Epic Real Estate Investing - How to Find the BIG Deals | Episode 227

Episode Date: October 24, 2016

Real Estate Investing is a competitive business. It requires that investors are vigilant in continuing to learn and relearn the basics. Sometimes the simple approach is most effective for how to find the big deals.  Continue honing your craft with Matt Theriault and the Epic Real Estate Investing podcast. Join us as we discuss strategies to reach more sellers and close more deals. Discover new ways you can raise your real estate game before the new year.   ______   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

This is Terrio Media. Broadcasting from Terrio Studios in Glendale, California, it's time for Epic Real Estate Investing with Matt Terrio. Hello, and welcome to Epic Real Estate Investing, the place where I show people how to escape the rat race using real estate. And if you're just getting started and or you're looking for new and creative ways of making money in real estate, I've put together a free course just for you. And it includes a checklist on how to find motivated sellers. Those are property owners that are willing and able to sell you their property at a discount. And the reason I focus on that is because there's a lot of people out there that will teach you how to do deals,

but very few people go deep into how to find the deals. And that's what this course is all about. So to access that free course go to free real estate investing, course.com. Free real estate investing course.com. All righty? So it's the fall. You know, where do you live? Does it feel like fall where are you living? Because the fall is typically my favorite time of the year. However, if you're in Southern California, it's a little tough to tell its fall as it's 96 degrees outside, not a cloud in the sky, and there is no rain in the forecast for the foreseeable future. As one of the things I love best about this time of the year is, it is,

is the drop-in temperature. I'm born and raised in Southern California. It's between 75 and 85 degrees, 360 days of the year. We get five days a year of some, you know, some blistering cold weather that dips just below 50 degrees. And I look so forward to that each and every year. But I love the weather. I know a lot of you out there that are in the Midwest,

that are in the south, that are in the north, that, you know, you've seen enough snow in your life to last you a lifetime. And you just think it's all green and rosy and over here. and, you know, grass is always greener. We all want and we don't have. But I'm dying for some rain. That's all. I'm dying for some rain. Gosh, if it snowed here, that would just be like, God opened up the sky and he heard my prayers

and he answered them. It would be amazing. But, yeah, I love this time of year because of that. And not to mention, it's football season. It's baseball postseason. Well, if you're lucky enough to be in the postseason, go Dodgers. And I guess by the time you hear this, we're going to have some news on whether they're postseason is still going or if it's over.

But we're in the postseason as of right now. It's basketball preseason of which it typically translates all of that together. Kind of translates to the lazy season with a beer in my hand. But that's not why I love this time of year. This is why I love this time of year. It's, 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, right? It's a simple business.

real estate investing is a very simple business. You go out and you find the deal, then you go find a buyer, and then you put the two together, and you close the deal, and you make a check. Very simple. Or you go out and find the deal, and then you find a tenant that's going to live in it, and it's going to pay you to live there. Very simple. Not easy, but simple.

Simple and tough, actually. Especially in the beginning, especially if you're just getting started. It's tough, but it's worth it. meaning what worth having in life doesn't present a little bit of challenge. You know, if it were easy, everyone would be a millionaire real estate investor, right? Absolutely. That's what we're after. And if it were easy, then being a millionaire real estate investor wouldn't be all that great.

It wouldn't be all that was cracked up to be. And, you know, it would have no value and something else would have value, whatever that may be. But we live in a society where that has value. And to get that value takes a little bit of effort. Now, I've been investing in real estate full-time now for, I don't know, almost a decade, I guess a little bit over a decade. And if you add the part-time investing I did, my transitionary period from real estate agent to real estate investor, I guess it's been about 12, 13 years. And I've got to, you know, I've kind of stopped counting, but I would say certainly more than a thousand transactions under my belt, that I know for sure. And I've got a portfolio of just under 100 units.

and I've got to say this year, 2015 or 16, what year am I in, was probably one of my better years, but not necessarily because of the money that I made, more maybe because of the lessons that I learned. And some of the lessons I actually relearned. You know, I teach this stuff. And sometimes I still got to relearn lessons that I've taught, that I've learned the hard way. And I was like, well, that was a real lesson. I should have paid attention. And, you know, sometimes we just do that.

We're human beings. We make mistakes and we learn from those mistakes and we press on. You know, for example, one of the lessons is passive income. Yeah, it's not so passive all the time. Passive income doesn't mean uninvolved income. It's not set it and forget it income. It's income that happens with very minimal effort on your part, with very minimal involvement on your part,

but it still takes some watching over. It still takes some management. You've got to be involved. You know, creating streams of income. it requires your participation. And the bigger and wider those streams get, the more you must keep that in mind. And I've said this before,

and you'll hear me continue to say this, because it is worth repeating, 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, comes down to property management.

Yes, good property management itself can almost equate to financial freedom. Do you hear that? Good property. property management. That right there, right there, if you get that part right, that is almost all that you need. I mean, you need the houses, of course, but that's really what really equates to financial freedom. I mean, if you can dial in good property management, and that's whether, you know, you do it yourself or you hire someone else to do it for you, if you can dial that part in,

you will set yourself free. And if you fail to get a hold of this aspect of real estate, even if you do everything else in your business perfectly, freedom will always, exceed your grasp. So back to my point. This is a very simple business. But when you start doing deals, especially when you start doing a lot of deals and you will just stick with it. If you're not doing a lot of deals already, you will just stick with it. And when you start building a sizable portfolio, the simplicity can get away from you. And it's not difficult to, you know, accidentally or inadvertently complicate your business. And if you're not careful, you can complicate it to a point where you can create an environment, the very environment that most were trying to escape when they got

into real estate investing in the first place. You know, an environment of chaos, an environment of confusion and frustration, an environment of uncertainty and doubt and fear, and an environment of 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 into the fire. that fire being an unorganized and complicated real estate investing business. Now, how you prevent this from happening to you is actually, this is actually very easy.

It's simple and easy. It's very easy if every year you make a conscious effort to revisit the basics. Remind yourself of the basics. Revisit the basics. Relearn the basics. You know, I recommend restarting your business every 90 days. And that really, that idea or that, I guess, that practice really revolves around your goals.

It's really tough to hit a 12-month goal. So you want to focus on your goals every 90 days and restart your business and do it that way. So break your year up. When it comes to your goals, break your year up into four components or four quarters. And so I recommend doing that every 90 days. And I recommend every year making a conscious effort

to revisit the basics. You got to do that at least once a year. And if any of this sounds familiar, it's because I did a series of episodes on this very subject two years ago. and I didn't do it last year. I didn't, and I restart this every year, and I typically will bring you all along with me, but I didn't do it last year.

And nor did it the two years before that at this time. So I did it two years ago, but I didn't do it the year before that either. And the reason I didn't is because those were two moments where, you know, business was just, it was booming. It was doing really well. It's doing really well right now. But business was so good this time last year and two years before that that I lost. sight of this focus of the basics.

So I didn't follow my own advice last year. After I swore, I'd never skip a year of returning to the basics just three years ago. I was out of integrity last year. And I paid a hefty price for it. Not so much in income, but really in lost time. That's where I paid the price. You know, I worked more. I worked a lot more to make the same money.

In fact, we made a little bit more money. But the proportion of my effort and time in the business was much more for that little bit extra of money. So I have to restore integrity. And we talked a lot about integrity at the Epic Intensive being that, you know, quite simply defined. It's saying what you're going to do and doing what you say. And I tell myself, I say every year I'm going to re, I'm going to go back and revisit the basics. So last year I didn't do it. So I have to restore integrity. And this year I'm doing it. And I'm getting back on track with this annual ritual. So in November, I'll be setting time aside to check in with myself, check in on the basics, and get back to them. And this happens to be

that time of the year that I would typically do this. Here we are in October, right? And that's why I love this time of year. That's really why I love this time of year. Last year, I forgot that I loved this time of year for that reason. But I know when I do it right, you know, the new year starts off really strong. And that's why I've had these, it's no coincidence that each, I've had two slightly off years because the year before that I did not revisit the basics. Make sense? Good. So the reason I do this right now and I start doing it right I start thinking about in October and I plan or really go to work on it in November is because I start my new year every year on December 1st. I don't wait until January 1st like everybody else. And I do that for two reasons. First. First,

Most people slow their business down in December. They start to take it easy. And because they do, I encounter less competition in December. Second, most people restart their business mid-January. They don't really start on January 1st, do they? No, it's still actually a holiday. And people don't start it on January 1st. They start mid-January 1st.

And many don't get up to full speed until February sometime. And during this time, I'm running it, full speed and I'll typically I'll typically encounter much less competition during this time. And here's why this is important. First, the obvious. Less competition equates to more opportunity, right? Second, the not so obvious. Historically speaking, the spring is the best time for real estate.

I mean, I'm not entirely sure why, but the activity is certainly higher. It's noticeably higher in the spring than the rest of the rest. of the year. And if you haven't been paying attention, it's easy to not notice. But if you pay attention and you look at the stats, you look at the numbers, spring activity much bigger in real estate. It's much bigger in the spring than any other four seasons, three seasons, three other seasons. There's four seasons, right? Yeah. So the activity is much bigger in the spring. I mean, maybe it's, maybe it's cabin fever. It gets to people and they're dying to get out of the house or they're dying to get out of the office, what have you. It's a time where people seem they want.

and need to move. They need to sell a property. For one reason or another, it doesn't matter, but this seems like a season where they need to sell. This is the way it was when I was a real estate agent, more than 12 years ago, and that's the way it has been my entire time as a full-time real estate investor as well.

So with that being said, January, February, and March is when you do not want to be spending your time, getting organized and planning, and setting up your systems and figuring things out. This is the time of year when you want to be fully operational with your business, firing on all cylinders. And I've found that 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 is exceptional money to be made in December. Now, it sounds a little counterintuitive.

I get it. I mean, you think most people would be staying put, not selling their property. And, you know, that's actually not an act or an inch. inaccurate assumption entirely. And because there is some basis to this being a valid idea, most real estate investors will take this time off too. So 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. Less competition for motivated sellers' attention. Less mail hitting their mailbox. Less bandit signs on the street. Fewer online advertisements. Just a lot less messaging from real estate investors over. overall. And that to me, and always has spelled less competition, right? 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. You see, the activity might slow down, but a disproportionate amount of investors slow down even more. So there is less opportunity. There is a little less opportunity, but because there is less competition, much less competition, it actually equates to more opportunity. Does that make sense? And of the lighter opportunity that is out there, I have found it's bigger opportunity. It's the opportunity that's not only bigger, it's opportunity that it presents less resistance, fewer obstacles and challenges, meaning what type of property owners would want to sell during December? What kind of crazy people would want to disrupt their lives during family time,

during the holidays to sell their property. During the holidays, really? Well, likely the owners that want to sell wouldn't want to inconvenience themselves during the holidays with selling property, but the property owners that need to sell would. 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, my experience 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.

I always just one, I just knock it out of the park at least once during December. Always. I always did when I was a real estate agent. In fact, one of my biggest commissions ever came as a result of writing an offer on Christmas Day. And I always have hit a home run during December as a real estate investor too. And like I said, in hindsight, not only were they home runs, they took less effort too. I mean, when I was that agent signing that contract on Christmas Day, it was so simple.

The buyers and the sellers, they showed up, they signed the paperwork and they said, gave me a nice pat on the back and everything. You know why I got it so easily? I didn't have to go through my whole sales spiel and jump through all the hoops like I normally wouldn't do to the giant presentation and everything to the homeowners? It's because no one else would go on Christmas Day to do it. So it took less effort because the seller's motivation was there.

It took less effort because the buyer's motivation was there. And as you know, the foundation of every deal lies within the seller's motivation to sell. So 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 want to wait until January 1st like the rest of the world. So that's what we're going to do next month, the month of November. We're going to prepare ourselves to restart our business December 1st. first. So you don't have to, okay, you don't have to, but I'd recommend that you consider doing so, especially if 2016 failed to meet your expectations, especially if you need 2017 to be better than 2016, especially if 2017 must be better than 2016. Stay with me next month and we'll see to it that that actually happens for you. 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 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 in your pocket before the new year. That's the goal. So are you in? Are you game? You ready to do this? So since we're going to be working hard through November and December, I'm going to keep this week's episode rather light. I'm going to allow you to mentally prepare for market domination in 2017. And if there's something you've been thinking about doing for fun,

like maybe a weekend getaway with your significant other, or maybe a night out with the boys or a night out with the girls, maybe a small relaxing road trip up the coast or through the country, whatever floats your boat during your personal time, get it done this week. Okay, you've got my permission. Let's kind of relax. and get it done this week and think about how next year is going to be your best year ever. And then we'll get started on the next episode.

All righty. So that's it for today. You're free to go have some fun and sit in thought imagining the possibilities for 2017. And then be ready for next week as we build or rebuild your business from the ground up. God bless and to your success, 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. dot com.