to go figure it out. No one is going to do it for you. You may find some empathy out there.

You may find some sympathy. You might find some guidance. You might find some great advice out there. You might find some good shoulders to cry on. But in the end, nobody is going to. do it for you. It's entirely up to you. So repeat after me. If it's to be, it's up to me. That's a really corny little cliche. You've probably heard that a thousand times, but that doesn't make it any less accurate. It doesn't make it any less true. It doesn't make it

any less potent. If it's to be, it's up to me. So yes, it's obvious. You have to write offers to do deals. You have to write offers for you to do deals. You all know that, right? You all know that. But if you're not doing it, what good is it knowing it? You see, to know and not do is to not know. The blind man that can't read is no different than the man that can see and read but chooses not to. Don't be that guy.

You are blessed with the gift of knowing. Don't waste it. So write offers. That's the first painfully simple step to improving your real estate investing. step two write more offers more obvious steps right guess what step three is yep write more offers step four yep you guessed it write more offers that's the painful part that's what makes these 10 painfully simple steps so painful real estate investing just like about everything else in business especially in the It's a numbers game.

You've got to write a lot of offers to get one accepted. You've got to take a bunch of stabs at it before you are successful. And you've got to do that a lot in the beginning. You've got to do that to build your momentum. You're going to expend a lot of energy. You're probably going to experience a lot of frustration in the beginning. But that's how momentum is built. That's why we work so hard in the beginning to create that momentum.

Because once we have that momentum working for us, then things become a little bit easier. We start to experience results with a little less effort. Just like the jet plane that takes off, as it's elevating, it's burning tons and tons of fuel. But once it gets to its cruising altitude, the cap, then he can take his foot off the gas a little bit, maintain that altitude and speed,

without burning so much fuel. Real estate investing, and business, it's just like that. You're going to have to write a lot of offers to get one accepted. Now, how many offers that is, it's going to be different for everybody. Everyone grows at a different speed, but as long as you keep moving

and you keep pushing yourself, you will grow. And it's going to depend on your lead generation. How many offers that's going to take before you get one accepted? It's going to depend on your market. It's going to depend on the type of offers that you're writing. It's going to depend on the relationship that you've created with the person

of which you're presenting the offer too. But it is a numbers game nonetheless. More so than a numbers game, however, it's a game of consistency and persistence. You've got to write offers every day, and you've got to keep writing them. If you're not prepared to do that, I just don't know what to tell you. I mean, that is the silver bullet in this business. I'll break it down in three steps. First, you've got to do the right things, and one of those things is write offers.

You've got to find deals, and you've got to write offers. There's no way around that. Just like if you want to lose weight, you've got to eat less and you've got to exercise more. There's no way around that. Second, you've got to do the right things consistently. No way around that either. You've got to write offers every day. Even if it's just one a day, you've got to do it every day.

You've got to do it consistently. And just like our weight loss example, you can't just eat less and exercise for one day and expect to lose weight, expect to hit your weight loss goal. You have to do it every day. The third step is you've got to do it long enough. You've got to write offers long enough to get your desired result. You've got to eat less and exercise more long enough to lose the 10 pounds, to lose the 20 pounds, to lose the 30 pounds, whatever it may be. It's not going to happen in one day. It's not going to happen in a week or even a month.

I mean, you're in this for the long run. We're not here just to write an offer, get a deal accepted, and quit. If this is going to be a long-term business that produces financial freedom for you, you've got to stick with it. You've got to write the offers every day. You've got to do it long enough. You're in it for the long run. The long run being the achievement of financial and time freedom. It takes time. It doesn't happen with just writing an offer today and oops, that didn't work. I guess we'll go find something else to do. You've got to do the right things. You've got to do them consistently and you've got to do them long enough. So write offers. Write more offers and more

offers and more offers and more offers. This is what it takes to be a successful real estate investor. You know, this last week, I had got on the phone with one of the listeners, one of you out there. They'd sent me an email, and I responded to their email, and we eventually ended up on the phone, and he acknowledged the podcast, said he loves it, he listens to it all the time, and a lot of great inspiration and great motivation. He said it was a little light on content, but he really liked it nonetheless. And I took it as a compliment as he meant it. And I was very, I'm very grateful that I have listeners and I'm grateful that he listens. And but after I hung up the phone, I got to thinking, he said it was light on content. And I started to think about that. I mean,

you really, sometimes when you're trying to do something exceptional and when it means so much to you, like this podcast does and real estate investing and teaching others how to do it, when it means so much to you, sometimes that's a little tough to take that criticism. But you've got to jump outside of yourself and be responsible for the actions that you're taking. Be responsible for the communication that you're delivering. Because you might mean it to be interpreted one way or to be received in a certain way. You know, you've got to take responsibility if it's not being received in the way that you meant.

He had said something that really caused me to think that it's light on content. I got to thinking. And perhaps he's right. on the other side of that, maybe there's not a whole lot of content to learn. I mean, I can tell you easily, as we've done over this of the first 12 episodes or so of this podcast, is you've got to go find deals. That's the content. And I broke it down several different ways on how to go find deals.

And the way that I showed you are the most popular ways. I think the three or four top ways that millionaire real estate investors go and find their deals. And not only the most popular, the ways. that I taught you represents about 80% of where millionaire real estate investors find their deals. So to me, that's rich content, but it's not that difficult, so it might seem like light content. And then you've got to go write offers like we've been talking about right now. That's not that deep either.

I can say write more offers. It's only three words, so maybe it is light content. And then you've got to analyze the deals. And then you've got to close the deals. You've got to find the money and close the deals. and we've gone into that multiple ways or multiple times. I've broken it down exactly how I do that. But what we're talking about today really might be interpreted as light content.

Gosh, man, all you said on this episode is to write more offers. The 10 steps is to write offers, write offers, write offers times 10, right? Light content? Or not? Real estate investing really is rather simple. It's really simple to fill out a purchase agreement. So there's your content. If that's light, it's light.

But the heavy stuff is why you're not doing it every day. What's going on between your ears that's causing you not to write those offers every day? If it's so simple, why aren't you doing it? If it's common knowledge that this is a numbers game, why aren't you working the numbers? See, the real estate investing part, the technical, the mechanical stuff, there's not a lot of content there. It can be taught literally in a weekend. It can be taught literally over 10, 20 episodes of a podcast from A to Z every single little minute detail. But the real content is what you have to hear, what you need to hear that's going to get you up out of bed every single day and get up out there and going to do it.

That's why we talk about mindset. That's like the first stage of traveling the millionaire real estate investor journey is first you got to think like a millionaire. there. And if you can't get that first stage down, you don't even waste your time with buying a million and owning a million and receiving a million. You got to get the thinking down. That's why we go over the goals, because if you don't have goals and you don't know where you're going, any road is going to get you there. And it might not be where you want to be. That's why you got to establish what you want and why you want it. And that's the other big aspect. Why? Why are you doing this? Are you doing this for yourself? Are you doing it for your spouse? Are you doing it for your family?

Are you doing it for your community or are you doing it for the world? That's what's going to get you up out of bed every day. That's what's going to enable you and empower you to write more offers. Okay, we wrote 10 yesterday and nothing got accepted. I guess I got to write 10 more today and I got to write 10 more tomorrow and 10 more the next day. That's the content. It's not fluff. We need the inspiration.

We need the motivation. I listen to other real estate investing podcasts to give me that. I know how to do it, but I need that motivation. We all need that motivation. It's like bathing. You can't just take a shower once and you're done bathing for the rest of your life. You got to do it every day. And motivation is just like that.

It's just like bathing. That's why we recommend it daily. Okay? So something else I wanted to address today. I've noticed a few unsubscribes on my email. recently. And I've noticed more than usual because I'm getting more subscribes than normal. Probably increased by 10 over the last couple of months. So obviously if you get more subscriptions, you're going to get more unsubscribes.

And I haven't got a ton, but I guess when you unsubscribe for my list, you have the opportunity to send me a comment of why you've unsubscribed. And I don't know, it's been a half a dozen this month and I've been reading these comments. And some of them have been actually very intriguing and very indicative of what the mindset might be out there right now. Because I know for every comment that I receive, it probably represents 10, 15, 20 other people. And some of those comments have been from the unsubscribes,

sellers will never go for what you propose. Or another one was, what you teach doesn't work in today's economy. Actually, I just got one today that says, I think it was something like what you talk about, it's all filler. There's no substance or something like that. And the other one was my favorite.

How could you teach people to get into contract without them knowing where they're going to find the money. That's irresponsible and unethical. There's that ethical question again. And there were some others, but they all kind of fell along these lines. And these lines being this scarcity mindset, this cynical and resigned mindset, this poverty mindset, no wonder the buy a million level of real estate investing hasn't hit them yet.

The only a million level of real estate investing hasn't hit them yet. And that's why that first stage of the millionaire real estate investment investor, think a million is so critical. Because if you're not thinking like a millionaire real estate investor, it doesn't matter what is said. If it didn't work for you the first time, then it must be hogwash, right? The guy must be full of bologna. I'm going to go to the next guru, and I'm going to try what he does. And that didn't work, so that guy is full of crap. Then I'm going to go to the next guy. Well, that didn't work. I'm going to go to the next guy. I'm going to buy the next book. I'm going to go to the next seminar. I'm going to listen to

the next podcast. You've got to get your thoughts straight. I mean, one of my favorite, favorite quotes. And it's been overused, another cliche, but the fact that it's been overused doesn't make it any less true. And that quote is, if you think you can or if you think you can't, you're right. And when someone says to me, the seller is never going to go for what you propose, I really just have to laugh as I wouldn't be teaching what I'd teach if it hadn't worked and if it didn't continue to work. You know, one common thing among many common things, I guess, But one common thing I noticed amongst newer real estate investors is that they subconsciously negotiate for the other party.

They think they know what's best for the other party, or they think they know what the other party wants. They assume and then do their deals based off of their assumptions. I mean, that's a recipe for a very short career. I mean, they go through the steps of doing deals, assuming what the other party wants, instead of just asking what the other party wants, and simply giving it to them.

Don't assume. The world occurs differently for everybody and how you find out how it's occurring for someone else is, you ask them. Don't assume. I mean, if your thoughts are always, the seller will never go for that. You're right. And it's going to be a very short investing career for you. Ask the seller for what they want and then do your best to give it to them. That's how deals get done.

That's how you get paid. That's how you get paid very well. And the best way, the best way to get what you want is to give enough people what they want. That's the secret to success. That's just walking around and creating win-win scenarios for everybody. Now, the second comment I mentioned, what you teach doesn't work in today's economy. Well, if that's what you think, you're absolutely right. I mean, this one makes me laugh too.

The person didn't give me specific, so I'm not sure as to what I was teaching that they're referring to that doesn't work. But you know what, what I've come to know from the 42 years I've been walking this plan is that those that say it can't be done are constantly getting passed up by people that are doing it. The key to real estate investing is to buy low and sell high. And in any economy, there are always places where one can go to buy low, always. And when I say low, it's relative. I mean, lower than it can be sold for.

What is low and what is high is relative. and the economy will dictate what the actual number is, but there is a low and a high in every economy. And if what I teach wasn't working, I mean, I'd be in a lot of trouble. I mean, I wouldn't have the time to produce a free podcast of which doesn't pay me anything. I mean, what inspired me to create this podcast and share my information is that I have successfully completed 60 transactions in the last 18 months or so in this economy.

And if that wasn't working, I wouldn't have to be a lot of the economy. time to produce this podcast and it doesn't pay me anything. I mean, maybe it will someday and that would be very cool. But for now, this podcast is just a free fest. I'm giving it away. How could I afford to do that if what I teach wasn't working? Now, I hope this isn't coming across as arrogant or even defensive because those are two really ugly emotions and that's not the feeling that I want to convey. I welcome the criticism. I welcome the comments. So keep them coming. And what I'm sharing right now, it's not to impress you, but to rather demonstrate that I have experience in this economy. I have evidence to back up what I teach in this economy. You know, and actually I guess that

either of these two people that sent me these comments probably aren't listening anyway, so I might be just preaching to the choir, but I just felt it was worth addressing. Hopefully they come back. Hopefully they give it another shot. I hope they didn't quit. I hope they are not out there continuing their pursuit or their search of the elusive silver bullet because I've given you the silver bullet. You've got to do the right things. You've got to do them consistently and you got to do them long enough. That's the silver bullet. Now this last comment that I received, was how could you teach people to get into contract without them knowing where they're going to find the money? That's irresponsible and unethical.

Okay, so I've already dedicated an entire episode to ethics. So I'm not going to go into that too deeply. I mean, I don't want to get into that topic again right now. So let's just agree that when it comes to ethics, there's a big gray area. And in a nutshell, my perspective is, as long as everyone gets what they want out of the deal and no laws have been broken, it's ethical. If everyone gets what they want and nobody was hurt and no laws were broken, it's ethical. That's where I stand. Now, with this particular comment, I'm kind of having a little bit of trouble understanding the ethical argument,

but I'll do my best to address it of what I think they might have meant. But I don't really understand what was unethical, as I don't think the many distressed sellers that I've helped would understand where it's unethical as well. I don't think the buyers of my deals would understand where it was unethical because they certainly win. I don't understand where the private money people that have trusted me and that have invested their money, with me. I mean, they certainly ended up winning. And, you know, let me give you actually a very recent example of how this works. In fact, I'm in the middle of this deal right now. I'm picking up a 14-unit building in Memphis and I'm using none of my own money or credit to do it. You see, I went out

and found the deal through my network. And I put the word out through my network of what I wanted and the deal, it came back to me fairly quickly. So you got to keep networking because that's really important because when you've got a powerful network, you can do stuff like that. Now, the building, it needs a amount of rehab, of which I'm willing to do. And when everything is all set and done, I mean, if I had paid cash for the building, I could probably flip that building for approximately at least 100% profit. I'm thinking that's going to be about 200, maybe even 300% profit. I don't want to go under the realm of ridiculous, even though this is a ridiculous deal. Let's just say it's 100%. However, even though it would generate those type of returns for me, I don't have the cash to buy

the building outright, nor do I have the credit score to qualify for a commercial loan. But having control of the deal and knowing the return, I could then go out and do what I teach. I've got the deal under contract. I know the return. I can now go out and find the money. It's so much easier to do now that I have it under contract. And I did that by using three simple little questions, of which I use pretty much every time I find myself in this situation.

And I'm going to share those with you on the next episode. But to bring this home, I went out and I found the money and this person had the cash sitting in a long-term, very low-yielding investment, I think of 1.5%, 2%. And I'm going to be able to generate five times, six times the return for them than where their money was sitting currently. That's win-win. That's very ethical. Everybody is getting what they want. Nobody is getting hurt. I guess actually what would be unethical is allowing somebody to give you some money to invest

and you make a false promise by not having a deal under contract or not knowing how you're going to generate the type of return. That would be unethical. I mean, that's why I teach what I teach. Because if you have the deal under contract, it's so much easier to find the money. It's so much easier to give your word to things and follow through on your word. and to me that's very ethical that's integrity

that's just wanted to share that with you today of the overall feeling is that you've got to watch your mindset you've got to watch what you're thinking you've got to focus on what you want to have happen not what's happening hopefully that's making sense and not why it can't happen

you got to focus on how it can you know there are thousands of different ways thousands of different approaches to investing in real estate. And most of them probably work. I don't know. I haven't tried them all. I found a couple that work for me. And that's what I'm doing.

It's what I do day in and day out. And that's what I'm sharing with you. So, you know, if what I'm saying resonates with you, come along for the ride. You're more than welcome. And if it doesn't, that's 100% okay with me as well. And if you got comments to share, please share them. send me the emails, comment on the blog, comment on the videos in the free real estate investing course.

I'll address as many as I can. Let me know how I'm doing. If I'm doing a bad job, let me know. If I'm doing a great job, I appreciate those emails too. I get a lot of those, by the way. It's not all bad. Okay? So obviously I'm doing something right.

We've got a couple thousand downloads a day. We're adding new people to the mail list, 10, 15 people to the mail list every single day. So it is resonating with some people. And I'm going to continue to serve those people as long as they ask for it. But if you got something that, hey, Matt, can you talk more a little about this? Can you talk a little bit more about this? Can you elaborate or explain on what you mentioned on the last episode? I welcome those.

Or Matt, just get to the point. Too much chitter chatter. If that's the case, and I'm unaware of that, let me know that as well. I mean, I'm sitting here in my closet talking to a microphone. So if I'm missing the mark, you let me know. Deal? Okay. So that's it for today.

And until next time, as a very wise person once said, think slow. Act fast. To your success, I'm Matt Terrio, living the dream. Thank you for spending this time with Matt Terrio and the epic real estate investing podcast. When you have a moment, stop by iTunes to leave your comments and let us know what you think of the show. And if you haven't done so already, get started investing today by visiting free real estate investing course.com to access Matt's free course, how to do deals, no money required. Until next time. To your success.

To your success. This podcast is a part of the C-suite Radio Network. For more top business podcasts, visit c-sweetradio.com.