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Keys To Success

Friends Do Business with Friends

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By Dan Harkey

Business & Finance Consultant

cell 949-533-8315 email dan@danharkey.com

“Being and Time” written in 1927, best discussed the concept of authenticity, of being, and caring. Martin Heidegger, a German philosopher, is an excellent read. In Heidegger’s study, he referred to as “Dasein,” which means “Being-there.” One may interpret it as “being-ever-present.” Also, to be fixed, embedded, and immersed in the physical, literal, and tangible day-to-day world. Another good read about the development of Heidegger’s concept of authenticity is in the book, Eclipse of the Self by Michael E. Zimmerman.

In the late-1970s into the early-1980s, I developed a unique strategy and grew from a high school business teacher to one of the highest producing real estate agents between Newport Beach to San Clemente between 1978 and 1984, and later in the mid-2000s to produce up to $10-25 million per month in sales volume in the real property lending business. On a side note, I developed the business curriculum in the 1970’s for Saddleback School District in Orange County, CA. The classes included word processing/keyboarding, typing, business math, consumer education, economics, and accounting. This was pre-computer science days.

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Before 1980, I was an early adopter of cross-selling. I created a real estate brokerage, a public escrow company to close the sales, a mortgage company to originate residential and commercial real estate loans, and a general insurance agency to place the insurance policies on the purchased property. Additionally, the insurance agency placed investment property coverage, liability coverages, auto insurance, life & disability insurance. An adjunct company that I formed was a property management company to manage residential and commercial rental income property, including commercial leasing.

Effective salesmanship is a learned skill set but developing into an authentic and unique being is the treasure. Confucius and Dan say, find a man who enjoys his work, and you will find a person that will never work another day in his life.

If one’s objective in the sales business is to follow up with your few friends, the potential success will be minimal. An effective sales network starts with a few but grows into thousands and tens of thousands.

The 80/20 rule applies to the sales profession. 20% of the salespersons develop 80% of the sales. Conversely, 80% of the salespeople develop 20% of the sales and resulting profits. Successful salespersons are willing to do the heavy lifting and do tasks others refuse to do.

It will help if you start by defining your universe of possibilities. In other words, what is the maximum and broadest number of individuals or prospects that you may develop to sell your products, goods, or services? Is it 1 or 1000 or 10,000? Size matters! A salesperson’s understanding of this process may be limited by lack of experience, willingness to take the risk, or just plain lack of enthusiasm for engaging in a long- term systematic enterprise. A more straightforward explanation is that some people are just plain “lazy and irresponsible.”

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I have consulted with many eager salespersons. Yes, the size of one’s prospect lead base matters. But relationships matter more. The size of a prospect network may start with 10 or 20 but grow to 1000 or more. You may start with a smaller number but limit the number of lead potentials unless you sell multimillion-dollar products with a considerable profit margin. Two examples may be Caterpillar and airplanes. These items cost from mid five hundred to hundreds of millions of dollars.

You may want to formulate a strategy to communicate daily to develop new business leads that, hopefully, will become lasting friendships. Therein lies the process, how do you turn prospects into friendships. I do not want to suggest that you create superficial but develop friendships that are bonded by authentic caring and communication. Can you call a friend and have a general conversation and enjoy the time spent without the thought of getting something out of it?

Herein lies the struggle between the salesperson who will never or only marginally become successful and one that can develop into a master salesperson with life fulfillment in relationships with others.

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Yes, you locate a buyer; you do not create one. In other words, if you were taught that slick language, like handling the objections and then switching to assumptive close works, Fuller Brush Company and Encyclopedia Britannica may have a job for you. Also, using online tools like LinkedIn and Facebook may be effective or a complete waste of time. A new link with a new person is only the most minute beginning and introduction to developing a future relationship and eventual friendship.

To be effective, a salesperson needs a good customer relations software package (CRM) to manage prospects, memorialize conversations, histories, families, events, interests, backgrounds, and essential aspects of developing a friendship. The effective salesperson needs an email marketing system like Salesforce or MailChimp.

The more you understand your friends more the relationship will grow. They will look forward to talking with you, and you will have mutual interests. And, of course, you will enjoy talking and sharing things that are interesting to you.

Now comes the strategy of calling 10 to 25 prospects per day to become friends over time. What can you do for them? How can you assist them in accomplishing their goals? Continue the exercise until you develop so much business that you can hire assistants. Delegate as much of your job tasks to others, then get back on purpose.

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If you make your outbound calls and receive an answerphone, leave a message, then follow up with an email with a purpose message. “Just calling to catch up,” or “Just called to check if I can do anything for you or your clients,” Or “just called to share an interesting article or news segment that I read.”

A difficult part of any conversation is developing the habit of listening rather than doing most of the talking. No, I am not that interesting, no matter who told us we were. It is easy to talk about me when having conversations with others. We can all become amused about ourselves and our life histories. It is imperative to stop talking and start listening.

Developing authentic friendships that will choose to work with you will be a natural transition from acquaintance to business prospect to genuine friendship. The process requires you to learn about your friend’s background, family, and what is important to them, not about you. What can you do to improve their lives, help their client, or help them put bread on the table?

Find a person who develops enough friendship relationships to do business, and you will both have a whole and enriched life. The journey is never complete!

Developing your unique ability will create a positive magnet around you so that people will be drawn to you through developed friendships, social networking, enhancing your satisfaction, professional career, and the same for those who meet you.

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My opinions, which comes from experience:

  • 20% of the people and friends in your life give you 80% of life’s satisfaction. Conversely, 20% of the negative, disrespectful, and unreliable people will result in 80% of the dissatisfaction. Tolerating people with negative attitudes, belligerent, rude, condescending, game playing, or jealousy does not fit into a satisfying life journey. Included in this group are superficial, sycophantic, and parasitic friendships. Eliminate all these people from your life, pronto?
  • Develop a management infrastructure and support system around you. These may be employees or independent contractors. Only with a whole support staff and operational techniques and strategies can you develop into high sales volumes and consistently deliver a quality outcome. If you allow weak staff members or weak systems, this will drag you down and make you marginally effective.

Thank you for taking the time to read this article.

Dan Harkey

Dan Harkey is a contributing author to Weekly Real Estate News and is a Business & Financial Consultant. He can be contacted at 949-533-8315 or dan@danharkey.com.

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How to Become a Real Estate Investor

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Special from Stratton Equities

While, technically, anyone can become a real estate investor these days, what does it really take to become a real success and what are the steps to get there?

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Before you get started, there are a few things to keep in mind that will help you determine what kind of real estate investment you want to be a part of. The first of which is figuring out what kind of real estate strategy you want to be a part of. The spectrum of which ranges between being an active investor and a passive investor.

An active investor will typically involve themselves in fix and flip strategies, wholesaling properties to investors, finding and managing a rental property themselves, or working as a licenced real estate agent in their area in order to build commissions for other future investments. An active investor is likely working non-stop, on multiple projects at once, and is always in need of funding.

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On the other hand, a passive investor can engage with real estate investing through buying shares of a property portfolio, partnering with other investors, or just generally investing in other real estate investments schemes.

The choice between being an active or passive investor is really up to the individual and how much they want to be part of the day-to-day operations and rewards of a property. Aside from some monetary constraints or a license to become a real estate agent, there are no barriers to entry to become a real estate investor as anyone can participate, they must first figure out what kind of investment strategy they wish to become a part of first.

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Once you have committed to and figured out an investment strategy, you can then move on to learning up about the properties itself. This next step will require a lot of research information as your end goal is to become a realistic competitive expert in the real estate market.

Some of the key subjects to know are what kinds of properties are there and which ones to focus on, and what is the property’s situation in terms of structural support, renovation, location, community, real estate laws and taxes.

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It is important to note that many properties are very different from each other. For example, what might the investment differences be between a multi-family rental property in rural New York compared to urban New York? Or how about a single-family property? Or a commercial property? Or the difference between the exact same property in the mountains compared to the beach? The point is you must be able to distinguish between all the different categories of real estate on top of all the different legal, geographical, and cultural factors that may arise in order to become an adequate expert in your field.

To start off, you might want to focus your skills and knowledge on a particular specialized segment of real estate investment to give yourself a potentially unique advantage.

Overall, unlike many other career paths, earning a degree is not required to become a real estate investor; but if you want to become successful at it, you will have to teach yourself and it will take a lot of time and patience.

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Once you have mastered the realm of real estate in relation to your investment strategy, you can move on to mastering the market itself. The market is not too difficult to observe itself as it simply is determined by the nature of buying and selling property. However, the difficulty arises in figuring out the right properties and the right prices.

As you probably understand, the market is not perfect. There are some properties that are overvalued and some that are undervalued. Hence the practice of real estate investment. However, understanding the market will require one to observe these properties for what they are actually worth and determine whether the process of fixing-and-flipping, or whatever investment strategy you are using, is actually worth it. And that itself is the challenge as you not only have to take into account the property itself, you also have to account for the market as a whole and where you think it is heading, which may not always be the case.

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After you have mastered the real estate market, you can move on to acquire financing, again, depending on your investment strategy of choice. Here is where your research can finally start to gain you ground in implementing your project.

As one begins to enter the industry, it will be more challenging to find other investors or people who will give you loans as you have not built the relationships yet or had the experience to prove your success. But you have done enough research to register a plan to showcase to investors to get them hooked on your idea.

It is important to know that most investment projects require a lot of capital on your end so you will want to get as much cash on hand as possible. That is where other investors and private money lenders can come in as they can give you enough money to fund your project so that you can live out your real estate investment dream.

Just make sure your strategy is sound and well-presented when trying to acquire more funds. Over time, this process will get easier as you have a longer history, reputation, and credibility within the real estate investment world.

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Lastly, just before you go out and purchase your first property, you should read up on the local and state laws so that you are prepared for any legal situation that could stand in your way. No matter how experienced one is, there are always going to be challenges you did not foresee, but the better informed and knowledgeable one is about the property, investment strategy, and local customs and legalities, the better your chances are at overcoming the adversities present towards you.

Image from Pixabay

Okay! You should now know all that there is to get started as a real estate investor. That being said, these are summarized guidelines that merely point out the general steps it should take to get started and become a successful investor. There is a lot to learn and a lot to keep in mind when practicing real estate investing. Just know that more likely than not, it is probably not going to go the way you expect. It could be that managing a rental building is much more costly and demanding than you expect. But, don’t fear. The smarter the strategy, the better the plan, and the more aware you are of the real estate market, the better your chances of success are. Good luck!

If you’re looking for financing on your next real estate investment, Stratton Equities is the leader in Nationwide Direct Hard Money and NON-QM Lending in the real estate market. Reach out to a member of our team today by applying now at www.strattonequities.com

Financial Freedom: Embracing Passive Income Investing

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By Dr. Chandra Mishra

Financial freedom is crucial at any age. The genre of intelligent millenniums knows how to create variable income sources to gain financial freedom as soon as possible.

Passive income is the top contender for financial freedom which means no more worries about your ongoing bill payments or making rent. Once your basic needs are met you are left with enough to fulfill your desires; paying off debts, going on a long vacation, or indulging in luxurious recreation facilities.

Today we are clearing the dubious air about financial freedom as people have a misconception about investment fundamentals.

If you think working tirelessly and continuously is making you rich and financially free, you are mistaken. As being rich need not necessarily mean your financial freedom. Also you are losing time which you can’t buy.

Financial freedom comes when you build yourself multiple sources or streams of passive income that can pay for your expenses and leave you to live your life on your terms with minimal need to indulge in strenuous work.

Ways of Creating Passive Income

You are generating passive income when money keeps flowing in irrespective of your active working status.

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It may sound strange, but it does make a lot of sense as passive income can be made in two primary manners:-

1) Your Investment Works On Your Behalf

You invest strategically in projects that create monthly income with a fixed or standard rate of return.

The option here could be investing in instruments like bank and government bonds, corporate bonds, rental property income, multifamily/apartment investing that can quickly help you get out of the rat race.

2) Your Business Working On Your Behalf

Under this method of generating passive income, you indulge in a passive business income-making strategy. As a smart business person, you create a business that has the potential to run without your active participation. You hire and create processes to run the business. Following this strategy will offer continuous cash flow, whether you are parting hardship to your business venture or not.

Both investment and business work in synchronization for passive income generation for an entrepreneur.

Multifamily investing for busy professionals is one noticeable option that can create a consistent income without too many risk factors involved.

For busy professionals who cannot spare time consistently to keep track of their diversified investment portfolio, their entire investment portfolio can be constituted around multifamily real estate investments. It is a great foundation with very low volatility and opportunity to capitalize on passive income.

Why Multifamily Real Estate Investment Is A Sound Decision For Passive Income?

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Multifamily real estate can act as a catalyst for your investment career. And, this is not without the reasons:-

1) Easier Availability of Finance

If you think the enormous size of multifamily properties will call for difficulty in arranging finances, don’t let their size befool you. Multifamily properties are more accessible to finance than single-family homes. The price of multifamily properties is not the deterrent in fetching easy financing options. These properties are more likely to be approved by financial institutions like banks for a loan because these are more likely to generate cash flow month after month. This guarantees timely loan repayment.

2) A More Fabulous Kick Start

Acquisition of multifamily real estate is a better investment with low volatility which could be your fantastic end-games strategy too. You will retire with multiple streams of income. If you want to start small, A small multifamily property acquired, you can live in one of the units and pay down the mortgage you receive from the tenants residing in other units. Besides rent, you will earn appreciation on your investment capital.

3) Light Years Ahead Of Stock Market Return

Multifamily syndication returns have significantly gone down in the last two years. Yet you can lay hands on a 12-13% average annual return which is significantly higher than stock market returns.

Additionally, you are not even paying taxes (decreased taxes are the most extraordinary relief anytime) which means you are light years ahead of stock market returns.

4) Enjoy Cost Segregation Benefits

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Under the cost segregation, multifamily real estate investors enjoy reduced current tax liabilities which imply upfront cash flow. Without cost segregation, multifamily rentals are depreciated straight line for 27.5 years.

However, with cost segregation, the depreciation on specific real estate rentals’ components is faster (like in five, seven, or 15 years). The faster depreciation means you can save/make more money with depreciation and cost segregation applicable in multifamily investment projects.

Additionally, the government taxes income from multifamily investment properties at a passive income rate. This means no employment taxes.

Conclusion

Hope our little effort will help you embrace passive income investing for attaining financial freedom the soonest. Time is to start today, you can easily partner with someone or invest passively completely. What steps will you take in the coming weeks to create passive income?

For more information, contact your financial/legal advisor or financial counseling firm before investing.

My Billionaire Mentor Died. But His Life and Business Lessons LIVE With Me Forever

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Image by Johana Peña from Pixabay

By Hector Padilla,

Broker, GRI, Accredited Investor

It’s no secret that a HUGE key to my success has been having time-proven and vetted mentors.

In 2007, I received an invitation to fly to Scottsdale, Arizona, to have breakfast with a billionaire.

If you had this opportunity, would you hop on a jet to go meet a billionaire? Do you think that I capitalized on this “opportunity of a lifetime”?

Yes or YES?

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

If you answered YES, then you are 100% correct.

Unfortunately, Bill the Billionaire* passed away in 2016 at the young age of 68. Very sad. In 1997, Bill was listed in Forbes Magazine as one of the 400 richest people in America.

Inc. magazine estimated Bill’s net worth to be in the range of $2.4 to $3.5 billion.

Let me share with you some of the lessons Bill the Billionaire taught me that I implemented into my real estate business. These solid strategies helped me purchase over $100,000,000 worth of real estate.

#1. A Daily To Do List = Millionaire Lesson.

A STOP doing list = Billionaire Lesson.

Focus on Money Making Action.

Image by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay

STOP = The drama, TV, News Papers, Happy Hour, Social Media Addiction = Don’t be full of energy wasting activity.

2,500-year-old, time-proven wisdom = six days of skilled labor, and one day of rest.

#2. Finish your day on paper before you start.

Needs VS. Wants.

What NEEDS to be done today?

What do you WANT to do today, but can be pushed till tomorrow/next week?

Who can you delegate your tasks too?

#3. You must do what is important, BUT not urgent:

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

The fundamentals of success are important = Reading, Audio, GYM, Meditate/Prayer, Prospect, Lead Follow up.

It takes discipline & focus to do what is Important, but NOT urgent.

The masses run around like a chicken little, doing what is urgent, but NOT important.

#4. You can NOT earn $1,000,000 a year doing a $12-hour task!

If you do NOT have an assistant, then you are an assistant.

How can you delegate and empower?

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

#5. Remain in control, BUT not in charge of Daily Minutia.

YES, control your business. But NOT the day-to-day operations.

Focus on wealth creation.

Focus on prospecting and networking with people of substance.

#6. The broke & Billionaires have 24 hours in a day.

How do Billionaires get more accomplished?

They buy time by being a blessing.

HOW? By recruiting a skilled team. Then, they delegate and outsource.

YOU become a blessing by creating jobs and opportunities.

#7. Don’t be the FLY on the window.

Don’t bang your head on the widow, till your death, with WRONG repetitive activity.

Land, re-anchor yourself to find a new proven path to wealth and time freedom

Image by Ronald Carreño from Pixabay

#8. Leverage of Time and Expertise.

Recruit a skilled TEAM and a proven vetted Mentor/Coach/Chairman.

A mentor/coach/chairman can show you how to create exponential growth, so you can earn more in the next 12 months than you have in the last 12 years.

#9. Goals VS. Values:

Goals change like the weather.

Values are consistent like the climate.

Paycheck Goals VS. Family Values

#10. Pocket Promises.

Goals VS. Promises. What is the difference?

When you promise your mother, wife, daughter, family, friends, staff that you will accomplish “a promise you made them” you have a 90% chance of accomplishing it, as long as you have a written Plan of Action.

If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Plan your work and WORK your plan.

Remember, as human beings we tend to do more for others than for ourselves.

Write down your TOP 5 Promises on an index card with a simple Plan of Action on HOW you will accomplish your Pocket Promises.

Be sure to read your Pocket Promises three times per day.

I once asked Bill: “Knowing what you know now, what business would you get into?”

He replied, “Find a NEED that the masses have and provide a solution”.

For me Real Estate is that NEED.

People NEED a place to live, work and play = Real Estate.

Plus, in what other Time-Proven Business can you buy an asset with NO money and terms?

Creative real estate investing opens the doors to that Billionaire Lifestyle, that so many of us desire.


Learn about Hector Padilla, Broker/GRI

*For privacy reasons, Bill’s last name has been purposely omitted. Mr. Padilla owns and operates HP Capital Investments, Inc, a real estate acquisition and investment firm in Los Angeles. Be sure to follow Mr. Padilla on Instagram #MyChairmanHP

How This Powerhouse Woman Created an 8-figure Real Estate Business and How You Can, Too

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By Victoria Kennedy

I am no stranger to the determination it takes to grow a real estate business. As a teacher turned Realtor®, I knew from the very beginning that I had to forge my own path.

When I first obtained my license in 2001, I was brand new to the industry with no one to show me the ropes. It was a time of unpredictable growth in northern California’s market, but with a little hard work and a lot of passion, I learned the ins and outs of the industry.

I have faced numerous challenges throughout my years as an agent, including recessions that affected not just me, but the entire nation. As many agents were exasperated with endless foreclosures and short sales, I decided to do something about it and obtained my Certified Distressed Property Expert in order to better serve my client’s needs as I continued to grow my business to the empire it is today, selling an average of 100 plus homes a year with a career total of more than 2,200.

It all goes to show that in this industry, you have to be willing to adapt, have an exceptional work ethic, a knack for marketing and a devotion to your clients. The educator still in me from the years I spent as a third-grade teacher drives my desire to teach others, and I have decided to combine my two passions to educate other realtors how they, too, can grow their real estate business to 8-figures.

Keep learning.

Even if you have been in the business for years, there is always something learn from other real estate agents, articles or even seminars. None of us should ever be too proud to continue broadening our minds as a way to better help the people who are entrusting us with one of the biggest decisions of their life: selling or buying their home.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

I realize my background in education makes me a bit more passionate about learning than the typical Realtor®, but it is a tool that has served me well. I have been able to hone my marketing skills, learn more about the tools available to me, discovered the ins and outs of the real estate market and how to best connect with others.

Understand marketing.

Marketing is the key to success for any industry, but it is such an important component to real estate. It is the way we generate solid leads that turn to business. Of course, social media and online marketing has become the driving force behind much of today’s marketing. Did you know 99 percent of millennials begin their home search online? Think of the multitude of customers you are missing by not taking advantage of social media platforms.

Any Realtor® needs to have a concrete marketing plan in place. A Google My Business listing is a must. This is the sidebar that appears on the page when you Google a business or service. How are the thousands searching for agents in your area going to know you exist if they can’t see you on the biggest search engine available?

From Facebook to Instagram to LinkedIn, there are a number of platforms out there ready to help you expand your business. You just have to do your research to determine which fits your company the best, or if it is a combination of several.

Facebook continues to be the most used by agents as its demographics tend to represent the target audience for many agents across the country.

Image by Pixelkult from Pixabay

Instagram is on the rise as one of the best ways to reach potential clients as stunning home photos can capture a wide audience. LinkedIn might not be the best use of your time for finding potential home buyers or sellers, but it is a great way to connect with other agents.

Make sure to use local hashtags with your industry to help reach people in your area looking to purchase their next home.

Another part of marketing is to never underestimate the little things, such as staging and a professional photographer – particularly on platforms like Instagram where a visual representation is everything. Videographers and done photographers also make for great additions to your real estate team.

Don’t forget to combine your social media marketing with a mixture of local resources, such as your community newspaper or area billboard companies.

Engage the audience.

While picturesque photos and informational posts are great tools, I have discovered videos are crucial to engaging the audience. Video posts are 12 times more likely to be shared than those without. When you share a video, people are connecting with you. They are getting to know your voice, your face, and what you stand for. You can establish yourself as a professional as you interact with the audience on a wide variety of real estate topics, from tips on purchasing a home to the latest trends in countertops to the hottest neighborhoods in the area.

Image by StockSnap from Pixabay

The more videos you publish, the bigger your audience will become. When one of those viewers is ready to buy their home, they are going to want the professional they have come to know and trust to walk them through the process.

Build relationships.

Many agents are so focused on new clients, they underestimate the power of keeping existing ones. It costs a Realtor® a whopping seven times more to land a new client than it does to keep one who previously bought or sold a home with them. Do you know how you keep those customers and increase your profits from a possible 25 to 100 percent? By building relationships.

It does not matter if your customer is buying a $200,000 home or a $1 million dollar home. That couple searching for their starter home might have built an incredible life that affords them a luxury home in a few years. You just never know. By treating everyone with kindness and respect, you will be treated the same in return.

Another way to develop relationships is through making connections in your community. This is another way social media comes in handy. Search for businesses, nonprofits and groups in the area. Make sure to follow them and engage in their posts by liking and commenting.

Image by Werner Moser from Pixabay

Agents often overlook the importance of helping out the community. Doing so is a great way to portray the integrity you want to run your business with while creating trust. For example, education remains dear to my heart, so I enjoy being involved with programs and scholarships at the local schools. Find what your passion is and help out your community.

Continuing to always expand upon your skills while creating a network in the community around you will always be a step in the right direction. However, if you find yourself ready to grow your digital footprint and become an authority in your industry, we host monthly Accelerator programs for FREE to help you take your business to new heights.

Krista Mashore has an exclusive coaching program that teaches professionals how to become the go-to authority in their communities. She has spoken on the Inman stage and has been featured in Yahoo Finance, Wall Street Journal, Authority Magazine among other publications and has been a guest at numerous podcasts including Conscious Millionaire.

Click here (https://kristamashore.com/2DaysLive) to join the 2-day Live Coaching Event with Krista and transform your Real Estate Business. Learn more from Krista at her next event, HOW TO CLOSE 100+ HOMES A YEAR (kristamashore.com), March 23-24.

How To Scale Your Real Estate Investments In A Highly-Competitive Market

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By Tim Houghten

Are you looking for more investments and ways to grow your real estate holdings? What are some of the ways that you can maintain and scale, despite the 2020 mayhem?

Brandon Cobb’s company The House Buyin’ Guys has been able to successfully sustain and even grow his real estate business by double-digits through the pandemic and chaos of 2020.

How has he done it?

The House Buyin’ Guys

Brandon Cobb and his co-founder, Vagif Seidov, have been wholesaling houses to other investors, rehabbing properties, and creating win win solutions for his investors in the Middle Tennessee real estate market for years.

Prior to getting into real estate Brandon sold medical devices. After losing his job in medical device sales, he transitioned over to real estate. Brandon found his unique sales skills sharpened by the world of sales gave him a unique edge in the real estate industry. He built his company based around that sales approach, something the real-estate industry lagged.

Since then, he and his business partner have done over 100 deals in this space, During our exclusive interview, Brandon shared how business has been picking up through the pandemic.

He says that the local Nashville market has kept blowing up, with growing demand despite the pandemic. As of October 2020, they were still seeing new deals going under contract in one week, if not within one day.

Image by Tumisu from Pixabay

Brandon and his team challenged themselves to complete a $51,000 renovation in just 10 days while filming every day and posting the daily walkthroughs for all to see on his Facebook. After having huge success with that renovation, they challenged themselves to do two seven-day flips simultaneously.

The two seven-day $32,000 flips were a failure because they took nine days to actually complete, but to Brandon and his team they were a huge success because they learned a lot about how to better systemize their rehab processes and become more efficient. He and his team are always pushing the boundaries of what is possible in the real estate space.

So how can you compete and win deals in this highly-competitive market?

Tips for Winning In this Competitive Market

This has been an interesting year in real estate for investors and business owners. During crisis, many fold and lose, and few know how to use the opportunity to create new levels of wealth.

Right now, Brandon says it is an extremely-competitive real-estate market. Since the birth of the travel roadshow real estate guru’s coming to town and pumping out hundreds of new investors in a weekend, it’s become much tougher to find deals.

So, how do you still get the deals?

Here are some of Brandon’s top tips.

Do What Others Won’t

As with any business or career, standing out and blazing a trail for yourself, and becoming a valuable go-to resource for your clients, is all about doing what other people won’t.

You can put in the extra hard work and hours, be more responsive, and go the extra mile to make customers happy, but it starts with identifying what your customer’s want that competitors are not giving them.

Brandon says one of the big challenges his clients face are tenants. Many retiring landlords are willing to sell, but buyers want the property vacant. When there is a tenant, it can leave the property in limbo. Brandon’s competitors make offers based on the house being vacated most of the time, so his company started offering tenant relocation services with their offers.

In his recent feature in Forbes magazine, he says this alone can get you a $10,000 to $15,000 discount on the price of the property and win you the deal, if you’re willing and able to help the tenant find a place to live and cover moving expenses.

Review Your Past Deals

Image by Shotkitimages from Pixabay

When was the last time you went through your past deals and evaluated what went well, what didn’t, and what you could have done better? What about which deals really made the most money? Or what happened to those properties after you exited and sold them off?

You might be surprised at what you find. Brandon certainly was. They found they missed out on a deal that would have made $107,312.

Even more surprising was the fact that they came across deals like this twi to three times a year and were completely missing them! So, they adjusted their strategy when they came across these special opportunities, and after acquisition, and rehab costs are now able to sell them for almost double, with around $70,000 to $100,000 in gross profit.

Select Your Customers Carefully

How selective are you being with the customers you take on?

Brandon’s construction company, HBG Construction, offers rehab services to others outside his house flipping business. Savvy business owners and independent professionals learn that they can work much more efficiently, profitably, enjoyably, and with less risk and stress, if they are more selective in who they do business with.

At first, it may seem like a good idea to take on various jobs within your space and Brandon did just this. His company would service builders, home owners, rehabbers, basically anyone who needed work done on their house.. until it became a big headache..

Just trying to work with anybody and everybody can be a big trap. You might feel busier chasing the money, but that doesn’t mean you’ll really net more money.

Brandon suggests figuring out who your ideal customers are, and to fire everyone else. Brandon discovered that his construction company loved working with other rehabbers. Because Brandon is an investor himself, he was able to understand and pinpoint all the pain points rehabbers have when it comes to dealing with contractors.

Brandon’s construction company now works exclusively with other rehabbers on their flips, and that moment when he fired all his other customers changed everything. Now, his team deals with customers whose needs they understand and serve best.

Grow Your Referral Business

Referral business IS the best business. Referrals cost the least amount of money to generate, are the easiest to handle, and are the easiest to close! Brandon’s company started their own referral program using hand written thank you cards to all their customers. Occasionally, they followed up with a phone call to ask if they knew anyone that may want to sell their home.

Image by June Laves from Pixabay

His company uses email drip campaigns to stay in touch and hands out handsome referral checks every time someone brings in a referral. They broadcast the experience of the person responsible for the referral receiving the check, which prompts others to refer business!

This method alone has allowed Brandon’s company to grow by double-digits with NO INCREASE IN SPENDING.

Leverage Other People’s Time and Money

In addition to leveraging other people’s money, smart real estate pros and CEOs learn to leverage other people’s time, expertise, and exposure.

There are many in your market who have built up their own network and are doing their own marketing. Work with them, instead of competing against them. He specifically points to real estate agents as an example of this. While many real estate investors feel they are at odds with REALTORS, you can actually help each other and negotiate win-win deals If you understand their needs.

Summary

We are in an interesting period where the real estate business and country is evolving and changing. Many will fail. For some, this year will set them on a completely new trajectory for success and wealth.

These tips can help you protect and grow your real estate investments, regardless of the mayhem happening out there.

If you are interested in learning more about how you can get added on Brandon’s list to receive off market wholesale properties in Middle TN, learn more about how you can receive passive income secured by real estate through Brandon’s company, you can contact Brandon at: Brandon@thehousebuyinguys.com.

For more tips, follow Brandon on his Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/brandon.cobb.3950