Unless you want to lose a lot of money, the MLS is the worst place to find investing deals and set yourself up for success. Off-market properties are where we need to focus our efforts. The good news is, if you’re an agent, you often unknowingly come across great deals that haven’t hit the MLS yet.

How do we spot these properties and how can we structure the deals if we don’t have the capital upfront?

In this episode, I’m sharing strategies to launch and grow your investing operation through off-market deals.

Deals are scarce, that’s why you need to learn how to find them off-market. -Tom Cafarella

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode

• The options we have for finding deals that aren’t on the MLS
  

Agents come across great investing deals every single day, but they don’t go after as many as they could. That’s usually because they lack capital, construction expertise or a combination of both.

Through our partnership program, we’ve eliminated both of these barriers and created a way for agents to get off the transaction rollercoaster. This is incredibly important in the market we’re in right now. In a market where transaction count is down by up to 30%, creating another lane of income is key to our survival and success.

In this episode, I share 10 case studies of real estate agents who partnered with us, how they found the deals, and how we created the ultimate win-win.

By real estate recession, we don’t necessarily mean a consumer recession where prices are down, but a transactional recession, where volume has gone down. -Tom Cafarella 

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode

-A transactional recession

Why are agents feeling the pinch in this market?

-How to keep your eyes open for opportunity 

There are many unique ways agents come across deals. What are some of the ways our partners found theirs?

-Knocking down barriers to investment 

You don’t need to have capital or construction know-how to do a deal, how do we provide the 2 in a win-win deal?

In real estate investing, nothing wastes more time or loses more money than taking the wrong first steps. Newer investors are at a greater risk of falling into this trap. With all the information and strategies out there, you can end up focusing on things that don’t actually move the needle.

What are the key things you need to steer clear of as a newbie? Can doing the right things in the wrong order be a mistake?

In this episode, I share 10 things I wouldn’t recommend for newer investors.

We all have limited time so we’ve got to spend it the right way. We always have to focus on the things that are going to move the needle in our businesses. -Tom Cafarella 

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode

-Don’t be stupidly impatient 

Taking too long to start investing is a huge error, but how do we make sure we’re not rushing in without a strategy? 

-Step 1 vs. step 5 activities

Things like building a buyer list, raising capital and even naming our businesses shouldn’t be the first thing we focus on. What needs to be priority #1?

-Don’t quit your day job cold turkey 

Real estate investing promises a high return, but it’s not instant. Why is it critical that we keep earning money?

Agents constantly come across investing deals that can significantly out-pace what they make selling homes. The problem is: with no funding or renovation experience, it’s hard to take action on it. What if you could spot a deal, make an extra $30k without worrying about the capital or construction?

We’ve rolled out an agent partnership program that allows you to take action on the deals you come across and build your net worth. How does this program work and what steps can you take to get started?

In this episode, I talk about our new agent partnership, and how you can get rewarded for the opportunities you come across in your day-to-day work as an agent.

If investing isn’t top of mind for you, you will oftentimes miss deals that are right in front of your face. -Tom Cafarella  

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode

- The worst part about being an agent right now (and how investing solves that)

Many agents are leaving the business because they’re stuck on the income rollercoaster. How does investing, even passively, save you from this instability? 

- How to spot great deals frequently

If you want to take a more active approach to finding deals, how do you make investing top of mind? 

-You don’t need a real estate license to invest, but you should have one

Do you leave money on the table when you’re not an agent-investor?

Tracking our numbers might not be the most exciting, but it is the most important thing we can do in our businesses. In order to know if what you’re doing today will lead to the results we want, we have to keep score.

We need to know if our daily, weekly and monthly actions are leading us to our goals or taking us away from them.

How do we apply a scorecard to various parts of our businesses? What happens when we discover that we’re off track?

In this episode, I talk about how to create your own weekly business scorecard, and why it’s so powerful in your business.

If you don’t know or don’t measure what you’ll be doing every single week, you have no idea whether or not you’re on track. -Tom Cafarella 

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode

-Get clear on the goal

Why do we need to hone in on our investment vehicle in order to have a precise scorecard?

-The problem that entrepreneurs face

Can having time and a flexible schedule actually work against us?

-Staying on track 

How does a scorecard make it easier to see where we’re falling short or going off track?

For any agent, stacking investing on top of your sales business is a guaranteed path to wealth. It can magnify our real estate commissions many times over, and ultimately, we can work up to earning $10k a month in passive income.

The only challenge is raising money for that first deal to get the ball rolling. Most agents won’t even start for this reason, but capital doesn’t have to be a barrier. Whether you want to invest passively or actively, there is a way to do deals without any of your own money.

In this episode, we bring you into one of our events, where I share how to easily do more deals by levering partnerships.

If you’re an agent, you’re better off having a cash offer in your back pocket. -Tom Cafarella

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode

-Passive or proactive

How do we decide the level of involvement we want to have in investing? 

-The smart way to spend money

From free to paid marketing, how can we start generating the leads we need to do more deals? Are Facebook leads as good as Google ones?

-Reducing your risk in a risky market

What price points and property types should we stay away from right now?

Real estate offers many vehicles that can lead us to wealth, but they aren’t created equal, especially if you’re looking for something passive.

Short-term rentals and small multi-family units are vehicles many people go after, but it’s hard to be hands-off with them. This is why apartment buildings are so great, they offer a passive investing option, but are still worthwhile if you want to be an active investor.

What holds people back from investing in apartments? How do you choose the right apartments to invest in?

In this episode, we talk about why we invest in apartments, and even give you a peek into one of the projects we’re currently working on.

When you have many units in one complex, your management is significantly lower, your profits are a lot higher, and it’s just an easier lifestyle. -Jim Cooke

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode

-Truly passive

Why is it hard to truly be passive with short-term rentals and small multi-family?

-Why you don’t need to come up with all the money

Most people would never even dream of investing in apartments because they believe they need to have all the capital themselves. How can you get into a deal with the money you have?

-The massive advantage agents have

How can you get your start in investing by just being a good deal finder?

One of the biggest reasons agents hesitate to invest is that it might throw off the retail side and hurt their sales.

That notion couldn’t be further from the truth. Retail and investing actually go hand-in-hand; one enhances the other - especially if you go after sellers.

Considering where the market is and where the industry is going, a seller-based business is key to our survival. How does a seller-focused business allow us to earn more? In this episode, I share the power of focusing on sellers and why it pairs so well with investing. 

The combination of being an agent and an investor simultaneously is extremely powerful. -Tom Cafarella

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode

-Why your $/hour is higher on the seller side 

How does working with sellers make us more scalable and profitable? 

-Cash offer call to action = game changer 

How does having both the option for a cash offer and a traditional listing make us more valuable to sellers?

-An easy way to generate leads

Why is it critical for our sphere of influence to know we’re both in real estate sales and investing?

When you’re starting out as an agent-investor, it’s hard to raise money for deals, so we have to tap into low to no money strategies.

There are a few ways to get in front of off-market sellers without a huge marketing budget - each with their own pros and cons. The key to success will always be consistency and a way to measure our success.

How can we get auctions to work for us? How can we leverage our relationships with other agents? In this episode, I share a few ways to get deals without spending a whole lot of money.

Agents in general don’t come across off-market deals on a weekly basis so you need a large group of agents that you are in front of quite a bit and you need to make sure they remember you. -Tom Cafarella 

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode

-Building solid agent relationships

How do we make sure we’re standing out from other agents?

-Why deals need to be off market 

The MLS has a lot of competition, how do we create our own market for deals?

-Take the guesswork out of your efforts 

How do we measure our success with the strategies we use to find deals?

So many agents are looking for investing deals and capital, but the people who know, like and trust them have no idea. If we’re only telling people that we’re in retail sales, they won’t be aware that we have other solutions. If we’re not sharing with our sphere of influence what we’re doing in real estate, they won’t be able to funnel leads and deals our way.

Social media is the easiest and most effective way to share what we’re doing in real estate. With a few posts, we can educate our sphere of influence that we invest, and that will boost our businesses.

What should we be posting on social media? In this episode, I share how to activate your sphere of influence to help in our investing goals?

If you’re an agent who doesn’t tell their clients that you can also buy homes, you’re going to lose deals to investors. -Tom Cafarella  

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode

-It’s never too soon to share

Can we post that we’re looking for deals when we don’t have the money to do a deal?

-What we should be posting 

How do we strike a balance between business and personal posts so people get to know us and also know what we’re working on?

-One helpful tool to employ

How do we measure the impact and reach of our posts?