Epic Real Estate Investing - Market Trends and Strategy - Erik Slaikeu | 1093

Episode Date: October 28, 2020

In today's episode, Matt is joined with Erik Slaikeu, an Epic’s teacher who made a transition from marine corps to real estate investing. Tune in and find out how he uses knowledge from the navy in his business today, what trends he sees in the housing market, and what strategies he uses to find deals during the pandemic. Moreover, you will find out how you can participate in Erik’s 3 days of free training where you will learn how to get started in real estate and get all the market updates! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is Terrio Media. Success in real estate has nothing to do with shiny objects. It has everything to do with mastering the basics. The three pillars of real estate investing. Attract, convert, exit. Matt Terrio has been helping real estate investors do just that for more than a decade now. If you want to make money in real estate, keep listening. If you want it faster, visit R-E-I-A's.com.

Here's Matt. Hey there, Epic Investor. It's Matt Terrio from Epic Real Estate, where we show people how to invest in real estate with an emphasis on retiring early. This is the Epic Real Estate Investing Show. And if this is your first time here, really glad that you found us. If you like what you hear, make sure you hit the subscribe button before you go. And if this is not your first time here, welcome back.

And thank you for continuing to share this with your friends and family. 11 years on the run right now, and I just wouldn't be here if it weren't for you doing that. You're the absolute best for doing that, so thank you so much. I really appreciate you. Alrighty, so in the news, this week, the U.S. hit a record for new daily coronavirus cases. More than 82,000 people tested positive for COVID-19. That's about 6,000 more than the previous peak in July. And that's a fact.

That is factual. And that's what you're going to hear about mostly. What's factual, but what's actual might lead you to believe something a little bit different because those are kind of grim numbers that we really aren't, I don't think, in the mood for hearing right now. We've been dealing with this for a while, almost the whole year, and that it is factual. But what's actual? Well, what's actual is we are testing about double the people we were in July.

In July, we were testing 600,000 people right now. We're testing 1.1 million people. And I think that's daily tests, which is absolutely remarkable that we're conducting those that many tests. Let me pull this little stat I had up here. But that's the number that I saw on the graph. Let me just confirm that that is daily. And that would be right here.

Nationwide COVID-19 metrics seven-day average lines. Okay, so these are seven-day averages? Well, it says daily tests right now. now October 25th is 1.1 million tests. So that is daily tests. So we are doing 1.1 million tests per day. Remarkable. So if we're doing that, of course we're going to set new records. Hospitalizations are trending upward. So that's not good news. But they are well below the April number and well below the July peak of 60,000. We're all the way down to 40,000. So that's a 30% cut right there, a 33% cut. And the most important stat of all, of which gets mentioned the least, which I think is

pretty darn remarkable, as this virus has proven to be very dangerous for those in particular categories. And so that's why we've locked down. That's why we're taking all the measures and precautions and changing our behaviors in the way that we are, is because how deadly it is. Well, the daily deaths, the peak in late April, were right around 2,200. hundred per day. And that was when it was really serious business. And though even in July's spike of cases where we reached the all-time high in cases, we cut that daily death number in half to 1,100 per day.

And as I record this, we're down again at 800 per day. Certainly, we've got work to do, and not one death is acceptable. But we are making ground. The president says we are turning the corner. I guess there's a lot of different ways you could interpret turning the corner or what that means to you. But if we're looking at just the death chart, the daily death chart, the improvements that we've made are remarkable.

And these are stats from the COVID tracking project. I tried to find a nonpartisan source and just look at the actual numbers. And this is what I found. And so we're making gains. I'm getting control of this. There are more cases due to more tests, but less deaths due to better treatment and management of the virus. So that's my interpretation of the data.

You interpret it how you best see fit. If the data changes, maybe my interpretation will as well, but I think it's relatively good news. So stay the course with the safety guidelines in your state and continue to take your vitamin and D, C, and zinc and get plenty of exercise to keep your immune system healthy and strong. All right? So that's the actual, the factual news, and that could be interpreted in a half empty, half full way. But there's some official good COVID news that was published in the same location that I found this.

So this week, the Gilead drug Remdesivir became the first and only COVID-19 treatment to be fully approved by the FDA. That was just this week. And the agency had granted the drug emergency use authorization back in May, but now it has a more official stamp of approval. So if you had any stock holdings in Gilead, you saw those shares bounced by more than 3% right overnight. But since it was greenlit for emergency use, remdesivir has been administered via IV to patients hospitalized with COVID-19. And studies have found that it modestly shortens recovery times for some of those patients. And it took a star turn as one of the drugs used to treat President Trump after he tested positive.

So looking ahead, in August, Gilead said it planned to produce more than two million treatment courses by the end of the year, plus several million more in 2021. All righty, so there's some good COVID news. And here's some more good COVID news if you happen to be a manufacturer of motorcycles or scooters, because the pandemic has boosted the sales of all two wheelers in cities around the world. according to Bloomberg, the pandemic kickstarted an urban motorcycle boom. So are the city's ready for this?

Well, two-wheeled vehicles surged during lockdown on streets around the world, so have worries about noise, air pollution, and safety. And explanations for the spike, they vary. Like the supplementary bicycling boom, socially distance rides are all the rage. It isn't just motorcycles and scooters, but also e-bikes and electric skateboards and bicycles. That's Motorcycles Data CEO. Carlo Simogini told the Wall Street Journal this, and they're all just great for people trying to avoid each other. So, yeah, if you got stock in the two-wheeler industry, you're probably doing

pretty good with there too. And then here's a surprising news. Restaurants, nearly 6,500 new restaurants and food businesses opened last month. New restaurants, and this is all according to Yelp. New openings are nearing or outpacing levels from the last four years. One will be hard-pressed to find, though new restaurants opening with elaborate fine dining interiors, but pandemic optimized eateries are the ones that are opening and thriving, debuting some combination of features such as large patios, spaced out tables, order ahead menus, and efficient service cuisine. Now, little real estate news, million dollar homes have almost doubled. Actually, they have more than doubled since last year. The one million plus dollar priced homes, medium home prices hit a record of 311,000 in September,

as home sales rose 20% annually. Homes in the 100 to 250,000 range only saw 4% gain in sales, though, compared to a year ago, while sales of homes costing more than $1 million, more than doubled. So Lawrence Yun, the chief economist for the Realtors Group, says he's never seen that happen before. But he thinks it shows that people with the resources to do it, they're just going all in and buying bigger homes to help ride out the pandemic, sometimes in resort towns. I was just talking to a friend about this, and he was mentioning this. And, you know, he's talking about the migration of people moving from major or that inner cities out to the suburbs and to more rural areas.

And they're selling those city properties and they're taking all their cash and they're going out and spending it in other areas where that cash goes a long, long way or a much longer way. And your lifestyle can really improve with a fraction of the cost and still probably have some money left over. And the trend isn't just among the super rich, though. Sales of homes between $250,000 and $500,000 saw a 36% gain from a year ago. But homes going for $500 to $750,000 saw nearly twice as big a percentage jump in sales. So it's at all levels. The $1 million plus is more than doubled, but it's doing really well for that $500 to $750,000 price range. And the $250,000 to $500,000 price range saw a 36% gain from a year ago.

And lastly, Christmas toys. Mattel's sales jumped 10% last quarter. makers biggest increase in a decade. Sales in its Barbie line rose 29%. All righty and so that's the news. Let's talk real estate. Investing. That's why you're here, right? You know, someone this weekend asked me, why do you teach real estate investing and not just do it? And this was at the epic intensive, by the way. And for all of you that I got to meet in person face to face, it was really nice to go and see people's actual facial expressions. And so for the few people that were there in person, it was great.

I had a fantastic time. I'm looking forward to working with you guys. And for those of you that were there virtually, boy, I mean, it's like 250 people stuck to it and stayed tuned in for those three days. So I really appreciate you as well. And I know there's many of you that I'm going to be working with as well. But after everything was over, I was asked by one of my new private clients that why do you teach real estate investing and not just do it?

And that's a typical question. It's been asked frequently, and it's probably asked to one's self more than actually verbalized, meaning I know people are always thinking it. It's like, why is this guy teaching this if he could just go out and do it and make a bunch of money? Why does he have to teach it? Well, I've got a great answer. Here's why.

Because a wise person once said to me, get good at one thing and then create multiple streams of income from it. He said, that's what the rich people do. That's what the wealthy people do. And at that time, I barely had two nickels to rub together. couldn't really comprehend what it actually meant. But when I got to the point, he had mentioned consulting is the most typical first additional stream for most people that they'll do.

So they'll get really good at something. They'll have this wealth of knowledge and experience in their mind. And consulting is an easy way to create a secondary income stream from that. So back in 2009, when the timing felt right, I decided to start consulting or coaching, if you will. And the very first client that I had, Brad Donnelly, out of St. Louis, he took my coaching and ran with it far beyond my, and exceeding my expectations. And to this day, 11 years or so later, he's still among my top five most successful clients. And he was the first one. And that gave me a lot of confidence about being able to, to maybe I could actually do something with this and help a lot of

people. And making that type of difference in people's lives, it's really, really fulfilling. I had no idea what that would actually feel like, because I did get into it for the money to create that secondary stream of income. But that underrated emotion of positively impacting someone's financial future in a way they might not have ever experienced unless they did cross pass with you, that's really what drives me now to keep helping people invest in real estate. And I'm doing more and more and more and asking for less and less in return because emotionally it is so fulfilling. But what I never imagined would be the relationships that I've made through coaching, both personally and professionally, relationship-wise. For example, you know, Josh Swanson, he's a former client.

He's taken what he's learned here at Epic and he's applied it and he's just become a total rock star. He's an annual seven-figure wholesaler. and, you know, that's what he's done with the education and made me a proud mentor, a proud educator. And then he and his wife flew all the way to Mexico to celebrate my 50th birthday with all of my closest friends and certainly they're among them now. And he now assists me with coaching and helping people invest in real estate and his clients are thriving.

So that pay-it-forward aspect and that relationship and working with like-minded people, I'd have never imagined that happening. or now several of my students who came to me, not knowing really a thing about finding off-market deals. Some had no experience at all, and some had a little bit. But so many of them now are providers of turnkey properties to cash flow savvy, building this internal supply chain, this internal secret supply chain for cash flow savvy,

and providing amazing exit strategies for our existing students. Like Mora McGraw and Chris Warren and Daniel Ackerman, and just to name a few. We've bought properties from them, multiple properties from them, and gave them to our cash flow savvy clients so they could help build their passive income portfolio. So that has been something that feels really good, as well as being profitable.

And by guiding my clients through their challenging transactions, I've become a better problem solver. I've become a better real estate investor in my own right. And, you know, I've shared stories, of where I've kind of skinned my knee here and there, or I've bumped my head, or I've flat out got demolished on certain deals. You know,

and none of those really exist inside of the last six or seven years. I mean, I made some major mistakes, some costly mistakes seven years ago, eight years ago, nine years ago. That I still tend to, I can still feel the repercussions every now and then. But just by becoming or by coaching people and helping them and holding their hand

through their own transactions, I've become a better problem solver and overall investor and haven't lost a dime since. And my confidence level has skyrocketed and my experience is skyrocketed as well. Because every lesson or every transaction there lies a lesson. And we certainly can't learn everything about this business. There's just too many variables at play and you just kind of have to approach those challenges as they come. And I've been able to experience a lot more challenges by living vicariously through my students. And it's made me a better investor and has built a stronger portfolio for Mercedes and myself. And then my clients, they teach me how to do what I taught them how to do.

They teach me back how to do it even better, which has been great. Like Josh Miller with the three-option LOI. I mean, he just sends it to everyone that ever says no to his initial offer. And so I incorporated that same exact practice. And there has resulted in multiple additional deals that I might not have ever gotten. and then Corey, who threw out the three option LOI all together and just went straight for the knockout by just offering option three, that principal only offer. That's all he ever offers. And now that's my main strategy with my realtors on properties on the multiple listing service that are owned free and clear over 90 days on the market. And both of those innovations of just epic lessons. Those are just two examples have produced multiple deals for Mercedes and I. So I continue to learn. I mean, in some cases, the students have become the teacher. And so, and we've learned that inside of our investor lab and our mastermind gatherings. And so that's what those gatherings are for. And some of those innovations have been remarkable. And some of the ways that we generate leads now

have been from students also. And then I do some lending to my students, some transactional funding, some hard money lending. I'm even in, got some long-term lending with a couple of my students, which has turned into another small little business, not an official business, but certainly an additional stream of income. Not to mention cash flow savvy itself. emerged from growing demand of my coaching clients. So the benefits of teaching people that to answer that question, now it's a really long, long answer. The benefits of teaching people how to invest in real estate, they just continue to grow and grow far beyond the initial goal of just creating a secondary stream from the information I had in my head. So I continue to push and push and

push and grow this even bigger because I see all the ancillary benefits and all the intangibles that come from it. And what never ceases to amaze me, when you run an operation like Epic and you work with the people that you get to work with and you get to help the people that you get to help. What never ceases to amaze me is essentially what I would call almost the miracles that are created. And I don't mean like a spiritual miracle. I just mean really good fortune that wasn't expected and came out of nowhere. And that has to do a lot with, or that shows up in my world by way of the brilliant and caring people that epic attracts just by merely being existence. And doing good by people, we attract people.

And I want to introduce you to one of those newer relationships today. And I'm doing my very best to introduce you to him in an objective way, without it sounding like an infomercial for Epic, considering he's new to the team and helping me help students find their way in real estate investing and helping me match them up with the best solutions for each individual because everyone has different needs and requires different solutions. and he's just been an amazing addition to the team. And if you get to talk to him, take advantage of that time because he's a wealth of knowledge as well.

So without further ado, please help me welcome Mr. Eric Slickew to the Epic Real Estate Investing Show. How are you doing, Matt? Doing good. Doing good. Happy to have you. And, you know,

so we've been able to cross past. We got introduced by a mutual friend. I'm really, really glad that we did. And you've been a great part of the team in helping people get started or, taking their existing fledgling real estate investing efforts and turning them into nice, consistent ones, whether that's a part-time business or a full-time business. So I appreciate

you for that. Just so we can all get up to know you a little bit better, there's still things that you and I haven't even talked about. Can you kind of just give me your background and bring me up to speed to where you are today? Sure. So thank you for having me, Matt. So I was an officer in the Marine Corps for five years. So I had a five-year commitment. I graduated in 2000 from the United States It's Naval Academy. And I was stationed out in Southern California. So I had a five-year commitment. And when I was looking at it was May of 2004, kind of what I wanted to do with the rest of my life,

thought about getting an advanced degree, plugging into corporate America. But Southern California happened to be a really hot real estate market. Obviously, I didn't know what I was doing there. And that was how long ago? That was 2004. 2004, okay? So super hot then, yep. Yeah, it's quite a long time ago.

But I saw the interest in real estate there. I bought a condo. It appreciated it. So I thought there was something that's real estate thing. Then I got some training, had some mentorship, made quite a bit of money initially with preconstructions, but I got overconfident and ended up losing everything in 2009 along with the divorce. And I realized that I needed more of a system and the right coaching to do things correctly

in this business. I love real estate, but I just wasn't on the path that I thought I was on. Ever since then, I've made an effort to rebuild the right way. And along the way, I love helping students kind of do the same thing. Awesome. Sweet. Actually, been developing rock stars, absolute legends around here in the last few years. But I am seeing a good little flow of military. And, you know, I've got Mara McGraw, who is a Marine Corps officer,

and she's done really well for herself. Daniel Ackerman, who is an Army Ranger officer, sniper. and he's done really well for himself. I think about the lessons that I learned in the Marine Corps that I certainly didn't have before going in. And I'm just curious from one Marine to another and let everybody else kind of eavesdrop, what do you think it was about your training

that allowed you to be successful in real estate? Where does that transfer happen? Do you know? Yes, I think, well, as a Marine, I mean, when I thought about being a Marine, I always kind of want to do things a little bit better. I want to be the best of what I was doing. And I think I was fortunate enough to not really be a book smart guy growing up.

And so I really relied on systems and tutoring, whether it be in high school or college or if you'd call it that in military school. So I think in the Marine Corps, I really learned that the team is so important. I think in real estate, it's the same way, whether it's coaching your power team to get deals done. You are who you surround yourself with. So I was fortunate enough to be trained in a step-by-step system with everything we did in the Marine Corps. and I kind of just tried to, you know, I think the biggest thing is going from education to

implementation. And for me, when you had Marines lives on the line, you learn in the classroom, you go out there and then if you're doing live fires or whatever it is, you have instructors there making sure, you know, they don't screw it up or they make adjustments before there's a big mistake. And I think, you know, when I've done real estate the right way and I've, lately I've done a lot more of it the right way than the wrong way, I think that's the model that's really worked for me is really taking it from education to implementation. So step by step in chronological order, the ABCs of real estate. And that's what I found to be most helpful, I would believe.

Yeah, I kind of agree. I mean, you came through the Naval Academy. I went straight through boot camp as enlisted. But the big distinction there that I had was, you know, you come running off the bus and you get jump to the yellow footprints and you got the drill instructors screaming in your ear and you're in this total area of unfamiliarity and disorientation and just scream and scream and scream, what do I go? What do I do? You're confused and you're bumping into each other. And it's just a total mess, right? There's an expression for what's that called, a cluster something, right? Have you heard of this expression? Yeah, you can fill in the second word. But that's what we called it in the Marine Corps. But you were there with someone that was a Marine to guide you and to take you through this process.

And when you say step by step A to Z, you know, you come into this just a total civilian piece of poop. And, you know, you go through this process and you're being led by someone that's been there and done that. And you just get up each and every day. You got a set schedule. You carry out the schedule. And you just stack one of those days on top of each other, you know, and then 12 to good 12 weeks. Boom, they, that you have come out, United States Marine and you're completely transformed and completely different. Just because you had a guide there who'd been there and done that and took.

you through the steps and you had no choice. You know, you had to do the steps. And it was just perfect evidence as to when you do the right activities, it produces the right result. So I just kind of noticed that, you know, and you even started by saying, you know, you were fortunate enough not to be book smart and you're a little bit more street smart and make up for it with your sweat equity and your work ethic. And I think that's all it takes here too. It doesn't take exceptional intelligence inside of real estate to be good at this, right? So here we are in a very weird time, and I hate to use the word unprecedented times because the word unprecedented, if I hear it one more time, I just might burst. We don't have another word for it. Here we are

in unprecedented times with so much stuff going on. I mean, just the election alone has caused all kinds of chaos. But then we've got the social unrest and we've got a global pandemic. And And people are just really confused and we've got all the unemployment. And it's impacting the real estate market. How are you seeing it impact the real estate market right now? What are you noticing? The biggest difference I notice is I think anytime the pressure, you know, turns up that really separates the amateurs and novice from the professionals.

And I think, you know, anybody can buy property. And that doesn't make them what I would call a professional investor. And so I think there's a confusion that, you know, I'm in real estate. I do real estate. And, you know, I was asked, you know, kind of what level, how much passive income do you have? And I think what COVID is done, depending on what state you're in and what degree of lockdown you're in, even if you've done some investing and you're relying on that, I've got to touch it, I've got to smell it, I've got to feel it model.

It hasn't worked. So, you know, the training that we've been doing lately, it's you have your novice, you have your amateurs. I'm sorry, you've got your people who've never touched real estate before. You've got, you know, amateurs who might think they're professionals and they're stuck because they can't get it done just using a laptop and a phone. And I think that when it comes to COVID, I think it really emphasizes that when you have the right systems,

you're going to be successful regardless. And actually, I've seen investors making more money because if we're talking about, you know, bigger wholesale flips or maybe a find it, fund it fixed and flip it, when you have even in markets, crazy markets like San Fran and other markets in California,

that people are fleeing, there's still more demand than there is supply. So if you stick with that middle income price point, there's actually some appreciation that's taking place because people are dumping those more expensive homes because they're being squeezed in terms of affordability. So not only do you have your standard built in profit through the systems,

but you might get a little extra credit profit. And on top of that, when you're talking about going to markets where people might be fleeing New York, New Jersey, California, you can still make really good money there, right? not necessarily want to live there, no offense thing when it does. And I happen to spend just a little bit more than half my time in Texas and then I'm in California as well. So it kind of speaks to both those. But you have people fleeing the states with with higher income tax and, you know, obviously not

to get into politics, but depending on who gets elected, that affects the tax situation. But my point is that the same model applies on a smaller scale. You can go to what I call ripple markets. We might call ripple markets like Orlando, Vegas. In other words, bigger. cities within states like Texas, Nevada, and Florida where people are going that's in terms of a more affordable place to be. So once again, if you're in that market and you're targeting the right properties, you're going to make your money if you have the right systems and supervision, but also you can make more money. And I think we both remember Warren Buffett, you know, kind of smart when it comes to money. He's got a number of different things that he said. But one of

things he said was by fear and sell greed. I'm not sure if I like those two terms, but I think that, you know, this is a tough time for a lot of people, but there's a lot of money to be made. And at the same time, there's a lot of people you can help. And I think that's the biggest thing that you talk about is this business is about helping people and making money. And it's not about making money and then helping people in that order. You can do both. And that's what I think is so fantastic about it. Right. And as real estate investors, we're always looking for where the activity is. Where's the market activity? Where are people buying and selling? And so the hot point there's always been kind of that, find that median price point, just kind of dip about five to 10%

below the median price point. And that's kind of where people move in and they buy their first house, but as soon as they make a few bucks, they're ready to move on. So there's a lot of buying and selling in that price point. But this COVID thing is causing that to kind of expand a little bit, to not to above maybe even the median price point. And just there's a lot. There's a lot of just a lot of real estate exchanging hands. You know, there's the thing on the news today, actually, a 52% increase in New York outbound move requests. That's huge. And then a hundred and twenty-eight percent increase in San Francisco outbound move requests. And it's interesting because I was just talking to a real estate agent in the Bay area over this last weekend. And I said, so what's, gosh,

what's the San Francisco market like? I mean, it's got to be like a ghost town with everyone leaving. He says, no, people are leaving like crazy, but then there's 10 offers for people just to fill that void that they just left. So it's interesting with all the disarray that we're all been, I don't know, kind of imposed upon us almost, really to no fault of our own. We've just kind of stumbled into this new existence. And I would have really expected, and I'm on record on this podcast three, four, five months ago saying, get ready, this thing is going to crash. And we better be ready for a new strategy. And it's done quite the opposite. the demand is still just so high.

And it's kind of making me scratch my head as to what's causing it. But that's really all of the retail on market stuff, right? That's where the retail data. And I just did a big long rundown of all the different stats last week on off market stuff, the stuff that real estate investors pay attention to that you'll never hear about from the media of how that's going to impact the real estate market. But anyway, just what that's, that transition of all that real estate exchanging hands, what type of opportunities are you seeing

or what type of strategies do you think are best for that type of environment? When you talk about that type of environment, are you talking about in those specific states or the U.S. as a whole? Well, let's go as a whole and then let's reduce it down to a little more of a micro focus. Okay. Maybe I would say this. So, I mean, just to start, I mean, maybe with a place like California, I mean, I personally am not happy with maybe some of the policies and the taxes that are there. But you talk about, you hear so many people leaving like you're discussing. But what still remains is California has the fifth artist GDP in the world, I believe.

And so there's Silicon Valley. There's L.A. County. And, you know, you came from Los Angeles, one to Vegas. So no matter how crazy things get, I feel like there is a demand there. And you can't just go by 20, 30, 40 acres, like in a place like Orange County, Irvine. company did that a long time ago. So they're just building and building and building. Yes, there's a bubble in the commercial realm in terms of office space, but what still is not changing is that it seems like there's more of a demand than there is supplies. So as an investor,

when you know how to do that and get access to supply, you're going to make money, even if you wouldn't want to live there. And I think that's what's really powerful. So these places that people are fleeing, yes, I feel like there are great places to flip because, you know, if you're talking about wholesale flipping. And there's different ways, obviously, to do that, whether you're flipping a contract or whether you have transactional funding with a double closing, and buying and selling it simultaneously. The powerful thing is you don't have to live there, but you can make a profit, and that property can be passed on to another investor and they've got their profit, or maybe it's a family's home that they're going to live in. And you have so many, you know, interesting and

strategic ways to find inventory, as I'm sure people listen to the podcast know, but. you know, in these states where people are fleeing, there's still a tremendous opportunity to flip. Now, that being said, I feel with big profits, that being said, when it comes to buying and holding, right? I've seen some people that talk about, you know, in theory about getting cash flow and appreciation in these places as well. But to me, that's more logistically intensive. That's like if you're targeting a mobile home park and you have an RV park, you know, so we can just take their truck and take the, you know, the trailer away as opposed to a mobile home park where the double white, a single white is there, and then it's $1,000.

So it was just easy to manage. So I feel like you can flip in those crazy, well, so to speak, crazy areas. Some people might call them that. It's a lot of volatility, so to speak. But you can still flip anywhere across the country, whether it's wholesale flipping or find it, find it, fix it, and flip it. There's ways to do that. But then, you know, as you and your wife know, it's about buying and holding for cash flow.

And then, you know, it's pushing those profits. there might be larger profits in those areas into, you know, I feel like the Midwest is a great area to buy and hold for cash flow. And then you've got, I think a big part of it is investing in diverse and thriving job markets compared to other cities in the U.S. So if one industry goes away, you've got the others to back it up. I feel like you don't want to buy and hold in an area with two main businesses. Maybe it's a military base and Coleman Coolers because if one of them goes away, you know, what do you have? I feel like when you're building your portfolio, as as I know you talk about as well, you don't want problems.

You want solutions. So the idea is if it's set up correctly, like your systems have, right, then it's more of a solar powered investing system where when you get the gears turning, you know, a lot of it should be there are system of checks and balances where you're not managing that beast. So it's flipping to get to the buy and hold for cash flow. And that's what I feel the opportunity is there. Mm-hmm. 100%.

And I think that the flipping to buy the cash flow, there's another two other dynamics there I think that are really key. You know, I was just over the weekend I spent some time with Jeff, the guy that runs our ground and pound school. And he's always been a fixer and flipper. He's got a huge portfolio, but he likes the big chunks of cash. So he does a lot of fixing and flipping.

He runs his whole contracting crew and everything. But what he's saying is because the demand is so high, he's cut his rehab costs way down because he doesn't, hasn't had to fix him up as nicely as he previously did to sell him for the same. So he's actually really maximizing his profit. And he's been able to pull a lot more out of each deal, which I thought was, I mean, that makes a lot of sense. There's that expression that's become popular over the last few years called wholesaling, right?

You just find a property and then just clean it up and put it right back on the market and the multiple listing service. So instead of selling to another investor, you're actually selling to a retail buyer. Right. And so the problem with that has always been that for that to really work and not have to close on it, you had to have a cash buyer. Because if the buyer is going to get a loan, the lender is typically going to be very uncomfortable lending to that if they're not buying straight from the buyer, right, buying from that middle person. But with so many, so much migration out of these big cities into the more outside the realm or even outside the state of your suburban and your more. rural communities, they're coming. They're paying cash for those areas. So all of a sudden,

you have a bunch of resident owners that are also cash buyers, which I think makes that a little bit more feasible. But also with the new profit spread, if you had to take it down with hard money, it could still prove a really big profit for you. If you had to take it down so you could sell it to a finance buyer. And then the other thing I'm thinking is people are moving and aren't necessarily buying right away. So the rental demand is going way up. Absolutely. See that? Right? I see that going. Like, we haven't had, we had one vacancy. We had a fill right away and we haven't missed a payment out of this entire pandemic. So people have been concerned with the moratorium eviction or the eviction moratoriums and everything. It's like that hasn't really impacted us at all. Right. So I think a lot of that is supported by people migrating from the big cities. So you're getting higher quality or at least someone that's accustomed to paying a whole lot more for rent or coming into your market. And they've got it. It's not such a stress. for them. So I think that's a big one there. Absolutely. This is something Mercedes and I are doing. If you have rentals already and if you have any kind of lower priced properties or maybe some properties that have

presented some difficulties in managing, like maybe it's time to cash out on those and upgrade your portfolio because you're going to get probably the highest dollar you've ever been able to get since you've owned it right now because the demand is so high. Yeah. With interest rate being as as low as they are. I mean, this, you know, we're talking about unprecedented if I hear it one more time, but I mean, I just feel the lessons learned. I think the great thing about, you know, your network is your net worth. When you have someone like you, I learned from you, you know, you've mentored me and I've talked to you about things. And when you communicate and you have, you know, I guess smart guys and smart gals in this business, book smart or not. And you learn

from the things that you could do better. So the things that don't work, you ditch them, but you hang on to the things that do work. And then it's just this powerful force about getting business done in an ethical way. And it's just, it's great when it, and it's going in the right direction. And at time like this, so many people need the right real estate. And when you have the right system like you do, like you and Mercedes have, it's just, it's these incredible profits for investors, but you're helping so many people on the way, which to me is just, it's incredible. There isn't anything else I'd rather do. This is a great time to invest and a great time to help people. I agree. We just did the epic intensive this past weekend. I want to be a lot of.

of our live events. It was nice to actually have a live event again. Oh, yeah. And actually see people's faces and be able to see their expressions while you're talking to them. Absolutely. I've discovered that Zoom is a terrible platform for comedy because you get zero feedback. And then when you're not that funny to begin with, that makes it even more tough. But at the event that we had this weekend, you know, I was able to show a lot of our testimonials. But I had to show them by way of video because people were.

still kind of nervous about traveling. So we didn't have a whole lot of people there. But I got to show all the videos. And we have so many now to show. Like I had to choose which ones am I actually going to share with people because I could have just made a whole event of these videos. And there was actually a couple of moments where I was like, oh my God, look what I've done for this person.

Look what Epic has done in transforming this life. And it really tugged at the heartstrings. And I actually had to, you know, take a break for a second because I was feeling very emotional about it. So, yeah, nothing better than doing what we do on so many fronts, right? And you, your heart's in the right spot and you're an expert at what you do. And I've been blessed to have you a part of the team. I've been blessed to have Josh Swanson, who has been helping people get their first deal done on that weekly coaching call.

And he's been helping me out with the coaching my clients. And all of his students are starting to succeed. And a lot of them have been introduced to us by way of you and your training that we've put in place. And so I know you've got one coming up or you're doing these pretty regularly. And they're absolutely free to help people get started on the right track and answer their questions. What are some of the things that they could expect in those trainings? Well, I tell you what, it's what I love about doing this is, you know, I really like teaching the live classes like you said. And I know you do too.

But when COVID happened, you know, it's just like real estate deals. You know, it's adapt. It's what we learn in the Marine Corps. It's adapting and overcoming. Because in real estate, you know, a lender will fall out and you should have others to take their place. You know, if a contractor might fall out, you've got others to take their place, right? You're not relying on just one source of deals. So, you know, we just went right ahead with the webinar-based portal, you know, teaching the events, the three days.

And I think the biggest part is showing people how you really can do this business with your computer and your phone. And so the first morning we talk about, I think it's important to understand what isn't taught in schools, high school, college, MBA programs is money intelligence. It's not that people aren't smart enough to do this. And I think anyone can use your system and make money as long as I feel they have four things. One is a good attitude. If they can ask, how can I make this happen? Because I had a mentor a long time ago tell me, Eric, if you say you can, you're right. If you say you can't, you're right too.

If someone has a desire to make a change and to get better. So how can I make it happen? The second one is they're coachable. If they're coachable and if they're willing to learn and be open to new ideas and make adjustments, that's huge. The third one is obviously do the right thing, don't hurt people on deals. And the fourth one is, right? And you do one-on-one coaching, which is, I mean, phenomenal at the highest level. And there aren't many companies that do that.

But I think one of your criteria is, too, you have to be willing to take action when the opportunity presents itself. You know, there are people that watchings happen. There are people that wonder, sorry, there are people that make things happen, people watching happen, there are people who wonder what that happened. You know, I might have messed up that order. But that's the biggest thing is I want to morning number one point out what the opportunities are. And I think what's really important to understand and some people don't want to see the truth is that, you know, we've got a dollar that isn't backed by gold anymore.

We've got a printing press. So I go back to Warren Buffett and he says the safest form of currency to own is the right performing piece of US real estate. And that's what, you know, you and Mercedes have. the buy and hold cash flow stuff. Like everything we're doing is a means to an end to that. So I really want to point out why it's time to take action with the dollar being printed in terms of we're by default, the world's reserve currency, but once other forms of currencies

catch up and the other part of it is obviously when the Fed's just printing money that's impact by gold. And then you've got a stock market that many of us would argue is very much inflated. And the economy, when you look at the U3 unemployment and U6 unemployment, the economy really hasn't improved, there's just band-aids, you know, the rich get richer, the poor get poor, this is a solution. So I spend the first morning really pointing out, here's the issue. And then we get right to it.

And we start talking about how do we use the banks like they've been using us? Right. How do we level the playing field here and use other people's money as much as possible? So a combination of that and then how do we use other people's money? And then if you've got money in the stock market, if you've got retirement accounts, 4.1K IRA, you know, there are really high speed ways, as we would say in the military, really advanced ways to safely use retirement to invest, to lend money, to buy and hold, to flip as long as proportional profits go back into retirement. And you know, you've got something

like a traditional self-directed IRA. And that's what a lot of so-called investors think, oh, a self-directed IRA, but there are things like QRP qualified retirement plan sold 401K. So I think all of it goes back to what's the most logistically friendly way to safely get the largest return in this business. So, you know, what do we do with retirement accounts? How do we use the banks to help finance our deals? Everybody's heard OPM, but Matt, does anybody really know what it means? You know, when the rubber meets the road, do they know what that means? And I think that's part of it. And then on day one, we teach people how to make money in their first wholesale flip from A to Z. We go live. Here's how you make money. Here's how you get access to thousands of properties, buyers, here,

the contracts. That's on day one. And I don't know of any other business model that does that. And that's not even getting it. Day two, analyzing any market in the U.S., cash flow analysis, rentals, commercial, lending. If you want to get into big money flips, maybe later on, what is the snapshot of what that looks like? What about power team? You know, contractor, subcontractor, property manager, project manager, appraiser, inspector, attorney, accountant, Matt as your coach, right? All that stuff. And that's the first two days. And I think the third day is, how do we put this together? What's an example of portfolio building? Right. So it may seem like financial freedom might seem like Mount Everest.

But the best way to plan for Mount Everest is how do we get to camp one? What are the next steps I take moving forward? And I found the biggest thing to have is accountability measures in place. So that's that whole education implementation. I think that's why your company and why you are so successful is you have the systems in place. And I'm just communicating what you have. And then we see where the fit is in terms of plugging in. But if they do that and they plug in and they take it one.

step at a time. As you know, you've got an entire website of testimonials. You have to decide which ones am I going to show. I mean, that is living proof how great what you have is and how it's working for students. And it's just, it's really an honor to be a part of it. Okay, so you've been hosting these, these free three-day trainings. And like I said, they are free. And they can go to that and register at train withepic.com. Trainwithepic.com. And you just heard from, from Eric and he kind of covered a big giant piece of the real estate and basically everything you need to succeed in the business at least to get started. And he's there to answer your questions and reveal all of the market updates as they

happen because it's changing daily and share his own personal expertise with you. Any other reasons? Who's the ideal person that should attend, Eric? If you're in a position where you're not financially free, I mean, I would just say if you don't have a significant amount of cash flow. And I mean, I don't want to put a number on it, but I feel like, you know, a minimum of of $10,000 to $20,000 a month and pass residual income. Because I think the big thing to understand is even if you've got a pension plan or retirement plan, they don't adjust for inflation.

So everything, this is the only retirement plan or financially free plan. It's not like the word retirement. It sounds like you're done. But anyways, to me, the only plan that really accounts for inflation in this has to do with buying and holding the right real estate because rents adjust for inflation. So if you're in a position where you don't have what you need for retirement or if you're younger and you're not financially free and you want that freedom, this is the training for you. And regardless of your experience level, if you've never, you know, done a real estate deal, it's almost easier because you don't have any bad habits. Or if you've been investing, no matter what your experience level is, I haven't had a single student, no matter what their experience

level is say they haven't learned something that helps better their business. So if you're looking for freedom, if you're looking to free up your time and you want to have more cash flow, you want to have cash flow, period, this is the train to go to. This is all about getting massive amounts of cash flow in a safe way. And that's the key, education and implementation. And that class, the class will change your life. It'll be a great start, a great start to the epic system for you. So I look forward to those who you attend. Absolutely. And I would totally encourage you to take Eric up on his invitation. He does this out of the, really out of the kindness of his heart. And it's obviously to show you there is a catch. I'm not going to try and hide that from you. The catch is that you will

get so much good value and information from this free three days with Eric is that you'll want to do business with us. But if you decide not to do business with us, it's not like we take all that information back away from you. Once we've given it to you, it's yours for free and you can use it how you wish. One thing you touched on, Eric, and this is what I appreciate about you, because this is something a little bit more, it's always been in my mind, and I've always recognized real estate is a great way to hedge inflation, but it's becoming more and more of a serious issue, and you've brought it up a few times. How much time do you spend on that? Do you explain to them how the, how the inflation issue actually works and incorporates into a real estate investing strategy?

I do. I think one of the things I really encourage is trust but verify. And I know, I mean, the big thing that we teach, obviously, that we go hand in hand with is we want to make business decisions based on facts and figures verified over and over again, not on emotion. Right. And sometimes, you know, when you're coaching, as you know, sometimes you'll have students that get caught in paralysis of analysis and they don't do anything. Then you'll have some students get overly excited and they try to get into things that they're not ready for. So it's a balance of taking care of those different personality types that they're comfortable investing. And I think, you know, there's four stages of learning, and I'm not sure where I heard this, but anything that you want to master in life, the first stage of learning is called unconscious incompetence.

We don't know, you don't know. Ignorance is bliss, but really, as we know, ignorance is expensive. And then in morning number one, we get to conscious incompetence. That's where, you know, I know I need another stuff, but I don't know what to do about it yet. It's, that's the getting out of your comfort zone. It's, if you're willing to deal with a small bit of uncomfort for a lifetime solution, then you've got what it takes. We help you deal with that uncomfort,

that out of your comfort zone feeling because that means you're growing. We actually celebrate that feeling. You should leave that training with the third stage of learning, which is conscious competence. So I want you to have a vision of what it all looks like, wholesaling,

flipping, buying and holding, commercial, lending money, possibly tax liens. It's a big business, right? You wouldn't go to an earnose and throw a doctor for our condition. There's different ways to plug in depending on, you know,

that student. It's not one size fits all, but Matt's got the whole thing. So it's showing people what it all looks like and then helping them, right, because we have coaching available, free coaching before and after class, helping them with their game plan. What do I do after this three day based on my situation? So if the desire is there, if the attitude's good, if they're coachable, right? You know, they're willing to do the right thing and take action. It's a good fit.

Now, at the same time, you know, we've had a few people on our webinars who are like, you know what, this isn't for me. And that's completely fine, like you said. We're going to give millions of dollars with information. If it's for you, awesome. If not, that's okay, too. And I guess I kind of had a senior moment at 43. I lost track of what your original question was.

I'm sorry. That's okay. The issue of inflation. The reason I bring that up, and I think it's even more pressing right now, because we've already, our stimulus package that was released to us, but in April, has printed more money than we did all in 2007, 2008 combined. And then Jerome Powell is on a record in August as saying he's going to push inflation above the 2% normal target. So he's already told you what he's going to do.

And then I just read an article from Ray Dalio in MarketWatch. And he said in the next five years, this world is going to change in shocking ways. And that was like the subheadline, but he's alluding to the value of the dollar. And he said that one of his final comments in that article was to watch. the value of your dollar in the same way you are watching the value of your investments. Yes. It's a- follow up on that based on the question while I have a freshman item.

Is that okay? Yeah, please. All right. So I think a good, so I could spend two weeks talking about this. I've done quite a bit of research on it, but to really kind of focus it, here's the bottom line. You know, when the Federal Reserve was formed the early 1900s, I mean, I won't get into all that, but, you know, I won't get into all that.

But what I will say is this. So monetary policy is controlled by the Fed. And if we look at some basic points, right, it used to be that every dollar was printed was backed by gold. And that's no longer the case. And if you go to a website like us debt clock.org, and I show this in the class in morning number one, our national debt is $27 trillion in counting.

So it's like the government, anytime they can't pay for something, because the jobs, in my view, got shipped overseas years ago in these major manufacturing hubs like Baltimore and Detroit, those jobs are gone. And I won't get to the politics of it, but we're talking about money, whatever side of the fence you lie on, I love you all. But when we're not producing goods and services and when this national debt keeps climbing and climbing, it's not like after World War II where you're doing things to build to pay it off. So anytime we can't pay for something, it's like the government has this credit card being used for bad debt.

So you can't find the hurricanes here or the floods here. or coronavirus, we're just going to print, print, print more money, and we're going to make payments off of, you know, that credit card that keeps getting charged up to cover the debt. And that's not a sustainable model. We're about to hit the point where we can't do that anymore. Just in the last 12 years to administrations, our national debt has gone up $17 trillion.

And we've been around a lot longer than that. So the way to keep it simple, what I teach in the class is, and it ends up, you've got to know the problem. hey look, there's a financial tumor. And then we've got the solution to remove the tumor and become financially free and then pass on a legacy to your family. So I wouldn't say bad news, but making you aware of what it is, but then quickly followed by what do I do about it? So the last thing you want to do, in my view, once I was read into this, is if you have dollars sitting in checking and savings, even with the current low rate of inflation, right? And that's about to change.

Obviously, it's going to go up. So even with the current low rate of inflation, the rate of return, you're getting in checking and savings. You're safe, secure, and guaranteed to lose a little bit of money. Now,

no offense to the financial planners, but to me, it is a little bit nuts how we're taking advice from how to be retired from somebody who has a job. But, you know, bless their heart,

they're being guided by the ones to own the big banks who really control everything. So, and they're taught, hey, have this consumer keep all the money with us. So then they,

can lend it out. So I was going on this is in a simple way, if you have a dollar in checking and savings, the bank will lend out a nine to ten times that amount. That's what they do. So the last thing, when I'm talking to an analytical student, the last thing you want to do is if they've worked hard, work hard, save your money, the last thing you want to do is see that value go away. So while we have a strong dollar before that dollar goes down in value, and I see so much evidence that it will and you do too, you don't want to lose that money. So we know how to take, you know, guide someone and give them options with where can you put that to grow it? And it's income producing assets.

You see pushes for gold and for silver. That's great if you don't know how to invest. But even better than that is having the right property, which you may get some appreciation on, but you have that monthly revenue being generated. And so you have a business, if it's set up correctly, where there's little or no management. And that's what's so huge about what, you know, Mercedes does with the final cash flow properties. You have an income producing asset. and it's a business that really don't have to manage.

And this plan adjusts for inflation because rents go with inflation. So when you're in the right markets, you're investing in the right price points, like you said, five to 10 percent below the median price homes, usually if you're buying hold stuff. I mean, I don't know the safer way to become financially free.

Yep, yep. And history has always shown that gold and real estate kind of run neck and neck as a hedge against inflation. And just about, I don't know, about 25 years ago, those things started to separate and they weren't following the same path, right? I don't know if you saw this, but just at the end of September, I think it was September 30th, J.P. Morgan came out and confessed in court for manipulating the market for the last 20 years.

Oh, yeah. So the big thing that we thought was kind of a conspiracy theory and no, yeah, that just happens in dark rooms and I'm not sure if maybe the big, maybe Bigfoot and the aliens are back there in the same meeting room, right? But they just came out and confessed, yes, we did it. They just paid the biggest fine ever. or so. Yeah, sometimes it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck. It's actually a duck. Yep, yep. And so real estate, you can't manipulate that, though. It's supply and demand because it's purchased by individuals and they set the market. And you can't have a JP Morgan come in and manipulate that because if they tried to, I mean, if they reduce the price artificially, it'd be purchased before they ever got to set in. And if you raise the price, no one would buy it. So it's like, it's the solid investment, real estate. And we all know. that we've been up and talking about this for 11 years now here on this show so you know where I stand and uh I just said this weekend I said you know what um as soon as something better comes

along believe me I will switch the topic of this podcast but uh we've been here for 11 years and that's not happening anytime soon at least nothing I can see well super so if you want to spend three free days with Eric uh him sharing his wisdom and his knowledge you can tell the smart dude and also he's got a big heart and he spends a lot of time before an after those calls to help people individually and give them some free coaching. And all of that is a free service. And then if you want some more help after that's all done, Eric will show you how to get it. Fair.

All right. So that's a train with epic.com. Go to train with epic.com and register and you get to meet Eric and see what a handsome guy. He is right there in your monitor. All right. So Eric, thank you very much. Let's stay in touch. Let's do this again.

Obviously we will. But great to have you a part of the team. and thank you for helping all the people that you've been helping. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much, Matt. It's a pleasure being on the podcast, and I look forward to seeing those of you who attend the class and helping you out.

So it's going to be a blast. Thank you very much. Have a great day. Take care. And if you found this episode valuable, who else do you know? There's a good chance you know someone else who would too. And if you think about it, when their name comes to mind,

please share with them and ask them to click the subscribe button when they get here, and I'll take great care of them. All righty, that's it for today. God loves you, and so do I. Health, peace, blessings, and success to you. I'm Matt Terrio. living the dream.

Yeah, yeah, we got the cash flow. Yeah, yeah, we got the cash flow. Yeah, yeah, we got the cash flow. You didn't know, home, boy, we got the cash flow. This podcast is a part of the C-suite Radio Network. For more top business podcasts, visit c-sweetradio.com.