Epic Real Estate Investing - Quit the J.O.B. and Now I'm a Wholesaler with Mike Slane | Episode 101

Episode Date: April 30, 2014

In celebration of the 100th episode, the 1,000,000th download and the opening of Version 2.0 of the Epic Pro Academy... Mike Slane quit his day job "cold turkey" and is now a full-time wholesaler. It's another "can't miss" episode of Epic Real Estate Investing. ------------------------- Download Matt's free real estate investing course "How to Do Deals | No Money Required" at FreeRealEstateInvestingCourse.com or text FreeCourse to 55678 "Click" what interests you most:  Education Properties Income   Coaching Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Broadcasting from Terrio Studios in Glendale, California, it's time for Epic Real Estate Investing with Matt Terrio. Yes. Yes. Yes. Hello. And welcome to another episode of Epic Real Estate Investing. If this is your first time listening to the show, if you just found us, boy, did you pick a good week to do it. Really glad that you're here and I'll explain in just a second.

This is the place where I teach people how to. escape the rat race by investing in real estate. And if I were to do it all over again, I wouldn't change a thing. I'd do it exactly the same way. People ask me that question all the time. If you were to start from scratch, what would you do first? Well, I'd do everything that I did the first time. You see, when I got started, I didn't have any money. And I had a terrible credit score. And so I was forced to make the no money down ways work. And during that, I stumbled upon 12 different strategies. Yes, there's actually 12 different strategies of investing in real estate with none of your own money. And I stumbled upon those. I put them to work. And in hindsight,

I think by being forced to invest with little to no money and no credit, I never have used a bank, by being forced to do it that way, I believe that made me a better investor. And I'm a much better investor today because of it. And I want to make you a better investor as well. So I put the first two strategies, the two of which I believe are the easiest and fastest strategies to a paycheck. I put them into a free course just for you, and you can access that free course at free real estate investing course.com. And if you're not in front of your computer right now and you can't wait to get in front of your computer,

you can actually access the course right there on your phone. Just text free course to 55678. Free course, that's all one word, text free course to 55678, and you get those two strategies right there on your phone, all right? So let's keep it going. This is an awesome week. And this is what I meant by, if you just found us, this is a great week to find us.

Because what we are doing all this week, we are celebrating. We are celebrating our 100th episode. We are celebrating our one millionth download. And this Thursday will be the opening of version 2.0 of the Epic Pro Academy. And right now, I'm in a little bit of a celebration mode. I happen to be broadcasting live from Las Vegas. I've made a, I had a business trip out here. I made another investment into my own education.

So I'm out here. I'm staying up to date with what's going on in the world of real estate, in particular how it affects us, investors. And I'll be sharing what I learn here on future episodes in the very near future. I'm actually getting on a plane today and coming home, just in time to open up version 2.0 of the academy. Tonight at midnight, the doors will be open. And, you know, this has been a long time coming.

You know, what was just supposed to be a couple of months back in October turned into six months plus. So I'm super excited of finally getting to share this with you. You know, one of the new features of the academy is a private Facebook group. A lot of people were asking for ways to interact with other academy members, whether it was to buy, whether it was to sell, whether it was to network, whatever it was going to be. And so I got that request enough. I was like, okay, I got to find a solution. And I was toying with the idea of including a members-only forum inside the academy. But because of all the customization I've done with regard to, I don't know, calculators and analysis tools, the automated offer systems, inserting the Epic Wholesalers engine inside the Academy.

Yes, if you didn't know Epic Wholesalers will now be free to Epic Academy members and it'll actually be inside of the. Academy. And you'll be able to access through that. You can access my private buyers list until you're able to build your own. And you can even access it after you build your own. It's just an option there for you to use to maximize your exit strategies. Anyway, all that takes a lot of custom work. And, you know, every private forum, private community forum solution that we looked into

was probably going to conflict or interfere with all of that custom work. So what I did is I just figured since everybody's already on Facebook, they're on there all day, mostly, let's just create a closed private members-only Facebook group. So we did. I'm actually even more excited about that solution than I was the forum just because I'm probably more likely to interact. I'm probably more likely to respond to members' comments and I'm more likely to do it much quicker on Facebook than I would be if I had to log into a separate forum all the time. That's kind of a pain. You know, we've all got enough usernames and passwords and places. where we interact online.

So let's just put it where we already are. That just makes a lot of sense. Much more efficient. So anyway, that's included in the membership. And tonight at midnight, if you're not already a member, you'll have the opportunity to now become one. Okay? So all this week in celebration of all that's good that's going on over here,

interviewing epic community members on their real world experiences in real estate. You know, this last Monday we had Kenny Castillo. Yesterday we had Nicole Bryan. two total rock stars. So if you miss those, you got to go back and check those out. And there's so much to learn from those interviews. And I've got two more this week, tomorrow and Friday. Can't wait to share those stories and experiences with you.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves because it's today. I've got an awesome guest waiting on the phone right now to share his story with us. So without further ado, please welcome Mike Slane to the show. show. Welcome, Mike, to the epic real estate investing. Hey, thanks, Matt. Thanks for having me on, man. I appreciate it. And everything you've done, I mean, for want-to-be real estate investors like myself before I dove in, I must say that you have been, yeah, a big encouragement. And, I mean, your podcast really, really pushed me over the edge. So, I appreciate that. Well, thank you. Hopefully they didn't. I can't wait to hear

your story. I hope I didn't push you too far over the edge. No, it was a good push. It was a nudge. Good. There you go. Well, glad that you can make it. And, you know, I'm going to thank you in advance for your generosity and your transparency and sharing your experience. Are you a full-time real estate investor today? Today I am. Yeah. I mean, it was, like you mentioned, it was about five months ago when I decided, you know what, I'm going to go ahead and just make the leap. I was doing a lot of the marketing and stuff that you recommend and talking to, to owners and building that buyers list and all the stuff that, you know, he talked about and kind of preach to us. And, yeah, I just decided, you know, I don't have enough time to keep working. So I got to do this full time if I'm going to make it work for me, and that's what I had to do to get there.

Super. Okay, so what was your day job? What were you doing? I was actually an insurance before this. I was an underwriter. you know. Okay, very good. And how long have you been doing that? I was working in insurance for about six years. So that was kind of... Got it. Got it. Yeah, my job before that. I think I went to, I don't know, I kind of followed a traditional path. Like a lot of people, they, you know, everybody tells you go to college, get a good job, you know, work for 30 years and, you know, eventually have a nice retirement. Well, I did that and And, you know, I decided I'll go ahead and I'll take it one step further, went and got the master's degree, and looked around that, and I said, this isn't really working.

I'm not really getting anywhere fast, making somebody else a lot of money, but, you know, just enough to pay my bills. Right. How old are you right now? What's that? How old are you right now? I'm 30 years old. 30. Okay.

Yeah. So I started investing, I mean, my first property I bought, it's maybe a little bit non-traditional in this. in this way. First house I bought was actually a four-family apartment building back in 2009. So I've known for a while that real estate was my, I don't know, my calling or my way out, I guess, but I never had the guts to make that jump until I started listening to your show. When did you get that first bug for real estate investing? It was probably when I was about 18. I think it's a lot like anybody's stories. they read, what was it, rich dad, poor dad, right?

Or the real estate investors' Bible, I like to call it. You read that at 18? Yeah, it's probably, I mean, I don't know, whenever it first came out, it's been, you know, 10 years ago, something like that. So I read that, I just knew, I said, man, that's the way to do it,

but I was just always, you know, never knew how, never really saw the way until I started listening to your podcast and just started taking it step by step a little bit further and a little bit further and finally decided. that this was what was for me. Cool.

Yeah. Super. God, I wish I would have read Rich Deadpore Dad when I was 18 years old. What a different life this would have been. So you're 30. You've got some awesome years ahead of you. You're way ahead of the game, I think. I hope so.

Yeah, definitely. So you bought a fourplex in 2009. That was your first deal. That was just traditional, though. You know, bought it through a real estate agent and all that. and they paid retail prices. Do you still have that property? I do.

Okay. Yeah, I do. Very good. Moved out of there probably, it's been almost two years now, to another single family home. And that was, again, going to be a rental. But I'm living there now. So it's actually just this month.

I've got enough, I guess you'd say, confidence in my ability to keep wholesaling and making profits. I picked up my another rental so I'm on for six six doors I guess now and looking looking to pick up at least one or two probably a quarter from here on out awesome that's awesome we're able yeah if we're able to keep up the pace right so yeah since since since August I guess that's kind of the next thing okay I I guess it was probably took me two months before I actually was able to close my first deal and it was a it was a long two months, man. Well, let's back up a second. Yeah, go ahead.

One of the, I guess, bigger challenges for people that are in your situation that know that they want to get involved in real estate investing, but they're kind of afraid to take that first leap. They're afraid to, you know, leave the security, quote-unquote, of their job. You know, what was it that, I'm going to ask you specifically, what was it about the podcast? I mean, you'd purchase a property, you know, in 2009. That seems that you still have it. So that was a success.

So what was missing that the podcast, how the podcast made a difference? Well, it's all about how to make the, I mean, it's not necessarily a quick buck, but it's how to make bigger profits in real estate a little bit more quickly. And I think that's what everybody's kind of looking for, is how to wholesale.

And you kind of, you give us a, you know, a great blueprint for how to do that. So, I mean, that was the part that I just, I didn't know. I mean, it was just a mystery to me how to do any of it. And once I started listening to you, I mean, you just, you really put it in perspective. It's just it's not that hard. It just takes a lot of work.

So you work your plan, and you can get there. Super. Super. What market are you in? I'm in St. Louis. You're in St. Louis. Oh, okay. Very good.

That's another, got another coaching client, Epic Academy member over there as well. Do you know Brad? That's right, yeah. I do. I do, actually. That was one of the podcasts after I heard him, really, really got my button gear. You know, it was just like, man, I related to a lot of things that he was saying. It was just like, it's time for me to make it make it my story.

Right, right. You know, that's, that makes a difference for a lot of people. When you hear about somebody, you know, who's close to you, who's in your market and who's actually doing it and started from scratch, you know, sometimes it just takes that evidence to put it over the top that gives you the confidence to have you take. that first step. Is that kind of what Brad's story did for you? Oh, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. And yeah, I mean, like you said, it just, it hits home when you hear about somebody in your market. But, you know, I wish I wouldn't have waited that long. I wish I... Because the funny thing is, I mean, I was listening to your podcast religiously, you know, for months and months. I don't know, maybe took a break or something, came back,

and that was the first episode I listened to after maybe like a month of not listening. I apologize for that, Matt. That's okay. But yeah, I heard his and I was just like, oh, man, that is, that's just crazy. I mean, the timing and everything, it just, yeah, so it was maybe, I don't know, a few months after that, and I decided I had to make it my story. Got it. Well, super, super. So let's get to that part.

So you're working as an insurance underwriter. You hear this episode, and you're like, well, by golly, if that guy Brad can do it, he doesn't seem too smart, I can do it, right? Hey, don't let him fool you. He's a pretty smart guy. No, the guy's, the guy definitely, he knows his stuff, definitely. He does. Yeah. I'm hoping he was listening.

I said that for his benefit. Me too. That's, yeah. Super. Okay, so you decide, you've made the decision. I'm going to quit my job and go become a full-time real estate investor, and I'm going to start with wholesaling. Did you do anything in preparation to leave your job?

Yes. Well, I mean, and I think that's kind of the beginning of my story that we mentioned before. I've been putting myself in a position to, I mean, decrease my monthly expenses for a long time. You know, so live below my means, then work to expand them. So, I, you know, I mean, that was really step one. I'm fortunate enough to be able to lower my bills to a point where I don't need a whole heck of a lot of money coming in each month to really make my ends meet. So that was kind of the first step that I took. After that, then it was really all about, I mean, setting up the marketing campaigns.

Okay. I mean, this business, it's all about marketing. Right. Did you set that up before you quit, or did you just quit and then started? Well, it was, I'll tell you what, it feels like I started after I quit, just based on the amount of marketing I'm doing now compared to what I was doing before. But, no, I mean, when I was working, I was still doing it. And I was doing a lot of it myself, writing yellow letters in my spare time, making as many phone calls as I could after work and occasionally on my lunch breaks, which sometimes got a little longer than they probably should have been. But, yeah, no, I mean, it was definitely starting to marketing before I quit.

I mean, I definitely, I didn't have a deal done yet, but I was putting some of the foundation. together. Super. So you quit your job without even having a deal closed yet. That's right. Where did you get the confidence that, you know, everything was going to be okay? I don't know. Maybe my parents.

Or maybe I'm just crazy, man. I don't know. I just, I knew that if I had to make it work, I would. But having that security of the job, I didn't have to make it work. And for me, that was part of the reason I think I needed to do it that way. I mean, I just, it's one of those things where it just wasn't working, wasn't working. I knew that if I worked it harder, I could make it work. And that's kind of where I've been at, you know, for the first couple months after I quit.

Just, all right, I just got to keep working. I just got to keep working. Right. It's working for other people. What am I doing, you know, just a little bit different that it's not quite lining up for me yet? And, yeah, so that was really it. Just all good persistence. Okay.

So, okay. get there. So day one of you are now self-employed, you are a real estate investor. What was the first thing that you did? Oh, man. Slept in? I'm not known to sleep in, no. Usually up by about 5 o'clock, so we don't sleep in.

First thing I did, I mean, it was probably still posting the online ads. It's one of those things where it's just they're free. I mean, you may as well make use of them. So I got to trying to put together my online ads a little bit more sophisticated so that I'd have, you know, ads that I could repeat over and over that I didn't have to retype each time. So I put a little foundation together for something like that. Perfect. So you had a, you wrote out a few ads and you just kind of used those in rotation? Exactly.

Okay. Exactly. Perfect. And then where were you posting those ads online? Both Craigslist and Backpage. Okay. I know I like Backpage now just because you can still use the HTML text in there. And I've also found some pretty decent buyer leads off of Backpage.

Very good. So you're building your buyers list a little bit from that as well. Yes, yes. And that's one thing that's, I mean, it's kind of, it's funny. I mean, the buyers list, I used to think, okay, well, I'm posting all my, I'm looking for houses in St. Louis, right? So I'm looking for buyers in St. Louis, and that's what I was doing day after day. And so I don't know where I heard it, but it was just like, you don't have to post just in your city, you know.

When you're looking for buyers, they live all over. Right. So that's when it just, I mean, the light bulb went off, and I started posting ads, I mean, a little bit more heavily, and it's been working out pretty well for me. Awesome. Awesome. So what else? Online ads, anything else? Online ads, those yellow. letters. I did the bandit signs for a little while, and the next thing that I started doing was

the bumper stickers. Bumper stickers. Okay, let's get to that in just a second. Okay. That's intriguing. Yellow letters, how many of those were you sending out a week? Prior to quitting, we were sending out probably, I don't know, I'd say 40 or 50 a week. Now we're up to, I mean, 50 a day, I'm six days in a week, so we're looking at about 300 a week. Okay. Very good. Are you doing all those yourself, or do you have somebody writing those for you? No.

I mean, again, when I started, yes, I was doing it myself, but it's just too time-consuming. So, no, I have somebody that helps me do those. Perfect. And on your yellow letter, you just write and I'd like to buy your house, blah, blah, blah. Absolutely. I mean, just the standard. Just like it says in the academy? Exactly.

Exactly like it says verbatim. I mean, except I changed it to Mike instead of math. Okay, yeah, yeah. That's probably a good idea. You know, I'm doing an experiment with somebody here in the office that has never done a deal before, has no real estate background, and we're doing this test on virtual wholesaling. And if all goes well, I'm going to create a course out of it, but I want to make sure it works first before I promoted as such. And she's sent out, we just started last week.

She sent out 100 yellow letters, and she's got three calls and three appointments, and we're writing three offers. Wow. So that was like, yeah, just the basic yellow letter, nothing fancy as needed, and she hand wrote them all, and so that's working well. So I know it still works. Perfect. Okay, so Bandit Signs. How many of those were you putting out?

Banned it signs is probably close to about, I mean, I'd say 25 to 50 a week. That one here in St. Louis, it gets cold, and I quit my job in August. So, I mean, I was kind of coming into a little bit more of the winter, and it's just cold sometimes out there. So it was as many as I could get out in the morning, either on a Friday, Thursday or Friday morning, before my fingers started burning. Right.

Do you have sign ordinances in St. Louis? There are, yeah. I mean, you've got to check your municipalities, so you really can't do those too long. If you mess up and put them in some of the districts, yeah, you get those phone calls. Okay. So your strategy was to like to do Thursday, Friday,

leave them out for the weekend? Mm-hmm. And then go pick them up. And you wouldn't pick them up on what, on Monday or Sunday night? Yeah, well, I mean, I mean, whenever you get around to it. Right, exactly. I used to just leave mine up.

It's just the cost of doing business. I'm not going to go pick them all that. Super. What happens to. Okay, so the bumper stickers, this is something new. I have an idea of what it is, but tell me what your strategy is with the bumper stickers. Well, there's kind of, there's a couple different ones. I mean, the first one is, I mean, I've got a woman, I actually, I'm paying her,

and she goes out and she pays people to put bumper stickers on their car. The bumper sticker just says we buy houses and then has my phone number on it. Or I guess there's two of them. Then one says housesoldeasy.com. So it directs to my website. So I don't actually have to field all those phone calls. All right. So then that's one of the strategies.

The other strategy is using the bumper sticker more like a decal or whatever, and you get them specific phone numbers. So then you can actually track where the lead came from. So you can pay a referral fee to your buddy or whoever you've got to put the phone number on their car. You can get a much larger one on their car or they ask them to basically put a larger one on their vehicle. You can pay them possibly a referral fee for any lead that comes in off of that telephone number. Sweet. So that one.

Yeah, that one's pretty interesting. I mean, you just posted on, you know, like Facebook and your friends will, you know, pick up on it. And, you know, the ones that are willing to anyways, will. So far. So how much are you paying people to put the, you? just the bumper sticker on? Just the bumper sticker? I mean, that ranges.

I mean, it's got to be at least $15 to $20. Otherwise, people usually just kind of laugh at you. Okay. So, I mean, it's not cheap. But again... Well, if they leave it on, it's not... That's actually pretty affordable. Exactly.

I mean, and it's easier than going out and putting those bandit signs out in 20-degree weather. No doubt, no doubt. Okay, so the other thing, the decal. This is like one of those decals you put on, like, on the back wind. window? Yeah.

Yeah, like the, it's like vinyl. I think it's vinyl lettering. Okay. And it basically, you know, have it professionally installed, like, on the wind show. It says, again, says we buy houses and telephone number. And then that's the one you track. So that's probably a bigger type of deal. What, how do you compensate those people?

They're paid per per deal to close. Per deal. That's it. Okay. Yeah. Very good. So my next question is, how do you find these people that are willing to put bumper stickers or decals on their own car.

Yeah, that's easy. I mean, that was just, I mean, putting it out there on Facebook and asking my friends. Okay. Those were the details. So then bumper stickers. I mean, that one, again, I put the same thing we talked about before, is those online ads. Okay.

I mean, just put anybody interested in making, you know, $25, no work required, just meet me at, you know, quick trip this weekend. You try to set up a few people you're going to meet and throw some bumper stickers on some cars and, you know, it's a little bit of trust. they leave them on there for you. Super, super. Any other strategies you're doing to generate leads? Those are my main ones right now.

Yeah, I mean, yellow letters, online ads, got the bandit signs, and then you have those bumper stickers. Well, good, you got a good mix. So how many leads a week with this combination do you think you're generating? Enough to where, I'm getting a phone call right now. Enough to where it keeps me pretty busy, Matt.

I honestly don't do a good enough job tracking that. But I'd say probably close to, I don't know, 100 leads a week. I'm 100 phone calls. Okay. Very good. Okay, so let's back up a little bit. We'll get back to this. And so you quit your job and you've got these lead generation sources working.

How long before you got your first deal? Yeah, that was the scary part. There were a couple months where I was just thinking, man, I don't know if I made the right choice here. So it was, I guess it was the third month before I actually closed the transaction. Okay. And I'll tell you what, it was, I breathed a pretty long sigh of relief when that happened. It's just like, oh my gosh, finally, the proof for me that I can do it. Super.

So it was three months before the first one. So why do you think, what was going on in those first two months that wasn't going on in that third month? Like what made the difference in you actually closing a deal if you have this many leads to work every week? Well, and that's the thing. I didn't have my marketing campaign pumped up to where it is now at the beginning. So I think that's part of it. I mean, it's the numbers game that the real estate is. You've got to have a lot of leads coming in to find one that's a good deal first off.

And then, you know, you've got to know at least a handful of buyers that are interested. And, you know, once you figure out how to match those two up, it's really pretty simple to keep doing over and over. Okay. So what was the, what was the, I guess, the aha moment or the connection that you made where you actually did close a deal? What happened there that was different? You know, I don't even know if it was different so much. It was just, you know, kept doing it. That's a really tough one to answer.

I mean, I feel like there was a lot of just like, man, there was. really close. Like, oh, that one should have gone through and all that one, I think it's just a matter of keep doing it. And eventually, you know, I mean, you'll kind of figure out what works for you. Good. Yeah, I was kind of going there. I didn't know what your answer was going to be, but I could have guessed that there wasn't really a whole lot. It was just that you just kept on doing it, and finally you got one that was actually a motivated seller that was willing to meet your price in terms.

Exactly. Exactly. I mean, you put something in contract. It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, at decent property at a decent price, and people are going to, you know, they're going to respond to that. So. So you got that third deal. Oh, what was the source of that first deal? Do you remember? First deal, it was the L letter. That was the L letter.

Okay, perfect. You got a phone call. And how did that phone call go? How did your typical phone call go? My typical phone call. I usually just answer the phone the same way I do as if it was, you know, somebody I know answer and say, hey, this is Mike. And, you know, normally the people that get a yellow letter are a little confused. They're just like, are you, you want to buy my house? And it's just like,

yeah, well, I mean, if you're interested in selling it, I'd like to, I'd like to buy it. Can you tell me a little bit more about what's going on with the property? So, I mean, I usually just, I mean, it's always trying to ask questions, get on the question asking side of the conversation. and yeah, that just seems to work much better for me. Okay. So with that call, what's your actual intent? I mean, I've got three intents, and I think they probably come straight from you, Matt. I mean, first I'm trying to, I mean, obviously build rapport with them.

So, I mean, it's asking questions. I mean, it's easiest buy. You want to find out really what their situation is, like, why they want to want to or need to sell. and basically then what they want to have happened. I mean, are they wanting to cash out of it? Are they wanting, I mean, figure out what they want. And, you know, then you kind of, you've got to judge for motivation, too,

so you're going to ask them, I mean, how soon do they want to sell? Right. So, I mean, you kind of figure out all that stuff to judge motivation and all that. And then my goal is always to, well, either set an appointment or, I mean, if it's a really hot lead, I'll almost want to write a contract right then. but you're going to do a little bit more due diligence than that. Okay, you did that absolutely perfectly. That's exactly how it goes in the...

Yeah, that's exactly how I say it. I've been doing it a couple times. Yeah, I can tell. Awesome. And my gosh, it works, doesn't it? I know. It's amazing. It really is.

So you went over, so you probably, did you set an appointment with this person and you went to go see the house? Okay. Yep, set the appointment. Met over there. It was vacant. The electric, I think. was off the water was off.

I mean, it's just, that's another thing, man. You go into some of these houses, and it's just, I mean, I consider myself fortunate and grew up in a nice home and all that. And then you go to some of these houses, man, and they're just, whew, there's a lot to be, a lot to be desired. Now, this one wasn't that bad, though, the one that I was able to get closed on. I mean, utilities were awful. But, yeah, I mean, it needed a little bit of work.

But yeah, I mean, he just said I'm tired of being a landlord. I don't want to fix it up. He needs a little bit of work. Is there anything you can do? And we basically started talking numbers and, you know, put pen to paper. Okay. So you came up with an agreement verbally first. And then you just put it down on paper.

And then you had under contract, right? Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. And then you feel like a million bucks. I bet. I bet. Okay.

Well, so now you got to get paid for it. So what happened next? That's right. Well, then I guess the next struggle begins, you know. I found my motivated seller, so do I have a real buyer out there? And that was to be determined. So I do like to send out all my properties to my buyer's list by email first. So I do that.

I did that, sent it out, and obviously the first one didn't have any buyers I'd worked with before. So sent it out and, you know, just kind of waited. And it took a couple days before somebody called and wanted to see it. Had another call, somebody wanted to see it. Yeah, I mean, one thing led to another and was able to set up an appointment to just, oh, the first deal, though. The first deal, I put up bandit signs too at the hardware stores. They're basically saying, hey, cheap house for sale, must sell. And put one of those out, got a phone call, and that's where that buyer came from.

So the local guy that was looking for house that's needed a little bit of work. Well, it makes sense. And I always talk about finding buyers and generating leads. I mean, there's no limit to how you can. generate those leads, it's all up to your creativity. And, you know, just kind of, if you want to find sellers, then you go find people in certain situations where, you know, whatever they're dealing with in life might have them cause to sell a home.

And then, you know, if you're looking for buyers, go to any place where there's a situation where that person might want to buy a home. So hardware store, perfect place. People are picking up, they're probably fixing up at a house as they drove by your sign. That's, yeah. Right? I love it. I love it.

Okay. So you sold that one and the drum roll please. How much did you make on that one? Not what I thought it was going to be, but it ended up being, I think, close to $3,900. $3,900. Yeah, almost $4,000. Not a bad little payday. No, that's a typical wholesale.

I mean, that's right in the middle of it, right in the middle of it, right in the middle of the spectrum, I guess. Super. So after you got that one closed, how did that make you feel? Oh my gosh, walking on cloud nine. I mean, it's just like I can do this. I made the right choice to pursue investing, and it's just time to go. So then it's all about just amping it up and keep the momentum going. Super.

Okay, so you've been doing this, you quit your job five months. It took you three months to get the deal. So you had another two months since that deal going. What does your business look like since? Oh my gosh. Well, I mean, it's like the first deal. It kind of took me a minute to separate it out because once they started coming, they just started coming a little bit faster. So I mean, first deal, second deal. I mean, it's just, it's hard to keep track of them. I mean, I think it was, yeah, it was August, when I quit. September, October is probably like the first one. So then November, I really started closing some deals. And I mean, I, I mean, it's five to ten a month. Really? Yeah. Fantastic. Fantastic, Mike. Yeah, it's awesome. Yeah, it really is. No kidding. No kidding.

So when you went from, you know, that first deal up to five to ten a month, what was the big difference in your activity? What do you think is causing that many deals to come through? Oh, it's just all about ramping up your marketing. Marketing, right? Yeah. It's all about the lead generation. Yeah. I mean, I mentioned the yellow letters. I was doing, you know, I was trying to write a couple of day when I was working my job. And, you know, since then, it's just amping it up. I mean, to, you know, 25 to 50 a day. And you just see that many more leads come in and that many more opportunities. You're just creating more opportunities for yourself. That's awesome. Awesome.

So from there, what would you say of your marketing activities, which one's generating the most deals for you? Oh, still those yellow letters. Yeah, still those yellow letters. Yeah, they add up. I mean, price-wise, they start feeling like you're spending a lot of money on it, but man, they're worth it. Super. What would you say, a second place of all that, your activities? As far as money or like the leads coming in? Yeah, as far as getting deals done. Getting deals done, it's online.

Online? Yeah, I really like it. I mean, it's one of those things where if you fine-tune it and you know who you're trying to find, I mean, you can find some decent stuff out there. So what's your strategy for finding sellers online? Sellers online. That's, uh, that's, uh, I mean, again, it's the ads. When you get a property under contract, I like to put that on like the for sale by owner sites. Uh, or back page and Craigslist, like I mentioned before.

But, uh, that way you've, you've kind of got a little bit more leverage with, uh, with somebody looking to, to buy investment properties. And opposed to just saying, hey, uh, check out me, I wholesale properties. or, you know, I'm going to find your good deals. When you've actually got a good deal out there, so you put that property out there with some pictures you took and the price and a little bit about the property. But then you can also market your landing page,

like your landing page for buyers as well. So that, you know, you're kind of killing two birds with one stone there. Right. And that just seems to work a little bit better than... Right. But are you finding sellers online, motivated sellers? Motivated sellers. Yeah.

I mean, that's fewer and farther between. No, I mean, honestly, mostly the buyers. Mostly the yellow letters are coming through, or your sellers are coming through yellow letters. What's the next most effective marketing strategy that's bringing in sellers? Bringing in, oh, well, that one, we didn't even talk about that.

That's probably networking. I attend a ton of networking events. I mean, through, there's a thing called B&I, so I go to that, and I talk to a whole bunch of realtors, work with them. I attend all, I mean, well, not all,

but I mean, as many of the local investment club meetings as I can get to, yeah. Okay. I mean, I would say networking. You just got to talk to people, and once you know people that, yeah, that know other people, I know they're looking to sell.

I mean, that's kind of the way it works. Okay. Super. Any deals from your bumper stickers or vinyl lettering? Not yet. Not yet? Okay. That's a pretty new one.

Good. How new is that? Excited to see some results. Just last month. I mean, it was back in the way. Okay. Super. Yeah.

I don't think I have enough out there to even really get a decent response yet. Mm-hmm. Okay. Cool. Let's see. You've had this one property. You said you were able to acquire another rental. How did you acquire that one?

I mean, same, same methods we've been doing. But, I mean, I just finally, you know, I had enough cash in reserves that, you know, I still had enough to cover my expenses for, you know, extended period of time if I wasn't able to do another deal and had enough left over to pick up the next rental property. Perfect. Perfect. Okay. Cool.

So you got a good, it seems like you got some good momentum going and you're getting better and better at it. I can just tell. And you got your five, ten deals a month. Would you say you're averaging $4,000 a deal? Yeah, that's a fair average. Fair average? Yeah, somewhere in there.

Super. You're crushing that, big boy. Love it. Trying to. Yeah, this month is actually, March will do 11 properties. Or 11 doors, I guess. A couple deplexes in there. Awesome.

Yeah. Awesome. So looking back the last five months, what's been the biggest surprise to you? That it's not that hard. I mean, to make a decent check, I mean, I just figured that it was going to take, like, I don't know, these skills that I just, I wouldn't be able to fine-tune for, you know, for a long time, but it's just, I mean, it's just a matter to talk to people. I mean, sitting there and listening and being genuine with people, too. I mean, there's nothing, nothing better than being truthful. So.

Awesome. So if you continue to do what you're doing right now, what do you see for your future? You know, I don't even know. I mean, I'd like to pick up a few rentals. I mean, hopefully, yeah, I don't know. That's a good question. I mean, I think my ultimate goal was something like 100 properties in five different cities, pretty and clear, just to kind of, you know, be diversified and just know that at that point,

I don't have to do anything really ever again to keep on keeping on. Right. So do you see that actually actually happening now? Oh my gosh, it's so much more realistic now than it was six months ago or five months ago. I mean, when I quit my job.

I mean, now it's something that will happen as opposed to something that could happen. That's awesome. Yeah, it is awesome, man. Yeah, I mean, it's really cool. I owe a lot of it to you, man. For sure, your podcast is awesome. Thank you, Mike.

I appreciate that. Yeah. I appreciate that. What's been the biggest thing that you've used from the Academy? I think it was probably the, and I haven't used it in a while, it was the property analyzer. You know, it's for trying to figure out what to offer and, you know, like things like that.

It's just when you're getting started, things like that are just awesome, awesome tools. But once you start getting the hang of it, I mean, you kind of know where in your area anyways, if you're keeping it local, what you can do for a property as far as price and whatnot. Right. That's great. Happy for you, big guy. So if anyone wanted to get in contact with you for the sake of creating a professional connection, maybe they want to get on your buyer's list, what's the best way for them to do so?

Well, I mean, they can check out, I guess just, I mean, you can Google me. I'm Michael Slane, Slain-Lewish, you'll find a couple different websites. But I think, yeah, I mean... Give us one. Give us the one. Okay, Slane sells houses. Slane sells houses. There we go.

Yeah. Check that one out, and that should put on my buyer's list. Perfect. And that's a dot-com? Mm-hmm. No funny spellings or any spaces hyphens, nothing like that? Nope. Super.

No, just slainsellshouses.com. That sounds great. Great. Well, Michael, is there anything that I can do for you? Oh man, I don't think so, man Just keep it up I mean you just you know Keep helping other people

I mean that's Yeah I don't know man I don't think so Okay Well the phone is You want to buy all my dogs That'd be great You know my house as I can't sell

Right Well you never know Never know Anyway Thanks for your time The phone line here Is always open to you And thank you for being so giving

With your experience And getting so detailed Let's do it again sometime Yeah hey thank you man I appreciate it. Nice talking with you. Likewise. Likewise. Okay, so that's it for today. 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.

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