Cash Flow Guys Podcast

This week we are going to have a conversation about how to make that first $100 in recurring revenue.  You might be wondering why I picked such a “low” number considering that for many, the magic number to escape the rat race seems to be $10k a month. As you can imagine, it takes lots of $100 bills to make $10,000, in fact, it takes one hundred of them every month to add up to $10,000.  That sure sounds like a bunch of work, doesn’t it?  Here’s the good news, you don’t need anywhere near 100 doors or properties to escape the rat race. Too much focus on “scaling” can be a recipe for disaster.  Instead, let’s get focused on a small win to gain proof of concept. First,  focus on learning what the realistic rent amount is for a property based on its current condition. Not in rentable condition?  Then you can’t pay a price that reflects it being in a rent-ready state. How to do the math on this?  Listen in to this episode to learn more on how to quickly break down the deal to determine a Go/NoGo

This week I will keep the show notes short because the episode was long but TOTALLY worth it!  In this episode, I speak with Andy Gurczak of All-City Adjusting which is a Public Adjuster firm I have worked with in the past regarding insurance claims on my apartment buildings and investment houses. Andy brings TRUCKLOADS of value (skip them nuggets, we’re talking TONS) to this episode in more ways than I could possibly mention.  The info in this episode applies to anyone who pays for insurance on anything at all. In true value loaded fashion, Andy has a free eBook for Cash Flow Guys Listeners that can be had on his website AllCityAdjusting.com  

Everyone wants to get deals and raise money, however, I am of the belief that few are willing to innovate in order to accomplish that.  By innovate I mean to take specific steps to stand out from the rest in your market.  We are surrounded by marketing messages everywhere we look, as the saying goes...Innovate or Die! In this episode, we will discuss the real estate investor’s biggest waste of money. “We Buy Houses” is dead..we ruined it by overusing it matching with a sketchy reputation of those who do use it.  To many sellers it says “I am about to get lowballed” or maybe those “We Buy Houses People Are Sketchy”, either way, its no longer a worthwhile message to put out to the universe. Building relationships is the key to get to the closing table and beyond.  To effectively build relationships, know, like and trust are the ingredients.  To build relationships we have to overcome any opportunity for a negative assessment of what we are offering and the simplest way to accomplish that is to avoid those situations in the first place by modifying your marketing message. Untargeted marketing is a colossal waste of money and time.. In fact..it’s the #1 money waster for real estate investors. If you use the same copy like everyone else, the same subject lines and titles, the same descriptions of what you offer, how can you expect to be any more successful than the next investor? When I was learning how to build funnels and market myself effectively I invested very little time in my titles or subject lines and most of my time in the body of what I was writing. I couldn’t figure out why my copy did not covert well. I had no title, no subject line, nothing to grab the reader’s attention. What if, instead of “We Buy Houses” you used “How To Find A Good Buyer Fast In As Little As One Week” or “How To Find A Qualified Home Buyer Today” Then give them a place to go to get that information in exchange for their contact information. In this episode, I give specific examples of better sales copy you can use to convert motivated seller leads and find financial friends to raise private money from.  Much of what I have learned came from reading my new favorite book (link below), you can get a free copy if you pay a couple of bucks for shipping by using my affiliate link at CashFlowGuys.com/CopySecrets    

How do I know if you have a good deal or not?  This is one of the most popular questions I had when I was getting started as a real estate investor.  Looking back at the deals I have done (both good and bad); I now realize that the answer to the original question was staring me in the face. This week I discuss how I came to this realization and how I have used this realization to become a better investor.  Along the way, I added to my arsenal of tools by creating a deal review form in addition to my #1 method of knowing if a deal was worthwhile or not. I added this special bonus to my free Mailbox Money Deal Analyzer course that you can grab by visiting http://cashflowguys.com/mailboxmoney Remember, when it comes to getting great deals, we must begin with a motivated seller and a problem we can solve, otherwise we are just stabbing in the dark.  When we invest time, resources and capital into making deals to the unmotivated, we are guaranteeing ourselves future disappointment.

Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda is something I catch myself saying often.  I try not to live in the past, but I find myself using it to motivate me to have a better future. In 1992 could have bought a house on the water in Madeira Beach, FL, needed a dock, needed yard work, but the inside was ok (liveable). I was 22 years old and fresh out of the Army after 5 years of service Although as a Veteran I was entitled to a VA zero down VA home loan, I did not qualify for one due to my lousy credit at the time.  I passed on the opportunity all together because I figured the bank would simply say no. It never occurred to me to simply ask the seller if they would take payments for their equity..even if it had occurred to me I likely would have dismissed that notion by assuming the seller wouldn’t do that for me. I had the opportunity to buy that house for $75,000 (asking price) which would have meant a mortgage payment somewhere around $550 a month after factoring in taxes and insurance. I later learned that someone bought that home for $65,000 with no money down, 20 year terms at 5% interest which for me would have meant a payment about $100 less than I had figured originally. I passed on that because I thought it was too much hassle and responsibility to bother with.  In this episode, I dive into that notion and discuss what I learned from that mental lapse and also what I lost from simply not taking action. That first house would have set me up nicely, even if it had not been such a great deal right out of the gate. It took me many years to discover that what was really holding me back was fear of the responsibility of success.  

When I mention investor identity, some folks feel that investing any brain power on this topic is a colossal waste of time.  Many people try very hard to focus on everything that is for sale in hopes of not missing out on any possible opportunity that they may trip over. Even in a slow market there are usually plenty of things for sale to look at especially when you cross classes and property types.  In today’s distracted world this can often lead to overwhelm or information overload that almost always ends in the buyer shutting down in a state of confusion.  The next thing we usually hear is “there just isn’t any deals” which is rarely the case. In my Mailbox Money Program I teach to get this part decided first, before you do anything else.  Once you take the time to realize that the customer you are most prepared to serve is someone like you, things take a turn for the better.  You might reflect back on a time that you were a bit scattered, and by doing so you will quickly see how time could be wasted and efforts misdirected. There are three types of Investor Identities that tie to asset classes.  In the multi-family space they assign letters to them “A, B, C and D” (“A” being the “best”), yet the same type of description can apply to all asset classes. In this episode I explain the characteristics of each of them in detail to help you decide which one you fall in.  Once you decide where you land, use that decision to best suit the needs of people more like you.  By applying this logic you will save yourself a lot of time and aggravation by being able to quickly and efficiently zero in on helping those you best identify with.

Business Funding... Business Credit... Business Lines of Credit... Whatever you choose to call it, It’s nothing more than a piece of cheese on a mousetrap! It will keep you in financial prison AND can land you in Real Prison.  In this episode, I discuss this very slippery slope and what happened to David Gaylord of Rochester, NY. (Spoiler alert: It’s not a pretty picture). As the economy continues to get life breathed into it by the smoke and mirrors of the Fed, one thing for certain is that irrational exuberance will lead many Americans into making financial commitments that they simply cannot afford. In this episode, I dive into America’s latest dumb thing to do in regard to borrowing money and abuse of credit.  Many claim they are doing this to “Build their business” while in reality, if they need a credit card for that they have no business to begin with.    

In this episode, I discuss the most recent deal we put together for one of our clients.  The seller was a tired landlord who did not like the small multi-family sector, in this case, an 8 unit apartment building.  We took on the task of selling this property for her only a year after she bought it. In any deal in which I am involved, I focus my energy on why the Seller is selling and more importantly, what they intend on doing with the money.  In this case, the Seller’s plans were to secure a more passive investment arrangement with the proceeds of the sale.  She wanted a return that was secure and would outpace inflation. What I heard right there was music to my ears, listen-in to hear how we broke this deal down and created a true win/win for the Buyer AND Seller.

Working a job is a fact of life for most Americans, yet I wonder what percentage of those workers understand the cost of them working?  You might be thinking I made a typo there, how could a job cost you money? This topic came up this past week when talking with friends.  One of my friends just celebrated a 15-year anniversary with the same employer. What she received as a “gift” for that 15 years of hard work was the ability to order a present (read trinket) from a catalog.  This episode isn’t about what her employer should or shouldn’t do to recognize her dedication in service, instead of its to help you see the lost opportunity cost that you suffer each and every day. How much do you really need to earn to leave your w-2 job?  Most people I ask this question to tell me the same answer…$10,000 a month will do the trick.  Will it though?  Could you escape the rat race for less?  The majority of American workers absolutely can! The average W2 American works from January till May every year just to pay taxes, mindblowing huh?  I bet that if you look at last year’s tax return you will see similar figures on yours.  This means that you really don’t need to fully “replace” your paycheck, you just need to build up your passive income to meet your true net income to escape the rate race.  For most Americans, that means you can escape the rat race by earning somewhere between 50% to 70% of your current income.  How do you accomplish this?  Well, how about listening to this week’s episode to find out :)

200 episodes ago I was sitting in a dingy office trying to figure out what this podcast would become.  Little did I know it would become a massive success and grow to become one of the top-rated podcasts in the real estate space. It would be an extreme understatement to simply say that the show has opened a couple of doors for me.  Instead, it has propelled my business beyond my wildest dreams. 200 episodes ago on December 11th, 2015 was the day I decided to help other people learn how to escape the rat race.  Since then I have had the pleasure of talking to hundreds of you over the phone and at events around the country. Many people have asked me what my big secret to success is… Here is what I realized today reflecting back on the last 200 episodes It begins with No Matter What, listen in to hear the story of what “No Matter What” means to me.