Epic Real Estate Investing - EPREI 047 : Single Family or Multi Family, Flip or Hold?

Episode Date: February 12, 2013

Single Family or Multi Family? Which one of these property types is the right investment for you? Once you've decided the right type of property for you, should you flip it or hold it? On this episode Matt answers these questions that have been pulled directly from the Epic Real Estate Investing podcast community, and the answers will surprise you. Before Matt addresses these questions, he's joined by surprise guest Sean Terry of the very popular Ultimate Real Estate Investing podcast. Listen in on their phone conversation where they catch up a bit and talk shop. To get started investing in real estate, go to FreeRealEstateInvestingCourse.com and download Matt's free real estate investing course where he teaches the two easiest and fastest real estate strategies for creating quick cash. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Without further delay. Your guru. Sorry. Your guide to a better life through real estate investing. Matt Terrio. Hey, this is Matt Terrio, the rat race escape artist. And this is episode 47 of the epic real estate investing podcast. Now, I'm just an ordinary guy who changed one thing, one time, and in a very short period,

escaped the rat race forever. And this is the podcast that will show you how to do the very same thing if you want to, of course. And that one thing is really, it's just to stop focusing on making money and start focusing on creating cash flow, creating passive income. And there's really just, there's no better way. There is no better way that I know to do that than through real estate. I mean, it's the easiest. It's the fastest.

and it's the most manageable path to financial independence. Now, don't confuse easiest and fastest with easy and fast. It will definitely take some work, and it will take some time. But it is easier and faster than the alternatives. And personally, I got started from a dead stop without a penny to my name and a credit score that left a lot to be desired. And if you'd like to know exactly how I did get started, I put a free course together just for you to show you how.

And you can access that course at free real estate investing course.com. I now use 12 different strategies of which allow me to transact real estate with very little to no money. And I have yet to use my credit score in a single transaction. Have not used my credit score yet. And that wasn't necessarily by choice. They just won't allow me to use my credit score. And this free course will show you step by step the two easiest. and fastest strategies of the 12.

So you can get started today. You can get started right now. And you can get instant access to that course at free real estate investing course.com. Okay. Now, I haven't recorded an episode in I guess several weeks now. And I made a commitment right at the top of the year to be more consistent. But I've been really sick. As I know it seems everybody I know has been sick.

But I really got the worst of it. I mean, all of my vendors were sick. All of my clients were sick. My whole family was sick. When we got sick several times, we just kept on passing it around. But I really got the worst of it. And, you know, I guess I was sick on and off of for about nine weeks. I literally got nothing done in the month of January.

So I'm very behind. But I'm back. I'm feeling really good. I gave it a whole week of feeling good to make sure that this time I really did feel better. And I'm back and I'm ready to rock. Now, today I've got an unexpected treat for you. On the phone, I've got a good friend of mine. You may know him from his own podcast, the ultimate real estate investing podcast, and I asked him to stop by and share a few words of wisdom and let us in on what he's been up to.

So on the phone, Mr. Sean, welcome back to the epic real estate investing podcast. What up, Matt? How's it going? Things are going really, really good. How are things going over there in your world? On fire. Well, the real estate market is absolutely on fire here. we are cranking out pushing the envelope on all levels when it comes to our marketing channels.

And, you know, it's kicking, man. It's been a huge 2013 so far. It's going to be probably the best year ever. That's awesome. You know, I'm very grateful and blessed to say that we can say the same thing over here. But I've got a question for you. I mean, the real estate, the opportunities that are available right now are just unprecedented and I'm taking full advantage just as you are.

But, you know, I get emails from you all the time and you're staying consistent with your podcast and you're running your academy. I mean, do you have a secret on how you do it all? I do it all. Because I cannot keep up with the podcast. I mean, that's just so much work. And then I've got to write blog posts and all this stuff in between escrows and stuff. It's just how do you do it? Yeah, that's right.

You know, it's amazing is, you know, I was a one-man show for so long. and where I did everything myself, I would, you know, I would, you know, do the marketing, take all the calls, talk to all the sellers, you know, sort through the sellers. And I came really, became really good at figuring out who is motivated and who was not trying to make offers on the phone when, you know, and then going meet and the sellers, getting the contract. So doing the whole real estate thing, you know, on my own. And then I started the podcast and I did that on my own. And I was, you know, recording the shows and doing the editing and, you know, and putting the, you know, just like you do, putting it. together and putting on the blog post and putting it up there and running the academy. So for a long time, it was just me, myself and I, and I was literally working.

I'd wake up at 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning and I was, you know, cranking it out. And, you know, when everybody else was asleep in the house and work all day, you know, and come home, spend some time on the family, then they'd go to bed and I'd be working until, you know, until 11, 12 o'clock at night, you know, putting everything together. So to crank it out. So one thing that I read a book, it was from Michael Masterson, and he talked about, you know, talked about how to scale a business, you know,

when you start from a one-man show and then actually then starting adding people to your organization and systemizing your company, like the E-NIF, you know, if you read that book from Michael Berber, you know, and in creating positions and what those positions would look like and what the task of those positions are. So I started doing that. I started saying, okay, what would an acquisition manager look like? What would the responsibilities be and what would they do?

And then what would a marketing manager look like? What's the responsibility and what would they do? What would a support person, you know, look like and what would the responsibilities do? So I kind of broke all that down and took all that and then started filling those slots. And when you do that, it's amazing how more productive you can be in the stress of having to do everything yourself, kind of vanishes. So, you know, there's a point when you have to make a decision, do I do it all myself or do I start taking on people? And it was a stretch for me because, you know, I've never really done that before. I just figured, in my thinking was, you know, I got to do it myself because I want

to have done right, because I'm a perfectionist, right, like most entrepreneurs. You know, so I had to cross that line and find great people. And I think, you know, at first, you know, at first First when I did it, I tried to find the cheapest people, and that didn't work. So then I said, you know, I'm just going to, I want to find great people. I'm going to pay them incredibly well, and it's worked phenomenal. So now I'm trying to take it from, you know, a four or five person operation to a 10 to 15 person operation, you know, and then just grow it to do more and do more. Wow. You know, you just said something there because I've definitely taken that route.

I've written out my job descriptions. I interview people and I've hired people. But one thing you just said is that you tried to go to the cheap route. You know, I think we've all read the four-hour work week or some heard about it. You know, and I went to the India Virtual Assistance and tried to get my work done for $4 an hour. And I just ended up creating more work for myself. Yeah, I know, because you're just constantly creating task. And then you have to break down the task in such by new details so they get it, you know, so they understand it.

And then there's a communication gap or a time gap. you know, and then it's just not done right and you're going, holy cow, I'm just, you know, I'm spending, you know, why not have highly competent people that are successful that, that love to be employees, they don't want to run the show because they like that security and then hire the best. Right. You know, so. I'm going to revisit that. It's awesome.

You didn't revisit that. Absolutely. The other thing that really soaks up my time, and I don't mind it, but it is very time-consuming, is I just get a ton of emails and I get the questions. And I respond to all of those. Do you have somebody do that or do you do that? No, no. I do too.

I mean, I get inundated from Facebook messages, Facebook, you know, comments to people on Twitter, to, you know, having, you know, email and everything like that. What I've kind of done to manage that is to direct everything to our support desk, you know. So everything goes to a support desk. And Denise right now runs that support. that support desk. Now she gets a ton of tickets from people that are, you know, that are trying to reach out and stuff like that. But, you know, the bottom line is, is, is, and it's difficult, you know, she answers them and tries to answer them the best they can.

But, but I have two different options. One, I could sit behind my email and answer questions all day long from, you know, okay, can I assign a contract in my state? you know, or, or, you know, I get a motivated seller, you know, they owe $60,000, you know, I think it's worth $80,000, what should I do? Or I've done this, I've done, you know, all these, you know, different scenarios from whatever. I could spend all my time all day long answering questions, you know, or I could, you know, go out and pursue what is, you know, is recording and putting together information and doing my real estate business and putting it out there and trying to, I try to gather all the questions

and put them together and then start answering them within the podcast. And I take the commonly asked questions in doing that to be able to provide the content so people can learn from it within the academy within the podcast. Yeah, that seems to work. And I know, you know, some people might get, you know, mad that I don't answer every single email, but it becomes a choice of do I continue with the movement I'm moving on, right? The path of moving on already. If I answer questions all day, I wouldn't be doing real estate deals, and I wouldn't be doing, you know, any podcasts and nothing would get done. So I do have someone that I've hired to do the best they can do, but it is a difficult choice. Right, right.

No, I get that. Yeah. I'm taking notes while you're talking, by the way. And you know what? And I also brought this up for another reason for our listeners, because one of the common questions I get is, you know, how do you juggle, how do you break in to, to, to, real estate and how do you get started when you've got another job or you've got other responsibilities where those are family obligations or you know you're running a business a side business or you got that nine to five so you know managing our time is definitely a skill all

by itself yeah and i think when when you do have a job there is a you know there you have a limited amount of time it might be you have to wake up earlier it might be have to wake up a couple hours earlier before the kids um are awake or the family's awake you you can put in those extra hours to organize your day and to maybe get your squeeze page up for your Google AdWords. And maybe it would be to write yellow letters if you're limited on cash to do it. And then you have lunch time and maybe you can, you know, take a quick lunch instead of taking that long hour lunch like you normally do, maybe take a 20-minute lunch, eat something quick and then get on the phone and start talking to sellers. And then instead of going right home at work and sitting down, crack open a beer and walking TV,

maybe you go to that appointment and talk to the cellar and stuff like that. But I think the thing that has, when it comes to time, is when it comes, especially because you want to break out of that job and go full time, or take your business to the next level, it comes to what is the highest money-making activities that you can do as an entrepreneur that will produce the most amount of results in the shortest period of time. So then you go, okay, well, what is that in real estate? Well, it is, you know, obviously writing contracts and selling properties, right?

Writing contracts, selling property, writing contracts, you know. And then all the other stuff is you have to do. And those are like marketing or setting up your mailing and all that. That can be done at, you know, at 4, 5, 6, 7 o'clock in the morning to setting up that stuff. But making offers and selling properties is what's made money, what makes money in real estate, and all the other stuff can be done on off hours. Right. Right.

Awesome. Speaking of the questions that you get, what is the most common question that you get? It just happens over and over. It's more, well, in real estate, it's more, you know, because real estate is so fluid and there's so many, you know, moving parts in real estate, I think it becomes questions that are like property specific where they're going, okay, like, you know, I live in Nebraska. have a property, I think it's worth $100 and the $080,000. And I think they're motivated in the house needs this amount of work, what's that they do? So I get a ton of those, you know, type of questions. And then there's the pre-questions like, does this even work, you know, a type of thing that, you know,

but if people actually, you know, read your information, like on your site and listen to your podcast or read my book and listen in the pocket, they'll realize that obviously those questions are answered. works, there's proof, you know, there's people all across the country that do this. There are people that become successful. So, you know, aside from does this work question, it becomes now a logistic question on when it, you know, of a tactical question on how to, you know, structure a specific deal. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

So I'm sure you get the same thing. Totally. Totally. And there's just, I have to answer almost every question that I get like that is it, it depends. I mean, there's so many variables and so many moving parts in real estate that just saying, hey, this property is worth $100,000, I think I can get $1,000 for it, and I think the seller's motivated, what should I do? It's like, I need so much more information to even give you a halfway educated answer. Right. And I think the thing, too, is people, and I know it's

for me is that people are afraid to, and they probably know the answer. If they listen to the information, they, you know, listen to the podcast or whatever, they probably know the answer, but they're not confident that they can make the correct decision or analysis to be able to proceed forward. So there's that fine line, is that, you know, do I, do I ask, you know, to the information and, you know, to make myself feel better than I'm confident on the right path, or I just do it and know that if I screw up, oh, well, there are tens of thousands of more leads down my path. You know, and I was, you know, talking earlier, I talked to Eric Thomas, the hip-hop preacher,

who's a viral all over the Internet, and he's a great motivational speaker. And we were talking about the process. You know, there's the process of going from where you are to where you want to be. And everything in between is a process, right? And, you know, let's say for an example, you know, you take the apple tree, right? You know, and you have a big, huge, you know, trunk, you know, and it has, you know, leaves on it, and it's producing fruit. And people look at that apple tree and they go, holy cow, man, I want an apple tree that produces fruit, you know,

and it's incredible, right? Well, they're given a seed, right? So they're given that seed, and now they plant the seed, and there's the process of developing to an apple tree. Now, we all know that if you plant a seed, you're not going to have an apple tree overnight, even though people expect it. People want to have an apple tree overnight.

But it's the person that can water it, that can nurture it, that can put fertilizer on it, that can make sure, the elements don't ruin it, right? Don't protect it and grow it. It will produce fruit, period. It will produce food.

It will produce wealth. It will produce revenue. It will produce, you know, all those things that we want to achieve and want to do. It will produce it. But the bottom line is we have to do the process. And the process is talking to sellers, getting our marketing set up, building our channels, reinvesting back in our marketing. you know, building a buyer's list.

Those are all different things of the process that it will take to go out and become successful, building a rental portfolio, so it does produce, you know, revenue when we sleep. So the problem is people go, okay, they water it, they nurture it, they do whatever, and they either don't see anything or a little sprout comes up, you know, and they go, and they get disappointed because where's my apple tree? I thought I was going to have an apple tree. You told me that, you know, if I planted a seed, then I'm going to have a little bit. have an apple tree. And they don't realize that there's the time gap that it takes to go through

the process to get the result. They will get it. So then what people do is they find out of the time is they go, oh, look at this over here. Look at this apple seed. Or look at this. Wow, this is a pear tree. Holy cow. Oh, you know what? Oh, man, look at that pear tree. So guess what? Someone gives them a seed to a pear tree. And then they turn around and plan it. And then they start doing the process for maybe 30 days. And they don't have a pear tree. And they don't have a pear tree. So guess what? And they don't have a pear tree. So, tree overnight and then someone goes, here's an orange tree. Holy cow, it's the newest shining orange tree. I've never seen an orange tree before.

I've never seen an orange tree. So someone gives a seed and they put it in the ground and they water and do it for a process for 30 days and guess what? Now they have all these things in the ground that they've never really focused their attention on. It never really gets to fruition and then they decide to quit because all this stuff doesn't work. That's my best example.

you've got you've got the best analogy son you've got the great stories absolutely and and I'm saying you know I say it literally you say it the kind of virtually and it's just it's so much easier to understand that way it's awesome you know and I said it the I think I don't know if I said on the podcast or wrote it in a blog post or post on Facebook just kind of what you said if you do what you know what you already know consistently and persistently you'll double your results this year at least right at least everybody knows And that's why I get on with the questions is everybody knows the answer. They know what to do.

They just, I guess what you said, they lack the confidence in actually doing it in the faith. But, you know, you know an apple tree needs water. You know it needs fertilizer. You know it needs to be pruned. You know, you know what it needs the insecticide. Maybe it needs to put the net over it to keep the birds out. Like, everybody knows that. All they do is just do what they know.

Yeah, do what they know. And continue knowing that there's a process. and the results will come, you know, and have confidence that it will turn into an apple tree and have confidence in the process and realize that you might screw up. Things might suck for a little bit. If things might, you know, things might happen, you know, like a windstorm might come and it might knock a leaf off, you know. Oh, my God, I want a leaf off.

where you may talk to a motivated seller, you know, and you thought he had a deal, but now you can't get a hold of them. What do you do? Well, do you just throw up and quit and just dig up the feed, you know, and say this doesn't work? You know, you go in and you persist through it. And see, you know, the conscious is something, but the why behind it is imperative, meaning why are you doing this? Why are you getting up early? Why are you getting up at, you know, six o'clock? Is it because you are sick and tired of living month to month? Are you sick and tired of your boss? Do you sick and tired of being average?

Or do you want to be more? Do you aspire to be more? Do you want to be successful? And, you know, how bad do you want it? What are you willing to do to make it happen? Because if you continue to do what you've always done, you'll continue to get what you've always got, right? So there has to be a pattern interrupt.

There has to be something different that has to happen, and that means increasing energy, increasing effort, increasing that blood, sweat, and tears, and just what all happens. You'll get the result. But you have to know the why. What's your why? What's your drive and why? Because when it does rain and that lease gets knocked off or that seller that you thought was a smoking deal, all of a sudden doesn't call you back anymore. That buyer that glows out right before closing, what's your why? I want your persistence that's going to make it happen.

And I think if you know what that why is, if it's really concrete and solid, then you'll go through the process and go through the ups and downs and eventually get yourself to a massive apple tree that's producing fruit that you really want. Absolutely. And I'm glad you brought that up because I've received, I guess we're talking about emails, but I've received emails and comments. And, you know, you get your unsubscribes here and there and you get the reason. And sometimes I get comments of too much fluff, not enough content, not enough tactics, not enough strategy. And really what you were talking about is the essence of real estate investing because both you and I are good at what we do. We are both good teachers. We can both go out and show someone the business in a half hour or hour.

We could explain it from A to Z. But why they don't get up and go do it every day is the real issue. It's not that it's difficult to fill out a purchase agreement. It's not that it's difficult to talk to a motivated seller. It's not difficult to send out a mailing, but why you don't do it every day, apparently, is the difficult part. Right. And then it becomes down to the cost of success. What are you willing to do?

What is a person willing to do to become successful? And I mean, and if it's do what they've always done, you know, and put the partial energy in and partial effort in and and switch from one thing to another thing to another thing, well, something's going to change because, you know, you can't expect, I mean, that's a definition of insanity, expecting a different result when you're doing the same thing. So. It's amazing on how, I mean, and I think just by being human beings, we're all guilty of it, but it's amazing on how much of a cliche that is and how much we've heard it.

Yeah, I know. how painfully true it is, you know? Yeah, exactly. So gosh, Sean, you're like the busiest guy that I know. You're the hardest working man I know, and now you've added live events to your business. Tell me about your live events. Well, we do what's called Extreme Freedom.

An Extreme Freedom is basically total abundance for the aspiring real estate and festivals. And what we do at those events is take people and break down the process that we're talking about. And what I've taken, what I've done is is taking that process and broke it down in the four phases. And phase one is going from where you are from brand new, not knowing anything about real estate, maybe never buying a house before, never doing a deal. It doesn't matter where you've come from, your background, your black, white, male, female, if you're fat or, you know, scanning if you're ugly or good-looking, whatever.

Whatever you are in your life right now, you can learn how to go out and go from zero to your first check, large check in 45 days or less. And we break down the specifics from how to, you know, find the seller, what to say, how to say it, how to write the contract. We've been contracts on stage, give you contracts, what to say, what to do as examples. We go through the entire process from the marketing to say. setting up your business to actually going out and closing a deal, how to sell your properties in hours, not days, how to negotiate with buyers, what to say and how to do it. So we take you through

the processes to going out and getting a first check. And then in phase two, what we do is we talk about how to now rinse and repeat, how to go out and working around your job to go out and get one year's worth of income in the bank as fast as possible. So if you make $50,000 a year, the goal is to get $50,000 of cash in the bank as fast as possible working around your job. So then you have the option to quit your job. Because I would never tell anybody to quit their job after their first deal because, you know, if you have 50,000 of cash in the bank or one year's worth of income in the bank, then you've

done it. You have a process. You have a relationship. You have buyers in place. You've done multiple deals every single month to get you to that point. And for some people, it might take three months, for some of it might take six months, some of it may kick a year. But the bottom line is you have a goal to get there and a process to get there as well. Then phase three is when you go full time.

Well, now that you have quit your job, and it's that day, that it's an exhilarating day, where you now don't have a job and you work for yourself, well, what has to happen now working for yourself? Now you're an entrepreneur. Now, you know, you don't have a paycheck to count on anymore. Now it's you, you have to count on, the processes you have to do to go out and achieve those results. So what does it take as an entrepreneur now to go out and scale it big, you know, to scale your business and work for yourself? And then the fourth phase is going out from zero to a half a million dollars a year in real estate. and what does it take when it comes to making a half a million dollars a year?

That means you're doing, you know, five, ten, fifteen deals a month, you know, every single month, and you have a team that you're associating with. You have people that you've hired. You have certain marketing channels that you're maxing out, and you have a system that you set up to be able to produce that. Now, once we've covered the four phases, then we get into what's called the triangle effect, And that is the, I believe, probably the most important, you know, thing we cover for the entire weekend. And that is your mental, chronic thoughts, what you think about.

And we all know that there are the processes of everything we do, but then there are the mental thoughts, right? The thoughts that you think produce the results in your life. So there's no way you can follow correct processes and follow everything and think negative thoughts. Think that, you know, I'm broke, right? I don't have enough, right? You know, in worry and have fear and stuff like that. So there's your chronic thoughts. We kind of have to dissect that and get into what are the thoughts of a highly successful person.

And how is that compared to your thoughts, you know, as an attendee of this extreme freedom event? what is the comparison and how can we shift our thoughts to think like a more successful person, thus to attract more in our lives? So then, you know, the next part of the triangle is the law of attraction. How does law of attraction apply in your life to go out and attract abundance and wealth to where you can work less hours but make more money? That's when I talk about going in the flow. If you have a fast-moving river and it's flowing, most people, they believe they have to get, you know, the oars and they have, you know, these oars inside this raft, right?

And they have to work hard and they're going upstream against the grain to try to achieve the results that they believe are at the top of the, top of the stream or the top of the fast-moving river. You know, but I believe that the results are at the bottom of the river, and if you get in the flow of life, things will start lining up to become unexplainable. And once you understand how to get in that flow and what that means in the law of attraction, then amazing things line up in your life are unexplainable. And I always talk about, you know, if you have, you know, two investors in the same market, they're mailing the same letter to the same list, why does one investor get all the deals in the end? other investor does it. And it's because of this triangle effect. And the third one is spiritual laws of success in how that applies in your life. You know, so having, you know, actually, you know, there's three spiritual laws you can

apply in their life that if you apply them, again, you'll line up with the spiritual laws of the universe. You'll also have your mental chronic thoughts and a lot of attraction is where you can achieve supernatural wealth. Wow. Sounds like a well-rounded, comprehensive event. How many days does this takeover? Well, on the 21st, we're doing what's called a money day.

And the money day is where we go through and we go through each individual. And it's limited, I think we only have a couple spots left for that. But it's limited to where we go through each person's individual business specifically and find out where they are and how to get them to the next level, right, in their own specific business. And then general admission in the rest of the public is Friday, the 22nd, through the 24th coming up here in February. So, and then that's where we start.

We have the Barron's Club where people who work closely with me that have achieved unbelievable results. We have them speak about specific things. We have a guy named Philly Mike that's, you know, doing $30,000, $50,000 a month in revenue, talking about the process of how he has, has. E-Nifted his business, which is pretty cool. You know, at a wholesaling, we have Andy Bacon, who's flipped over 300 HUD homes, talks about the science of exactly how he does it in his business.

He also does it across the country virtually. We have Randy who talks about how to build a team of bird dogs correctly and have deals flowing in from you that are for free for bird dogs. So we have a, you know, a good group. My father-in-law actually comes out and talks, and he's great. He talks about Braina Roelix is his company, and he talks about, how to cycle subernetics, which is the art of reprogramming your mind so you can, you know, go in the direction you'd like to go.

It's pretty killer. So, what do we talk about different things? Then we have Eric Thomas that's coming out, who's a hip-hop preacher that is an online, you know, YouTube sensation who has over 10 million views on YouTube. And he is an unbelievable motivational speaker that will, that will bless you. us with a weekend. I'll kill it, man. It's awesome. It's awesome. So that's coming up here just, I don't know, it's like 10 days from now, this month. Yeah, I know. We're cramming, getting all the binders and everything, all the lanyards and everything ready and sitting out letters.

And we're hustling on this side, getting everything ready. We're pumped. Awesome. Where is it? I don't think we mentioned that. Oh, it's Atlanta, Georgia. Mm-hmm. Got it. Yep, at the Crown Pleas. And if you want to learn more about it, you can go to Extreme FreedomLive.com. extreme freedom live.com on there. It has the video of me.

I'll kind of explain the entire process and then everything that we cover along with all the details. Awesome. So, you know, just by the nature of podcast, somebody might be listening to this episode long after your event has passed. Can they get information

on future events there as well? Yeah, or yeah, they can go there. They can go to fliptof freedom.com. And we update events and stuff like that. We don't have an event scheduled after this one. We might, you know, here in the upcoming future. But, you know, but, yeah. So if they're lifting after the point, just go,

either Extreme Freedom Live will have future event information or just flip to Freedom, flip the number two, freedom.com. Cool. Awesome, Sean. Well, thanks for stopping in today. You're always, it's always a pleasure to talk to your wealth of information. if you are intrigued by what Sean is doing, he's got a great program over there, you can check him out on iTunes at the Ultimate Real Estate Investing Podcast.

Did I say that correctly? That's correct. Awesome. Any last words, anything, last bits of information? Well, I've got to tell you, Matt, I really appreciate what you've done in your podcast and your information with the Epic Real Estate Investing podcast and the Doover podcast is awesome. And I've done some great things with that. And I definitely appreciate putting out some phenomenal information.

And I love following what you're doing because you do have a very analytical way of breaking things down to make hard things incredibly easy. And that's what I love about listening to your podcast. Awesome. Thanks, Sean. So it's killer. Fantastic. We'll have an awesome week and we'll check back in with each other soon. Sounds good, man.

Appreciate it. Okay, but take care. I see. Bye. I always like talking to Sean. He's a really good guy and very giving. And like I mentioned, he's the hardest working guy that I know. And, you know, that phone call, it went a little bit longer than I expected, but it's good information.

And in the spirit of the phone conversation, let's take some calls from you and get your questions answered. If you have a question that you'd like for me to answer here on the show, you can call 1-888-891-7203. And leave your question there. My only request is that you be specific and get to the point with your question. If you have two questions, that's okay. Just call twice and leave two messages, all right? And once again, that number is 888-891-7203. And I just gave this number out for the first time on the last episode, and it looks like it was a really good idea.

I've already received several great questions and comments like this one from Thomas in Atlanta, Georgia. Hi, Matt. My name is Thomas Williamson, and I'm calling from Atlanta, Georgia. I wonder to get your input or what you would do if you were in my shoes. If you had $70,000 to $100,000 cash liquid to invest, and you already had nine single-family properties under your control that were cash flowing great, what would you do at this point? Would you go into multifamily or continue buying single-family?

Just trying to get another point of view on which direction to go right now. Love the show. Thanks for your health. So Thomas has $70,000 to $100,000 of cash to invest. He already has nine single-family cash-flowing homes, and he wants to know what he should do next. Should he go single-family or multifamily? Okay, Thomas, thanks for the question.

What I would do next if I were you. Well, let me do that. As I mentioned in the interview with Sean, as the answer to any real estate question begins, it begins with, it depends. It depends on your goals and where you ultimately want to be with your real estate investing. It also depends on where you are in the pursuit of those goals.

And I'm going to make a couple of assumptions here. And forgive me if I'm assuming wrong, but I'm going to make some assumptions based off of what I most commonly hear from my clients and subscribers. I'm going to assume that you are using real estate to create your wealth or financial independence. And I'm going to assume that you aren't where you want to be yet. I'm going to make those assumptions. And I need to make those assumptions because there are two phases to real estate investing. There's phase one where you are building your wealth.

Then there is phase two where you are preserving your wealth. And when building your wealth, you want to get control of as much real estate as possible. And when I say control, I want you to get on title. I want you to be on title. I want you to be the owner of record. I want you to leverage as much as you possibly can. Responsibly, of course, but leverage as much as you can by means of other people's money. And that can be banks.

It can be institutional lenders. It can be hard money lenders. It can be private money. It could be seller financing. It could be the existing financing. Use as much of other people's money as possible to get control of as much real estate as possible. And then once you hit a point where you're satisfied with the cash flow that you're receiving from your real estate, then it's time to start preserving your wealth. Your wealth has been built.

It's been created. Now it's time to start preserving it. you want to start using that cash flow to pay down the debts you leverage to acquire your real estate. Okay? So those are the two phases. And I'm going to assume, Thomas, that you're still building your wealth. Nine cash flowing properties is an awesome accomplishment.

Congrats to you. I mean, you're well on your way. So that's awesome. And your question is whether you should go into single family or multifamily. Again, it depends a bit. I believe in a cash flowing real estate portfolio that has both types of property. I think you should be diversified there. But to make that decision,

on what to do next, I want to make sure that you're clear as to the impact that those two different types of assets will have on your financial statement now and into the future. And what I'm speaking of is how the two different types of properties are evaluated. I mean, single family residences are evaluated based on comparable sales. What did a similar property recently sell for? And that kind of gives you the value of what the new property that your purchasing is going to be. and then multifamily buildings are evaluated based off the building's performance. How much money or profit does it generate? And with single family residents, your return on investment is going to typically be a little less.

However, you typically will have a bigger appreciation upside. With the multifamily, you're going to typically have a bigger ROI, bigger return on your investment, and you're going to have a greater cash flow, but your appreciation is going to primarily come from your multifamily experience. specifically meaning your knowledge of increasing a building's income and reducing your building's expenses. That's what constitutes the building's performance. You've got to increase the income and you've got to reduce your expenses. And that's how multifamily is evaluated.

And the property will appreciate or depreciate and your proportion to the amount of profit that it creates each month. That's the difference between the two. I mean, there's many differences, but that's the main difference that I want to draw your attention to right now. And if you're okay with either scenario, then I'd be keeping my eye. eye open for both types of property. As long as you're cash flowing, I mean, in the current real estate market, I don't think you can make a wrong choice when it comes to property type right now. Either way, you're going to be better for in the long run, as long as it cash flows. What I think is more important than what type of property is that you keep acquiring property and do so by using as little of your own money as possible.

I mean, it's awesome that you have $70,000 to $100,000 to invest. Awesome. But don't let it burn a hole in your pocket. Just because you have it doesn't mean you have to use it. I mean, to some degree, it might be a safer play to hold on to as much of it as you can and use it to manage the properties that you do acquire, the properties that you do get control of. That's how I think. So who's money to use, right?

Well, the cheapest money available today will be through the banks. I mean, if you have what's necessary to qualify for bank lending, I recommend getting as much money from banks as you possibly can right now. I mean, you're not going to beat the 3 to 5% that's available right now. I mean, even a 6% to 8% rate is awesome. I'd take it if the bank offered that to me. And I'd take as much of it as they would give me. You can do some significant building of your portfolio

with those rates in today's market. All right. Now, if that's not an option, you know, if another bank loan or your first bank loan is not an option for you right now, start looking for seller finance deals. You know, just before I started recording the show, I went to Craigslist Real Estate section in Atlanta

and typed in seller financing in the search box, and a bunch of properties came up that are offering seller financing. I'm in escrow on an eight-unit building in Memphis this way right now. I got the seller to carry back 75%. Now, through Craigslist, you're going to have to go through some crap. There's a lot of crap on there. I know it.

But if you go through it, you will find a deal. It's just like any other source. You may need to look for a minute, but they are there. Look for seller financing. Also, Thomas, ask the realtors that you know. It's actually my favorite question to ask realtors. Do you know of any listings of which the seller is willing to owner finance? Or do you know any listings that were the seller is willing to carry back?

Put the word out there to your realtors, to your network. and let them know that you're looking for owner-financed deals. That's the second place, Craigslist and through your realtors. Another place to look. Who do you know amongst your family and your friends and your associates that are dissatisfied with the current returns on their money? Who do you know that is unhappy with the type of returns that they're receiving on their money? Would they be open to a 6%, 8% or 10% return on their money? Secured by real estate?

as long as there's a little bit of equity in the building, I mean, I personally don't think there's a safer place for them to put their money. It might take some education on your part, some educating, and let them know why it's more secure there. But, I mean, 8% returns secured by real estate with equity, passive investors should jump at that all day long. And if they don't, they just don't understand it. Another place for you to look, Thomas, is what assets do you have that are underperforming,

your own assets? Do you have an old 401K or an old IRA? Do you have some gold or silver laying around? Do you have some jet skis that you haven't used in a while? Anything of value around the house that you're no longer using that you could liquidate and put to work? Look for that. Look at all of those areas before considering using your own money. Specifically, that $75,000 to $100,000 that you mentioned.

I want you to use that last. So look at all of those areas before considering using your own money. You've got banks, if you're credit worthy. You've got private sellers for seller financing. search Craigslist, ask your realtors. You've got private money amongst your family, friends, and associates, and you've got your own underperforming assets. Or even your liabilities that may have some equity, like that fishing boat that you use once

or twice a year and you're still making payments on it. Sell it. Okay, just get rid of it. Get your money out and rent a boat twice a year. Take that money and put it to work for you. And then once it's working, then you can use that money to either rent or buy a boat. But right now, if it's a liability, if it's costing you money, get rid of it. it.

Whatever money you can get out of that and go put that money to work. And then the money that that generates, then use that to buy or rent your boat. And the one thing that so many people overlook, especially people with money. People without money don't have a choice to use this. They have to use this. But people with money, they don't use it nearly enough. And that is to negotiate. Use your knowledge and experience it and negotiate.

It doesn't matter how much or how little, but always negotiate and negotiate everything. and here's where it gets really fun. Use a combination of everything that I've mentioned. Find a seller willing to carry back 70%. Negotiate like the shrewd and educated investor that you are and get them to carry back 80% instead of 70% and then borrow 20% from mom's CD that's paying her, I don't know, 0.8%. Give mom 6% for that.

And now you've got 100% financing and everybody wins. There you go. I mean, you've got control of another property in your portfolio that's cash flowing and you still have your $70,000 in the bank. That's how I look at it. That's what I would do. Now, with that $70,000, you know, maybe you go and you use a couple grand to spruce the property up a bit.

Make some minor repairs and put another $3,000 in a separate bank account for incidentals and emergencies. I mean, you're out of pocket in that scenario of maybe $5,000, and you're sleeping well at night. You're sleeping peacefully and you've got ownership of another property. Then tomorrow, just go do it again. So to answer your question, Thomas, I got a little off track, but you did ask what would I do.

And how I think about my investing has a lot to do with what I would do. And that's how I answered your question. And that's how I think about building my own portfolio. So to answer your question, I don't think it matters too much whether you invest your money in single-family residences or multifamilies. As much as it matters that you keep on investing and acquiring and keep your eye on your returns and use as much of other people's money as possible. And although using other people's money,

is one of the great things about building wealth with real estate. There's another element at play here to use as much of other people's money as possible. You see, we currently have a window of opportunity right now. I don't know how long it's going to stay open, but that window is in many, many parts of the country. You can purchase real estate below replacement costs. And that goes for both single-family residents and definitely multifamily. You want to acquire as much real estate below replacement costs as possible

and make sure that it cash flows. that should be your big focus and you want to get control of as much of that as you can using as much of other people's money as possible responsibly of course and I always have to say that because I know there are people out there that are staunchly against leverage and astoundingly against debt.

I'm speaking of responsible leverage because once that window closes, once this window of opportunity across the nation closes and you can no longer afford or you can no longer purchase property for below replacement costs once that window closes, it's going to be much easier for you to manage the leverage and manage the financing that you've created on all of your properties than it will be to go out and find more good deals.

That makes sense? And if you don't have enough property in your portfolio, it's going to be significantly more difficult when the market bounces back to find the deals to control. So, when the market does come back, and with this strategy I just outlined for you, keep your eye on building starts. It's going to be a big indicator for you. and be careful on how the media is is messing with the numbers. You know, right here in Southern California, I think a couple months ago,

they had announced that building starts were up 18%. And of course, I mean, that's what I'm looking for, because once they start building, since I purchased all my property below replacement costs, that means my properties are going to appreciate because builders would not be building unless they could make a profit. But just a little bit more investigation, that 18% increase in building starts here in, I believe it was Riverside, only represented eight houses,

eight houses a month. So 18% increase sounds awesome. But when you look at where building actually is right now, it only represented eight additional houses. So watch how the media skews those percentages and skews the numbers. So building starts, that's going to be a big indicator for you. And when you see building starts or when you see builders to start building again, that's when you know, hey, this is real now.

They've done all their research. Let's piggyback on their research and the money that they spent in their market research. And that's a good indicator as when the market might be closing. And that might be happening in different times and different places in the area. So pay attention to your area and where you are investing and where you're putting your money. And like I said, that that's really important because when they start building, they'll have to pay the market rate for lumber. They'll have to pay the market rate for nails and for copper and for appliances and for shingles and for cement.

All the stuff that goes into building a property, everything that it takes to build a house. So when they're ready to sell, they have to sell for a profit, right? When they're able to do that, it means that your property or the properties that you purchase below replacement costs are going to shoot up to meet the billers new sales prices. And for someone like Thomas, who has nine properties, I don't know how long he's owned them or where they are, but let's assume he purchased them all within the last four to five years in Atlanta. he most likely made those purchases well below replacement costs. And when builders start to build and sell, that's a significant appreciation that Thomas will experience times nine. Got it?

You get that appreciation on each property. And when is that going to happen? I have no idea. But as long as you're cash flowing in the meantime, who cares? Right? You're cash flowing. But what if it doesn't happen? Maybe someone's saying that.

Or what if the market goes the other direction, right? We've always got the what ifs. What if people stop preferring a roof over their head and want to live outdoors? Hey, if the market goes the other direction, it means we've got bigger fish to fry than managing our real estate portfolios. I don't see shelter anytime soon going out of style. If the market goes the other direction, it's either the end of the world or you come out of this stinking wealthy.

That's your option. and I'm going to bet that the world won't end while I'm alive. But hey, that's just me. Call me an optimist. I don't know. Call me silly. Seriously, whether the economy implodes or the economy bounces back. If you're controlling real estate, you're coming out on top.

And the more that you're controlling, the more on top you'll be. So I hope that answers your question, Thomas. I'm excited for you, bud. You're in a good position. And in your market, Atlanta, I think you can do some serious damage there, some serious portfolio building with what you have to work with and some serious wealth creating. You've got financial independence is right there. That light at the end of the tunnel is very close for you.

You've got a great start and you've got plenty of opportunity. You've got a great market there and you've got some solid resources at your disposal. So, congrats to you, partner, and thank you for the question. Let's go ahead and just close with another listener question. And this question comes from Jordan out of Toronto. Hey, Matt. My name is Jordan. I'm from Toronto, Canada.

And I've got to say, I'm a big fan of your show. I listen to it. Every week, I listen to every episode. And I really love your show and the information that you provide. I think the information you provide is not only educational and moving. It's very generous of you, too. And I really think it's great. I love listening to it.

But here's my confusion. Here's my question. And you just touched base on this at the beginning of your podcast series, and you've spoken about it more recently, but I want you to go more in detail about this issue, and that is when we talk about real estate investing, and this is the Real Estate Investing podcast. My question is, is wholesaling or is fixed and slipping

really a way of investing, or is it a way of creating a job to real estate? I mean, when I think of investing, I think of putting your money to use and getting returns over time. So personally, I already invest in real estate. I just one rental property before I listen to your show and another one as I started listening to it. And my question for you is, as a real estate investor, one that wants to get out of the rat race

and on my way to financial freedom, the long-term strategy is investing for cash flow, as you've spoken about before. My question is, you know, you talk about how to get money, if you have no money, how to get money needed for down payments, how to find deals, which is also obviously a very important tool for investing for cash flow. my question is how do you get financing

if you don't have any credit if you're investing for cash flow you can have money lenders you can have a buyer's list you can have people who want to invest with you but unless you're getting financing through a bank at the low interest rates that

today's market is charging getting private money through private investors to help finance deals is simply just to have and will crush your profits in a cash flow investment. So my question is, what do you suggest, how do you suggest you obtain financing for cash flow deals? And if you can talk a little bit more about cash flow, I'd really appreciate it. Thank you. First, thanks, Jordan, for the nice words about the show.

And thank you for the great question. Actually, there were two questions in there, I think. The first one is wholesaling and fixing and flipping. is that really a way of investing? Or is it just a way of creating a job through real estate? Well, you're on the right track, Jordan. It really isn't a way of investing. It is definitely a job.

As I like to say, you can make a ton of money and get very rich by flipping houses, but the true investing of which makes you wealthy is by holding properties and receiving the cash flow and receiving the equity buildup and the tax benefits. That's investing. And an educated investor, holding properties can beat any market return all day long in any market.

That's why real estate rocks. You simply have control over your investment. Yes, you have to take an active role in your investing, but wouldn't you rather control your money as opposed to sending your money off to somebody else with the hopes that they do the right thing with it? So yes, the long-term strategy is cash flow. It's equity buildup and its tax deductions. And don't underestimate the tax deductions, by the way, because they are significant.

Now, I and other cashful investors, as we're looking for deals, we come across deals that don't always make sense at the time. So we choose to wholesale or fix and flip the property to generate some cash, to then take that cash and put it aside for the next deal that does make sense and fits the long-term goal of creating cash flow. Does that make sense? So fixing and flipping wholesaling is somewhat of a means to the end. So you're out looking for deals, which you mentioned is an important. skill and I would feel very comfortable in saying that the skill of finding deals is more valuable than having money to invest, by the way. So keep on honing that deal finding skill. As the better you get at it, the easier the money will be to find. And you'll either find money by flipping your deals

or you'll find money through private lenders that want to be a part of your deals. That's my strategy almost exclusively. And that's a primary focus of my instruction inside the Epic Pro Academy. Flip properties to raise cash and then use that to create cash flow. That focus has worked very well for me, and it got me out of the rat race in under four years, about three and a half or so. So to answer your second question,

where do you find the money to finance your buy and holds? Well, that's kind of been answered in the previous question from Thomas. Now, I knew I would be answering your question on the show. So I visited Craigslist in Canada, and I found seller financing deals there too. I've never invested in Canada. I don't know if that's where you own your properties or not, But I do know that Canada has a bunch of different terminology for the U.S. terminology counterparts.

I mean, they just use different words for the same things that we hear. So sometimes it can be a little bit confusing, or at least it has been for me. And I'm sure the laws aren't exactly the same there either. So you'll want to check that out. Let your realtors know that you're looking for seller financed opportunities. And your question about private money, I saved this for last to address. Your comment that private money is too expensive and will crush your profits. With all due respect, not true.

Not true at all. Sure, private money will likely cost you more than bank money. Absolutely, especially in today's market. But if it does, it really depends on what types of deals you're finding. And here we are again, that deal finding skill is much more valuable. And I'll give you two examples. My 14-unit building in Memphis, I'm paying, I believe, 10% interest-only payments to a private lender who gave 100% financing on the deal. I believe I gave the private lender a 15% equity position as deferred interest on the back end for when I sell or refinance the property.

But here's the thing. Even after paying out 10%, I can still cash flow right around $1,000 each month. And that private money didn't crush my profits at all, did it? No, I paying 10% didn't crush my profits at all. I'm making $1,000 a month. And even if I borrowed it at 11, 12, or 13%, I would still profit. I haven't done the math on this, but what if I gave my private money lender 15%. I'm pretty sure I could still cash flow. And even then, my return on investment would be infinite, an infinite ROI, as I didn't put any money in the deal.

And that's why I take the position that finding deals is the more valuable part of the whole real estate equation. Second example, I'm in escrow on a new eight-unit building in Memphis. I mentioned that earlier. I got the seller to carry back 75%. And I got a private money loan for the other 25%. I have no money in the deal. So my return again is infinite. But my private money lender, get this.

My private money lender is receiving a 28% return on the 25% that they put into the deal with me. So when you get good at finding deals, and the only way to get good at it is to keep doing it. And when you get your deals under contract, you can then run the numbers and see how, much you can afford to pay out to a private lender. Be really careful of blanket statements in real estate, such as private money is too expensive and will crush your profits. There are no

universal one-size-fits-all answers in real estate investing. It's why you'll almost always hear me begin my answer with, it depends. It always depends. There's just too many variables involved. I mean, hopefully that's making sense to you. So let's get back to your second question. Where do you find the money for your hold investing, your cash flow investing? Well, I like to look at the seller first for money. I then like to look at private money. I then like to look at any underperforming assets of my own that I may be able to sell or borrow against.

And then I look to negotiate as much as possible. If I can negotiate just 1% off an interest rate of seller financing or a private loan of $100,000, that's $83 a month that I don't have to go find. That's $1,000 a year. Just 1%. And I know $83 doesn't sound like much. but how much would you have to put in a bank account, an interest-earning bank account at today's rate to generate $83 a month?

Somewhere in the ballpark between $10,000 to $15,000. So negotiating 1% down on a loan is a big deal on just $100,000 property. It's equivalent to a $15,000 deduction out of your bank account. And that's just 1% for one property. Not a difficult thing to negotiate. But then you multiply that over $9,000. properties like Thomas has, that's $1,000 a month profit. That's equivalent to having $100,000 in the bank.

So negotiate everything. Even negotiating the small things, as I just demonstrated, are big things in the long run. All right? So thank you, Jordan. Thank you, Thomas, for the awesome questions. I got to touch on some really important points of real estate that I might not have otherwise ever touched on in this show, or at least not touched on them in this manner, in this context.

So good stuff. I'm pumped. By the way, Thomas or Jordan, if I didn't answer your question to your satisfaction or if I sparked new questions, please feel free to call back again and ask again. There are no limits to your questions. Cool? So that's it for today and we'll get to another coaching client interview on the next episode, along with more of your questions. And if you have a question, comment, or concern, please share them with me at 1-888-891-7203. And if you enjoy the show, it would be a great favor to me if you stop by iTunes and just left me a rate.

and a review. That helps me out in the search results and it allows more people to find the show and allows me to help more people. So thank you very much for your time today. I know there are a lot of things that you could be doing and you chose to spend this time with me. And I don't take that lightly. We're all busy people and I have the utmost respect for you and your time. So again, thank you. And until next time, as a very wise person once said, Warren Buffett specifically, only buy something that you'd be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years. and I'll add my two cents to that. Make sure it cash flows while you're holding it.

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.