Epic Real Estate Investing - How to Create Your Own Unfair Advantage | Episode 126

Episode Date: October 27, 2014

It’s hard to believe, but the time is here.  Savvy investors are already getting ready to make 2015 their best year yet!  If you’d like to do the same, grab a pen and paper and get ready for an action-packed episode!   Today Matt will walk you through an exercise that will allow you to inventory your skills and resources so that you can rock 2015.  He will also be releasing a daily podcast that will help you to get a paycheck in your pocket BEFORE the New Year!  Enjoy! ------- The free course is new and improved!  To access to the two fastest and easiest strategies to a paycheck in real estate, go to FreeRealEstateInvestingCourse.com or text “FreeCourse” to 55678. What interests you most?   E ducation P roperties I ncome C oaching Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Broadcasting from Terrio Studios in Glendale, California, it's time for Epic Real Estate Investing with Matt Terrio. Yeah. Hello. Hello, and welcome to the Epic Real Estate Investing podcast, the show where I show people how to escape the rat race using real estate. The essence being, shift your focus from making piles of cash to making streams of cash. You know, free your mind and the rest of. will follow, as they say. Now, in many cases, however, you'll need a pile of cash. You're going to need a pile of cash, you know, well, not as big as you may think, however, to create streams of cash.

Okay, so you need a pile of cash to create a stream of cash in most cases. And to help you start making piles of cash using none of your own cash, go to free real estate investing course.com where I will show you in a step-by-step manner, a step-by-step fashion, the two easiest and fastest strategies to a paycheck in real estate. And then from there, once you got it, you can repeat the process there as many times as you want, creating a pile of cash as high as you want. All righty?

So it's up to you how high you want to get it. But be careful. Don't get seduced by that pile of cash as, you know, the pile of cash, your freedom really exists not through that pile of cash. Your freedom exists only through creating a stream or streams of cash. You know, if you ever want to take your foot off the gas a bit or entirely, you will eventually have to convert your pile of cash into a stream of cash. And just because you get your pile of cash really, really high doesn't mean you're necessarily

any closer to freedom. Yes, you've got a lot of cash. It might afford you a lot of liberties and you might be able to do a lot of really cool things, but you are not free. because it has that that pile of cash as you start to use it and you start to deploy it within your life, it gets smaller and smaller and it gets down to the point where you got to go out and go to work again to add more to that pile. All right.

So that's what this show is all about, creating a stream of cash. Okay, that's the ultimate goal. So to get started, go to free real estate investing course.com and take the first step. You know, a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. That is an ancient Chinese proverb, I believe. But this quote here, it's fitting too. You don't need to see the whole staircase to take the first step, the wise words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

And travel as far as you can see, and when you get there, you will see further. And those words would be mine. Well, I've said them so many times. I actually can't remember where I did hear them first. So now they're mine. I mean, I believe that's how it works. Anyway, you only have to give credit to a quote the first three times you say it. and after that it's yours.

At least that's what I heard. Anyway, I love this time of year. The fall, you know, my favorite time of year, although it is still 80 degrees here in Glendale, although my USC Trojans have already pretty much ruined their chances of getting into the BCS playoffs. And although I'm in training for this physique contest, and I've yet to indulge this year in Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte. and although all that's going on, I still love this time of year. And here's why.

You know, if you've been listening to this show for any length of time, you've heard me say more than once that this is a simple business. Yes, I believe I've said that once or twice. This is a simple business. Real estate investing is a very simple business. Not easy, but simple. I believe I've said that as well. So it's simple. and it's actually tough.

It is a tough business, especially in the beginning. It's tough, but it's worth it. Meaning, you know, what worth having doesn't present a little bit of a challenge. You know, if it were easy, everyone would be a millionaire real estate investor, wouldn't they? Absolutely. So why do we choose this one, though? Why do we choose this path? This path with all the challenges in it being so tough.

Well, we do so because it's created more millionaires and business. billionaires than anything else out there than any of your other options. So if something like having a millionaire status or a billionaire status or a financially free status or just having a life without money worries is somewhere in the realm of your aspirations, real estate is probably your best shot at getting it. So that's why real estate. That's why I'm here. That's why I chose real estate.

And that's why I share this with you. Now, I've been investing in real estate full-time now for a little over six years. And if you add the part-time where I was working, my transitionary period from real estate agent to real estate investor, it's been about eight years with more than, I don't know, definitely more than 500, it's probably approaching six or 700 transactions under my belt over the eight years. I've got a portfolio that I hold on to of over 200 units. and, you know, I've got to say, out of those eight years, this year was probably my most challenging year, even more so probably than my first couple of years. You know, what I've come to learn yet was imparted to me very early in my investing career is that passive income doesn't mean uninvolved income.

You know, creating streams of income, it still requires your participation. And the bigger and the wider those stories, dreams get, the more you must keep that in mind. And I've said this right here before, and you'll hear me continue to say this, because it's worth repeating. You can't hear it enough. It's easy to forget. You've got to hear it over and over again.

You can never lose sight of this. The real estate investing game, specifically the passive income side of it, the residual income side of it, the cash flow side of it, the part that actually gives you freedom in life, comes down to one thing. Property management. Good property management itself can almost equate to financial freedom. I mean, if you can dial in good property management, whether you do it yourself or you hire someone to do it for you, if you can dial that in, you will set yourself free. If you fail to get a hold of this aspect of real estate, even if you do everything else in your business absolutely perfectly, if you fail to dial in property management, freedom will always exceed your grasp.

And this last year, actually these last two years, property managers, they've taken me to school, meaning, you know, you think being proactive with your real estate investing education can get expensive. You know, some programs upwards of $100,000, I mean, six digits. And you know how many properties you could buy with $100,000? I mean, I know the rich dad education program is in that ballpark if you bought everything. I know Armanto Montelago's, I think that's how he pronounces his educational program and his coaching program is in that ballpark, that six-figure ballpark. I know a small-time, independent real estate investing coach in Houston that charges $100,000 a year for his one-on-one coaching.

and I could never really see myself paying that much for education. Well, let me clarify. Two years ago, I could have never imagined it. But after the last two years that I've had, I could have signed up for all three of those programs, and it probably would have been a bargain compared to what I paid for, the school that I actually did end up attending, the school of Hard Knocks.

You know, that little private coach in Houston seems like a real bargain right now compared to what I did pay for my tuition. You know, there's a saying in real estate, you're either making money or you're getting an education. You're making money or you're learning. And boy, over the last couple years, I've gotten an education. Made some great money too, but gave a bunch of that money back via my tuition to Hard Knock University. and as expensive as it has been, it's really only a loss. Like, it really only cost me money if I don't apply what I've learned. And that's the same for you.

That goes for education across the board. It's only expensive if you don't apply what you learned. And for knowing that, I'm grateful as the last few months have been wonderful, absolutely wonderful in the sense that we've been ridding our business of the quote unquote ugly. and we're regenerating our business. We're renewing our business, a new and improved business, implementing and embracing our degree from Hard Knock You.

We're actually using it. That's the one thing about an education is that, you know, once you've got it, no one can ever take it away from you. And as long as you use it, the ROI is infinite. Well, I've got it. I've got that education and I'm using it and I'm smarter. I'm wiser.

I'm stronger. There's another quote right there. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. I can attest to that. And because of all this education, we are a stronger company. I am a stronger investor. And I'm a stronger teacher. I'm a stronger teacher as well.

Certainly with a whole lot of brand new experiences that I get to pass on to you, that I get to pass on to my students, that I get to pass on to my associates and my peers, that I get to share with my team so we never walk down that path again. Now, back to my point. This is a very simple business. But when you start doing deals, and this is what we learned, especially when you start doing a lot of deals and when you start building a sizable portfolio,

that's simplicity. The simplicity of this business can really get away from you. And it's not difficult to inadvertently complicate your business. business. And if you're not careful, you can complicate it to a point where you create an environment. The very environment that most were trying to escape when they got into real estate investing in the first place, an environment of chaos and confusion and frustration and uncertainty and doubt and fear. A downright hatred for getting up in the morning. You don't want to jump out of the frying pan. That frying pan being typically your job. And in a

into the fire, that fire being an unorganized and complicated real estate investing business. So there's your warning. You have been warned. This business can be very simple and profitable or can be very complicated and frustrating and expensive. I remember a mentor of mine, a good friend as well, once said to me, when you get into real estate, you are going to spend a whole lot more money than you ever want to spend and you're going to do a whole lot more work than you ever want to do. But hang in there because it's worth it.

So there's your warning. Okay? You've been warned. Now, how you prevent this from happening to you, that frustrating part, that complicated and confused part, how you prevent this from happening to you is actually very easy. You know, it's very easy in the beginning when you're just, you know, doing your first house and you got your second one, your third one, and you're just kind of doing

one or two a month, and you're just going on at a steady clip. It's actually, it doesn't, it's really difficult to complicate it at that point. But once you start getting bigger, once you start getting broader and wider and your investing horizon start to expand, it's very easy to get complicated. So how do you stop it from getting complicated? How do you stop it from getting expensive and frustrating? Well, it's very easy to do if every year, all you got to do is, every year make a conscious effort to revisit the basics. I recommend doing that every year. And unfortunately and shamefully, I didn't follow my own advice last year.

And I paid a very hefty price for it. You know, each and every year that I've been in business, and that has to go with every business that I can think of for the last 20 years or so. With the exception of this past year, I've always given my business an annual checkup. I've always checked in on my business. I took inventory. I noted what was working and I did more of that.

I noted what wasn't working and I stopped doing that. I reestablished goals. I reestablished priorities. I reestablished the systems that would steadily move me toward my goals. And I actually made privy to this annual practice. I didn't come up with it by any means. this practice was taught to me by the sales guru, Tom Hopkins. Maybe you've heard of him.

He's actually a general sales guru, but more towards the real estate agent side. But more than 20 years ago during a brief stint while selling professional audio gear, that's when I stumbled across him. And I've done that practice of getting back to basics. I've done that every year since. and sometimes in my business, I've done that twice a year. And that has to do regardless of what that business was. With the exception, though, of last year.

And all I can say is I'll never do that again. I'll never take a year off from checking out on my business again. So right now, it's time to check in with myself. It's time to check in on the basics and get back to them in the interest of simplicity, in the interest of efficiency, in the interest of profitability. So it's time to check in on those basics and get back. to them and this happens to be the time of year that I would typically do this. And that's why I love this time of year.

That was a long, I guess, explanation. I didn't know I was going to go that long. But that's why I love this time of year. I'm back to the point here. Now, the reason I do this now is I start my new year every year on December 1st. I pick December 1st intentionally. I don't wait until January 1st like everyone else. And I do that for two reasons.

First, most people slow their business down in December. Most investors, you know, they kind of start to coast into the new year and look and take a break. They start to take it easy. And because they do, I encounter less competition in December. Now, the second reason is most people restart their business mid-January. I do it in December. We're going to do it at the top of the year and the top of the year. and the top of the year kind of gets away from,

they get started a little late. And many don't get up to full speed until February sometime. And during this time, I'm running at full speed and will typically encounter much less competition during this time also. And here's why this is important. I mean, first, the obvious. I mean, less competition equates to more opportunity. We all want great opportunities with less competition.

So that's the obvious one. Second, it's the not so obvious part of it. Historically speaking, the spring is the best time for real estate. Now, I'm not entirely sure why I've gotten a hunch, but I'm not entirely sure why. But the activity there, it's higher in the spring than the rest of the year. You know, perhaps, I don't know, cabin fever has gotten to people and they're just dying to get out of the house or get out of the office, whatever it is. It's a time where people seem that they want and need to move. They need to sell property for one reason or another in the spring.

Like that's just kind of like, okay, the busy part of the holidays is past us. Now let's focus on this house thing. This is the way it was when I was a real estate agent more than 10 years ago. And it's the way that it has been my entire time as a full-time real estate investor also. So with that being said, January, February, and March, those three months is when you do not want to be getting organized. You do not want to be planning. You do not want to be setting up your systems. You do not want to be trying to figure things out in January, February, March. This is the time of year where you want to be fully operational with your business firing on all cylinders.

Because I have found that I can typically make more money. And I think this opportunity is there for whoever wants to seize it. I can typically make more money in the first quarter of a year than most do all year long. And I've also found that there's exceptional money to be made in December too. You know, it sounds a little counterintuitive, meaning you think most people would be staying put, not selling their property during the holidays. And that's actually not an entirely inaccurate assumption.

And because there is some basis to this being a valid idea that people want to stay put during the holidays, most real estate investors, you know, that's logical, they go ahead and they take this time off too. So if the people aren't going to sell, then I'm not going to buy. And here's what I want to draw your attention to. The first thing, most real estate investors will slow down their business during this time. And that equates to less competition. Kind of covered that already.

Less competition for motivated sellers' attention specifically. Less mail hitting the mailbox. They slow down their marketing. Less bandit signs on the street. Fewer online ads. just a lot less messaging from real estate investors to potential motivated sellers overall. And that to me and always has spelled less competition. I know everyone else is taking easy, so that's the time I want to pick up.

That's just been my logic. Now, there's the other side to that equation, maybe less competition amongst your peers because there's likely less opportunity during this time, but it doesn't mean there's zero opportunity. there probably is less opportunity during December, but it doesn't mean there's zero opportunity. And of the lighter opportunity that is out there, it's bigger opportunity.

It's opportunity that's not only bigger. It's opportunity that presents less resistance. It presents fewer obstacles and challenges, meaning what type of property owners would want to sell during December? I mean, just kind of think. Who in their right mind would want to sell during December? during December when, you know, it's the end of the year. They probably worked hard all year.

It's time to be with family. It's time to have fun. It's time to celebrate the holidays, to celebrate the year, whatever it is. Who in their right mind would want to sell their house during the holidays? Well, likely the owners that want to sell wouldn't. They wouldn't want to inconvenience themselves during the holidays with selling property. But the property owners that need to sell, they need to sell. they need to sell they would

I mean it would be a bigger inconvenience for them to not sell during the holidays than it would be for them to sit tight and wait until after the holidays so although there's no way to really tell I don't know how you'd conduct a study on this to get the actual numbers my experience though would lead me to believe there's truth to less people are willing to move during the holidays thus seemingly justified that you slow it down during this time. But I do not.

And the reason being is because the opportunity that is there is bigger and easier to seize. I always hit at least one home run during December. Always. I get a big one. I always did when I was a real estate agent. In fact, one of my biggest commissions ever as a real estate. agent came as a result of writing an offer on Christmas Day. I actually feel kind of, I don't know, not proud, but I guess I take a little bit of pride

in that I sold a house on every major holiday of the year while I was a real estate agent because I knew nobody else was working. But I knew there were still people that wanted to buy and sell on the holidays. That didn't, their issue was a bigger issue than the holiday was. And so I always hit a home run in December. And I always have hit a home run during December. as a real estate investor as well. And like I said, in hindsight,

not only were they home runs, meaning I made a lot of money, they took less effort too. They took less effort because the seller's motivation was there. And as you know, the foundation of every deal lies within the seller's motivation to sell. You've heard me say that more than once. So the seller's motivation was there

and the competition wasn't. You know, if someone is selling during December, you can bet there's some real motivation there. So I love December for my business. Always have. And I don't see that excitement for December changing any time in the foreseeable future. So that's why I restart my business every year on December 1st. I don't wait until January 1st like the rest of the world. So that's, you know, that's what we're going to do this month, the month of November.

we're going to prepare ourselves to restart our business December 1st. Now, you don't have to. You can take everything that I'm going to share with you this month of November and save it for January. I don't recommend that you do, but you don't have to start now. But I would recommend that you consider starting in December, especially if 2014 failed to meet your expectations. There's no reason to put it off. Especially if you need 2015 to be better than 2014. Especially if 2015 must be better than 2014.

Maybe this is your last chance or you feel it is. Stay with me this month and we'll see to it that that happens. We're going to start from the beginning. We're going to take inventory of what you're working with and we're going to take your resources and assets and create a success plan and a success plan just for you around your situation. And once we've planned the work, we're going to start working that plan and put at least one nice paycheck in your pocket. At least one nice paycheck, not a typical one, but a nice one, a big one. We're going to put a big paycheck in your pocket before the new year.

That's the goal. Okay? That's the goal. You game, you're ready to do this. All righty. If you're not ready, you might want to pause before we go on, okay? Come back to me when you're ready. But if you're ready right now, let's go.

All right, so get your white paper and blue ink ready. Why white paper and blue ink? Well, studies have revealed that this combination actually can increase one's retention by more than 30%. So whether that's 100% accurate or not, not entirely sure. It's just something I heard once. But now that I heard it, now that I know it, I was like, well, why risk it, right? Couldn't hurt anything.

I got nothing against white paper, blue ink, so might as well use it if it's going to help me. So get your white paper and blue ink, and real quickly is what I want you to do. The first thing I want you to write down right at the top of the paper. I want you to write down your financial goal for 2015. And you can express that in a pile of cash manner, meaning $100,000, meaning that's you want to make $100,000 in 2015, or it's $200,000, or it's $500,000 or a million bucks, whatever it is. You can express it in a pile of cash manner, or you can express that in a stream of cash manner, meaning I want to create $5,000 a month of residual income in 2015. It's your goal. You do it

how you want. You just need to have a goal. Don't spend a bunch of time on this. Just pick a number that if you reached it by the end of 2015, 2015, well, it felt like a success. Okay, so go ahead and write that number down now. All righty. Next, on that piece of paper, I want you to write down this word, the word knowledge, write the word knowledge down. And then on a scale of one to 10, one meaning I have none and 10 meaning I have plenty, I want you to rate yourself in the knowledge department that you feel is required to reach your goal. You know, what knowledge you're going to need to make $100,000 next year? Or what knowledge are you going to need to create $5,000, $10,000 a month of residual income next year.

Okay? So on a scale of one to ten, give yourself that score. One meaning I have none, meaning no knowledge. Ten meaning I have plenty of knowledge to reach my goal. All right. Next, on that piece of paper, write down this word. Time. Write down time.

And on a scale of one to ten, again, one meaning I have none. I have no time. 10 meaning I have plenty of time. Rate yourself in the time department that you feel is going to be required of you to reach your goal. How much time are you going to need to reach your goal? One, meaning I got plenty of time. 10 meaning, excuse me, one meaning I have no time.

10 meaning I got plenty of time to do it. Okay? Next, on that piece of paper, write down this word, money. Okay, write down money. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 meaning I have none. I've got $0. I got nothing but lint in my pockets. That would be a 1.

And 10, meaning I got all the money that I need to reach my goal. Okay? I mean, you've got your marketing budget in place. You've got your seed money in place. You got your reserve account in place. Whatever it may be, if you have everything that you need money-wise to reach your goal, that would be a 10. Okay?

So go ahead and write that down. Lastly, on that piece of paper, write down this word, credibility. Okay? Credibility. And that can be your credit score. It can be your credibility amongst your peers, your friends, family, and associates. Kind of combine those two together. Your credit score, like if you give that.

how much credit the bank would give you and then also how much credit your network would give you. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 meaning I have zero credit and 10 meaning I have plenty of credit. Rate yourself in the credibility department that you feel that is required for you to reach your goal. Whether it's $100,000 a year or it's $10,000 a month in residual income, whatever your goal is, one or the other. Okay. Now, I guess it doesn't have to be one or the other. It could be $100,000 plus $10,000 a month of residual income. I'm so okay with that.

Okay? So it doesn't have to be one or the other. Now, look at your situation. Look at what you wrote down. Where are you strong? Where are you weak? With regard to what you'll need to reach your goal in 2015. Okay?

Where are you strong? I got the money covered or I got the time covered. A lot of people got the time. But keep in mind, the time. doesn't really factor into you reaching your goal unless you have the knowledge to go with it. So the knowledge and the time thing, they kind of go together. But go ahead and look at your situation and, you know, the knowledge, the time, the money, and the credibility are the four things.

The reason we went over those, those are the four things that you need to be a successful real estate investor. Okay? And before you go, oh, brother, I'm short on three of them. Or I don't have any of them. realize that you don't have to possess all of them yourself. Okay? They don't have to all belong to you.

You just need to have access to them. So, for example, if you're short or shorter than you'd like to be in the knowledge department, you'll either need to make some sort of investment in your education. Now, that could be a time investment. You go to the library and read a book. Or it could be a monetary investment. You sign up and you take a course. Or if you don't want to do that, you'll need to partner with someone that does have the knowledge

you need to reach your goal. Or you hire someone that has the knowledge. Could be a licensed professional, could be a mentor, could be a coach. There are many ways to go about it. See, you can just know that if you're lacking in this area of knowledge, either you need to acquire it yourself or get access to someone else that has it. Okay, so you got to get it. All right.

So if you don't have it right now and you want to own that part of it, part of your business, then you need to educate yourself. and there's so many, there's endless ways to do that. You already know how I can help you, but there are countless ways out there for you to educate yourself. Or you get access via a partner or a coach or whatever, a licensed professional or something, that would have access to the information that you need.

Okay, and you can leverage that relationship. Now, if you're short on time, you'll either need to give something up in your schedule in your life to make time, or you'll have to hire help, or you'll have to take on a partner or you'll have to implement time-saving technology like systems.

You'll have to do that to strengthen your score in the time department. Now, if you're short in the money department, then you'll need to get access to it. You're going to need it. Could be your retirement account. Could be a bank. Could be some old assets you have laying around, like some gold or silver or the, what do they call it?

the ATV that's sitting in the garage. Could be a hard money lender. Could be a private investor. Could be a partner. Could be a friend or a family member. Could be the government. Could be from the seller of your deals. Could be from the buyer of your deals.

It could come from your negotiating skills. Or it could come from a combination of anything that I just mentioned in any way. I mean, the creativity there is limitless. and if you don't know how to access any of those sources or you don't know where to look or where to even start, well, that would be some more knowledge that you would need to acquire, right? Right.

So, and same goes for credit or the credibility. You have to, I'm going to have to acquire it yourself. You're going to have to earn your credit or earn credibility or you're going to have to get access to it. Got it. So there are two points. I covered a lot right there, but there are two points here that I want you to walk

away from this episode with and the first is you need all four of these you need knowledge you need time you need money and you need credit to make this thing work okay you need all four of those things to build a successful real estate investing business and that's the first point that's what I want you to understand that's the first point the second point is they are all easily accessible so if you got a little sad when I said you need a knowledge time money and credit to be successfulness, and you're kind of hunched over and you're frowning, straighten up, smile,

because they are all easily accessible. And this is what I mean by that. You see, what's easy for you? Say you got the knowledge and the time down, but you don't have the money in the credit. So the knowledge and the time, that's easy for you. But the money in the credit, that's easy for someone else.

They don't have the knowledge of the time. You see, what's easy for you is difficult for someone else and vice versa. So as you're restarting your business or getting started for even the very first time, you just got to take inventory of your resources and take inventory of your assets so you can create a plan that will actually work for you. There's a solution there. There's an easy solution for all four of those obstacles. And if you don't have all four of them, there's a solution for you as well.

You know, a breakthrough in your business is awaiting you by merely taking inventory of your resources and your assets and creating a plan to strengthen your weakest areas. And then once those areas become strong, then go work on the others. Okay, there's an easy solution for every single challenge there. It might seem impossible to you right now. It might be something that you don't want to do or it seems like so difficult. just understand what's difficult for you or what you don't like is like play for somebody else. Okay, so whether it becomes,

comes in the form as a partnership or an employee or a mentor or a coach or whatever it may be, all of that stuff, what's difficult for you is easy for someone else. What's grueling for you is fun for someone else. And that brings me to this. Here's something else that you can do to, that little will like,

create a huge breakthrough for you in your business, especially if you've been doing this for a while and you're a little bit disappointed with your results. Ask yourself, how would my business change if I fell in love with the one part that I hate? Think about the part of your business right now. You just hate doing. And you already know what it is. You don't have to think about it at all. I hate putting out those bandit signs. Or I hate keeping my ads in rotation on Craigslist. or I hate answering the phone one seller's call. I hate going out on appointments. Whatever it is, whatever that part of the business is that you hate,

what would your business look like if you actually fell in love with that part? And could you fall in love with it if you really wanted to? If you knew it was going to be the breakthrough in your business that you've been looking for. Here's an example for mine. Actually, it was during the time I was a real estate agent. and that's when I heard this was at a real estate agent training seminar or something like that. That same question was asked. And I thought about it like I knew right away.

I hate open houses. I hated open houses. I hate giving up my weekends. I hated putting out the damn signs. I hated sitting there all by myself. I hated collecting the signs. I hated watching everybody go to the beach while I was stuck there in the house. I hated every part of open houses.

And then I thought, what would my business look like if I loved open houses? And I thought about a lot of the different agents in our office that did very good business off of open houses. So obviously there's an opportunity there because people do it and people do it with success. So like, okay, I don't think I can force myself to fall in love with open houses. I just hate them anyway. I don't even care if that's going to be access. I had a bad attitude about that.

But I was like, okay, so what if I changed my attitude? What would my life look like? And I said, well, I'd probably make more money, which would make me happier and which would make the wife happier. And that will just make life better if I loved open houses. I came to that conclusion. So I don't like the way that we do them. I don't know if I can get around that. But what could I change about the open house or what could I do differently about the open house?

How could I fall in love with it? And so everyone held open houses on the weekends. And I didn't want to give up my weekends. So I was like, okay, I'm going to hold my houses open. Monday through Friday. And I'm going to hold them open on or during the time when everyone's on their way home from work. Because kind of like this holiday thing, who's selling their house during the December?

Someone that needs to sell, right? Well, who's going to stop at an open house during the week? Someone that needs to buy a house, someone that's looking for a house. Who stops at houses on the weekends? Ah, the neighbors, people just interested, people looking to see what the new deference. The neighbors done with their decorations or what their house is worth they want to compare. That's who you get on the weekends. The people that stop in Monday through Friday, those are people that are like, I'm on my way home from work.

There's an open house. I've got to check in and see if this is something because we need to find something quick. And boom, my business exploded. In fact, I was brand new in this particular office. I'd already been an agent for two years, but I was brand new in this particular area. And I went to this area because there were a million dollar homes there. and there's the same amount of work. So I was like, okay, if I sell these million-dollar homes,

I get a much bigger commission and it's no additional work. But it was very competitive there because everyone else that worked in that area had that same logic. But by me changing that focus and falling in love with open house, oh, and the other part of the open houses I did, I was like, typically agents will put out three or four open-house signs. I put out 20. I went and bought 20 signs and I put all 20 out every single day,

Monday through Friday, and I sat in that open house between four, o'clock, 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. to catch people on their way home from work. And it didn't make me the number one agent in the office, but I was the new guy and people were scratching their head about how does this new guy sell one of these million dollar homes every single month? And I sell two or three a year. So it was a huge breakthrough. And that's something that we're attacking here in our own investing business. And that's something that I invite you to look at as well. What part of the business do you hate?

How would your business change if you actually fell in love with that part? Okay? You don't have to take that on. It's just a place to look. There could be a breakthrough there that's in your blind spot that you wouldn't have seen otherwise unless you asked yourself that question. Okay? So I've walked you through a good portion of the exercise that I conduct to restart my business.

And I'll be doing this exactly, this exact steps with my team on December 1st. And if succeeding in real estate is important to you, if you're successful, is important to you, and I have to think that it is, or why else would you be listening? If your success in this business is important to you, don't ignore this practice. Don't sit there and go, I'm going to wait until the next episode and you talk about the killer headlines that get my phone to ring off the hook. A lot, if that's what you're thinking that the meat is, that's not the meat of the business. The meat is getting your plan together, creating,

a simple plan, creating a plan that you can execute and follow through on a daily basis. That's the meat of this business, the consistency there, the simplicity of this business to consistently act upon it. So don't ignore this practice. You got to stop for a second and look at what's going on around you. Okay. So don't ignore this practice. Okay. Here's what I'll do. Starting next week on Monday, okay, we'll start. from square one. We'll take it one day at a time. Okay. So not to overwhelm you and not so you have to go out and do this on your own. We'll do it together. Okay, we'll start from square one. And every day of the week, we'll cover a different aspect of the business. We'll

start from zero and create clarity around the business, around your business. We'll create certainty around your business. And we'll keep it simple so that you can actually execute your plan and achieve in 2015 the goal you set for yourself just the moment ago. Deal? Cool. So I'll see you this Thursday and Friday for our normal episodes of third-degree Thursday and Financial Freedom Friday. But next week, starting Monday, to put this on the calendar, next week starting Monday, we'll break from our normal schedule a bit.

We're going to break form and we're going to check in on a daily basis, Monday through Friday. I'm going to release an episode every single day. And we're going to check in and it's all going to be focused on building or rebuilding your business. from the ground up. Cool? That's what I'm going to do for you. That's how important this is. And I'm going to be here for you

and I want to support you in this. Because if you do this right now, your likelihood of hitting your goal in 2015 just increased tenfold. All right? So meet me back here next Monday. I'll see you Thursday and Friday, but then Monday we're going to get down

and dirty. We're going to get to work. All right? Oh, and something else I'll be doing every episode this month. I've been thinking about this for a while and I've just kind of been waiting for November for this thing to happen

or to announce this, this is I'm going to be giving away for the holidays, my gift to you, a $100 gift card to Amazon.com, right here, right on the air, every single episode in November. And in fact, why not? I'll start this giveaway early, like right now. Okay, and I'll show you how it works. And I'll continue it all the way through November. You'll have like 13, 14, I don't know, 15, something like chances to win.

And here's how you win. Each episode, I will head over to iTunes like I'm doing right now. And I'll type in Epic Real Estate Investing into the search window like I'm doing right now. And then I'm going to go ahead and click on this podcast, the Epic Real Estate Investing Podcast. I'm going to click on the ratings and reviews. And then I'll spin the mouse, or I guess I'll slide down the scroll bar, if you will, and just randomly stop it on a review like this one right here. The headline says, Bomb Diggity, by Shiro.

A-T-E-R-O-A-T-E-P-T. I don't know how you pronounce that, but Shiro-A-T-T-T-E-T-T. And they write, every week I get something out of this podcast that makes me a better investor. So thank you for that nice review. Thanks for the nice headline. So Shiro-A-Tept, what you do is you send me an email to podcast at epic real estate.com. Send me an email to podcast at epic real estate.com. and I'll reply with a $100. Amazon.com gift card that you can use for yourself,

you can use for your friends, your family, for the holidays, whatever you want. Deal? So that's how it works. So Shiro Atep, you are our first winner. And every episode in November, I'll give one of these away. Now, if you've already left a review of this show in the past, there's absolutely nothing for you to do.

Okay? You've already entered. You're already in the running. And if you have not a review, visited iTunes to give this show a review and you'd like to win one of these one hundred dollar amazon com gift cards go to iTunes find this podcast the epic real estate investing podcast and leave a review and it doesn't have to be a five-star review either i'm not going to bribe you and that's not going to be um uh who i award the the gift card too will not be dependent

on your rating i'm just going to pick it randomly and that's uh so it doesn't have to be a five-star review okay you don't have to bribe me that would make me feel really good if you did leave a five-star review, but give it to me straight. Let me know how you, what you think of the show, all right? So that's it for today. I'll see you this Thursday and Friday for our regular episodes of third degree Thursday and Financial Freedom Friday. And then be ready for next week as we build your business from the ground up. All right? I'm Matt Terrio, living the dream. You've been listening to Epic Real Estate Investing, the world's foremost authority on separating the facts from the BS in real estate investing education.

If you enjoyed this show, please take a minute to visit iTunes and share your thoughts. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time here at Epic Real Estate Investing with Matt Terrio. This podcast is a part of the C-suite Radio Network. For more top business podcasts, visit c-sweetradio.com.