Epic Real Estate Investing - EPREI 051 : How to Find Deals that Attract Money to You

Episode Date: April 1, 2013

As Matt always says to people struggling to find money for their real estate deals, "Find the deal first and the money will find you." Last episode (#50), Matt went into great detail as to what he means by this statement. After the episode was complete, he realized he forgot to mention where to go when you do find a deal so that the money can easily find you. Matt clears that up, and he also shares how to find the types of deals that money is actually looking for. Essentially, how do you attract money to you and your deals? Matt answers that question, too. It's another "can't miss" episode of the Epic Real Estate Investing podcast. Download Matt's free course at FreeRealEstateInvestingCourse.com 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 episode 51 of the epic real estate investing podcast. My name is Matt Terrio, the rat race escape artist. And I started this podcast to show you how to get out of the rat race using real estate.

You know, each week I share something new, whether it's a tip or a strategy or an interview to help you escape the rat race once and for all. And, you know, when it's all going to really start to make sense for you, when it starts to make sense, it's going to be because you've removed your focus from making and saving money. And you've started focusing on creating cash flow. It can be that simple. Well, actually, it is that simple. It's this shift in mindset that will begin to connect the dots for you. And I escaped the rat race in just less than four years. And since I already made all the mistakes,

I don't see why you have to make those and why you can't do it even faster. I created a very simple, easy-to-follow course for you, without the mistakes, of course, to show you exactly what I did that worked. And you can download that free course at free real estate investing course.com. Free real estate investing course.com. Okay, so I just got back from Memphis and St. Louis. at a week-long trip, went back and forth between both cities,

and I've got those two markets locked in. I've got them running very smoothly. And in those two markets, I'm buying as much income property as I possibly can. And so are my clients. You know, we're able to pretty consistently produce double-digit returns on the income property there. And get this, we're producing double-digit returns with no debt. You know, in most markets, you've got to use leverage to get double-digit returns.

And that's one reason why I love these two markets. Well, there's actually many reasons, but none of it would really make sense. I wouldn't be able to do this and none of this would work unless I had two outstanding rehab and property management teams on the ground in each market. I got two teams in each market. And I'm going to talk a little bit more in the future about property management and running that type of operation. So, you know, you eliminate a lot of risk when you do that. And I'll explain why more in the future. But, you know, that's why I travel there several times a year to keep the teams in.

shape. And if you'd like more information on how you two can start enjoying double-digit returns in your investment portfolio, go to cashflow savvy.com. Cashflow savvy.com and download our free investor package. You know, all the deals or the, um, all the details are in there. And now that I'm thinking about it, I would really like to thank Brad Donnelly in St. Louis for helping me put my St. Louis teams together. He's been a huge help. Brad is a podcast listener that I was able to connect with. And he's been just an extraordinary help to me. And he's now working with me as my property or my project manager on the ground.

Not my property manager. He's working as my project manager on the ground. He's helped me keep everything over there working really smoothly. And I'm looking to open up a few more markets in the next few months. So if you live in Kansas City, Missouri, or if you live in Cincinnati, Ohio, or in Indianapolis or Evansville, Indiana, if you live in one of those markets, or, you know, the other one is in the Chicago area,

and you'd like to interview for my project manager positions in those markets, go ahead and send me an email to Matt at Epic Real Estate.com. Matt at Epic Real Estate.com. Those markets, again, are Kansas City, Missouri, Cincinnati, Ohio, Indianapolis, Indiana, Evansville, Indiana, and the Chicago area. and the surrounding areas of those markets. You don't have to actually be in Cincinnati proper. I'm picking up a bunch of properties in Middleton, Ohio,

which is just outside of Cincinnati. So the surrounding areas count as well. And if you'd like to interview for my project manager positions in those markets, go ahead and send me an email to mat at epic real estate.com. Okay? So moving on. I just received a call on the Epic Real Estate Investing Hotline from Josh. Hey, man.

My name is Josh. I've looked at all your podcast. I'm a big fan. And still working on my first deal with some friends. And when I'm in trouble, it seems like everyone else is real fit's gone crazy right now. And, you know, you can't really, things are hitting the MLS and they're gone the next day. At the same day, people are getting under contract. And we started the yellow letters.

And still far I haven't done enough of your result. But I was just wondering what you take on the market was and, you know, how to, what to do now that there's so many other people, you know, grabbing the deal, or how to speed out basically, how to go faster because it seems like everyone else is so much faster than us. All right, thanks a lot. Keep up all the good work. Love your show. Josh, you're right.

Investors are moving and snatching up everything that they can right now. And I'm finding that this is the truth in many parts of the country. I mean, even in the Midwest and my southern markets. and based off of your area code, you're calling from 310 here in Southern California. Just so you know, Josh, you are in one of the more, if not the most competitive markets in the country right now. And shopping off the multiple listing service is going to be probably the most competitive place to shop. And when you have a lot of competition, you know what that does to prices. When that competition, it creates demand.

And when that demand goes up, so do prices. So the multiple listing service, although a place where, you know, deals can be found, you will find deals there. It's not the place you want to base your business off of, especially right now. You know, getting deals directly from sellers before they hit the MLS is vital to an investor's business today, especially if that investor is just getting started. And don't let that discourage you, though. You know, I've got two coaching clients, Josh, in in Southern California that are getting deals done from their direct to seller marketing.

And I point that out to demonstrate that regardless of, you know, how competitive a market may appear on the surface, there are an abundance of deals out there if you're looking in the right places. You know, life happens to people every single day and it causes a disruption in their peace of mind and sellers will exchange equity for peace of mind all day long and that happens every single day. So don't get discouraged. You just need to shift your focus a little bit. You can still look at the multiple listing service, but you're going to have to go direct to the seller and find your deals there before they hit the MLS because there's no competition there. You don't have to compete and the prices don't go way up.

Okay? And we're going to get more into that today. But before we do, you know, Josh actually called back in to clarify his question a bit. Hey, man. This is Josh again. I realize my question was a little bit too vague. Here's actually what I was trying to ask. If you get to see now, it's hard to find people who need to sell because everyone who even wants to sell, can just call a realtor and sell their house right away and people are gobbling them up the same day they go on, you know, than L.S. So having a hard time

finding people need to sell. Would you either recommend A you start going after more expensive homes because that's the next market where people probably there might be people there who need to sell

because it seems like the cheaper homes are the ones that we've been looking at so far like in Southern California the $3 to $400,000 range should we go to the $6,000 to $800,000 range?

Or should we try to catch people earlier in the process like going on reality track? I can see as soon as they get the nose to default and stuff like that. Or see, is there something else that you can see in order for us to find people who need to sell? It seems like in the market, people don't really need to sell right now. So anyway, thanks again, and hopefully I'll be hearing other podcasts for me soon.

Keep it up, man. Really appreciate it. Okay, great timing for this question, Josh. as it is the very subject I had it intended to cover on today's episode anyway. So I'm going to answer your question very, very thoroughly. You know, the last episode I left you with how to find the money, or maybe more specifically the psychology of how to find the money for your deals. I mean, you first find the deals and the money will find you.

And I can imagine that you might still be scratching your head a little bit after that last episode. And, you know, I get it. I understand. if you've never experienced this phenomena before, it's going to take a little faith the first time to go out and find a deal to analyze it and put that deal under contract without knowing where the money is actually going to come from. It can be a little scary and a high level of uncertainty there in the beginning. But just trust me on this.

I mean, it's going to almost appear as magic the first time it happens. And you'll be like, oh, okay, this is what Matt was talking about. Hey, if I'm wrong, hey, you simply can. cancel the contract and go find another deal and repeat the process. There's absolutely no risk for you in conducting your business this way. And if there's no risk, there's nothing to fear. Just do it. It will work for you this way far more times than it will trying to find the money first. And not only will it work way more often, your profit margins will be much bigger also. So just do it. And if you have no idea what I'm talking about, make sure you go back and listen to

episode 50. Okay. Go back and listen to episode 50. It's a really, really important episode. And we're going to continue on that today. Because, you know, one thing I did fail to mention last episode was, how does the money know where to find you once you do have a deal? You know, the whole philosophy is find the deals and the money will find you.

So what I didn't really address was how does the money know where to find you once you actually have your deal? So let's answer that. As I've said several times in the past and I'm probably not the first person you heard it from real estate it's a people business every piece of real estate you buy or sell is going to be from or to another person so you need to interact with people if you don't want to interact with people this is not the business for you actually business is not the business for you period because business is specifically real estate and the nice thing about real estate is everybody

that you come in contact with knows what real estate is i mean they either own or rent at least one piece of real estate right if they have shelter over their head they either own that piece of shelter or they rent that piece of shelter. Everybody knows what real estate is. And so everybody that you know and everybody you have yet to meet that you don't know yet, they're all potential contacts for your real estate investing business. Keep that in mind. Keep that in mind.

But, you know, where you'll find the greatest concentration of like-minded people that can either help you or you can help them are at real estate investor meetings. You're going to need to go there. You're going to need to attend these. I mean, once you have found your deal, these are good places to be for that money to find you. So this is where you're putting yourself in the way of opportunity. This is a good place for that money to find you if you found the deal first. And I recommend, and in fact, I strongly recommend that you don't wait to find a deal prior to making your first appearance at one of these meetings.

The more familiar your face, the more familiar your name, and the better your reputation, among the people at these meetings, the quicker and easier the money will find you. But even if you're brand new, even if you are brand new, and you have a good deal, the money can and still often will find you here. So how do you find these meetings?

Good question. I'll give you a couple places to look. They're actually not difficult to look at all. I mean, if you just wanted to find one, I know each and every one of you have the capabilities to go find a real estate investor meeting, but I'll give you a couple places to look. first go to meetup.com, M-E-E-E-E-T-U-P dot com.

Meetup.com. And when you create your account there, it's totally free. It's essentially social networking, but you go there to congregate and meet each other, but then you actually do meet each other offline. You get to meet the people there face-to-face at these meetings. And just type in real estate investor or real estate investing or real estate into the search criteria and all of the meetings that are associated or affiliated or cover the subject matter of real estate are going to come up. And you're going to see schedules and you're going to see all the people that are there.

You can pick and choose which meetings you want to attend. So meetup.com. That's a great place. Second, go to google.com. We all know what Google is, right? And enter your city. So if you're in, you know, Lincoln, Nebraska, enter Lincoln, Nebraska. And then follow it with REI Club or REI Associated.

that stands for Real Estate Investor Club or Real Estate Investor Association. So whatever city you're in, if you're in, you know, Sacramento, California, type in Sacramento, California, R-E-I Club. And you're going to get a list of everything that's available in the vicinity of where you live. And let's see. Third, go to national r-reia.com. National r-e-I-A.com. It stands for National Real Estate Investor Association.

and there you'll be able to go and see the network of all of these different clubs. And I think right there, all you have to do is just type in your city and it'll spit out, which clubs in your area are affiliated with the national REIA. Okay? So of those three places, you should find a number of meetings that you can attend. And I want you to put them on your calendar and make it a point to attend them regularly. Remember, it's a people business. You've got to know people to make your business work.

And the more people you know, the more people you know, the more people. that know you and the better you know each other, the more options you're going to have when it's time to find the money for your deal, when it's time for the money to find you once you found your deal. I can't stress how important this is. And you know, and if you live in a small town, because I know a lot of you do, because you send me, you send me emails and you ask me questions about, hey, there's only 5,000 people in my small town. How do I do this? If you can't find a local REI meeting, look for one in the next closest city. I mean, if you have to drive an hour or two a month to attend your meeting, oh, well, I mean, that's just what you have to do.

Or another option, start your own meeting. There's another option. Start your own meeting. I did that here in Los Angeles. You know, being the leader or founder or an authority figure of your REI group, that cannot be ignored. You cannot underestimate that. You know, money flows up in this industry. So starting your own group or making your presence known as a leader in your existing group

is an excellent strategy to attract money for your deals. It's a great way to make it very easy for the money to find you once you've found your deals. So if you don't have people within your family, friends or associates that can potentially be your money partner, start attending your REI meetings, meet people and create relationships. And don't wait to do it. You need to start doing that right now, whether you have a deal or not. relationships, they take time. So don't wait until you have a deal to go start building relationships.

It's a lot easier if you have those relationships in advance. So start doing that now. Okay, so we've got the psychology now. First, find the deal. Second, the money will find you, right? And then now we know where the money is likely to find us once we do have the deal. And if you're with me on those two points, if you get it, let's go over how do you find, the deal. How do you find a real deal? The type of deal that attracts money to you. Keep saying

that the money's going to find you, but you need to find the right type of deal so that money does find you. So to find good deals, you need leads. You need lots of leads. The quality of your leads is in the quantity of those leads, meaning you need lots of leads. And you need to become a lead generating machine. Just like Nathan and just like Alan that I interviewed a few episodes back. You need multiple systems in place that generate leads for you. Got to have a lot of leads. Now, in your real estate investing career, you're going to go through two phases.

You're going to go through two phases. Phase one is where you have to go out and find your leads. You have to go out and generate your leads and you have to go out and find those deals. That's phase one. You have to go do the work and you have to go seek them out. phase two is where those leads will find you they'll start coming to you those deals will start coming to you i mean phase two is where this business gets fun this is where it starts to get enjoyable and a little less less stressful for example you know i received a a phone call last week

where a distressed investor owner of 40 income properties they called me and asked me if i wanted them that's a good phone call to get right they just called me and said i know you you're investing in the area and I've got these 40 deals. I'm ready to retire. I'm getting a little too old to manage them. Would you like them? I said, yes. And then, you know, a few days later, another distressed investor called me and asked if I wanted

to purchase 17 properties from him. So that's 57 deals in a week that came to me, that found me. And they found me because I really busted my butt. in phase one and made it known that I do deals. So now people with deals that want to get them done, they're going to call you that you that should bust in your butt in phase one. They're going to call you to see if you can take them off your hands because you've built the reputation.

You've created some great relationships. And that all happens during phase one. So you've got to go through phase one. And if your business isn't there yet, don't worry. You will get there. And it doesn't have to take very long either. You see, the harder you work in that first phase where you have to go out and you have to go out and find your leads, you got to create your deals, the harder you work doing that, the faster you'll get to the second phase where those deals are finding you, where they're calling you up on the phone and saying, please buy me. The harder you work in phase one, the faster you'll get to phase two.

And with that being said, let's focus on phase one. That's you finding deals. and to find deals, you must generate leads. And there are two ways to generate leads. You can either hunt for them or you can fish for them. Hunting for leads consists of cold calling. It consists of knocking on doors. It's where you are initiating the contact.

All right. So that's hunting for leads. Fishing for leads. It consists of marketing and advertising. Depending on your personality, depending on your skill sets, and depending on how fast you need to succeed, you decide on one or the other. You can hunt or you can fish.

Or you can do both like Allen and Seattle or Brad and St. Louis. I mean, these two guys are doing lots of deals because they do lots of lead generation. They're out there hunting and they are out there fishing. And like I said, you can get to that phase two. It's just as fast. It's in direct correlation to how hard you work in phase one. So let's go here. Let's establish a lead.

What is a lead? Well, a lead is first and foremost, someone that owns real estate or controls real estate. That's a lead. They've got to own it or have control of it if they're going to sell it to you. Makes sense, right? Second, you want the owner of real estate

that needs to sell their piece or pieces of real estate. That's what you're looking for. You're looking for the owner of real estate that needs to sell. their real estate. And this is what Joshua was referring to inside of his question. How do I find people that need to sell? So while running your lead generation systems, you're going to encounter a lot of owners that want to sell. That's the other person. There's a lot of owners

out there that want to sell, but you really want to focus on the owners that need to sell. Always remember this. Just because an owner wants to sell you their property doesn't mean it's a deal, nor them wanting to sell you their property constitute enough reason for you to actually buy it. I mean, I'm sure this makes sense to you on the surface. It sounds logical. But I got to mention this because when you're sifting through and sorting a bunch of leads, most of which will be either unreasonable wackos that want more than market value for their property, or there'll be lonely distressed souls that are in so much trouble,

that they couldn't sell you their property even if they wanted to. You know, after going through a bunch of those types of leads and each and every one of you are going to go through it. If you want to get through phase one, you're going to go through all those types of leads. And when you finally get someone on the line that's seemingly normal and they want to sell you their property, it doesn't mean that you should buy it. You know, as for them wanting to sell you their property doesn't mean it's a deal. But after you've talked to so many of them.

people that seem unreasonable and so many people that that that couldn't sell if they wanted to that one person that that you get a hold of that actually wants to sell you and is actually cooperating they're answering your questions and and they're entertaining your offer that doesn't make it a deal and it can be very refreshing in and um what's the word i'm looking for you can feel have this feeling of aha i finally did it i finally found someone but maybe you didn't Just because they're in a sharp contrast to everybody else that you've been dealing with doesn't mean that what they're selling you is actually good for you to buy. So be careful of that. It can be just a little bit of a trap in the sense that you think you got a deal.

You got it under contract. And then you know what? You go to your REI meeting and you find out that nobody wants it. And then you're left thinking that this real estate thing, it doesn't work. Don't fall into that trap of thinking that. I mean, of course real estate investing works, right? course it does. There are only three reasons you won't be able to find the money for your deal. There are only three reasons. One, lack of exposure. You just didn't share it with enough people.

Lack of exposure. But conversely, on the other side of that is if it's a real deal, it doesn't take too much exposure to find the money anyway. But you have to, lack of exposure would be one. Two, it's not a deal. It's just not a deal. And I find that this is the most common reason. that the money won't find you. Just because you have a property under contract, even if it's at a discount, even if it's at a discount, doesn't make it a real deal.

And the third reason is you just didn't present your deal properly to your potential buyers. But I find that that's rarely the case. The most often it's just not a deal. It's not the deal that you think it is. Those are the types of properties that you get under contract from people that want to sell.

So you're going to get stuff under contract from people that want to sell, you're going to feel like it's a deal because it might be discounted a little bit. But when you go share it with other investors or whoever you're going to wholesale it to, they might not see it that way. But you saw it that way just because,

you know, you finally got something under contract. So steer clear of the want-to-sell owners and focus on the need-to-sell owners. That's where the deals are. Need-to-sell owners. And you'll most commonly hear of them referred to as motivated sellers. Right?

You hear motivated sellers all the time. So where do you find these sellers? Where do you find motivated sellers? To find them, you need to first understand what causes someone to be motivated in the world of real estate. I mean, motivation has really a positive error about it in our everyday vocabulary. It's a positive thing to be motivated. We all try to be motivated every day when we wake up, right? But motivation inside of real estate investing, as it describes a motivated seller, that suggests that the person with the motivation

is dealing with some sort of adversity of which selling their property will either mitigate or alleviate. So in plain and simple English, they've got a problem. That's what a motivated seller is. It's a seller with a problem. And if they sell their house,

it's going to either mitigate or alleviate that problem. And if you can come up with a solution for their problem, hey, you can make some money. People will trade equity. People will trade equity for peace of mind all day long. And people are losing their minds on a daily basis. There are no shortages of motivated sellers out there. New ones pop up every single day.

And there's some from yesterday that no one was able to solve their problem. And there's some from last week that no one is yet to solve their problem. And there's going to be more pop up tomorrow and there's going to be more that pop up next week. People are losing their minds every single day. and people will trade equity for peace of mind every single day. And once you understand that you're looking for motivated sellers, people with problems, where to find them starts to reveal itself. You know, as Josh was asking, you know, looking in a different price point,

it's not necessary. It's not necessary at all. People have problems that need solving at every price point and every income level. And owners behind on their payments, that's a good place to look too. That's a problem. You know, wealthy people and rich people and poor people, they all experience crap in their lives and get behind on their payments. That's not exclusive to the rich or the poor. They all have that problem. Owners who are going through divorce or bankruptcy, those are good places to start.

Again, not specific to any income level or home value. And owners that have been trying to sell their home with no success, that can be a good place to look. If they've been trying to sell their home, that might be their problem, and they just need someone to come and buy it because now they're out of time and they've got to do it fast. New owners, new owners, meaning new owners by the way of inheritance or probate, that's a good place to look. I mean, you know, they're owners that all of a sudden have a property and didn't really want it in the first place. They just want to get rid of it. It's a great place to look. Owners that don't live in the properties that they own can be a good place to look.

for example, owners with vacant properties. They might have their primary residence, but they have this other property that's vacant, or they have this other property that they're renting out. And either they are renting that other property out by choice or they are renting it out because they were forced to because they couldn't sell it. So that's another place to look.

Owners that don't live in the properties that they live in. And believe it or not, owners that own their properties outright, they own their properties outright free and clear. That can be a good place. to look. I mean, these are the types of owners to seek out where the likelihood of motivation may exist. And I emphasize, may exist. I mean, that you're going to find motivation in every category. These are just some of the categories where there's a higher probability that there's motivation there. But these aren't the only places to look. You were really only limited by

your own imagination. Okay, you're only limited by that. So to address something Josh had asked about the MLS, the multiple listing service, deals can certainly be found on the MLS. It happens every day. But if a house is on the MLS, do you think that seller wants to sell or do you think they need to sell? You know, if they needed to sell,

they likely wouldn't have had the patience or the time to list their property with their real estate agent and put it on the MLS and then sit around and wait for a buyer, most likely. So most people on the MLS will fall into the other category. They're going to fall into that category

that they want to sell. And although you can find deals on the MLS, you're not going to find them very often. And you're certainly not going to find your best deals there either. And at the end of the day, it really depends on, you know, what you're looking for.

You know, because my definition of a deal isn't necessarily my neighbor's definition of a deal or your definition of a deal. But the point here is, most properties on the MLS are owned by people that want to sell. You are looking for people that need to sell. So let's go over the best way to find these

need to sell owners. And we touched on a little earlier when we were discussing how the money is going to find you, right? Through REI meetings. Friends, family, and associates, your network, meeting people, becoming known and creating relationships. That's the best place to get your deals through your network.

It's the best place to find deals. Having said that, though, it's also the slowest way to find deals. It's the best, but it's the slowest. You know, creating relationships, it takes time. And now that you know that it's the best way, but it's going to take some time, don't wait to get started building your network.

Don't wait. Start right now. Right, right now. It's the best way, so you want to get started right now. But how are you going to find deals in the meantime while you're building your network? Well, good question. So let's go over the fastest way to find deals.

Again, either you can hunt for them or you can fish for them. And hunting consists of cold calling or knocking on doors. And fishing consists of advertising and marketing. Things like direct mail, internet marketing, roadside signs, newspapers, billboards, bus benches, handbills, stuff like that. Advertising and promotion and marketing. But if you're going to hunt for the deals, whose phone number do you call? whose door do you knock on?

Or if you're going to fish for them, who do you send your mail to? How do you target that? How do you specifically find motivated sellers? Okay. So there are a couple important people you need on your team. You're going to need a realtor or a few, and you'll need a title representative.

And a realtor, a title representative of these two members of your team, they can generate lists of motivated sellers for you and at no cost. But again, that also requires a relationship. So if you don't have a relationship with a realtor or a title rep, that's something you're going to want to start creating also. So just, yeah, if you don't have one on your team, go meet them. And this weekend is how you do it.

Pop by an open house or two and just let the realtor know what you're up to. Let them know that you're buying and selling houses in the area. And share with them what type of properties you're looking for. Share them with them your criteria. And let them know, at what price point, and then get on their email list for your, for your criteria. And then you're going to have properties that meet your criteria being sent to you, just through their little email service.

They all have this capability. But most of all, you have met a realtor or realtors. And I actually recommend that you have a few realtors send you potential deals. Get on a couple of those lists or a few of those lists and have them send you deals. And if you get a good vibe with a realtor, ask them out to coffee. and let them know more about what you're up to and what you're looking for and ask them to generate a pre-foreclosure list of properties that meet your criteria. Ask them to generate an absentee owner list of properties that meet your criteria.

Ask them to generate an expired listings list of properties that meet your criteria. Ask them to generate a free and clear list of properties that meet your criteria. So you're going to be looking for pre-foreclosures. You're going to look for absentee owners. These are people that own properties but don't live. those properties. And you're going to look for expired listings. These are people that tried to sell their house, but they were unable to.

They were unsuccessful. And then you're going to ask for a free and clear list. These are people that own their properties outright. They have no mortgage on them. Ask for those lists. And these lists, they cost your realtor absolutely nothing to generate. That might take them a little bit of effort and a little bit of research because a lot of them probably don't even know how to generate them.

But they all have that capability. And if they don't know what these lists are or they don't know how to generate them, I recommend, you know, keep your eyes and ears open for another realtor. Find another one. And or ask to be introduced to their title rep. A realtor can connect you with a title rep. Because a title rep can generate these lists for you also and probably easier, more easily. They have a little bit better resources typically.

And be sure that this doesn't come off as a one-way transaction. This is very important. You're building a relationship. It's got to go both ways. They got to know what's in it for them also. So let them know that you plan on doing a lot of deals this year and you're going to need somebody to list your properties when you sell them and you're going to need somebody to issue title policies when you buy and sell too.

Let them know that you're going to give them your business. If they help you, you'll help them. If you scratch their back, they're going to scratch yours. That's how it works. It's just like any other normal relationship. So don't be all weird and one way about it. Don't be greedy and stingy about it. Know that you're going to have to contribute to their business as well

if you expect them to contribute to you. yours. And, you know, some realtors and some title reps, they're going to be a little more reluctant than others. But it's just like anything else. If they make it too difficult, if they won't get out of their own way, which a lot of real estate professionals tend to stand in their own way, just go find another. There are thousands, I mean, thousands of realtors in every city in this country. We certainly do not have a shortage of realtors. And you may have to speak to a few or even many before you find the right ones. So don't give up after the first one. So, don't give up after of the first one or two or three because they couldn't see your vision and they didn't want to

generate a list for you. Don't give up there. You're just getting started. If you give up there, you're really not going to get past the next parts in your business. But just keep in mind, most of them won't see your vision. Keep that in mind. They won't see your vision. They got a very set way of how they want to do their business.

And dealing with the person that wants to do business your way might not be what they want to do. But that's most of them. So expect that. And that's okay. Just keep looking. Just keep looking. That's how you can get a bunch of names for free. You can also buy lists.

You can buy lists. I've purchased lists from usleadlist.com, USleadlist.com, and listsource.com. List source.com. And there's many. There's countless list services out there, but these are the two that I've used in the past. So if you have to buy some,

or if you want to buy some, you want to kick up your marketing and really go out there, and unleash the hound, so to speak, on your marketing, you know, you want to get as many names as you can and start flooding the market with your message. All right, so that brings us to this part. Now that you have your lists,

you can either call them, knock on their doors, and ask them if they want to sell, or you can market to them. You can send them postcards. You can send them letters. You can leave handbills or post-it notes on their doors. But either you have to call them or you have to entice them to call you.

and my favorite tool in getting people to call me, I've talked about it several times on this show, and it still works today. I've been talking about it for over a year, and it's been used for several years before I even discovered it. And that's the yellow letter. It produces still, to this day, the very best results of anything that I've ever tried in direct mail.

It's a simple yellow piece of paper, lined yellow paper, just like you used in school, but the yellow kind. And then I use a red pen. I use red ink, and I handwrite, Hi, Mr. Seller. I would like to buy your house at 1-2-3 Main Street. Please call me at 310, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, chat soon, Matt. That's what I write.

It's very simple. Just a couple lines. I mean, let's see, that's like two sentences, I think. Hi, Mr. Seller, I'd like to buy your house at 1-2-3 Main Street. Please call me at 310, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, chat soon, Matt. Or best Matt, sincerely Matt, best regards, whatever. And inside of my free real estate investing course, I give you an example of exactly. what that letter looks like, exactly what one of my letters look like.

And then I show you how I mail it. I take the letter, I fold it, and place it in an envelope. I fold it three ways and place it an envelope. I don't seal the envelope. I do not seal it. I just tuck in the flap. And then I write the owner's name and mailing address on the outside of the letter. And then I write my return address.

And I wouldn't recommend writing your home address as the return address. Write a post office box or something on there. Put a regular old stamp on it. just a regular old stamp, and then you just drop it in the mailbox. That's it. Nothing fancy at all. Just take this piece of paper,

fold it up three ways like I would in E letter, I put an envelope, I don't seal it. I just tuck in the flap, I write the receiver's address, the recipient's address, I write my returner address, I put a stamp on there, drop it in the mailbox.

That's it. Nothing fancy at all. In fact, the fancier you get, the worst the results in my experience. And you put it on yellow paper, you handwrite everything, don't seal the envelope and you put just a regular old stamp on it. You do all of this because it looks like nothing else in their mailbox. And because it looks like nothing else, it stands out.

The letter actually gets opened. It gets the recipient's attention. And that's what you want. You want them to open it. I mean, the more letters you get open, the more calls you're going to get. If no one opens your letter, no one's going to call you. So that's why I do it that way to make it really stand out in their mail so they actually open the letter. Your phone will start ringing, I promise. I mean, you should expect anywhere from 10 to 15% response rate. If you mail out 100 letters, you're going to get 10 to 15 calls. Might not be the exact next day, but over the next couple weeks, you're going to get 10 to 15

calls from those 100 letters. And if you want to receive 100 calls, how many letters do you have to send out? Yeah, about 1,000. It doesn't matter how many you send out. It's going to be about a 10 to 15% response. So if you want 100 calls, you want 100 people to call you that are interested in selling their house, you're going to have to send out at least 1,000 letters. Simple, simple math.

The more letters you send out, the more calls you're going to get. Now, of these calls, you should get a deal, about one deal out of every 50 calls that you receive. That's what I'm figuring, especially in the beginning. The more calls you receive, the more skilled you're going to get, though. And the better at handling these calls you're going to get. and the better you get, the better your results are going to get. You know, after a while, you're going to move to a place where you're getting one deal out of 40 calls or one deal out of 30 calls.

And it's not that difficult to do. I mean, but if you're just getting started, expect one deal out of 50 calls. If this is your first time ever doing this, one out of 50. There's another dynamic to this, though, I want you to really, it's really important because it always comes up. It always comes up. If you do get one deal out of 50 calls. if you do. What that means is

you're going to receive 49 calls that are not deals. You got that? 49 of those calls are not going to be deals. And I'm going to give it to you straight. Once you've received 20 calls or so

that aren't deals, you're going to be really doubting whether this works or not because there are going to be some strange calls. They're going to be some weird calls. Yeah, you might get someone that's irate or not. I typically don't.

people talk about them getting upset calls, but who cares? Okay? I don't receive very many of those. I get a lot of people that are unreasonable about what they want for their property. I get a lot of lonely people that just want to talk to somebody. And I get a lot of people that are in such, you know, dire straits that they couldn't sell their house if they wanted to. You're going to get a lot of those types of calls. And you're going to be really doubting whether this works or not.

But let's go back. How many calls do you actually need to receive to get a deal? You need at least 50. So if you receive 20 calls and you haven't gotten a deal yet, hey, you're probably doing it right. But you're not even halfway there, so it might not feel like it's going right. You get me?

Just keep going. And this isn't an exact science either, by the way. It might take 55 calls. It might take 55 calls. Or maybe you get two deals. And those deals came on your 99th, and 100th call. It's not an exact science.

Just keep going, though. Just keep doing it. It works. It's worked for a very long time, and it continues to work to this day. You know, my new buddy that I mentioned earlier, Brad and St. Louis, I mentioned him earlier. You know, he's writing a couple offers a week.

He's writing a couple offers a week from the call that he's receiving from his yellow letters. I know this because I've purchased a couple of those properties from him already, and I have a couple more under contract with him also. And I believe he has, I don't know, I think he has like this weekend. He says he's got five more under contract. And that's no exaggeration either. I mean, he's getting exceptional results.

I wouldn't have you guys expect for everybody to get those results. But he is getting exceptional results because he's putting in exceptional effort. He's doing exceptional work. There's no exaggeration there. I mean, this strategy, it still works to this day. Listen, if you want to find motivated sellers, either you have to contact them. or you have to entice them to contact you. You're going to go through a lot of no deals to find a deal.

So stick with it. Don't give up. And it's through motivated sellers where you find the deals that will cause the money to find you. It's through those motivated sellers where you're going to find the good deals. The types of deals where that money does indeed find you. And it may sound like a lot of work right now because it is. But know that it won't be like this forever. Have comfort in that.

It's not going to be like this forever. This is just the first phase of finding deals that you're going through. And the more work and focus you put into phase one, the faster you'll get through it. I promise you that. And you get to phase two. And you get someone that calls you up and says, hey, I got 40 properties for sale. Hey, I got 17 property for sale. And in one week, you did 57 deals.

That's what's waiting for you. But you got to go through phase one to get there. You know, and if you haven't downloaded the free real estate investing course, I show you other ways to find motivated sellers there also. I mean, simply put, you need to be a lead generating machine. You need more than one stream of leads. The yellow letter works amazingly well. But you'll need to send out thousands of those letters for it to solely support your business. So get the free course, and I show you other things you can do and things you can do for free.

This course is absolutely free. It's whole and complete. I leave nothing out. I mean, sure, I invite you to join the Epic Pearl Academy on the last lesson, but I don't make it a condition to get the remainder of the free course. It's whole and complete and there's no catch. You have my word on that. I just really want you to succeed.

And you might be thinking, why? There's got to be something in it for me, right? Of course, that's the logical question I always get. What's in it for me? Okay. I'm going to let you know what's in it from me. There are three reasons. First, some of you will choose to do business with me.

After the free course is done, you're like, okay, this guy knows what he's talking about. I want to do more, and you're going to choose to join the Epic Pro Academy. But whether you decide to join the academy or you decide to become a coaching client or you decide to purchase an income property through cash flow savvy, it doesn't matter to me. I would love to take that next step with you and do some business together. and some of you will do just that, and that's what's in it from me. And some of you won't take that next step. And that's 100% okay with me also.

So that's the first reason. We might do business together. The second reason. The second reason I give you this free course is because it just isn't cool to know something that could help something else and keep it from them. Not cool. I mean, my conscience, it won't let me hold back any information. So that's the second thing in it from me, a clear conscience.

And the third thing that's in it from me, I'm leaving a legacy of information for my son. I'm documenting for him the exact steps on how to create wealth, so he'll never have to depend on anyone for his financial well-being, ever. You know, if something should happen to me and I'm unable to teach him all of this stuff firsthand, he'll be able to follow the step-by-step lessons that I've created. And you'll be able to follow him from me. So there are your three reasons why I give away this free course and you now know what's in it for me. And I suppose that kind of came out of left field, but I'm asked fairly frequently why I give so much away,

as if people think there's nothing in it from me. Why would I be so selfless and not ask for anything in return? Well, now you know. And I suppose there's one more thing. I love watching people take this information and run with it and watch them get excited about what they're accomplishing. I mean, I've mentioned his name a few times today already. Brad's kind of my superstar right now. Brad and St. Louis is absolutely crushing it.

And we're only halfway through his coaching program. It's pretty amazing. And I'm going to have him on when he's done to share his story. He doesn't know that yet, but I'm definitely going to have him on and he'll share his story. And like I said, his story's not the norm, though. But it is a shining example of making a commitment to one success and moving at the speed of instruction. He's getting extraordinary results because he's putting in extraordinary work. So if you're ready to make that commitment to yourself, go download the free course

at free real estate investing course.com and learn how to find deals that cause money to find you with little to no money or credit. All righty? That's it for today. If you happen to have a question, comment, or concern that you'd like me to answer or address here live on the show, please share them with me on the epic real estate investing hotline, just like Josh did today. And that number is 1-888-891-7203. 1-888-891-7203. And if you enjoy the show, it would be a great favor to me if you stopped by iTunes and left me a rating and a review there. I love to know what you think of the show, and I love to hear how this show has helped you and how it's making a difference for you.

It keeps me going. All right, so until next time, as a very wise person once said, lead generation begins by knowing where your leads live. 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.