\n<\/p>\n
Off-market real estate deals<\/strong><\/a> can make you a millionaire in just a few YEARS<\/strong>. Instead of buying the nicest-looking rental property in the best area through a brutal bidding war, David Lecko <\/strong>went the opposite route, purchasing the properties nobody else wanted, finding deals simply by driving for dollars<\/strong><\/a> or paying someone else to do so. He went from a burnt-out nine-to-five worker to financial freedom in just two years <\/strong>by following this strategy, and you can do it, too!<\/p>\n David was working all day and all night, making a meager salary with almost zero <\/strong>time freedom<\/strong><\/a>. His boss, who worked far less than he did, outsourced his business and had rental properties on the side. David knew that to be in the same position, he\u2019d have to mimic his boss\u2019 path to wealth. So, after work, David would drive around his local area<\/strong>, looking for the tallest grass, the biggest roof repairs, and the worst paint jobs. He finally found his first deal<\/strong>, which cost less than a used car, but ended up springboarding David to make millions.<\/p>\n In today\u2019s episode, David will walk through EXACTLY how to find off-market real estate deals <\/strong>the RIGHT way, how to get around the lazy lists that most off-market investors use, and how to turn a few properties into millions of dollars of wealth<\/strong> and close to six figures a year in passive income<\/strong>. And in today\u2019s tough housing market, finding deals like these is even MORE crucial. So, what are you waiting for? Financial freedom<\/strong><\/a> is only a couple of years away!<\/strong><\/p>\n David: David Lecko: David: Rob: David: Rob: David: Rob: David: David Lecko: David: David Lecko: David: Rob: David: David Lecko: David: David Lecko: Rob: David Lecko: Rob: David Lecko: David: David Lecko: David: David Lecko: Rob: David Lecko: David: David Lecko: Rob: David Lecko: Rob: David Lecko: Rob: David Lecko: Rob: David Lecko: David: David Lecko: David: David Lecko: David: David Lecko: Rob: David Lecko: Rob: David Lecko: Rob: David Lecko: Rob: David Lecko: Rob: David Lecko: Rob: David Lecko: Rob: David: Rob: David: Rob: David: Rob: David: David Lecko: Rob: David Lecko: Rob: David Lecko: David: David Lecko: Rob: David Lecko: Rob: David Lecko: David: David Lecko: David: David Lecko: David: David Lecko: Rob: David Lecko: Rob: David Lecko: David: Rob: David: David Lecko: David: Rob: David Lecko: David: David Lecko: Rob: David: Rob: David: Rob: David: David Lecko: David: David Lecko: David: David Lecko: David: Rob: David: David Lecko: David: Rob: David: Rob: David: David Lecko: David: David Lecko: David: Rob: David Lecko: David: David Lecko: Rob: David: David Lecko: David: David Lecko: Rob: David: Rob: David: \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Help us reach new listeners on iTunes by leaving us a rating and review! It takes just 30 seconds and instructions can be found here<\/a>. Thanks! We really appreciate it!<\/p>\n Interested in learning more about today\u2019s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email <\/em>[email\u00a0protected]<\/span><\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Note By BiggerPockets:<\/b> These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.<\/p>\n
This is the BiggerPockets Podcast show, 830.<\/p>\n
I actually started in 2016 when I worked for somebody who had five rental properties, and I was like, \u201cWhy do you have this?\u201d He said, \u201cWell, unlike the stock market that can go up and down, if you get rentals and you buy them right and manage them well, they\u2019ll always make money.\u201d That\u2019s what motivated me to go looking for some of these real estate deals. There weren\u2019t any, nothing was going to cash flow until I found out about going off market and then providing value to somebody, getting a discounted property, fixing it up. That\u2019s actually led me to 2 million in rentals that I have today with a million-dollar equity position.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s up everyone? This is David Greene, your host of the BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast, the biggest, the best, and the baddest real estate podcast in the world. Every week we bring you stories, how-tos and the answers that you need to make smart real estate decisions now in this current market that is ever-changing. We have a great story for you today. Joining me is my overly eccentric co-host, Rob Abasolo, who is either being a mime or doing ASL for those who are watching on YouTube. Rob, how are you today?<\/p>\n
Oh, my gosh. Dude, I got home at 4:00 AM last night. Now, I feel like I\u2019m on vacation. Now, I feel like I\u2019m on vacation, because being on a plane with a two and a three-year-old for 12 hours? Hmm.<\/p>\n
Today we\u2019re about to speak with David Lecko. He\u2019s going to be describing the strategy that he\u2019s used to build a $2 million portfolio with $72,000 a year in cashflow that he started with only $4,000.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s crazy, man. On top of that little fun fact, he\u2019s also the founder of DealMachine, which we didn\u2019t really talk about in the podcast today. He\u2019s got a really cool story and really breaks down, I mean, really everything from the beginning, I think it\u2019s going to be encouraging for a lot of people to hear his story.<\/p>\n
Absolutely. Today\u2019s quick tip is going to be brought to you by Rob, who actually has some advice to share that came out of today\u2019s show.<\/p>\n
Hey, when you see an opportunity, take action. You\u2019re going to hear why today at the very end of the podcast. We talk about a deal that I just did because the moment I saw the opportunity, I made the phone call and got stuff done.<\/p>\n
There you go. Strike when the iron is hot because it doesn\u2019t stay hot forever. As we know, decisions are made based on emotions and emotions change. When you\u2019ve got the right opportunity, don\u2019t waste your shot. Much like Eminem said, you may never get it again. All right, let\u2019s bring in David. David Lecko, welcome to the BiggerPockets podcast. How are you today?<\/p>\n
I\u2019m great, thank you so much.<\/p>\n
Nice, man. Can you give our listeners a quick rundown of who you are, where you invest, and how long you\u2019ve been investing for?<\/p>\n
I actually started in 2016 when I worked for somebody who had five rental properties and I was like, \u201cWhy do you have this?\u201d He said, \u201cWell, unlike the stock market that can go up and down, if you get rentals and you buy them right and manage them well, they\u2019ll always make money.\u201d We know Warren Buffet says the rule is don\u2019t lose money, never lose money. That\u2019s what motivated me to go looking for some of these real estate deals, but there weren\u2019t any, nothing was going to cashflow until I found out about going off market and then providing value to somebody, getting a discounted property, fixing it up. That\u2019s actually led me to 2 million in rentals that I have today with a million-dollar equity position and about $95,000 in net cashflow expected this year. Last year was 72, but I did a couple of acquisitions this year. Those properties were acquired over about a two-and-a-half-year period from 2017 to \u201919. Then I chilled out for quite a while. I had a lot of appreciation. I\u2019m now re-motivated to go acquire some more rental properties.<\/p>\n
All right, I want to ask you, Rob, a quick question. How long do you think we\u2019ll still hear stories about people who heard about real estate from a human? Because now with YouTube and social media, it\u2019s bombarded by real estate. I just realized, that\u2019s how people used to say it. Like, I met a guy in a restaurant one day, mysterious man smelled of rich mahogany and leather-bound books. He told me he had rental properties, and I was so fascinated. Versus what it\u2019s like now. I\u2019m just curious, Rob, what your perspective. Do you think that anyone will ever hear about real estate from a human from this point forward?<\/p>\n
That\u2019s very funny. I was legitimately just thinking about this because everyone that I follow on Instagram, they are all real estate people. It\u2019s all like, \u201cHere\u2019s five rental strategies you need to perfect in 2022. Here\u2019s how to make $10,000 cashflow.\u201d That\u2019s all my Instagram is. I\u2019m like, man, the entire Instagram landscape has really changed for the real estate industry, but that is really a big part of how people even find out about real estate. I don\u2019t know. I think the days of the coffee shop, meeting with an older real estate vet and they teach you everything and take you under their wing, I feel like those, yeah, it\u2019s getting a little bit more rare these days.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s true. Also, I feel like when you talk to someone before they tell you what they actually had versus when you hear something online, now it might be someone with a house they live in and one investment property, but they\u2019re talking about it as if they have 50 rentals. That\u2019s a little different too. It\u2019s easier to find out about it, but you got to dig a little bit deeper to figure out what\u2019s really going on, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to do today. David, we\u2019re going to hear all about your expertise in a second here, but give me an idea on what strategy or tactic is working for you right now.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m doing two things right now. I\u2019m paying a driver to look for rundown properties. I\u2019m sending marketing and I\u2019m getting calls back answered by a call center, and then I follow up and do a virtual appointment. The other thing I\u2019m doing now that\u2019s new for this year that I\u2019ve had a couple successes with so far, is actually making offers on properties in the MLS in my market that are over 45 days old and I\u2019m sending 70% offers to those properties. I\u2019ve sent about 500 of those offers and done about three deals, in the last three months I would say.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re taking steps just to get the ball rolling. You\u2019re trying to get the conversation going, just get that first date and then see where things go.<\/p>\n
Actually, the on-market listings that I\u2019m giving it 70% off, they\u2019re actually just receiving offers. 70% off as is, and you never know what they\u2019ll accept unless they have a low offer in their hand. That\u2019s actually, I mean they\u2019re signing it and I\u2019m like, \u201cOh, wow. I have a property on your contract.\u201d<\/p>\n
I have a question about that. You\u2019re making these offers, presumably if they\u2019ve been on the market for 45 days. We\u2019re getting towards the point where that listing is going to expire. That agent is probably going to lose the contract, is my guess. When you make an offer, how are you actually doing that? Do you have a realtor representing you making that offer, or are you just making that offer to the listing agent and asking them to represent both of you?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s through an agent and I use a software that connects to her email and uses her contract and fills in the DocuSign details. I have a slider that says what percentage do I want to send out all my offers. I usually do 35 per week because she\u2019ll get an influx of emails and texts and she does respond to those. Some of those end up being a counter. That\u2019s how I get the ball rolling. It doesn\u2019t take her time, but we have a process and a tool that we use that allows me to send those offers like that.<\/p>\n
Hold on. That sounds like the most system and process-oriented way of doing this. I just thought you were calling, \u201cHey, make this offer.\u201d You actually have this, I don\u2019t want to say automated, but really efficiently laid out to where if you\u2019re going to make 35 offers, are you actually examining all of those properties running the numbers on them, or you\u2019re just like, all right, hey, if it\u2019s 70% and they accept, I\u2019ll then run my numbers?<\/p>\n
The second thing. I\u2019m doing a little bit of filtering, I just want a three-bedroom, two-bath house with a certain square footage. I\u2019m not doing these offers on commercial buildings or I\u2019m not doing it on a two-bedroom, one-bathroom house because I just do want it to actually be a property that I\u2019d probably buy.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re going to get into those details a little bit later. Before we move on to the show, just remind me, which area are you buying these in?<\/p>\n
Indianapolis, Indiana.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re going to talk about the Indianapolis market as well. We\u2019ll ask you some tough questions, so get yourself prepared for that. Hopefully, it gives you an opportunity to shine. Let\u2019s start with a story. Tell me about a moment before you found real estate, when you knew things had to change?<\/p>\n
Man, my life was actually horrible. I\u2019m working for this company for two years on a product that I actually built before I ever worked there, and I sold it for $10,000 now as a recruitment tool in another industry. The reason why I bought it is because there\u2019s advice from Gary Vaynerchuk, for example, that says, you shouldn\u2019t take the most expensive, the highest-paying job, you should actually go work for somebody that you want to emulate. That\u2019s exactly what I did. I sold this tool I built and it was a low cost, and I was getting paid $55,000. On the first day, the CEO says, \u201cHey, David. Please don\u2019t share what you make with anyone else on this team because nobody else makes that much.\u201d I was like, \u201cMan, I don\u2019t even feel like that\u2019s that much.\u201d
I took a $20,000 pay cut to get here, and I did though really working a ton and I\u2019m working a ton. I\u2019m the software developer, I\u2019m the tech support, I\u2019m the trainer. When there\u2019s a problem, I\u2019m not actually having anyone else be able to do those things, so there\u2019s no backup. I\u2019m actually the most knowledgeable person that they have. This culminated over two years. I\u2019m learning a lot. There was always these times where I take my computer to the bar with me if I was going to go out with friends, because something\u2019s going to come up, I want to be able to fix it instead of have to drive home and come back. Finally, I\u2019m at my best friend\u2019s wedding and I\u2019m actually in the wedding party. I leave the reception because I got the call, something is wrong and I\u2019m out in my Honda Accord, 10-year-old Honda Accord with my hotspot and I\u2019m fixing this tool.
I was like, man, he was upset, his wife was upset. I felt terrible because I\u2019m missing the reception. I knew that something had to change. I knew that the owner of this company of mine had these rental properties, and so I knew I needed to start taking action towards making a change, towards finding an off-market deal. At the time he said, well, he bought these properties in 2009, which was a great buying opportunity, and I was a little bit discouraged by that. It wasn\u2019t his intention, but I looked at the market and I couldn\u2019t find anything that would cashflow. Thankfully, I went to a meetup and found people that were doing deals all the time. That\u2019s when I realized you can\u2019t just time the market. You\u2019ve got to find deals in whatever market condition exists. You\u2019ve got to figure out how to find good deals in all those conditions.<\/p>\n
You went to a meetup and you said people are doing deals. As someone that didn\u2019t know anything about real estate or not all that much, you go to a real estate meetup and you find out that people are doing all these things. What kind of deals were they doing and then were they all doing so many types of real estate that it was overwhelming? What was that first experience even like?<\/p>\n
Well, it was pretty awesome, because they actually had a prize that was a random drawing for all the attendees, and I won the prize. It was an iPad, and I thought, \u201cThis has got to be a sign.\u201d I\u2019m not super spiritual, but this definitely doesn\u2019t feel bad. This is great. I won this iPad and I immediately sold it for 500 bucks and I used that to start sending postcards to distress properties. I remember, there were people doing a lot of stuff, but the prevailing theme was wholesaling.<\/p>\n
I love this. What you\u2019re saying is if somebody\u2019s having a hard time getting started, they need to go to events, win prizes, and then pawn off the prize to get the capital C to get started. Correct?<\/p>\n
Yeah, exactly.<\/p>\n
I love it. I love it because instead of just having an iPad where you could log into Netflix and hang out and do nothing, you\u2019re like, all right, look, I could have this iPad or I mean, it\u2019s basically a free $500 that I can use to experiment and just do random things with in the real estate world and see what sticks. Somehow you land into the postcard world. How did you even learn about that?<\/p>\n
There was definitely a blog post on BiggerPockets that I saw on driving for dollars. The unique aspect of it was this person was putting the photo of the house on the envelope. That was something that they said gave them a better chance, a better response rate. From this day forward, every piece of mail that I\u2019ve sent has the photo of the house on the property. Not the Google photo, like an actual photo that he took. People called back, still to this day, they\u2019re like, \u201cI got a few pieces of mail, but I called yours because it looked like you put a lot of time in it.\u201d Or, \u201cI could tell you\u2019re really here. I could tell you were local.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s cool. You went to BiggerPockets, you figured out the idea of driving for dollars. You\u2019ve unlocked a really great entry point into your real estate career and it seems like it\u2019s working. How did that feel emotionally for you for it to start clicking really, I mean it seems like it\u2019s relatively soon into your career?<\/p>\n
Well, there was a period of time where I was just looking for the rundown properties and I wasn\u2019t sending out the mail yet. I was prepared for it. I had the money set aside for it. What I was focused on was finding the properties. It was so much fun driving up and down and just picturing myself buying this property. It felt really awesome. Two months into that, I had a nice list on a tablet of paper, but my stomach sank to the floor when I saw one of these properties had started construction. I went home, looked up. Sure enough, this property actually recently sold and I looked up the price. I wasn\u2019t an expert on numbers, but I felt like it was way lower than what I would\u2019ve even felt comfortable offering. I knew that could have worked for me. I had this terrible feeling that I didn\u2019t even reach out yet, spent so much time just thinking about these homes that I wasn\u2019t following up.
I realized humans have a lot of follow-up issues in general, and I needed to start nipping that in the bud and doing something. I went to go put those letters together with the photos, and that\u2019s when I realized putting letters takes a long time, and at the time, you couldn\u2019t send out mail one at a time. You had to buy a minimum of 200 with some mail house. That\u2019s what left me doing them myself in my basement, which took quite a bit of time. That was the next struggle for me. I\u2019m glad I did it because I didn\u2019t have a ton of money and I heard over and over the driving for dollars is the best list.<\/p>\n
Well, there\u2019s something ironic about the fact that you were making this list on a tablet of paper instead of an iPad, an electronic tablet. That\u2019s pretty funny. You find this house, you find out it\u2019s the one that got away, but not really, because you never even tried to get it to begin with. Then you get into this time suck. At this point in your journey, was time something that was very important to you or was that the beginning of your journey where time is all you had? Tell us about the emotions of that time in your real estate career.<\/p>\n
Well, as you know, I was working a job that was time-consuming. I don\u2019t know the exact hours. It had some flexibility during the day, but it required lots of stuff at night and random times when people were using the software and I would need to go and fix it. I was feeling quite burnt out. I did enjoy driving around, but when it came time and I realized how time-consuming this was, it just didn\u2019t feel like I had time. Working 9:00 to 5:00, couple of random things for work in the evenings. Now, I have to not only go out and look for properties, but I got to put them together and there\u2019s not enough time left to go hang out with friends, to go eat dinner or anything else like that that I needed to. I was definitely feeling like the candle was burning at both ends.<\/p>\n
For sure. I think a lot of people feel that way, especially at the beginning of the real estate career. If you\u2019re working a 9:00 to 5:00 or if you\u2019re working any kind of job, and then when it\u2019s over, you still have to do the real estate stuff to get that going as well. At this point in your career, did you have a very clear why defined, like your mission statement? Did you know what you wanted? I know that you missed some important moments in the best friend\u2019s wedding and everything like that. Had you already defined what your why was?<\/p>\n
I had missed some important moments. I also noticed the owner of the company I was working for and learning so much about, didn\u2019t put in the hours that I was. Now, I got the sense he did at the beginning, but I wanted that. I didn\u2019t want to have to work so much for a small salary that I couldn\u2019t even talk about. I wanted something more. It was definitely, I wanted time freedom, but it probably even goes back to high school where I saw some kids had these really cool cars and I wanted that. I wanted more than what I had growing up. I was driven by those two things.<\/p>\n
David, when you look at why you were driven for time freedom, can you trace it down to a specific event that happened in your life, an experience you went through, something you witnessed? I think a lot of us would like to have time freedom. We would rather not have to work for somebody else. If you\u2019re lacking the motivation to get out there and make it happen, because it comes at a price. As you well know, you give up a lot of security, you maybe work more hours in the beginning when you\u2019re trying to build that. What do you think about your story specifically led to you having that fire that you were able to use to get over the hump?<\/p>\n
My dad worked at a telecom company. He had a friend that was a contractor. I didn\u2019t really know what that meant. They were buddies. That friend was not only a contractor himself, but he owned a contracting business. He would place people in different companies like this telecom company, and he would make a portion of their earnings as well. I met him at a breakfast with my dad. He gave me a book called The 4-Hour Workweek. That book taught me that you could build a business so you can earn income that\u2019s not limited by how much time you put into it as long as you\u2019re the one who\u2019s actually setting up the business in the right way. That has to be my moment where I knew there was a better path than what I had been exposed to in the just W2 world.<\/p>\n
What about that quest for time freedom led you into our world of real estate?<\/p>\n
Well, it seemed like rental properties were pretty stable. If they were never going to lose money, if they were always going to appreciate as long as you manage well, it seemed like the more rental properties I get, the more secure salary I can have, where a business might have fluctuations, that was intimidating to me. A rental properties is physically, you could touch it, you could see it, you can rent it out for a certain price. Then when I went to the Federal Reserve graph on rent rates, I saw that it never went down. Even in 2008, it stayed constant for a year and it kept climbing up. That\u2019s what seemed like it would give me the security the most secure way.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t that you heard someone else talking about it or you heard it on a podcast or a YouTube channel. Was there a certain influencer that caught your attention or did you just sit down and logically think through real estate makes the most sense?<\/p>\n
The time when I figured out real estate would make the most sense was the boss that I had at the final job that I had, had five rental properties. I asked him, I said, \u201cI put my money in a 401k, why do you invest in real estate?\u201d He told me it\u2019s because you\u2019ll never lose money as long as you buy them right and you manage them well. I had seen my 401k go up and down and felt like I had no control, and the feeling of control is just such a good thing. I knew that, that was something I wanted to go after at that point.<\/p>\n
Yeah, man. Let\u2019s fast-forward a little bit. You go to this meetup, you sell the iPad, you get your postcards out. One of your dream deal gets away and you realize I got to take action. Where did that actually culminate into your first deal? Tell us about how that first deal actually took place.<\/p>\n
I got a phone call and he says, \u201cHey, I\u2019d like to get an offer on my property.\u201d I just knew after putting in 300 properties over the course of six months that it must be this small house, I remember with a blue tarp over the entire roof. I just knew that was probably it. When I looked it up, sure enough, it was. I didn\u2019t know what to actually say next because I had never done this before, Rob. I just said, \u201cWell, how about I meet you at 6:00?\u201d I got off the phone as soon as possible, and once again, when I met him at 6:00, I didn\u2019t know what to say. I didn\u2019t know what to ask. I said, \u201cWell, let me just take some pictures and I\u2019ll just ask you about things that I see while you\u2019re walking me through the house.\u201d
Then it wasn\u2019t a very big house, it was 600 square feet. I took the photos and then he said, \u201cHow much will you offer?\u201d Again, I didn\u2019t know, so I was like, \u201cI\u2019m going to get back to you 24 hours. I\u2019ll have an offer in front of you.\u201d I went home and I was going to offer $10,000 for this house. Now, it was in rough shape. I found out later that he thought I was just going to demolish it, but I ended up repairing it. I\u2019ll tell you that I actually remembered this episode on the BiggerPockets Podcast where they said, \u201cIf you don\u2019t feel like you\u2019re uncomfortable making this offer, if you don\u2019t feel like you might be offending them, you\u2019re not offering lower enough. Because there\u2019s going to be problems you\u2019re going to encounter, and if you don\u2019t leave yourself the profit margin, you\u2019re going to find yourself in a bad place where you own this deal that you\u2019re upside-down in.\u201d
Instead of offering $10,000, I remembered that and I offered $4,782. Now, it was specific because I felt like that would help him see I approached this in an analytical way. I actually looked at some of the comparable sales by square foot, and then I subtracted the cost of everything that I knew I needed to do in that house, which was pretty much everything. Then I did subtract $10,000 for my profit, or in case something unexpected came up. I showed him that transparently. I said, \u201cThis is how I got to your offer price. I can make you this cash.\u201d Because I actually had $4,000 and he waited a day. I got nervous, but he just said, ultimately, in a super calm voice, \u201cI\u2019ll accept it. Let\u2019s go forward with it.\u201d That\u2019s how we ended up doing my first deal.<\/p>\n
I just want to make sure I got these numbers right. You offered $4,750 for an entire house?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s 600 square feet. It was the smallest house in the neighborhood. There wasn\u2019t even really a true exact comp because all the other houses were 1200 square feet. That\u2019s right. 4,000 bucks.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s great. You ended up renovating it yourself or is that what happened next?<\/p>\n
Good thing to know here is in the Midwest, Rob, as you know, there\u2019s these neighborhoods that a house in perfect condition may only be worth 50 grand. You can get in trouble investing in these neighborhoods because you buy a house for 4,000 and you put 45 into it. It\u2019s like, you don\u2019t have a deal. That\u2019s just a house. A lot of times it takes more than 45 grand to repair one of these crazy things. I thought this one could be worth a hundred grand. My plan was get four no interest credit cards. I applied it all on the same day because I was like, let me do it all at the same time. Maybe I could trick the credit bureau so they don\u2019t know I have all these other cards. I did $65,000 renovation and then I rented it out for 99. It\u2019s rented for 1200 now, but that\u2019s how I ended up doing it. I still own the property to this day.<\/p>\n
Cool. When you took out the credit cards, I mean it\u2019s not like you can just swipe your card to pay for vendors and stuff. Were you doing a cash advance? Did they send you a check that you could deposit into your account or what?<\/p>\n
I think those are really good. I didn\u2019t know about those. The contractor that I found would actually let me swipe a credit card, yes, on his square account that he could use to receive payments. Now, he did charge me the extra 3% fee, but that was the only option I had.<\/p>\n
Well, you\u2019d probably pay that regardless, even on a cash advance anyways. You buy this property, you rehab it, and that\u2019s it. You were financially free, right?<\/p>\n
No, I didn\u2019t know how to pay off those credit cards.<\/p>\n
Tell us about some of the lessons from that deal.<\/p>\n
I thought I could get a mortgage because on my account it appreciated for $100,000. Even though it was rented out for a 1% rural property, about 900 or a thousand bucks a month, the mortgage companies didn\u2019t value the property like I did because there was no other house with that small of a square footage, and so I couldn\u2019t get it to appraise, so I was stuck. It\u2019s a good thing that my job actually picked up, my business for my primary income picked up. I ended up using that to pay down the credit cards. If I hadn\u2019t done that, I would\u2019ve been stuck. I would\u2019ve had to go to a private lender or to sell the house or to get some type of bridge funding. That\u2019s ultimately how I got unstuck, was I was able to ultimately pay those off. Another lesson that I learned was working with a contractor. A great way to find a contractor, the way I found him was I asked another real estate investor that I knew from one of those meetups who I should use, so he gave me his name.
Now, he didn\u2019t have a crew ready, but he put one together. AKA, a group of people he hadn\u2019t worked with before. Ultimately, after a month in, I was like, \u201cYo, what\u2019s going on?\u201d He\u2019s like, \u201cWell, they\u2019re just doing this or that. They\u2019ll start back in a week.\u201d I got that about four or five times. I had a hard conversation with him. I was like, \u201cLook, we\u2019ve got to cut ties. Obviously, this isn\u2019t going to work out.\u201d I had paid him too much. I had paid him 50% of the project\u2019s value. He had not done 50% of the work. I needed a refund if we were to part ways. We met in person. I think if you\u2019re going to have a hard conversation with somebody, having it in person goes such a long way. It shows that you care and you can really read each other\u2019s body language that way. That\u2019s what we did. He ended up giving me a refund on one of those credit cards, and I started searching around for somebody else that could solve the problem.
The lesson there was actually don\u2019t give huge chunks of payments, but do smaller increments. The other lesson was let him pick a due date himself at the beginning, then maybe add on a couple extra weeks and say, \u201cAll right, if you want this project, commit to this date. I\u2019ll give you a couple extra weeks of padding. If it\u2019s late, $50 per day from you that it is late.\u201d Those are how I operate now with renovation projects. Two lessons there. Then the third one was I had to ask around for somebody who could bail me out of this project that was halfway complete that had a budget that wasn\u2019t going to work anymore. Sometimes real estate investors have a special guy that can bail you out. When you need help, start talking with other people instead of just trying to figure it out yourself. Those are three lessons from that first deal.<\/p>\n
Going back to that second one about the timing. David, you have a trick of the trade here. I don\u2019t know if you still do this, but didn\u2019t you used to bonus your contractors based on if they hit their deadline? You would say, if you hit this deadline and you actually get done in time, I\u2019m going to give you 1% more or something like that, or did you fall out of that strategy?<\/p>\n
How could you possibly know that since you never read any of my books? This is impressive.<\/p>\n
Well, I read the one book. I read Burr and I am in the first chapter of Pillars, which is not out yet, but it will be.<\/p>\n
Right on, man. Yeah, that\u2019s exactly what I would do.<\/p>\n
David, I like that way more.<\/p>\n
You like what way more?<\/p>\n
I like the bonus for completing it on time, and I think people would be really motivated by that.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what I would do. I realized there was a bit of a power struggle going on, and when I say that, I don\u2019t mean in an unhealthy way, just human beings have different incentives. When we are an investor, our incentive is to get the work done as fast as possible, as cheap as possible, and as well done as needs to be done. The contractor\u2019s job is to get as much money as they can, take on as many other jobs at the same time as they can and be held the least amount of accountable. They\u2019re going to take on all these different jobs, they\u2019re going to spread their crews thin. What you get is this clashing of, you said you were going to be done by X and them not wanting to tell you, well, I didn\u2019t bid this right or I didn\u2019t know the details, or the guy that was supposed to be working on it didn\u2019t show up to work, or he ended up sucking. Or I had to put them on another job because we didn\u2019t do that one right so yours fell behind. You never get the truth.
What I figured was I just want to fight my way to the top of the funnel of priorities in their head. When we were discussing the scope of work, I would say, look, this is going to be a contract, which you should be familiar with because you are a contractor. As a contractor, how long will it take you to do this job? They would give me a timeframe, say eight weeks. I\u2019d say, okay, what if I give you nine? Oh, yeah. That should be no problem at all. Well, yeah, it definitely shouldn\u2019t be because you told me eight. Here\u2019s the deal. If you get this done in nine weeks, I will pay you what we agreed upon and I gave you an extra week of some grace. If you get it done less than that for every day that it\u2019s early, I\u2019ll give you a bonus of this much money. If it\u2019s late, this is how much is going to come off the last draw. If they\u2019re like, whoa, whoa, whoa, I can\u2019t guarantee it\u2019s going to be eight weeks.
Well, now you know the truth. You just do a little bit of digging and the truth will come out. If they go, yeah, no problem at all. Now, they\u2019re incentivized to keep your job as the priority because they want to make all the money they were supposed to get and they hopefully want to make more money, which makes you a more important customer than the person who\u2019s complaining that they left some paint on the cabinets or one of the tiles wasn\u2019t laid correctly and they got to send someone back. They\u2019re going to make that person wait five weeks. They\u2019re not going to make me wait five weeks, and if somebody with paint on their cabinets has to wait five weeks, I\u2019m okay with that. I\u2019m not okay with it when it\u2019s me when I got a 12% hard money loan and the market is shifting all the time, and if they don\u2019t fix this thing, then the next thing can\u2019t get done. We all know how the domino effect works.<\/p>\n
I think that\u2019s really smart. Now I\u2019m going to have to read that book to figure out the percentage that you pay as a bonus because I want to start doing that.<\/p>\n
Yeah, man. It sounds like you guys had similar strategies except David does actually do a percentage of money or whatever. You do this deal and it seems like it\u2019s going pretty well. You\u2019re obviously starting to move into your real estate business here and you talked about driving for dollars. Now, a lot of people can be a little wary about driving for dollars as extremely time-consuming and sometimes not worth the time. What would you say to that? Because I know you\u2019ve built your business effectively on this model.<\/p>\n
Definitely. The advice I was hearing from everyone at that meetup was to go Drive for Dollars. At my time, there wasn\u2019t really another option because just the group that I was with, they were saying that, that\u2019s what I need to do. Then I totally get though that it can be time-consuming. If you\u2019re a doctor, this may not be the strategy for you. It\u2019s great if you have more time than you have money. Because the list is so good, these big real estate investors don\u2019t typically do it because they\u2019re buying these lists that are easy to get and they\u2019re just spending more mail, spending more money on more marketing to those bigger lists, which is required because they\u2019re competitive and they\u2019re bigger lists and they\u2019re less niche.
The driving for dollars list is a list that nobody else has. You\u2019re the one who drove around and found those rundown properties. Plus, if a tree fell on a house that was vacant, that\u2019s not going to show up on any list. You can\u2019t buy that list. It\u2019s hard to get. If you put in the time to do it, you can actually get a deal for smaller amount of money, because there\u2019s less properties you have to market to, and there\u2019s less people that are marketing to that homeowner. Therefore, you\u2019re not going to have as much competitiveness in terms of them trying to shop around and get the best price. That\u2019s why I like driving for dollars and why it\u2019s been a really great business<\/p>\n
Actually, can you just run us through what is driving for dollars? I want to make sure that everyone at home is on the same page as us because we\u2019re going to be talking about this a little bit more.<\/p>\n
Driving for dollars is a strategy to find a real estate investment by looking around for a rundown property. Then you look up who owns it and send the owner a letter asking if they want a cash offer on their house, and if they do, they call you back. That\u2019s what driving for dollars is. The reason why it works is because that house is run down. They probably can\u2019t sell it on the market. If something happens in their life, they might not have the cash to deal with a medical expense or deal with something that would cause them to have to move. They need to unload that property. Like a pawn shop. When you take somebody to the pawn shop, you\u2019re not getting the top dollar, but you do want to take it there because it\u2019s the easiest thing to do, it\u2019s the quickest way to get cash and move on to the next thing in your life. People do that with their house. People need that service with their house and driving for dollars is a great way to identify those types of properties.<\/p>\n
Can I tell you why I like that strategy? Because it\u2019s very difficult to do, which means nobody else wants to do it. There is a trend in our country, in our culture of how do I automate, delegate, systemize? I wanted to do a thing that makes me a bunch of money on its own and I just show up to the money tree and I pull the dollar bill out of the business, but I don\u2019t want to have to pull the weeds, water the tree, shelter the tree, check the pH balance of the soil. I don\u2019t want to do the work of a farmer. I just want it to grow and give me money. There\u2019s become an obsession with that and there\u2019s little tiny ways this will work for a short period of time. We saw it with crypto, we saw it with NFTs. Drop shipping at one point was like, it was like you struck oil and there was all this gold, and then everyone rushes into it, it dries up. It\u2019s not a sustainable thing. You just might get lucky.
The popular way that most people are running businesses like you, David, is they\u2019re trying to automate a system that sends letters that look like they\u2019re handwritten, that hires somebody else in another country to oversee the job, that leverages out the answering of the phone and tries to qualify the leads and then sends somebody else to the house to go negotiate with the person. When it becomes easy like that, it just means everyone else can do it and someone with more money, more experience, more resources than you will just do it better. You end up chasing the same deals that everybody else is chasing, asking how come these strategies that I heard people talk about on the podcast don\u2019t work? Driving for dollars cannot be leveraged. You can\u2019t pay somebody to go out there and just drive around and look for the right homes, at least not effectively.
You have to go do it. When you do that, you find the property that\u2019s not getting bombarded by other people. You find the lead that you actually have a chance to nail down and you get to make the connection with that person. You get to go talk with them, build rapport, use all the skills that you\u2019ve built. Not some employee that is like, I only want to do the bare minimum and I only want to get under contract if it\u2019s easy. They can hit the layups, but they miss the tough shots. That\u2019s what I love about what you\u2019re saying. This is the strategy and I see you smiling because it sounds like this is landing with what you\u2019ve recognized in your business that our listeners can go apply because it\u2019s real and it\u2019s honest and it works. It\u2019s not looking for a cheat code that everybody else has already found. What do you think about that perspective?<\/p>\n
I think it\u2019s absolutely true. I think that\u2019s why it works so well, is because the easy way to do it is to go buy a list of absentee owners or go buy a list of high equity. It\u2019s just the easiest thing to do. People do that. Seeing the property, laying eyes on the property is something that is harder to do, and I think that\u2019s why it\u2019s such a better list.<\/p>\n
I think there\u2019s always going to be growing pains with really any model if you want to achieve automation or anything at the largest scale, I mean you do. I think that\u2019s always really tough to do. I\u2019m curious, David, obviously you were the one driving around doing a lot of your own deals when you were doing this. How did you actually scale out of that? Because I know you said that time was so important to you, and this sounds like, I know you said it doesn\u2019t necessarily have to be a time-consuming strategy, but when you were starting out, I\u2019m sure you hadn\u2019t figured that out. How did you actually scale in a way that was effective when it came to driving for dollars\u201d<\/p>\n
I just kept doing it and I kept doing deals. As soon as I had done maybe $200,000 of, I did a couple of bird deals where I got the cash out and I could recycle that money. That\u2019s when I realized, all right, maybe my job is worth what you can actually hire somebody to do this for, which might be $20 an hour looking at Amazon driver salaries. We can get into that, but that\u2019s whenever I figured out maybe I shouldn\u2019t be the one driving anymore. That was a couple of years into it after I had done several deals and after I learned a lot of the neighborhoods that I wanted to buy in, knew those by heart already.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve actually heard a couple of interesting strategies on BiggerPockets of how people, I don\u2019t want to say automate, but increase their deal flow. We had someone on the podcast said that they give flyers to pizza delivery people and they say, \u201cHey, anytime you see a distressed property or if you\u2019re delivering to a distressed property, leave this on the pizza box or leave it on the door or whatever.\u201d I\u2019ve also heard of people doing that with UPS drivers and all that type of stuff. It seems like you can get creative with ways of increasing your deal flow. Did you ever go down that route or did you just go straight to hiring somebody?<\/p>\n
I never did the pizza delivery thing. There\u2019s basically three ways that you could hire a driver, and most of them are tricky if you don\u2019t know exactly what you\u2019re doing, which is still what makes driving for dollars great because it\u2019s difficult to scale. Here\u2019s the three payment strategies that people use. They either do per hour or they do per deal added or they do, you get a bonus when I close a deal, like to the pizza guys. People have made it work. I have not. One thing I\u2019ve observed is that if you\u2019re going to give a bonus when you close a deal, that could take three months. These houses have been distressed for a long time, so they\u2019re not going to sell right whenever they get a postcard from you. You need to keep sending postcards. Every basic marketing advice says it takes 10 to 13 touchpoints before somebody responds to your marketing.
You\u2019ve got to catch them at the right time. By the time that happens, the person you trained what properties to look for, they probably have moved on because they have bills to pay, they need to live their lives. Unless it\u2019s like your mom, your spouse, somebody that loves and caress about you and can stick with you for three months without payment, I don\u2019t know that I\u2019d spend time training anyone for this model where you pay a fee just when you close a deal. The other one is per property added. Some people might pay 25 cents to $2 for each property that looks distress that they add. You could do that. It has worked. All three of these have worked, but I don\u2019t like that one because people like security of knowing how much they\u2019re going to make, and we think about jobs in terms of hourly payment.
That\u2019s why the hourly payment is actually the best when you\u2019re going to recruit somebody reliable and you want them reliable. If you\u2019re going to spend time training them, you don\u2019t want to train them and have them go away. I posted a job on Indeed for hourly, and I got a bunch of people responding. I set up five interviews on a Saturday and every person actually did not come to the interview. I texted them, I was like, \u201cWhat happened?\u201d One person even said, \u201cI moved to Florida.\u201d It\u2019s like, I felt so disrespected, it was a huge waste of time. I knew I needed to change something. I incorporated a test project. Now, I posted the job again. When they applied, I said, \u201cPlease send me a two-minute video. Download this app that I use to look for rundown properties. It\u2019s free, no cost. Just add three properties. Text me when you do that. I\u2019ll Venmo you 10 bucks.\u201d
That really weeded out people. If they did that, I knew they were tech-savvy. I knew that they had read my instructions instead of blindly apply. I knew they were serious. Then I pretty much had a 100% show up rate when I scheduled an interview. Finding them, I would incorporate a test project like that. Then $5 more than what Amazon drivers make is fair because the driver that works for you is they\u2019re going to actually be using their own car and paying for their own gas. They will want to work for you because they love seeing that money that\u2019s a little bit more than what they could make at Amazon. It\u2019s a good deal for you as well because they\u2019re paying for the car and the gas. If I were to say a couple of more pitfalls, have a weekly meeting with this person to review the properties they added and make sure that they feel like they\u2019re a part of the team as well. That\u2019ll keep them going week after week and stick with you for a long time.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve covered the bottom of the funnel, the hiring and the delegation of how you\u2019re going to spread out some of the workload. What about the top of the funnel? How are you going to build this list of potential opportunities to pursue?<\/p>\n
I actually was given the advice that if you find a hundred rundown properties, that\u2019s about what it takes to get a deal. Now, as time goes on, I\u2019ve had the fortune of working with a lot of people who scale their Driving for Dollars teams, and I noticed that it depends on your market. If you\u2019re in a lower-cost market, I\u2019d recommend four to 500 rundown properties marketed six times each. If you actually are in the more expensive markets like Seattle, Los Angeles, somewhere in New York State, you may need to add as many as 1500 to 2000 rundown properties before you get a deal. Now, if you\u2019re wholesaling, typically you\u2019re going to get 15% of that value of the property as an assignment fee. You\u2019ll notice that even though you spend more time and money to get a deal in a high price market, you\u2019re going to make a bigger profit. It\u2019s easier to get started in a Midwest market that\u2019s lower cost. You\u2019ll make a smaller profit, but it\u2019s easier to get started.<\/p>\n
Why is that? Is that because most people are attracted to the higher profit market, so you\u2019re just competing with a lot more people?<\/p>\n
Wish I had the answer, I just know what I observed.<\/p>\n
This is a principle that runs throughout business, that\u2019s pretty good for us to talk about it. I talk to my team about this constantly. This will apply to many things in life, but definitely to business. What I say is, it\u2019s easy in, hard out, hard in, easy out. When you buy an online lead for a real estate team, like the David Greene team, and we go to Zillow and we say, \u201cHey, we want to buy a Zillow lead.\u201d They\u2019re very easy to get what we call leads. People will say, \u201cHey, I want to know about this house on Main Street.\u201d They\u2019ll ask a question, but they\u2019re not reaching out to you because they want you to be their agent. They just wanted to know about a house and they were forced to go through these hoops they had to jump through. They\u2019re very hard to close. You got to get a lot of them and put a lot of work in to close anything, but they were easy to get.
When you go to an open house and you meet a person organically and they\u2019re motivated to look for a home and they\u2019re out on their weekend trying to find one and they haven\u2019t found a good agent, you build a stronger relationship with them, way easier to put those people into contract. This happens with a lot of things. The toughest markets to get your foot in the door in will make you the most money over the long term. The easiest markets to get into are easy for a reason. There\u2019s not as much competition, there\u2019s not as much demand or there\u2019s a whole lot of supply. You will make less money later. It\u2019s just this idea of delayed gratification. It\u2019s not that one way is better than the other, it\u2019s just know what you\u2019re getting into. What\u2019s your experience like David, with running the business when it comes to the things that are easier to get the phone to ring? Do they tend to have the smaller amount of margin in them?<\/p>\n
Yeah. I would say definitely the things that are easier to get the phone to ring have a smaller amount of margin in them. The easiest thing that I\u2019ve ever done is pull a list of high equity properties to have 35% or more equity. Then also, they actually expired on the MLS. You can pull that list straight out of a tool and you could start sending postcards or calling them. Of course, they want to sell their house. They listed it and it failed. Everyone else is calling those people. The fact that you\u2019re going to try to approach them, how do you make your deal sound sweeter than the rest? You compete on price and then the margin shrinks. Exactly what you\u2019re saying.<\/p>\n
I have a question. I guess I don\u2019t really understand how this part works. You said that you\u2019re looking for something that has higher equity, so that means that the owner has a lot of equity in the house? Meaning, in your mind, if they\u2019re a distressed seller, theoretically, there\u2019s more wiggle room for them to come down? How do you even figure out how much equity someone has in their property? It seems like that\u2019s private info now.<\/p>\n
I use DealMachine to go look for these rundown properties. It has public info. It also estimates the equity they have on there. Just to be clear, when I\u2019m driving for dollars, I don\u2019t even look if it\u2019s absentee owner, owner occupied. I don\u2019t look at anything. I just look if it\u2019s distress, I send the letter. When David was talking about do easy things have smaller margin? I was using that as an example, because separate from driving for dollars, I\u2019ve pulled a list of just properties that expired on the MLS with decent equity, and it turns out a lot of other people pull that list too so that the margins are smaller there.<\/p>\n
Sure. Okay, cool. If you\u2019re driving for dollars, I know that at this point you have a whole system for getting everything out automated offers made, but do you have a target profit or assignment fee or ROI that you\u2019re looking for on a specific property?<\/p>\n
I\u2019m looking for something in the range of perfect condition, $200,000. I want to either do a Burr deal where I put in 75% and that way I can refinance out and have no money in it at all. The Burr strategy, read David\u2019s book, or I actually just want to analyze the rental. Say, well, could this cashflow at least 500 bucks at that price point? Meaning, the difference between what my mortgage payment will be and what I can rent it for would be 500 bucks. Those are two analysis that I look at to see if I want to actually do a deal.<\/p>\n
Question for each of you. If you had an opportunity to be all in for zero money on a Burr and you\u2019re still having 25% equity, so houses were 200 grand, you\u2019re all in for 150, $50,000 of equity, but none of your own cash is left, you got it all out. However, it loses $150 a month in negative cash flow in the first year. Is this a bad deal or a good deal and why? Let\u2019s start with you, David.<\/p>\n
It loses how much? You said $250?<\/p>\n
150 a month.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll say this, I wouldn\u2019t keep it. If it was worth 200 and I\u2019m 150 in, got all my money back out, I would sell it. I would never keep a property that loses money for myself.<\/p>\n
Great point. You would just basically take that 50,000 of equity and you\u2019d sell it. Same for you, Rob?<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t want to keep it. I was just negotiating a seller finance deal last week or two weeks ago, and I laid out the numbers. I said, \u201cHey, man. Look, this is going to lose on a long-term rental, 200 bucks a month.\u201d He\u2019s like, \u201cWell, the thing about rental properties is other people are paying your mortgage, and so sometimes you got to take a small loss. At the end of the day, the appreciation and the location is all that matters.\u201d I was like, \u201cLook, I understand what you\u2019re saying. I don\u2019t go into any deal where I lose money.\u201d We renegotiated the terms, at least break even.<\/p>\n
Some people will do that deal. I know I could be able to sell it because if you own a rental property in San Francisco, a $3 million house may be only rented for $5,000. That doesn\u2019t even cover the mortgage payment. Could barely even cover the taxes, but people buy them, just not me.<\/p>\n
Same question, but now the house is in a prime market in the country, it\u2019s worth 800,000. You\u2019re all in for whatever, 75% of that is, very nice location, but it\u2019s still losing $150 a month in cashflow. However, when you look at the principal pay down, you\u2019re paying off much more than the 150 a month. The appreciation is all but guaranteed and you know that rents are going to be going up pretty significantly in the future because it\u2019s such a gray area with less supply. What\u2019s your answer now on that same scenario, David?<\/p>\n
I still wouldn\u2019t do it because I don\u2019t want to have to babysit a property. I don\u2019t want to have to calculate how much of my active income I have to suck away to actually keep that property afloat. I want to scale properties and the only way to do that is to make sure they all positive cashflow. I think I learned this from the cashflow game that goes along with the Rich Dad Poor Dad book is you can\u2019t get out of the rat race if you have negative cash flowing properties. Now, sometimes randomly you could get the appreciation and sell it, but you\u2019re still not out of the rat race yet until you actually buy cash flowing rental properties that are positive. Again, I would sell that deal, use the cash to buy some cash flowing properties.<\/p>\n
I really don\u2019t like to lose money on a monthly basis just because I\u2019ve worked so hard to get my cashflow where it is. With that said, I feel like you want me to say I would buy it, so I\u2019m going to say yes. No, I\u2019m just kidding.<\/p>\n
I see that there\u2019s a lot more hesitation in each of your answers though. There was like, hmm. It moves the needle a little bit, right?<\/p>\n
Of course. I guess the caveat to that is like, I would take a deal that loses money if there\u2019s a clear path to not lose money. Let\u2019s say that I\u2019m inheriting a tenant that\u2019s under market like you said, and as soon as they move out, I can increase rents to not lose the money, and that\u2019s going to happen within a year, no problem. I can do that. If it\u2019s like I\u2019m inheriting a three-year lease where I\u2019m losing 500 bucks a month, no, I would never do that. If it\u2019s going to turn pretty quickly, then yeah, sure.<\/p>\n
What if this property that we just mentioned at $800,000 can have a cost stake study done and the bonus depreciation is going to save you 50 grand that year?<\/p>\n
Yes. You see? Now you\u2019re asking a good question.<\/p>\n
I guess here\u2019s what I\u2019m getting at, are you losing money if you\u2019re only looking at the monthly income versus expenses or are there other factors at play in the overall investment of real estate?<\/p>\n
Yes, 100%. That\u2019s a very fair point because yes, I think if you knew that you were going to, like you\u2019re talking about Burr, flip it, get out of it in the next three years and you\u2019ve got a ton of equity in there and you\u2019re only going to lose, let\u2019s say 10 or $15,000 in rents, but you\u2019re going to make $200,000 from that flip or something. Totally, I think at that point, it would make sense.<\/p>\n
What about you, David?<\/p>\n
I would flip it. I would make the quick cash. Unless it\u2019s making me money $500 per month, I\u2019m not going to keep it myself. I still might do the deal if I was going to go ahead and sell it.<\/p>\n
What I hear you saying is that you would create energy through capital gains of a flip and then read or invests that energy into the cash flowing real estate that you know can find somewhere else, right?<\/p>\n
That\u2019s right.<\/p>\n
I like it. Great stuff.<\/p>\n
Is this a preview? Is this the Blinkist of Pillars of Wealth?<\/p>\n
Wow. Dude, you\u2019re getting good. This is scary good. I think I picked the right co-host. Look at this, man. That was really, really good. The book that\u2019s going to follow it is just an understanding that most people were taught how to buy real estate using a training wheels model, which was just cash in cash out every month. That cashflow was the only thing that we were trained to look at. Once you get into real estate investing, Rob, like you were just mentioning, you own quite a few properties now, you start to see that it\u2019s not quite that simple. That there\u2019s energy that\u2019s flowing in and out of these assets in many different ways. It could come in through equity that you bought at below market value. Equity where you forced equity. The cashflow doesn\u2019t stay the same every year.
Rents go up in some areas or you can add units to properties to make them worth more. Certain areas tend to appreciate more than others. There\u2019s tax benefits owning real estate. Then I think things also change if let\u2019s say that David\u2019s business that he\u2019s running is bringing in 50 grand a month in profit, well now that $150 a month he might be losing isn\u2019t as significant as when it\u2019s like, dude, I\u2019m on a tight budget. I got to get out of the rat race. For the people listening, we\u2019re not all in the same position and the part you start at is not going to be the part you end up with. It\u2019s okay if your model and your blueprint doesn\u2019t look exactly like everybody else\u2019s. David, for the person who\u2019s starting off here, the real estate investor, who\u2019s the ideal avatar that should consider driving for dollars?<\/p>\n
I think somebody who\u2019s not got a lot of extra cash that they\u2019re willing to invest in marketing. I think that if you haven\u2019t done a deal before, it\u2019s a great way to learn your neighborhood. The combination of those two things would be what I would recommend who should drive for dollars.<\/p>\n
What do you think, Rob?<\/p>\n
I think this is going to make the most sense for the newbie. I think obviously, anybody can enter this, but a lot of the times, people who are already relatively established already have their deal flow established. They\u2019ve already got their deal flow going from people that are driving for dollars. It does seem a little bit more of an entry point for most people. With all that said, I just locked down a seller finance property, driving for dollars as well, like a week ago. Accidentally driving for dollars, I was driving in my neighborhood and there\u2019s a for sale sign with the flag on top of it that said seller finance, and I was like, well, hey, I\u2019m driving and I\u2019m going to make the call and I made the offer.<\/p>\n
What a smart marketing strategy for that seller. That\u2019s a smart agent or whoever put that together. That\u2019s a great idea.<\/p>\n
Dude, it was a dream. It was a dream. 3% interest, 10% down. I mean, 30-year maturity. He just doesn\u2019t want to pay the capital gains. Here\u2019s the best part, everybody, he has 150 units in Houston multifamily, and he is like, \u201cI\u2019m wanting to get rid of them all over the next couple of years.\u201d Guess who\u2019s going to be first in line? This guy right here.<\/p>\n
I mean, you never know when you\u2019re doing the right actions and you\u2019re taking the right steps, what that\u2019s going to turn into. I think that\u2019s awesome. Now, David, these days you\u2019re cash-flowing about 72 grand a year and you\u2019ve got more coming. You\u2019re helping other people find and close deals all over the country. Do you have the time freedom now that you were looking for in the beginning?<\/p>\n
100%. I could live off 72 grand if I wanted to. Now, I do spend a little bit more from other active income, but I\u2019ve got the time freedom. What I love doing is getting up at 4:00 and going wake surfing three times a week. That\u2019s something that\u2019s not super cheap, but I\u2019ve got the time freedom and the disposable income to be able to do that. That\u2019s one way I love spending my time freedom.<\/p>\n
What kind of a sentence starts off with what I love doing is waking up at 4:00?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s 4:00 PM. I get up. No, I don\u2019t wake up at 4:00 AM, I get up from my desk at 4:00 PM.<\/p>\n
Okay, all right. That might make a little bit more sense to me than I love waking up at 4:00 in the morning. Rob\u2019s been spending the last three months dragging himself through broken glass, trying to get to the gym, waking up early and letting us all know the whole time how terrible it is. Then David walks in and says, \u201cMy favorite thing to do is wake up at 4:00 in the morning. That\u2019s what I use my time freedom for.\u201d You\u2019ve been able to experience a life you wouldn\u2019t have been without real estate. You\u2019re doing the things you love. They keep you charged up. You\u2019re getting your wake surfing done, you\u2019re experimenting with different barbers. You found the perfect wave to your hair, which I don\u2019t think should be lost on our audience since you do love wake surfing. I wonder what Rob\u2019s equivalent would be. Maybe mountain climbing. The quaff kind of looks like a bit of a, have you tried that yet before, Rob? Since his hair looks like a wave and he likes to wake surf?<\/p>\n
I feel like mine does also kind of look like in this particular moment, it\u2019s got this bottom cloth and then there\u2019s another cloth on top of it. I woke up like this. I got in at 4:00 AM last night.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when I was waking up.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s funny, David, when it comes to landing these deals that you find the opportunity, you go talk to the seller. What we didn\u2019t talk about are some of the psychological tools, scripts, whatever. What advice do you have for the person who thinks that they found an opportunity, they want to go open a conversation with the seller? Obviously, with your experience, you can write a person off who\u2019s not serious, not motivated. You can also navigate the conversation when it\u2019s a little more complex, but just for the person who\u2019s like, man, I want to go talk to him, but I don\u2019t know what I\u2019m supposed to say. Are there books? Are there podcasts? Are there influencers? Who do you recommend that people listen to, to get better at having those uncomfortable conversations?<\/p>\n
I think Brent Daniels\u2019 Talk to People would be a great person to follow and check out his Cold Calling Scripts on how to talk to people and have those conversations. Because ultimately, there\u2019s only two things that give you money in this business, it\u2019s finding distressed properties and communicating with the owners.<\/p>\n
I actually did a podcast with Brent not too long ago. Very nice guy. Love the philosophy. Seems very successful. Talking to people, what a novel concept, right?<\/p>\n
Right. I think for people that are good at talking to people, the assumption is why is this so hard? For people that are bad at talking to people, it\u2019s like up there with public speaking. What I don\u2019t want is for the people that are nervous about it, they don\u2019t have a natural skill with other human beings conversating, but maybe they\u2019re great at analysis or they have a great work ethic. I don\u2019t want them to be afraid to go initiate contact. It is a skill that can be improved. I think when I read Pitch Anything by Oren Klaff, we had him on the show to talk about him. That was one of the takeaways I had is, there\u2019s an actual science to communication. If you could get this down, people will listen to what you have to say and they will see your perspective and it will greatly increase somebody\u2019s confidence with communication, which is what I teach to the people in my company.<\/p>\n
Communication is the foundation of life. I just started taking a storytelling class for the very same reason. It doesn\u2019t matter if you\u2019re trying to sell something, if you\u2019re trying to entertain friends. The ability to communicate in a way that inspires people to listen and stay with you all the way to the end is the foundation of every relationship or every transaction. It\u2019s just so important to life and I believe that.<\/p>\n
Awesome, man. That\u2019s a great, great story and you did a great job of communicating today, so thank you for that. For people that want to communicate with you more, where can they find out more about you?<\/p>\n
You guys can follow me, dlecko on Instagram or if you want to check out DealMachine, get a seven-day free trial. We help people find distressed off market properties and make sure they\u2019re communicating with those owners, which is so important. One of our top customers, and I host the DealMachine Real Estate Investing podcast where we interview people who\u2019ve done their first wholesale deals.<\/p>\n
Love it. What about you, David?<\/p>\n
You can find me at davidgreene24 or davidgreene24.com to see what I got going on and how I can help people build their wealth. Rob, how about you?<\/p>\n
You can find me on YouTube over at robuilt where I talk about real estate, short-term rentals and life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and on Instagram too. All of it. If you want the goofy videos, go to Instagram.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019ve got something off this episode and you want to keep learning more, check out BiggerPockets Podcast, episode number 781, where we have a round table discussion with Rob, Henry and I on the beginner\u2019s guide to finding undervalued off-market deals in any market. Episode 731 with Brent Daniels or the Rookie Podcast, episode 241, where Sahleem Lee was interviewed, who went from being a line cook to a long-term investor with 32 wholesale deals. David, thanks for being here, man. Really appreciate you sharing your story as well as the details that you did. We will have to have you on again and follow up with how things are going. This is David Greene for Rob reading his second book Abasolo, signing off.<\/p>\n