Investor Cheat Code Podcast with Mike Simmons

In this episode, I have the opportunity to interview fellow 7 Figure Flipping member, Sheri Duignan. Sheri has been involved in real estate investing since 2004, beginning with the rental of her own home when she was called to move across the company for her job. Over the next few years, having experienced both the highs and lows of real estate, she decided to self-educate through reading and attending seminars and then launched her own business. In order to do this, she resigned her District Vice President position after 18 years with this company but is now happily wholesaling and flipping houses full-time.

After the almost accidental start in real estate by renting her own home in Atlanta, Sheri talks about the transition from her corporate job into real estate investing. She purchased her next two rentals in North Carolina because she went to school and also had family in the area. She talked about looking for investor-friendly agents to find these properties and how once she found one, he ended up managing her properties for him and built a business out of it.

Because Sheri started out as a buy-and-hold investor, I asked her what made her transition into other aspects of investing. When her Atlanta home came vacant after the same tenants for 10 years, she and her husband camped out in the house while they nearly completely rehabbed it to rent again. Sheri really enjoyed the process and ended up taking some classes that convinced her she should be flipping and wholesaling houses in addition to her rental properties.

I asked Sheri to share some of the difficulties she has had in her time investing. She talked about how when she first started investing full-time after leaving her corporate job, she was very frustrated and wondered if she had made a big mistake because she was doing so much work and spending a ton on advertising with very little return. Just when she was ready to give up, she ended up closing on two deals, which completely changed her mindset and restored her confidence.

Because she shared these struggles with us, I asked Sheri what is working best for her now with lead generation. She said she is still successful with direct mail, but she is finding networking to be very effective. Sheri joined Business Networking International which is a referral company that incentivizes its members to refer to one another in the group. She explained the current deal she is working on that she obtained through this network, and went into detail describing the numbers and the creative financing she was able to utilize. Sheri also explained that her goal was to finance more rentals with the profits she is making from flipping houses to increase her passive income.

Here is just another example of an incredibly generous business person who is willing to lay it all out honestly in an effort to help other investors, so don’t miss this fantastic episode with Sheri Duignan!

Notable Quotes:

“Real estate is really my passion and what makes me excited. There are so many facets to it.”

• Sheri Duignan

“I was tired of corporate politics and wanted to work for myself.”

• Sheri Duignan

“You just have to be patient and have some grit.”

• Sheri Duignan

“Thank God for my husband… he was such a great cheerleader and kept telling me to ‘Go, Go, Go!’”

• Sheri Duignan

“You can’t let one property define you.”

• Sheri Duignan

“Where I am really finding more success with lead generation is through networking.”

• Sheri Duignan

“Relationships and networking take more time and energy, but in the long run, the return on the investment is astronomical.”

• Mike Simmons

“If you are an entrepreneur, it can’t be ‘I can’t’... it has to be ‘How can I?’”

• Mike Simmons

“You can go one of two ways when life gets tough - you can quit or you can buckle down and work harder.”

• Mike Simmons

“Don’t be bashful about what you are doing. Talk about it.”

• Mike Simmons

“My advice to new investors - Just get started.”

• Sheri Duignan

“Joining 7 Figure Flipping is probably the best thing I have done, out of everything I have done.”

• Sheri Duignan

“I resisted masterminds and coaching for years because I was being pig headed and thought I could just figure it out.”

• Mike Simmons

“I love your ‘I will figure this out and win’ attitude!”

• Mike Simmons

Links:

Flip Hacking Live

Business Network International 

Real Results Realty LLC

Sheri’s Email

Return on Investments

Just Start Real Estate

JSRE on Facebook

Mike on Facebook

Mike on Instagram

Mike on LinkedIn

Mike on Twitter

Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months

Ok guys, thank you for joining me, thank you for being here on Just Start Real Estate! I’m excited to have you and I’m excited to be with you for another Thursday show. This is the Thursday show that didn’t exist a month ago as we just started doing two shows per week and I am psyched about it! I am trying to turn about the volume on the value that I am offering you on these shows and the Thursday show is something I am really happy about. I am happy to be bringing you more content that I think is going to move the needle for your business. Today, we are continuing our Flip Hacking Live Rewind series and I am just plucking the best of the best, the presentations I really think you missed out on by not seeing them live and giving them to you here. Today we have a presentation from 2018 given by my mentor, Andy McFarland, who I really look up to in this industry, as a person, a businessman, a father, and a husband. If you have had any exposure to Andy or seen him present, you know what I am talking about - he is absolutely the best and smartest of guys. Today, I am bringing you his presentation on Seller Financing. Guys, seller financing is going to be humongous in the next year or two. It’s big now, it has always been big, but I think it is going to be especially impactful and useful in your real estate tool belt for you so that you are able to do these types of deals. There is nobody better, no one that has been doing it longer at such a high level than Andy and he is the perfect guy to lay this out for you so that you can start doing seller financing deals.

Pay attention to this one - Andy really brings it in this presentation and I know it is going to blow your mind! Seller financing, as Andy explains it, is easy to follow and easy to implement and you should be doing this in your business! 

Notable Quotes:

“Gotta learn to look at all the angles.”

• MacGyver

“You can’t effectively sell what you don’t believe.”

“No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care.”

“There is no microwave trust.”

“You show that you care by active listening.”

“Listening is not waiting to talk.”

“Start and end your day with this: Have I done any good in the world today?”

Links:

Flip Hacking Live

7 Figure Flipping

Andy’s Website

ABC Offer

Return on Investments

Just Start Real Estate

JSRE on Facebook

Mike on Facebook

Mike on Instagram

Mike on LinkedIn

Mike on Twitter

Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months

In this episode, I have the opportunity to interview Roofstock CEO, Gary Beasley. Roofstock is a leading real estate investment marketplace that he co-founded in 2015. Gary caught the entrepreneurial bug while earning an MBA at Stanford, and spent most of his career building businesses in the real estate, hospitality, and tech sectors.

We began as we often do by diving into Gary’s background. He talked about growing up in small midwestern towns learning a bit about the business from his dad who owned a commercial real estate brokerage firm. Gary said things really changed for him when he went to school at Northwestern and how the environment really opened his eyes to the different possibilities available to him. He decided to go to business school after working a couple of years in real estate, thinking that he wanted to do something different, but ending up right back in real estate after earning his MBA from Stanford.

Gary talked about his early work experience and the different roles that he played. He talked about how much he learned and how his confidence grew when he was able to perform duties that he had not done previously. After several years of working as both a CFO and president for ZipRealty, he decided to take a year off to work on various projects. He took some time to teach some entrepreneur courses at Stanford and ended up making a proposal to a solar panel technology company that led to another leadership role.

Gary took some time to explain the circumstances that led him to starting Roofstock and the advantages to their platform. Some of these include fast sales, costs associated with selling homes are lower than through traditional means, there is no down time for the investment, and very little disruption to the tenant. As part of this discussion, I talked a lot about why using Roofstock is desirable for an investor in my situation. Gary outlined several of the benefits and guarantees that are integral to the Roofstock marketplace.

We then discussed where Gary thinks the housing market is headed. He said that it is so hard to predict the future because there are so many variables, but it is very interesting that the housing market is still so hot after several months of the pandemic. He stressed that because of the pandemic, people are valuing their homestead more than ever and that is having an interesting impact on the market.

Gary has an incredibly interesting background and was a great guest, so please join us for this uber-informative episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast!

Notable Quotes:

“One of the best things about college is how it expands your horizons and your viewpoint of what is possible.”

• Mike Simmons

“I encourage people to view college as a time of exploration and not necessarily as a practical, pre-professional period.”

• Gary Beasley

“College really teaches you how to think.”

• Gary Beasley

“Early in your career, do things for the experience, not for the money.”

• Gary Beasley

“The more difficult the decision, the less it matters what you decide.”

• Gary Beasley

“You lean on experts that can help you.”

• Gary Beasley

“Make sure you are surrounded by the right people.”

• Gary Beasley

“Embrace the process and everything will be okay.”

• Gary Beasley

“If you stay where you are comfortable, I hope you are comfortable where you currently are because that is where you will remain.”

• Mike Simmons

“We are trying to break down the geographic barriers to real estate investing.”

• Gary Beasley

“When you are building a marketplace, it has to be on a foundation of trust.”

• Gary Beasley

“It has to be trust first, then growth, and then profitability.”

• Gary Beasley

Links:

Flip Hacking Live

Roofstock

Return on Investments

Just Start Real Estate

JSRE on Facebook

Mike on Facebook

Mike on Instagram

Mike on LinkedIn

Mike on Twitter

Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months

I have for you today an awesome, handpicked presentation. These are like the best of the best presentations that we had at past Flip Hacking Live and I just want to show you what you are missing out on if you are not going. If you are going, it is something to look forward to because I have a presentation today that my friend, Adam Rae, did a couple of years ago and it is all about wealth accumulation, wealth building, and creating a life inside of real estate that gives you the opportunity to live the life that you really want with freedom of time, financial freedom, and how to go about doing that. He gets into a little bit of tax stuff and things like that so it is really good, solid information that you can actually utilize right away.

This is why I am bringing you these presentations as part of our Flip Hacking Live Rewind Series. Most of these have not been released to the public or given away for free - usually, you have to pay to get the presentation recordings. I am giving them to you free because I really want you to understand what goes on at this event! If you haven’t gotten your tickets, you can grab them at the link below! Go grab your tickets, but in the meantime, check out this presentation from 2018 which is absolutely applicable today. As a matter of fact, it might be even more applicable now than it was then! Check it out, get ready to take notes… this one is awesome!

Notable Quotes:

“Why are we all here? Why does it matter?”

“All models are wrong; some are useful.”

• George E. P. Box

“You actually have to do the work to apply some of the principles and work it out with your values, your life, your business.”

“I think you need to back up and define what wealth is for you.”

“What you are seeing online is a very curated view of what someone else considers what wealth is.”

“It’s not about the money for me, it’s about the time.”

“Passive income is mailbox money - it is going to pay you regardless if you show up or not.”

“Don’t mistake assets for passive income.”

“The purpose of wealth-building is to buy back time.”

“How incredible is the wealth in this room when we not only get to bring money in but it is about sending it out to work for the people that we love.”

“I have been in other groups, but I don’t know another group that has the character, the values, the camaraderie, and the transparency.”

“It’s about growing as people on a long journey to wealth so that we can all achieve and be the people we were made to be.”

“The real estate professional piece [of the tax code] is where it gets really sexy.”

Links:

Flip Hacking Live

7 Figure Flipping

Adam’s Website

KBKG

ABC Offer

Return on Investments

Just Start Real Estate

JSRE on Facebook

Mike on Facebook

Mike on Instagram

Mike on LinkedIn

Mike on Twitter

Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months

In this episode, I have the opportunity to interview Avery Carl, who bought her first rental property at age 26 on a $37,000 salary. Through strategically investing in short-term rental properties in mature vacation rental markets, she was a millionaire by the age of 31. She now owns a portfolio of 28 properties and is the CEO and founder of The Short Term Shop, a real estate team that helps investors acquire short-term rental properties in the most recession-resistant markets, and trains them on the same methods that led her out of the corporate rat race and into financial freedom.

 Avery begins by telling us about her background in which she worked as a marketing manager in the music industry. Completely uneducated in real estate investing, she and her husband decided to purchase a home for a long-term rental in the hopes of selling it to pay for college for their future kids. Quickly, they realized that they should do more investing and came across the idea of short-term rentals. They have now grown their portfolio into 28 properties, split between short and long-term rentals. Avery’s business, The Short Term Shop, grew from the necessity of having to become an expert in this type of investing as so few people are and she found very little support.

Avery talks about how her focus has been regional, driveable, vacation-rental markets because they are more recession-proof. Very applicable currently, as we are still dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, these types of rentals are very attractive when people are unable to or cannot afford to get on a plane, but still want to get away from home. She said that an easy way to think of areas that might be attractive to have short-term rentals are places you may have visited as a child when you rented a house rather than stayed in a hotel. Avery also said that metro markets can be undesirable because of regulations imposed stemming from the competition of nearby hotel markets.

I asked Avery to talk about what I perceived is the downside of short-term rentals, primarily having to deal with people and answer questions very frequently. She said that many different software platforms have risen out of this fairly new type of investing called channel managers that automate a lot of this process. Avery also said that providing as much information as possible in your Airbnb or VRBO listing to try to answer as many questions ahead of time as possible. She also explained all of the technology they have in place for monitoring their rentals.

I wanted Avery to explain the finances involved for the different markets that she is in. She went through the numbers she has seen in her experience and some of the possible expenses, such as property management, which she does herself. Avery said that more bedrooms make for a higher return on investment, so we talked about this and other details a bit. 

I wanted Avery to talk about some of the mistakes she had experienced herself or seen with her clients that new investors should be aware of. Evaluating properties to buy is different in that you want to look at asking price versus what you can make in rentals, instead of what you would make when you sell it. As far as management, she said you have to be aware that because the renters are on vacation, they may not be on their best behavior, but that doesn’t mean they are trashing your place and you have to be careful about calling them out on it. Avery also talked about some of the software tools available to short-term rental investors for management.

I then asked Avery to explain  to our listeners the service that The Short Term Shop provides. She said that she is a realtor and has teams in three different markets in Tennessee, Florida, and Alabama. They help investors make sure that the properties they are evaluating would make profitable short-term rentals and walk them through the whole process to run a vacation rental.

Even though Avery owns and runs a business to help people get started in this kind of investing, she was completely transparent and gave us all the tips and tools she uses for her own properties! Don’t miss this fast-paced interview, chock-full of great information with Avery Carl! 

Notable Quotes:

“Short-term rentals provide turbo-charged income.”

• Avery Carl

“You definitely want to treat your cleaners like gold because they are your eyes and ears.”

• Avery Carl

“Don’t micromanage.”

• Avery Carl

“The more people you can sleep, the more money you can make, and the higher the cash-on-cash return.”

• Avery Carl

“It’s better than sitting in an office every day.”

• Avery Carl

“Normal real estate investors are looking for super deals all of the time.”

• Mike Simmons

Links:

Flip Hacking Live

The Short Term Shop

AirDNA

Mashvisor

KeyData

YourPorter

IGMS

TurnoverBnB

Beyond Pricing

PriceLabs

Wheelhouse

Airbnb

VRBO

Return on Investments

Just Start Real Estate

JSRE on Facebook

Mike on Facebook

Mike on Instagram

Mike on LinkedIn

Mike on Twitter

Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months

Today, I have another great presentation from a past Flip Hacking Live in our Thursday Flip Hacking Live Rewind series where I share a little glimpse of what you can expect to experience at this event. If you already went ahead and got your ticket, you are going to love it and I am just going to prove it to you by showing you past events; people who spoke, people who will be speaking again this year so you can see the value before you even show up. If you haven’t gotten your tickets, go grab them! Today, I have Tyler Jensen’s presentation from last year and it is powerful and awesome! If you don’t know who Tyler is, he is a friend of mine who is making a name for himself right now because he is doing 7 Day Flips. That’s right - he is doing full renovation flips in 7 days or less! We are talking about $40,000 renovations, not just minor stuff. It is amazing, especially for those of us who take weeks or months or even a year to do renovations, Tyler is doing it in 7 days. Listen, even if you think that 7 days is just not realistic for you, what if you could just cut your renovation time in half? Imagine how much more productive you would be, imagine how much money you could save on holding costs and all that stuff.

This is a presentation you should really be excited about! Tyler is going to be at Flip Hacking Live again this year, but you will want to listen to this and be ready to take notes because he gives great tips and opens up the playbook on how to flip a house in 7 days.

Notable Quotes:

“You get to choose whether today is the best day ever.”

“I’m here to build castles, not fight dragons.”

“Small questions yield small answers.”

“Money is made in efficiency.”

“Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.”

• Parkinson’s Law

“Our biggest takeaway is planning and people. We had to have both.”

“The battle is no time to sharpen your sword.”

“You can’t soar like an eagle if you hang out with turkeys.”

“I was born for this.”

Links:

Flip Hacking Live

7 Figure Flipping

Tyler’s Website

ABC Offer

Return on Investments

Just Start Real Estate

JSRE on Facebook

Mike on Facebook

Mike on Instagram

Mike on LinkedIn

Mike on Twitter

Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months

In this episode, I have the honor of interviewing my good friend Danny Johnson, who does a great job of introducing himself as we start things off a little bit differently for this show. Danny started flipping houses in 2003, made it successfully through the housing market crash in 2008, and started scaling his business up about 5 years ago. As a software developer prior to flipping houses, Danny started developing real estate investor websites by creating the software called LeadPropeller. Recently, he has developed and released FlipPilot 2.0, which is lead/deal management pipeline software. Danny is also the host of the ever-popular Flipping Junkie Podcast and Flipping Junkie Blog.

Danny shared some details of his personal life and how circumstances really forced him into looking hard at his life and work. He had removed himself from the day-to-day operations of his house flipping business, but he found that this was something he really wanted to change. As he is re-investing himself in real estate investing, he wants to keep things simple and look at his long-term plans for the business’ growth.

I asked Danny to talk about the development of FlipPilot and what drove him to produce that software. Because his background is in software development, it was natural for him to want to create vehicles to help with his investing business. He talked about the whole progression of building the software and the lessons he learned along the way.

Danny talked about how he started the Flipping Junkie Blog as a means to hold himself accountable and to be transparent about the deals he was finding and all of the associated numbers. He ended up writing a book titled Flipping Houses Exposed to share all of the information he learned during this experience. But he wasn’t happy with the conversion ratio, which is what led him to the development of FlipPilot. We wanted to dig into the whys behind the lack of success in converting deals and solve it for himself going forward as he became more involved in real estate again.

We talked a lot about how FlipPilot incorporates your systems and processes and how valuable this is for being effective in your business. We discussed integrating personal touches such as follow-up notes and how they sound like a great idea, but they need to be part of your process or you won’t take the time to do them. Danny stressed how important it is to be able to visualize each system, putting it in a place where you will see it so that you actually work it. This also makes it much easier to scale and have your whole team working on the same page. It also makes getting things done fun and rewarding.

Because of this unique situation of talking to an experienced investor who is, in a sense, starting over, I asked Danny to describe how this journey is going. Even though he doesn’t plan on employing a large group of people, he is treating it as a scalable company. He is looking at being more effective and efficient, making his time and effort really count, rather than spending a ton of time and money for little gain. His marketing strategy has also changed because he is more focused on long-term investments in specific markets. Danny also discusses being more profit-oriented, rather than focusing on a random number-of-deals goal.

This interview feels like two guys, sitting around a fire-pit, having a beer, talking real estate and life… you don’t want to miss this episode with Danny Johnson!

Notable Quotes:

“That rush of excitement you felt is really an indication, a confirmation of what you want.”

• Mike Simmons

“I always wanted to create software to help out with the house flipping business.”

• Danny Johnson

“I don’t want to go in thinking I know everything… I want to learn fresh.”

• Danny Johnson

“One of the hardest things to do well, in this industry, is follow-up.”

• Mike Simmons

“Treating people like people is a huge part of this.”

• Danny Johnson

“Who doesn’t want to be seen and heard?”

• Danny Johnson

“Referrals is another thing that people in our business overlook.”

• Mike Simmons

“You got to make it such a “WOW” experience so that they can’t help but to tell their friends about it.”

• Danny Johnson

“What is not measured cannot be managed.”

• Danny Johnson

“Enjoy this business - every day of it.”

• Danny Johnson

“How much money do you need to live a comfortable life?”

• Danny Johnson

Links:

Flip Hacking Live

Lead Propeller

FlipPilot

FlipPilot Demo

Flipping Houses Exposed

Flipping Junkie Blog

Flipping Junkie Podcast

Work the System

Traction

Return on Investments

Just Start Real Estate

JSRE on Facebook

Mike on Facebook

Mike on Instagram

Mike on LinkedIn

Mike on Twitter

Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months

The first Thursday installment of Just Start Real Estate in several years features someone I am really proud to call a friend and who has had more influence over my real estate growth in the last five years than any other human being on Planet Earth. That is because he is someone who is not only highly successful, but he also does it the right way as he is a good person. He is someone I look up to and look to as a mentor. He has been on the show before, his name is Andy McFarland, and he did a presentation at a past Flip Hacking Live which is as true now as it was in 2017. It is a presentation I have listened to more than once and it is one that I think listeners will go back to and revisit again and again. Andy gets into what he calls “blocking and tackling,” which is a term for getting back to the basics. He explains what it is that makes your company strong and in a position to scale, as opposed to throwing a bunch of new-fangled things at it. For real estate investors, “blocking and tackling” is leads and conversions. Andy dives deep into this subject matter and also talks about preparation, pre-work before appointments, and hiring. At the end of the presentation, Andy also has a Q&A session, handling questions from the audience.

This is an incredibly powerful presentation, one that I listen to any time I feel my business has gotten off-track a bit. Don’t miss this opportunity to get a sneak peek into Flip Hacking Live and a small piece of what this event has to offer with this talk by Andy McFarland!

Notable Quotes:

“All of us here in America have huge, limitless opportunities.”

“We all have a pot of gold here by virtue of the fact that we live in the United States.”

“In every man there is something wherein I may learn of him, and in that, I am his pupil.”

• Ralph Waldo Emerson

“You have permission to be bigger.”

“Not all success is measured in numbers.”

“The secret to success is there is no secret. It is the basics - blocking and tackling.”

• Chris Gardner

“Do what others are unwilling to do.”

“If you are not answering your phone and are spending money on marketing, you are wasting your money.”

“The key is preparation.”

“Always continue your education.”

“Are you willing to do this? Are you willing to prepare?”

“Discover your truth about that property.”

“We can’t see something we don’t believe in.”

“Show up on time.”

“Be real. Build rapport. Listen.”

“It is 90% preparation.”

“You need to be able to get things done through other people.”

Links:

Flip Hacking Live

7 Figure Flipping

Andy’s Website

ABC Offer

Return on Investments

Just Start Real Estate

JSRE on Facebook

Mike on Facebook

Mike on Instagram

Mike on LinkedIn

Mike on Twitter

Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months

In this episode, I get the chance to interview fellow 7 Figure Flippers Rob Badhorn and Ernie Vargas. Rob lives in Arizona, but performs flips and owns rentals in Ohio. He worked in corporate America for 23+ years, handing $1.5B in revenue for Sales Teams Across USA. He is constantly building multiple streams of income, especially during these challenging times, as he considers himself a serial entrepreneur. Rob’s rental portfolio includes the flips and/or wholesale of 100+ homes utilizing the marketing strategies of Direct Mail, Bandit Signs, Cold Calling, RVM’s/Voice broadcast, FB Custom Audiences, and Texting. He also owns a software company specializing in Lead Generation and Skip Tracing.

Ernie Vargas purchased his first house in 1994 and continued doing real estate while working full-time, but he didn’t hit the success he felt he was capable of. In 1999, after an accident that left him in a coma, he realized that life was short, so he quit his job and went into investing full-time. Eventually, probate hit his radar and started him on a quest to learn all he could about this niche that no one had answers for.

After many years of specializing in probate, Ernie has become a true probate expert, often helping attorneys and their clients in the probate process. His ability to think outside the box coupled with his expertise in negotiating and marketing has allowed him to help several hundreds of investors, agents, and sellers get deals closed. Now Ernie not only has more time to spend with his wife and four kids, but he gets to do what he truly loves doing - helping everyday people create wealth and personal freedom.

The guys first began by giving us their backgrounds and what lead them to real estate investing. Ernie described the moment that really changed things for him when he was working as a freezer stocker at a warehouse store that would eventually become Costco. His boss said something to him that made him realize that he wanted much more from life. He changed jobs and on his way to his first day of training, ended up getting into a terrible car accident that left him in a coma. This experience, coupled with a seminar he went to, completely changed his thinking.

Rob said his journey was similar to a lot of other investors - he read Rich Dad, Poor Dad, went to a few seminars, but he said he has always had the bug to get the passive income stream going. He was in the corporate world but purchased a couple of rentals in order to make up his salary so that he could invest full-time. Joining the 7 Figure Flipping mastermind group really changed everything for him.

Rob talked about his rental portfolio and how he manages the properties himself while employing one handyman to do the work. I asked how much of the work he actually does himself as far as background checks, collecting rent, etc. and Rob said he thought the thing that changed the most in the past several years was the software available for property management.

Even though he has a large rental portfolio, Rob felt the need to expand into other forms of real estate investing to develop multiple income streams, which is the reason why he and Ernie partnered up. I wanted to dig deep on the details of their partnership because so many people struggle with making this work. Ernie said they both have different areas of expertise; Rob is really strong in the area of technology related to real estate and Ernie has become a probate specialist. They had met at a 7 Figure Flipping event and Ernie called Rob concerning skip tracing and the rest is history.

We also discussed the issues with probate investing which have been intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic situation. There is so much talk about this type of investing being deceitful that I wanted the guys to explain how they actually help people with integrity. Ernie talked about how many investors shy away from this type of work, but that the demand for people-loving investors is so high because there is a real need to help those who are grieving through the process.

These two investors bring so much to the proverbial table and share so much information with you in this episode of Just Start Real Estate. Don’t miss my conversation with Rob Badhorn and Ernie Vargas!

Notable Quotes:

“We get lessons out of anything we experience in life if we allow them to change us.”

• Ernie Vargas

“I was bitten by the idea of opportunity and change.”

• Ernie Vargas

“Have a goal, give that goal a deadline, write it down, and go out and take action.”

• Ernie Vargas

“You do what you can with what you have.”

• Ernie Vargas

“You have to be ready when opportunities come.”

• Ernie Vargas

“The NBA did not work out for me.”

• Rob Badhorn

“It’s like bringing a puppy to the park if you are looking for a date.”

• Mike Simmons

“When it can bring value not only to myself but to other people, that’s what really gets me excited.”

• Rob Badhorn

“There is a lot more value than just buying the leads themselves.”

• Rob Badhorn

“The ultimate motivated seller is probate.”

• Ernie Vargas

“You have to have a passion for people in this probate business.”

• Ernie Vargas

“Keep moving forward.”

• Ernie Vargas

Links:

Flip Hacking Live

Rich Dad, Poor Dad

7 Figure Flipping

Buildium

LeadFuzion

Ernie’s Website

Return on Investments

Just Start Real Estate

JSRE on Facebook

Mike on Facebook

Mike on Instagram

Mike on LinkedIn

Mike on Twitter

Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months

In this episode, I get the chance to interview fellow 7 Figure Flipper Darren Smith. Darren is a residential and commercial real estate investor in multiple markets across the country. After being in the Army and working in the computer industry, he tried his hand in real estate but unfortunately lost his earnings in the housing crash. This experience took Darren out of real estate for a few years, but his love for the industry drew him back. Working as an assistant to a wholesaler at first, Darren learned a great deal and started his own business. A week before he was laid off from his computer job, Darren joined the 7 Figure Flipping Mastermind group.

We began, as we often do, discussing what drew Darren to real estate investing. He said after being in the service for several years, he found himself sitting next to an investor that was flipping houses and had a multi-family property in Baltimore. Because he was super passionate about the work that he was doing, this caused Darren to catch the real estate “bug.”

Since his first deal in 2003, to the present day, Darren has had some ups-and-downs in this business, like every investor. We talked about how he made some money in his first go-around with investing but lost it in the housing market crash. After starting up his own company in 2014, he ran into some issues in 2017, hired a coach, laid off some employees, and rebuilt from there. We talked about meeting the challenges by changing strategies rather than giving up.

We talked about helping out clients, the pros and cons of wholesaling versus flipping, how Darren’s deal-finding process is ever-evolving, and so much more! We discussed a ton of marketing ideas and why cold-calling is a longer process than some other strategies. Darren explained the training and role-playing that they do as a staff in order to convert deals through this method.

Darren also explained the differences he has faced in speaking with both buyers and sellers during the COVID-19 pandemic. He said in both cases it is just really important to acknowledge the change in circumstances, and yes, things are challenging, but no one really knows what the future is going to bring. I asked about other changes they have had to make and Darren talked about how they are having home inspectors go out to take pictures and videos of homes, which ends up being the only necessary point of contact whether buying or selling.

I asked Darren what markets he is working in and he explained that he lives in Pennsylvania, works in two markets in Colorado, and just bought an existing real estate business outside of Philly. This was such a novel and interesting concept to me that we discussed this in detail. I asked if it was just a property database, and Darren explained that it is really the established business presence and reputation that they invested in. He even explained how they structured the deal, which he actually recommends to anyone attempting to do the same thing.

Darren wrapped up the interview by not only giving credit to his team but also pointing out how much he counts on the support and fellowship of 7 Figure Flipping. This character-filled investor gives us so much wisdom in the latest installment of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast, you would be crazy to miss it!

Notable Quotes:

“It’s like flying too close to the sun - you could have burned up, but you didn’t.”

• Mike Simmons

“You have to assess what is going on and make changes accordingly.”

• Mike Simmons

“Fifty percent of our processes are different than they were 90 days ago.”

• Darren Smith

“We throw meat into the pen and let the lions fight over it.”

• Mike Simmons

“The reality is, it’s a people business.”

• Mike Simmons

“If it gets harder to sell, it will get easier to buy.”

• Darren Smith

“Specialists make more money than generalists.”

• Darren Smith

“We’ve gone from about 90% closing in person to about 90% closing over the phone.”

• Darren Smith

“When you have the right people in place, scaling gets much easier to do.”

• Darren Smith

“Any time there is economic hardship, rentals become more of a thing.”

• Mike Simmons

“Dude, you are even smarter than I thought you were!”

• Mike Simmons

“You have a clear focus, sound logic, and a strong game plan.”

• Mike Simmons

“I have never been more thankful to be in a mastermind than right now.”

• Darren Smith

“Masterminds are a lifeline. If you were on the Titanic, what would you be willing to invest in a raft?”

• Mike Simmons

Links:

Flip Hacking Live

Darren’s Email

Return on Investments

Just Start Real Estate

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Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months