Epic Real Estate Investing - Investor Friendly Realtors and Your Boots on the Ground | EREI 174

Episode Date: September 28, 2015

Today’s guest is Justin Shum, CEO of Avenue, a mobile messaging app that connects investors and agents in real time.  Avenue touts “Give us 15 seconds and we’ll connect you with a real estate advisor who is willing to help first, and win your business second.”  Now doesn’t that sound refreshing? Matt is implementing Avenue in his own business this week, and after hearing how it allows you to “test drive your agent,” you’ll probably do the same.  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

This is Terrio Media. Podcasting from Terrio Studios in Glendale, California, it's time for Epic Real Estate Investing with Matt Terrio. And welcome to Epic Real Estate Investing, the place where I show people how to escape the rat race using real estate. Shift your focus from making piles of money to making streams of money, and boy, you're almost there. Change that one thing, just one time, and you are on your way to financial freedom. It is not the most exciting path, but it is the fastest. And then once you get there, life then becomes exciting. And speaking of exciting lives, my lovely better half surprised me last week with a trip to Hawaii.

So I just got back from Hawaii. It was my first time ever. If you ever have the chance to go, I highly recommend it. I really considered not coming back or started to consider how I could work remotely. But I have a staff here. I have to think about. So maybe in the future, that's just how much I loved it. It was just I've never even, you know, as far as the ocean goes.

Let's see, I've been in, obviously in Southern California quite a few times. I've been in Cabo and Puerto Vallarta. They're ocean, which is a lot nicer than what we have here. But the ocean over there, oh, my goodness. You could see all the way to the bottom, and it was nice and warm. It was just cold enough to be refreshing, but not too cold to make you shiver as you're getting in. It was just the most amazing experience. And I did so many things I never thought I would do.

Took a helicopter ride around the entire island of Maui. And I kind of swore I would never get in a helicopter because I always hear about those tourist helicopters crashing. But I faced my fears, and I pulled through, and here we are. I made it back fine. Went snorkeling, which I never thought I would do. As much as I love the ocean, as much as I love the beach, it just kind of freaked me out. It freaks me out when I see fish around me. Like even if I go out the lake Havasu, and you can see big fish come up to the shore.

And while you're standing there and you're like, whoa, what's that? I remember going fishing with my dad in the river too and jumping out of the boat and seeing the salmon swim by. And it was like, that kind of freaked me out. So I never really had this desire to go do that. But boy, that was just the most amazing experience. And the snorkel technology has come a long way these days since I last tried when I was a kid. I didn't get any water down the snorkel. So I didn't swallow any ocean water or anything.

It was very easy and very enjoyable. And then the one thing that I've wanted to do forever, and I just aspire to, you're not inspired, but I declared that I was going to make this my hobby was that stand-up paddleboard thing. paddle boarding. And we went out and we did that and it's not as easy as it looks, at least not in the beginning. And I went through this whole process and it just kind of reminded me of, you know, as frustrated I was getting, I was like, okay, I got to go through the four levels of learning.

I just have to go through the four levels of learning. And if you don't know what that is, you might have heard it because a lot of people have shared this, but I just recognize every time that I have to learn something new, you got to go through the four levels of learning. And I had to go through the four levels of learning when I started investing in real estate. Absolutely, especially when I was talking to motivated sellers, especially when I was working out creative financing deals. I had to go through those four levels of learning. What that is, you know, you got level one is you're unconsciously incompetent, meaning you do not know what you don't know. And, you know, at one point in my life, I didn't even

know what a paddle board was, right? And that's when I didn't know I didn't know. And there's one time where I didn't know you could invest in real estate and make money. That's when I didn't know that I didn't know. Once you become aware of it, you become, you go to, you automatically go to stage two, which is consciously incompetent. Now you know what it is, but you know you don't know how to do it. And that's, that was that first step of getting on that paddleboard in the ocean. And I was like, okay, I'm just, you guy gave me a couple lessons up on the sand.

I was like, okay, I got this. I can skateboard. I can snowboard. I can ski. This should be no problem. Look at this big, giant wide ski. Okay, so stand on the water and he looks, look at everyone else out there doing it. Looks very, very easy.

So I got up and as soon as I got up, I was like my legs just started to wobble and my knees were flexing and went right in the water. I mean, it wasn't up for even a minute. And I was like, wait a minute. This did not look like this was going to be my experience. And I was a little annoyed and I got up and did it again and stayed up a little bit longer and paddled my way. longer and paddled my way out and got out there and I just I was just shaking and I was so nervous and I saw something in the water because there were a lot of ocean life out there and I just kind of turned my head and just by the turn of my head was enough to knock me off balance and into the water and then I

got up and I was like after about 10 minutes and I'd fell a fall in a third time I was like this is no fun I don't want to do this I'm going to go in and Mercedes she was out there with me and she was doing just fine, which was a little bit even more annoying and made it less enjoyable. And I just kind of sat there. It was like, no, I've only been here 10 minutes. The guy up at the beach that gave me the little lesson on the sand, he's going to think I'm a total punk if I go in right now. So I just kind of sat there. And then that's where these, these, the four levels of learning came to me. I was like, I just have to go through the four levels of learning. I'm in stage two. So how do you get to stage three? Well, you get to stage three by repetition, by getting up and doing it again and

again and again. I said, okay, so let's just get up. And the thing about the repetition is you can do the repetitions fast or you can do it slow and that's going to determine on how quickly that you learn something. And I remember that when I was making my phone calls when I was calling motivated sellers. I hated it because I wasn't any good at it in the beginning. And then I also got comfortable on the paddle board with, okay, Matt, remember, you coach people.

It is impossible to learn something new and look good. doing it. I was like, okay, so give that up. You're going to look like an idiot. Don't worry that you fall in the water three times before Mercedes even fell once. In fact, she never did fall, which even made it more annoying. But it was like, give that up because you're not going to look good learning how to do this. So just go through the process.

So I just went, I said, okay, I'm just going to get up and I'll paddle all the way to that jetty, which was probably about 200, 300, 300 yards away. And I went all the way down. And Mercedes, she just kind of laying out and getting her sun tan on the board. And I said, okay, I'm going to go practice my repetitions. I'll be right back. So I got up and I made it all the way down to the jetty. And then I just kind of sat down.

I was like, I was breathing. I was like, okay, I did it. I did it. All right, cool. So let's just go back. And I went back again. And I was a little bit more stable that time, but still kind of wobbly. And then I went back again and back again.

And I just did laps up and down the shoreline to the point whereas it became almost second nature. Now I know I have to go out there several more times before it actually does become second nature, but I went through the repetitions. And after I went through those repetitions and I got to that third level of learning where you're consciously competent, meaning you know how to do it, but you're still thinking about it. And I got to that third level and I was like, wow, this what, you know, maybe 45 minutes ago, I was going to say that this was my least favorite part of my entire vacation because it wasn't any fun. wanted to quit. I wanted to go back into the shore. But I recognize what you have to do when

you're learning something new. You have to go through the repetitions. And all of us learn at different speeds. We all start from different places in life. We all start with different resources and different experiences, different backgrounds. So we're all going to learn and progress differently. But as long as you go through the repetitions, you will progress. So if you're challenged or you're struggling right, now with your with your with your with your with your real estate investing just understand you're learning how okay and nothing is failure you just keep on accepting feedback and keep on making adjustments i got to the point on this paddle board where i was like oh okay i can see my body is actually kind of shifting with the water now and i'm not really having to think about it my legs weren't

nearly as wobbly as they were when we when we started but the ocean was the same the ocean didn't change it was me that changed i got better because of the repetitions. And I want you to know with your real estate investing, you are going to get better too. Just keep on doing it. Don't quit. Because if I would have quit in my real estate investing, when I felt that way, when I hated picking up that phone, when I hated talking to motivated sellers, I hated going through those long conversations sometimes, if I would have quit then, I guarantee you, I would not have been in Hawaii last week. It was because of the real estate that allowed us and enabled us to go.

And not just go, go in style. Okay, that's what's available for you. All right, I've got a great show for you today. Something, I met somebody, I had this phone call, recorded this phone call just before I left, and it's a gentleman with, I think, a great service. So if you're struggling right now with trying to find a realtor to work with, or if you're wholesaling virtually and you don't have any feet on the ground,

and you're looking for some information, some local knowledge, this might be the very thing for you. I'm implementing it in my business. I'm going to give it a try. Maybe we all try it at the same time. I just got back from Hawaii, so we're going to start using it this week. I'm going to introduce it at my staff meeting. So if you're looking for a realtor to work with, one that will like working with an investor, one that will like working with you, specifically, maybe even someone that's very much like you,

or you're wholesaling virtually or you're investing virtually and you need some feet on the ground you need an expert or somebody that has local knowledge to share with you this might be the very thing for you it sounds like it's going to be god i hope it is but i'm going to introduce to introduce you to that gentleman right after this there are two steps to wealth first stop doing what poor people do second start doing what wealthy people do the wealthiest people work their strengths and hire their weaknesses. If only you have the time and resources to do it, now you do. We're VAs for Real Estate.com, and we have some free information for you.

Get the five-step shortcut to hiring a rock star virtual assistant that will make you millions. Go to VAs for Real Estate.com. Stop doing what poor people do and do what wealthy people do. VAs for real estate.com. So on the phone, I'm joined by Mr. Justin Schum. Justin, welcome to epic real estate investing. Hey Matt, thanks for having me. You bet.

Glad to have you here. I heard a little bit about what you're up to, and I think it's very intriguing. I think there's a good application here for my audience, but can you give me a little bit of your background to begin with, and then tell me a little bit about your business. Yeah, of course. So I'm currently the CEO of Avenue, and for those of you who haven't heard of us, we've been making a bit of a splash in residential real estate market. We first won Realogy Forward Innovation Summit a couple months ago.

and for those of you who know, Rilogy, they're the big holding company for a lot of big brokerages out there. So we've had a lot of publicity, and it's purely based of what we've created. So Avenue is a real-time mobile messaging application that connects consumers or investors with local real estate agents in the neighborhood

that you're looking to make a purchase or invest in. And so how that works is you simply type in a real estate question, you're broadcast it, and then you're connected instantly with an agent to 50, your criteria in terms of what you're looking for, expertise levels that you're looking for, and then they're connected to you in real time to provide you with advice. So instead of going to Google and reading historical information and stuff that may be out of date or out of market, you're getting it from the direct source agents in on the ground

in the neighborhoods you're looking to purchase and invest in. Got it, cool. So to get matched up with an agent, is just like any agent can answer or do you have like a profile type thing or how do you get matched up? How it works actually is consumers or in your audience case, an investor can log in using Facebook. It requires Facebook login for one reason. It's because we take your public information such as your location, obviously, demographic info that may be available as well as interest.

And then we match that with agents in your area. And so when you broadcast the question, it goes up to that group of agents who match up similar to your interest. And then they race to respond based off of the question that you've sent. So, for example, I'm an agent. I received your query. I'm going to read it. If I'm not skilled to answer it, I'll ignore it.

But if I'm skilled enough to answer it, I'll reply. And the reason why we match similar interests with the consumer and the real estate agent is because we understand that we're making initial introductions with strangers. And we want to make sure that all social barriers and everything are broken down. so that it's purely a conversation about what the consumer or investor is looking for, and you guys both talk the same language so that there's no awkwardness straight to the chase. So that's exactly how a consumer or an investor's question is routed to an agent. Once they're matched up with you, they can obviously provide advice,

but there's also built-in search tools for the agents to push available listings, taken off of local MLSs, into the conversation. So you're able to view these properties, schedule viewings with your agent through the app all in a matter of seconds. So if you were to look at the traditional way of how this is all done, while you would normally email listings to an agent, how they were working with, they would get back to you with the MLS data, you would request showing, they would contact the showing agents, and then they would get back to you. At the end of the week, you would have dozens of listings in your inbox. It's difficult to keep track which listings you were actually in.

And so we streamline that in what would normally take hours or if not days or weeks into an experience that takes literally minutes to do. Got it. So you can actually message through the app. You can communicate back and forth with the agent in the app. Correct. It's actually purely a messaging interface. Okay. And the reason why we chose that route is because if you're on a mobile device, you can probably relate to this.

When you go to Google and you type in, you know, what is the average home price in this area? you're going to have to search through pages of content. And for a mobile user on the go, that is extremely inefficient and time-consuming. So by entering a conversation, asking a question, having somebody answering it, almost like a human-powered search engine, you can get that information within seconds from a specialist who knows exactly what he's talking about, and you don't have to find or dig for that content. That's awesome. Sounds almost too good to be true.

So one of the bigger challenges that real estate investors have is connecting with an agent because there is a necessity for them in our business. But connecting with an agent that's investor friendly that might think a little bit outside the box, might invest themselves, might understand creative transactions. This is a way that they could certainly expedite or make that search a little bit more efficient or a lot more. Exactly. And if you were to look, I mean, I just entered the market from the first time this year. I'm a millennial. This after is really geared towards millennials who prefer to text rather than speak. And when I went through the process, I actually worked with a couple agents. The first one I hired, I didn't like. The second one I hired, I liked. They did a pretty decent job, and I continued with the transaction with them. But here's the thing. With Avenue, an investor can ask a question, get that information, and there's no obligation. No strings attached. They're not going to call you. They're not going to you annoying emails or flyers or anything like that, it's just the information up front. And if they do a good job, you can continue with that relationship and have to represent your interest. And we really think that's great because it's allowing consumers and investors to test-driving

agents, if you will, before committing to them. That's sweet. So how many agents do you have on the platform already? So we actually launched this week, and we have 10,000 handpick agents across the United States that have signed up with us. And we'll be launching on the platform this week as well. Got it. So 10,000 dispersed nationally?

Correct. Yeah, that's U.S. and Canada, by the way. Okay. Well, congratulations on your launch. That's awesome. I didn't know it was so new. Yeah, thank you so much. It's been, you know, a year in the making,

and it's been a world, but we've had a lot of traction, a lot of interest in this, and I think it's just, I think the real estate industry has evolved. And by that, I mean consumers, consumer behavior expectations. And we're just simply updating the industry to that expectation with a messaging app where you can get this information easily and conveniently. That's awesome.

So is it a free app? It is a free app, absolutely. For consumers and investors, 100% free, how we monetize it is on the agent side, actually. They have to pay in order to access the network because it is a new way for them to meet prospects and to market themselves. So that's how we monetize currently. Fantastic. So this is like a no-lose situation for the consumer or the investor.

Exactly. 100%. I love it. Fantastic. So it's in the app store. And the name of the app, again, is Avenue. Yeah, correct. It's called Avenue.

It will be available in the app store for iOS only for beginning September 9th. That's tomorrow. And then it will roll out to the Google Play Store for all those. or you just out there come October 1st. Fantastic. Well, congratulations, dude. This sounds really cool. I think my audience and I think even myself, I'll have my people on the ground go and sign up for this right away.

And I got people in the office virtually that need people. Oh, here's the question. So if it uses your Facebook information to log in, if you are looking for property outside of where your Facebook says you are, how does that work? That's easy to do? Yeah, absolutely. So, of course, we've considered that, and you can easily just toggle your location on the ask screen. So it's difficult for me to show you, but it's highly intuitive, and in a few caps or less, you'll be able to use it. But if it is pulling your city and it will pull your city.

Uh-oh, you still there? Justin, can you hear me? Yeah, can you hear me? Oh, yeah, you dropped out. So it will pull your city? Yeah, it will pull your, it'll actually pull your GPS location. But if you're visiting your friends in Miami and you're actually looking to purchase in New York and you're doing some research while you're on vacation, you can actually change your city location quite easily. Perfect. Awesome.

Yeah. Well, cool. That sounds pretty straightforward. Is there anything that I didn't ask that I might as should have? You know, I think a lot of your investors out there might want to know how is it going to change the real estate industry. Is this just kind of another platform that is available to consumers? And I think it's really important to note that, you know, there's a lot of great apps out there. There's a lot of great search products out there.

But there's nothing that focuses on advice. And again, the traditional ways of finding that would be going to Google, finding some inaccurate information, or calling a real estate agent, but we all know how inconvenient, time-consuming, and high friction that can be, right? Nobody likes to deal with salespeople. And as intelligent investors and consumers, we like to do all the research ourselves. And this is a more accurate way of getting that information, again, with any strings attached, by yourself, by capping the minds of a local real estate agent and getting it up front. And if you like them, you can work with them after. That's the whole philosophy here.

We really put the consumer and the investor in control here, and then it's up to you to decide, you know, what you want to do with that data or relationship. Right. No, I see that. I see that. It's very clear. Yeah, I can see this being a very valuable tool. for the public. It's a valuable tool for realtors as well.

I mean, what an awesome way to connect with people. And I guess they get to choose who they want to work with as well. So it's a win-win, sounds like. Exactly. You got it. Perfect. All righty, we're talking to the CEO of Avenue, Mr. Justin Schum, and the app Avenue. Available iOS for now tomorrow.

Actually, this will probably air a couple weeks after we've had this interview. So it will be available as you're hearing this. And all is good. Why don't you come back here in a few months and let's talk about the progress and what everything has happened and see what else we can share with the people. Let's do it, Matt. I appreciate your time. You bet, Justin. Take care of the show, by the way.

Oh, thank you very much. Thank you. Take care. Okay. Bye-bye. Bye. Have you ever wondered how some investors seem to get the inside scoop and snatch up all the deals? Wonder no more.

The secret to finding deeply discounted properties has been exposed. and it lies within your ability to find motivated sellers, go to find motivated sellers ASAP.com and download their proven five-step checklist to find motivated sellers in any market. Find motivated sellers ASAP.com. Deeper discounts, less secrets. Find motivated sellers ASAP.com.

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