Epic Real Estate Investing - The Best Game is No Game w/Kenny Castillo | Episode 99

Episode Date: April 28, 2014

Epic Pro Academy member Kenny Castillo shares his strategy for getting his first deal done. It consists of "going through the motions," and being honest. YOU can do that, can't you?  Listen in to hear the play-by-play of how Kenny closed his first wholesale deal in six weeks. ------------------------- 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. Yeah. Hello, everybody. Hello, and welcome to another episode of Epic Real Estate Investing. If this is your first time listening to the show, welcome. I'm super happy that you're here. And if this is not your first time, welcome back. As you know or may not know, this is the place where I show people how to escape their

race by investing in real estate. And if I were to do that all over again, if I had to start over again, I'd do it exactly the same way. And I do it exactly the same way whether I had money and credit to work with or not. Because when I got started, I didn't have any money or credit. And I was forced to find my way and I got, was forced just to get real creative. And I came across 12 different strategies that I kind of just focused in on these 12 strategies that I used over and over again of investing in real estate using no money. And in high insight, being forced to invest that way and being forced to get started that way, I believe it made me a much better investor, and I want to make you a better investor as well.

So what I did is I put the first two strategies, the two of which I believe are probably the easiest and fastest strategies to a paycheck in real estate. And I've put them into a free course just for you, and you can access that course at free real estate investing course.com. Or if you're listening in via a smart phone and you just can't wait to get back to your computer, I've got something new for you. You can download the course right there on your phone by texting free course to 55678. and you'll get that the course right there on your phone,

the two easiest and fastest strategies to a paycheck in real estate. All righty. So I'm very excited about today as we're kicking off a week, an entire week-long series of interviews with Academy members, and it's in celebration of our 100th episode and our one millionth download and the reopening of the Epic Pro Academy version 2.0 this Thursday on May 1st. So coincidentally, all this has.

happened in one week. So it seemed like it was a cause for a celebration to me. So that's what we're going to do. And we're going to interview the academy members and other epic community members. Because if I look at my download stats, if I look at the history of all 100 episodes, what I find is these are probably the most popular episodes. They're from real life, real world, real estate investors out there in the world. Some are just getting started. Some have been doing it for a while. but they've got no hidden agenda, no ulterior motives. They're just real estate investors. They've got nothing to sell and there's no pitch.

There's no punchline at the end. And I think that might be why this is really your favorite. Because you're just getting real world answers from real people out there doing it. So this Thursday, May 1st, we are reopening the Epic Pro Academy. I will be sending out a special discount promo code on Wednesday via email. And the emails that I'll be sending it to are to all the people that have accessed the real estate investing course before. So if you haven't done that yet and you do intend to join the Academy when the door is open on Thursday, it'd be a really good time to go and get the course at

free real estate investing course.com. And if you have already accessed the free course, you'll want to make sure that you adjust whatever setting you have to inside your inbox to make sure that you will receive that email to make sure that it doesn't go to junk or spam. You know, so many email providers today are getting more and more strict on that type of stuff. So make sure you do that. And if you happen to have unsubscribe from those emails, you might want to go sign up again if this is your intention. So that's just my warning to you.

That's what's going to be happening on Wednesday. I'll set out the promo code and then we're going to open up the doors on Thursday and it's going to be awesome. And then each day this week, we will be releasing an interview with an Epic Pro Academy member or Epic Community member. People just like yourself who listen to the show, who've accessed the free course, who have become members, and they're out there doing it.

So right now, on the phone today, I am joined by actually our testimonial, our video testimonial contest winner a couple months ago, and he's an Epic Pro Academy member. And without further ado, I'll just introduce Mr. Kenny Castillo. Kenny, welcome to Epic Real Estate Investing. Thanks a lot, Matt. Thanks for having me. Oh, you bet. I'm happy that you're here.

You know, before we get started, we'll talk about the deal that you did, your first deal that you sent the video on. But what were you doing before you decided to get involved in real estate? investing? Just a typical story, Matt. I graduated college and started in the workforce. Landscape architecture was my background, and so I got involved in the design field,

and I actually started my company, my own design-built company in 2004, and did that for a number of years before the economy kind of forced me out of the business, in 2007. And so then since then, you know, I had always kind of, since there's, you know, a little bit of financial trouble, just finding ways to make ends meet and just needed to find a different way to, you know, to advance, you know, advancing my career and advanced and supporting

my family and that kind of thing. Right, right. Well, I mean, there's a lot of different ways to do that. about real estate that was attractive to you? Well, I had always been interested or had friends that maybe got involved in fix and flips, but never kind of dove into it. And I'll tell you, probably around 2011-12, I kind of connected with another investor that was, you know, sort of fix-and-flip-oriented.

and, you know, spent some money to get some education on that end. And, you know, I found out that it wasn't really the right fit for me, or either that or it just wasn't the right, you know, educational connection, you know. That got me sort of interested in real estate. It got me realizing that, you know, you could make good money doing real estate investing. but I kind of struggled with that until I kind of found you. One thing that it did do is it kind of pushed me to always find different resources, you know, for education. And that's how, you know, I kind of came across your podcast.

Got it, got it. So when, when was that? Actually, it was probably early 2000, well, around April 2013. 2013. Okay. Very good. And then what was it about this podcast? What was it about the academy that was attracted that caused you to actually become a member?

Just listening to the podcast, I think you got an easy way about you, Matt. Easy way to break things down and to relate, you know, pretty much in everyday language. And that's really what it was. You know, after listening over and over a few episodes, it was just, it was. made simple sense and you explained things really well and I just decided to to join the academy just to continue that education, get more of your your resources. Awesome, awesome. Well, I'm glad that you did and I'm happy to have you a part of the community.

Since you became a member, what have you accomplished so far? Well, it's been kind of an interesting story. I mean, one reason I wanted to talk to you to let you know that it's, there's all kinds of ways that people have successes, I think. It took me a little while to get going from April to October. I was sort of him and and Han, you know, and deciding or getting ready to get ready. I've heard you mention that kind of stuff. And, you know, it took me a little while to get going. I don't know why, you know, I consider myself well-educated.

You know, I can talk to people pretty easily. I'm in sales now, so I didn't know why. I mean, I guess there was a little element of fear involved there, but once I got going, your program, you know, really kicked it off. I started with the Yellow Letter campaign and, you know, kind of went from there. So up to now, I've done, I've just done one wholesale deal, and that was the video that I sent to you. Okay. But, you know, I'm continuing to, you know, got some things in the works and I'm continuing to work that, you know, the same way I pretty much did my first deal.

Got it. Perfect. So as you're getting ready to get ready, what was the, what was there a moment or something that you heard or what was the switch that actually got you off your butt and got you started? I don't know if there's one specific thing. I mean, I just basically kept telling myself, look, you've just got to go through the motions. You know, you just got to start doing these things. I mean, it's what you talk about all the time. It's the action steps.

You know, so I don't think I had like just, you know, one thing just turned me around in the opposite direction. I always knew how to go in that direction. I just started taking a step and then building upon that, you know, taking the next step and the next step. Awesome. I like the way you put that, going through the motions, because that's really all it is really required is just go through the motions. And then you even finish that on. I was ready to say going through the motions,

then you finish it off perfectly by saying, just kept on taking a step and building on that step. Exactly. Traveling as far as you can see. And when you get there, you see further. Was that your experience? Oh, and that's so true. I mean, you say that a lot.

And, you know, the main thing, I really want to get into this deal because the whole the whole entire process was just completely educational it's amazing how every day or every two or three days you're learning something new you know and I

finish my whole deal and look back on it and just realized all the new things that I was dealing with on a daily basis so it is a process and you do learn more

as you go through it right right well let's go through it so um you just started with yellow letters, is that how you found your deal? Yes, that's actually how I found my deal.

Okay, and then the yellow letters, did you do anything special with them, or you just do it how it was described to do it in the academy? Yeah, and that just followed the simple steps, sent that the exact same letter. Okay, and who did you send it to? Perfect. Who did you send it to? I came up with a list from list source. Okay, list source, perfect.

And, you know, I don't think it's the best list. because it was just basically a non-owner-occupied list in two zip codes, the nearby Hagerstown, Maryland here. I'm pretty much near the state line of PA, South Central, and it joins Maryland and West Virginia is not too far away. Okay. And, excuse me, so I popped in two zip codes and pretty much didn't make it, you know, more selective than that.

You know, so it's kind of funny because as I was, I was going through the list, I was really worrying about whether this was a good list, because I didn't qualify it with, you know, percentage of equity or any of the other, you know, qualifiers that you can do to kind of narrow in. But it turned out to be a good list. I mean, you know, you can work any list and, you know, and squeeze good out of it. Yep. And what I would say there is it is just go through the motions.

Don't get all caught up in the details of how much equity does this list have or anything like that as a perfect example. Just get started. It doesn't have to be perfect, you know. So, awesome. So you sent out these letters. How were you doing your letters daily? Do you do it all at once? How did you spread those out? I was trying to do them daily and pretty much do 20 letters a day. Okay. For Monday through Friday. That's kind of started out as much as I could. So I was doing that out like 15 to 20 letters a day. Okay. And the call were coming in, you know, it was almost a perfect amount for me based on my work schedule. And, you know, I would get maybe a few, two, three calls a day or every two days.

Okay. Perfect. All right. So that's just about right. It's right on the money as far as the response ratio goes. Yeah, good response. I mean, without a doubt. Super. So how long did you do that before you actually got the call that ended up being your deal? Um, that was right around probably for maybe six weeks. Okay. You know, it was when I sit right, or mid-December, when I set the appointment with the, um, the seller that I got to deal with.

But prior to that, I had set a couple appointments, uh, with some other sellers that just never really panned out. Okay. So let's, let's stop there for real quick. On those ones that didn't pan out, what was the biggest reason or was there? What were the reason that those didn't pan out? Let's see. I met with one seller and actually it wasn't through a yellow letter.

I was just kind of searching through Zillow and some of other similar websites. And I came across just almost like an MLS listing, you know, where I saw that this particular seller had multiple properties, trying to put a package deal together for, I think, like six properties. The prices were real cheap. So I ended up calling that person and having conversation, sending an appointment, went to meet on site at one of his properties, and turned out to be a landlord that was looking to retire, you know, looking to get rid of his properties over time. That was my first appointment with a seller, and I met at the property, and it was kind of interesting. You know, dealing with the seller wasn't a big deal, but when we went into the property,

Hagerstown's an old town, and a lot of the properties are old, you know, early 1900s, and just kind of going in through, you know, it's a heavy rental area, and just kind of walking into the property and seeing, you know, how old they were, maybe a little bit of repair needed, you know, old cloth foot tubs, and maybe, you know, maybe old knob and tube wiring and things like that that I really wasn't familiar with, you know. It was all new to me, you know. But nonetheless, just talking, you know, I just decided to be, you know,

just open and honest with all the sellers that I'm talking to. So I pretty much explained to him that I was getting into the industry and that I, you know, but that I do work. with uh... because at the time had already been already been going to some rea meetings and things i just explained that i'm you know i work with investors i have buyers and and uh you know if i wasn't going to buy this property that i you know i would find someone right uh... that possibly would and i explained to him that you know it's how

i make a portion of my income and this and that and so ultimately it turned out that he didn't really have enough confidence in in what i was calling him you know as being a new investor He had met with a buyer. Like, you know, he explained to me, you know, Ken, I'm looking for a buyer that can just, you know, pay cash right away. You know, I showed him a property. Two days later, we were signing a contract and he paid cash.

So he just didn't have the confidence in what I was saying, you know. You know, that's actually a big fear for a lot of people, especially my younger listeners. They're afraid that they're not going to be taken seriously, that, you know, their lack of experience is going to shine. through, you know, how did that make you feel after he said that to you? The only thing I made me think about is just how to present myself or how to present my story a little bit differently, you know, so that that wouldn't happen again.

You know, it wasn't a matter of being fearful to approach another seller. It was just a matter of, you know, what can I say differently, you know? Perfect. Perfect. So there's no big deal, right? You're just kind of make an adjustment to your approach and load them up and fire again, right? Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

Perfect. Okay, so, you know, in mid-December, you did connect with one seller that did eventually become a deal. So did you meet with that person or that seller at the property as well? Yeah, exactly. He met with that person at the property as well. He was another landlord looking to retire and get rid of his properties, maybe one or two over. over a period of time, you know, maybe one or two a year. So the one thing that this list, I started to look back on this list that I thought, you know, wasn't the right list.

And, you know, it's the way I'm, you know, it's the way I met, you know, got my deal, first of all. But two, I'm also talking to other landlords that may be looking to purchase properties. So I got a couple that were interested in that, you know, and they became part of a buyer's list for me, you know, a potential buyer's list anyway. So, like I said, you can squeeze good out of this list that you may not think is otherwise good. Anyhow, I sat down with the seller, and we went through the property. It was a duplex. There were tenants in place, and we went through the property. And even that's a new experience, right?

you're not touring a property that's empty. You know, you're touring a property with tenants in place, tenants that are there. That's always kind of a new experience if someone hasn't dealt with that. Indeed. And so the numbers look good. I mean, I utilized your three-option letter of intent and, you know, evaluated the rent, and it was bringing in 1,200 a month,

month total for both units. And I offered him $60,000, and he was good with that. Sweet, sweet. And that those numbers worked for you? Those numbers worked, yeah, absolutely. So of $60,000, was that your all-cash offer? That was my all-cash offer, right. Okay.

And then what was your intent with this property? Was it to buy it or was it to wholesale it? At the time, yes, to wholesale it. Yep. Just wholesale it to another buyer. Perfect. All right. So he accepted the all-cash offer on your three-optional letter of intent,

and then what happened next? Yeah, no, we signed a contract, right? I think I asked for 45 days because we were coming up around the holidays. Right. And so I kind of, you know, I knew probably two weeks, you know, out of the end of December and the New Year's week wouldn't work. So I think I said, you know, like six weeks ahead for closing. Okay. Okay.

Yeah. And then which contract did you use? That, I sort of just through my RIA contacts and I kind of pulled together a two-page contract. That was funny because I was filing through a bunch of different contracts wondering which one to use, which one, you know. And I came across some that were really heavy with detail and legalities and some that weren't. I mean, I just picked one, Matt. Right. It turned out to be a two-page contract.

It seemed to cover, you know, cover what it needed to cover. Super. You know, use that. Okay. And you're right. Just pick one. Okay. Just pick one and go through the motions.

That's going to be the theme of today's episode. Just go through the motions. Pick one and go. I love it. So in that contract, did you write it as, you know, Kenny and or a signee, or were you going to do a double escrow? What was your intent there?

Actually, it was, I was purchasing under my business name. I had already set up, you know, a business. So, and yes, it did have the end or assigns. Okay. Yeah. Perfect. All right. So now you've got, you're in contract, and you've got 45 days to close, and this is over the holidays. So how did you find your buyer? Well, a lot of different things kind of happened in between that time. And I ended up utilizing some help from my RIA contacts. One of the guys that actually runs the RIA, you know, we struck up a good, you know, liking to each other and, you know, he's offered his help and, you know, to get me going.

So one of the things that on that end was that he would, he would market the property as well to his buyers list. Got it. And we would, we would, you know, just split the profit 50-50. Okay. So I was looking to sell the property at $72,000, by the way. All right. I was looking to make $12,000 on the wholesale.

Super. So I had that going on his end. What I did on my own end was basically just use Craig's List, set up an account. I set up like a one-page property summary sheet where I included like six pictures and some property information, my company name, my contact information and email and pricing. and, you know, I got a lot of that information just off the, you know, the state tax assessors website, you know, like year-built and square foot, things like that. Uh-huh. And marketed actually just to the county where the property was in initially in Maryland.

Mm-hmm. In Maryland, so. Got it. So when you say marketed, did you hand the flyers out somewhere? No, I did a Craigslist post. Okay. So the Craigslist post. Okay, got it.

Yep. So you've got an associate from your network that you met at the Rea meeting. He's marketing in his ways. And then you are marketing on Craigslist. Any other things that you did? I took that same flyer that I made up and, you know, took it to the monthly rear meeting. So I was talking to different, you know, different buyers there at the meeting as well. Perfect.

So that was pretty much it. Got it. Let me ask you real quick. At the monthly RIA meeting, when you took your flyer, how did you share? Did you just put it on the back table? Did you hand it out one by one? Did you get up and speak for the needs and wants section? Well, you know, there's an hour networking.

So I just had my flyers in my folder. And as I made my way around, I would just, it was basically a one-on-one pitch. But when the meeting started, you know, I was able to pitch to the room. Perfect. Perfect. On, you know, on the deal. Super. Okay.

Great. So you've done basically exactly what you're supposed to do. So how did you actually find the buyer through what avenue did the buyer come? Okay, so this is interesting because the downtown area where the duplex in, you know, to all the locals, there was a, you know, there's better sections of the town, you know, so to speak. This property was sort of near the end of a particular street that had, you know, a stigma of not being very, desirable. So it was funny when we started marketing with my associate from the rear meeting, you know, he pretty much called it. He said, you know, this is probably going to take a buyer from one of the southern Maryland counties. You know, someone a little

further way that's maybe strictly looking at numbers, you know. So he kind of called that early on. And so during the marketing process, you know, we had about four or five showings for this. And that was another thing to deal with, you know. Scheduling, you know, I told the seller, you know, listen, I'll contact the tenants directly when I need to access the property. You got their phone numbers and anytime I needed schedule, you know, coming through the property, I would call them in advance, you know, and, and meet, you know, meet the potential buyer there and take them through. and my associate actually, you know, if it didn't work out for me, you know, I called him and I said,

hey, are you available to show the property? You know, he actually did, you know, at one time. And, you know, another time during the process, he needed me to show one of his buyers, the property. So it was kind of good working together that way. I mean, it was very helpful. You know, if you're dealing with a full-time job, you've got to kind of juggle some things around. Right, right, of course. So that was interesting.

That process, again, showing the property with tenants in the house. It was kind of funny, a little challenging because on one of the sides of the duplex, one of the tenants was always there. And, you know, he would actually follow us around while I'm trying to show the buyers the property, very talkative. So I just thought that was kind of funny. How, you know, it's just another challenge to deal with, right? Right, right.

It's a little laughable, but... For sure. So through what channel did the actual buyer come from? It came from a different county in Maryland, a southern county in Maryland. Let's see, but the good thing was that they responded to one of my Craigs was that. Okay. So if I were, you know, if this were, this would be considered my body. I wouldn't have to split any profits.

Right. Right. Perfect. So it was funny. You know, we actually had four or five showings like I was telling you, Matt. And I started to realize that, you know, every investor, every buyer is completely different. You know, for one reason or another, they had their own particulars of a property why they would want it or not. You know, in the beginning, you know, the numbers made great sense.

I mean, this was given like a 12% cash on cash returns. turn, you know, nothing shabby, you know. And, you know, for one reason, another, lay out, just different things. You know, they didn't want the property. Right. And it really wasn't the price. So that was interesting to learn that, you know, all your buyers are going to be different. They're all going to have their criteria.

They're all going to, you know, as little as it made one little thing that would turn them off to the property. So I found my buyer, responded to my Craigslist ad, and scheduled employment showed them. That was a real interesting story because I'm taking them around the property. And once again, I'm being, you know, forthright and honest, and we're talking about the pricing. and they had properties, or at least the couple's father was with them. I think the wife's father was with them. And he had a couple rental properties out of state.

And so they had never heard about what I'm doing. You know, once we went through the property, we went outside and we were talking. And, you know, so they asked me, Ken, what exactly is your role with this? You know, they weren't sure whether I was as a realtor, whether, you know, what I was, whether they were having to pay, you know, commissions. So I kind of explained everything, you know, maybe a little too much. You know, I let them know what I was doing and, you know, how I wouldn't make my side of the profit. And, you know, like I said, it's just, you know, real upfront and honest.

It was a good walkthrough. They went home. They let us think about it. but called me the next day and said, I'm interested in the property. And so I was super happy. The email said, I'm interested in the property,

but we can only really pay $65,000 in cash in the email. So I responded to the email. I started thinking, I was like, well, great, you can pay $65,000 cash in all finance, the rest. The $7,000, you can make four payments, you know, whatever I told him, I think, you know, something's real simple. We finally got on the phone, and basically they said, no, $65,000 is all we want to pay. And he went further and explained, Ken, you know, I was really going to offer $60, but until you explained, you know, that, you know,

you make your money off this, you know, I'm willing to give you 65,000, you know, like a little something for me. But it's kind of funny, you know, I was taken back a little bit, Matt, because, you know, okay, this was towards the end of the period. I didn't even explain to you, Matt. My 45 days went up, and I asked for an extension to the seller. Okay. Yeah.

We got a week before, you know, we couldn't find a buyer, so I went back to the seller and just asked them for another 30-day extension. Oh, awesome. That was a key part of this happening. Yeah, definitely, definitely. Yeah. Okay, so perfect. So, you know, so at the end, you know, he's willing to give me $65,000.

I was just taken back. I was, you know, gone through the process. I thought this was like my last, you know, attempt, last buyer. I had nothing to stand on, you know. I look back and, you know, because it's my first deal, you really have no leverage, you know. How do you mean? because it's your first deal? What's that?

You said because it's your first deal, you have no leverage. What do you mean by that? Well, I haven't built. You said you just cut out for a second. You said you haven't built a buyer's list yet? Yeah. I haven't, you know, I don't have a strong buyers list. I hadn't marketed other properties.

I don't have, you know, three or four other deals that I'm working. You know, you haven't built the momentum. I see what you're saying. Okay. Because if I felt that if I had, then I can tell you. just tell them, no, you know, 72's the price or... Right. You get what I'm saying.

Yeah, yeah, I understand. Nothing to fall back on. Nothing, you know, like, you know, is that their mercy. So the way I know... The distinction I was trying to get to there, Kenny, it wasn't because it was your first deal, it's just because you didn't have anything else going on. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. I guess. Yeah, right. Right. Just because it's your first deal doesn't mean you don't have levers, though. I just wanted that to be clear, so, you know, you don't have that mindset because you're new to the business. you don't have leverage.

Oh, I got you. You know what I mean? You absolutely do. You just didn't have anything else going on, so that's really the reason. But go ahead. Right, right. So, well, you know, I did feel like I was at their mercy, you know, and I said, okay, you know, he was willing to buy it. And I said, okay, let's get it done at 65, you know.

5,000 is better than nothing. Right. For sure. So we set that up. And he turned out, you know, the, the, big. turned out to be a little bit difficult from that time to the end. I mean, uh, and just talk about dealing with different issues that come up, Matt. I mean, it turns out that, um, you know, he had some questions, you know, he asked me, he's like, you mind if I contact the owner, you know,

about, I have some questions on the property, you know, maintenance things. And I said, no, no problem. Once we close, I'll get you, you know, I'll get to the information. And, you know, So he let that go. It turns out that he, you know, got the owner's number, public information or whatnot, and had a conversation with the owner. And at that point, you know, we basically established that he wasn't going to go behind him. Those are the kind of things we were discussing. So the buyer was, you know, forthright and honest himself.

But doing those kind of things just kind of just made me nervous. Sure, sure. You know, he went to speak an attorney to kind of have the little two-page contract reviewed and wanted to make changes to that. And so we went through, you know, those kind of issues between signing the contract and closing. I was asking for a non-refundable deposit. it. He didn't want to, you know, his lawyer advised him not to pay that directly to me. I talked to my escrow guy, and he said, no problem. You know, you can just, you know, he can

write it out to me, to the title company. And that's exactly what we ended up doing, you know, to make him feel comfortable. So far. So there were a lot of back and forth and concessions and this and that. And, you know, all I wanted to do is make the buyer feel comfortable. But at the same time, you know, he was really. He was really going through all the steps. I guess he wanted to make sure he was doing things right and so on. Super.

You know, based on what you've shared with me, Kenny, you did absolutely everything that I would have done. So absolutely perfect. The one thing I thought was very ingenious of you was to ask for terms on the balance. I think that was a great offer. That was perfect. I probably would have overlooked that actually just because I was at the end of my time period and, you know, a fast nickel beats a slow dime, and now would have to just take it.

Let's get it over with it and get on the next deal. Right. So, super. Congratulations on that. I love that. That was a great tip. The, so I do have one question here that while this was going on, while you're doing this, are you still sending your yellow letters out?

I'm glad you brought that up. You know, no, I was not. I looked back and I was just, just super focused on this one deal, making sure I was getting everything, you know, dealing, dealing with it right. But I look back now and realize how important that is. You know, you got to keep the momentum going. Yeah. But, yeah, that's funny. You say that, man. No, I kind of stopped doing that, and I was just going, you know, because it almost seemed like every day there was something to deal with with this property. But, yeah, I realize that now, you know, you have to

just keep your pipeline full, you know, and so... Good. Yeah, the reason... Definitely a lesson learned. The reason I bring that up, because you're saying you were doing this back and forth, you're getting a little nervous and going behind your back, you were, there were challenges. Every day there was something new going on, and I can tell,

it was kind of like getting to you, and if it was getting to you because all that can go away if you have other stuff going on. That's interesting. You know what I mean? It bolsters your negotiation position. It reduces your stress on the deal. It gives you more confidence and more conviction, and that shows up in your demeanor and your interactions.

And it dissipates a bunch of these things that make this first deal or this only deal a challenge. So also, I mean, it's good enough. It's absolutely essential to keep your pipeline going to keep the income coming in, but it also does a lot for your, what do they call it, your posture, your disposition inside of the deal. So keep that in mind for future reference. But I'm really proud of you. This is awesome. So you closed the deal and did you actually close the deal for $65,000 then?

Yeah, I did. Super. So you put $5,000 in your pocket. Put $5,000 in my pocket, showed you the, you know, included that image in the video there. I wanted you to see the check. and it worked out great in the end. But yeah, what an experience. I mean, and you know what, I wouldn't change it, Matt,

because just, you know, those kind of things now, you know, how to sort of react to them and deal with them. And you can always, you know, whether it was good or bad or you needed to change the way you dealt with something, you can always do that. But I'm glad you mentioned what you said. You know, I remember you saying in some pretty early podcasts, you know, you need your next deal,

but you don't need any one deal, right? So that makes a lot of sense. Right, right. So you want to do everything you can just not to put yourself in that position where you do need that deal. It definitely gets you anxious. Right, super. But you got it done. You got it done.

Awesome. Looking back, are there one, two, maybe three things that you did that you know will to do differently next time? Well, you know, we just talked about that. I mean, you know, keep going with your yellow letters. Right. Keep talking to sellers. I think I would, well, it's something I would do a little bit better, but from here on out I still need to do it.

It's my organization, you know, keep organized with a lot of different things, you know, especially your potential seller leads and following up and keeping them in an organized maybe, organized spreadsheet. So you can always reference them and follow up and that kind of thing. So yeah, I'd say being organized and a little systematic, if you can, or always building upon that. Absolutely, absolutely.

Cool. So there are a few things in here that I think were really interesting that I think that are good takeaways. First, that you noticed that by marketing to non-owner-occupied residences, you most of the time will be dealing with other investors. And there's two reasons why I like this list, and you named one of them because they can also become potential buyers. And also, I don't know if you experienced this or not, but often they have more than one property to sell. When you kind of did stumble across that because I had a package of six, right? Yeah, yeah, exactly.

You probably didn't mail a letter to all six of those. You just nailed it to one, and it turned out to potentially be six deals. That's correct. And that did happen. Sure. I would get called back from saying, you know, I have this property and this property and so on. Right. Right.

Yeah. That's a good point. So that list is good because it tends to be a little bit more bang for your buck. The response rate is the same. But once you actually make the connection, there's the possibility for a lot more opportunity there. That's great. The second thing is I love the way that you're attending your RIA meetings. You're interacting, you're networking with people.

I think one of the more powerful things that you did was stand up in front of the room for needs and wants and share your deal. After you did that, what was your experience the rest of the night at that meeting? Just pleasant. You know,

I kind of felt like I was actually part of that group, you know what I mean? Instead of being a newcomer. Exactly. You're in the game, right? Right. And you could tell that,

you know, when you talk to people, they were probably asking you questions about it. Like, they were talking to you like you were somebody in the game. Yeah. Absolutely.

Absolutely. Exactly. So now you're viewed within your community as a guy that does deals. And you do that two or three more times and all of a sudden, you know, deals from that re-meeting are going to start coming to you. Someone's going to come up to you and ask you, hey, can you help me market my property where you have the potential to split the profit with them?

Right. And various things. That's just one example, but a lot of stuff comes from there. So great. And then to continue your marketing, whether you have a deal or not, keep the marketing going. And if you don't have the time to do it yourself, have somebody else do it. When you talk about staying organized and being systemized, you know, that lead generation is probably one of the first things you want to systemize because if you keep that steady the deal flow is steady and the income is steady I agree perfect I agree I also want to mention Matt I mean like your your academy and all the resources we're a big part of it just like I said in the video the one thing that I really want to stress and that I'm happy about is that you're

consistent you know you've been there pretty pretty much consistently and and And I really appreciate that, and I'm sure other academy members or other listeners appreciate that. And so, you know, I just wanted to pass that along. Awesome. I appreciate that, Kenny. And you're very welcome. You're very welcome. And nothing makes me happier when someone actually takes the information and puts it to use and gets compensated for it.

And that's super. What do you see for your future now? I'm just going to continue what I'm doing. I think what I want to do is do a couple more wholesale, get a little cash in the back. and then I'm going to start, you know, as soon as I can start looking to buy and hold properties without a doubt. So, I mean, that's another thing. I've really, I agree with your philosophy there. And so I'm going to strive to do that.

Outstanding. Generate a little cash first. That's perfect. Outstanding. So if anyone listening wanted to get in contact with you, would you be open to letting them do that? Yeah, absolutely. Okay. How should they do that?

You can email me at KKV. property at gmail.com. Okay, perfect. And we'll put that in the show notes. Would that be okay? Yeah, that's perfect. Thanks, Matt. Super.

We'll put that in the show notes. And something always comes out of that almost every single time, and you never know what it's going to be, but something very cool is going to come out of that because that's just kind of how this business works. Okay? Looking forward to it.

Awesome. Thanks so much, Kenny, for sharing your story. And get back and contact me with the next one closes, and you'll have you back on, and you can tell us all about that one as well. Yeah, I definitely will, Matt. I appreciate it. Thanks, bud.

Okay, doke. So that's it for today. I will see you next. No, I'll actually see you tomorrow. Tomorrow with a brand new episode, another epic community member to share their experience. And, yeah, I can't wait. All right. I'm Matt Terrio, living the dream.

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