Investor Cheat Code Podcast with Mike Simmons

In this episode, I am joined by Kyle and Kirk Burnett who are twin brothers that invest in real estate together. Kyle lives in Cincinnati with his wife and two girls and has been investing in real estate for three and a half years. Kirk moved to the Dominican Republic five years ago to work as a missionary, where he met and married his wife. Now he works remotely full-time with the Burnett Group while still volunteering at the non-profit organization.

We talked about what they were both doing before getting into real estate investing and what roles each of them play now in their company. While their primary investing market is Cincinnati, they are currently working on expanding into another market. Kyle and Kirk discussed their respective roles, hiring help, and the details of remotely handling deals.

As Kyle and Kirk expand into this new market, they are going to test out the remote business model by utilizing less costly marketing strategies, such as texting and cold-calling, rather than direct mail.

I asked them to describe their business operations and any of the tools they are using to be more successful. Kyle and Kirk talked about a couple of the apps they use (see links for more information) and spoke about the importance of communication between team members. We also discussed the advantages and disadvantages of closing deals over the phone.

We talked about what we might do differently if we were starting over with a clean slate today. Kyle and I both said we would definitely start with flipping houses, but Kirk said he would begin by wholesaling so he could stay in the Dominican Republic and continue to work in ministry. Both said how valuable being part of a mastermind group is and how much they value the relationships and shared information.

I hope you will join me for this super down-to-earth and informative interview with the Brothers Burnett!

Notable Quotes:

“We are going to go for some of the low-hanging fruit to prove the model.”

• Kirk Burnett

“We are full-steam ahead in the new market (regardless of the pandemic).”

• Kirk Burnett

“Something like the pandemic happening tests your business - are there holes in your game?”

• Mike Simmons

“Too many people are playing defense and are fear-based in what they are doing.”

• Mike Simmons

“Don’t make this an excuse not to be successful.”

• Mike Simmons

“Here ya go - boom. Quarantine, COVID, now what? You can curl up in a ball and die, or you can figure out your path forward.”

• Mike Simmons

“You have to get over your unreasonable or unfounded fears.”

• Mike Simmons

“Imagine the talent you can pull from if you open up your hiring to anywhere.”

• Mike Simmons

 “I do enjoy the flipping aspect of things and I don’t think that is something that will ever go away.” 

• Kyle Burnett

 “I love where I am at, and more importantly, I love the organization and ministry that I serve with and the kids I serve for. That is my number one priority and I wouldn’t do anything to sacrifice that.”

• Kirk Burnett

“You’re just good people, man.”

• Mike Simmons

“Take action. Now.”

• Kyle Burnett

“You don’t want to have the regret of not taking action.”

• Kyle Burnett

“Anybody that is ready to jump in, find a mastermind as quickly as possible.”

• Kyle Burnett

Links:

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

2nd Mile Missions

Traction

12 Week Year

7 Figure Flipping

Slack

Whatsapp

Google Drive

Burnett Home Buyers

7FF Video Vault

In this episode, I talked with Palak Shah, who is the founder and owner of Open Spaces Capital that generates over $1M in revenue. She brought her knowledge and 17 years of experience in building systems, processes, and scaling from her corporate career in engineering leadership to fast track her real estate investing journey. In her first two years investing full-time, she purchased, renovated, rented, and refinanced properties creating a $4M rental portfolio. It is now her passion to empower other investors to pursue entrepreneurship through real estate investing to live a financially free life without taking undue risks or over-leveraging through her coaching program at Open Spaces Women.

We began, as we often do, talking about Palak’s background and what brought her real estate investing. She worked as a mechanical engineer in the corporate world for 17 years, traveling all over the world, loving her career, but when she had kids, everything changed. She had less and less time to spend with her family as she climbed the corporate ladder, and that left her feeling resentful and wanting something more. By the time she decided to leave her corporate job, she and her husband had already invested in a couple of rental properties, and she started to get her footing as an investor with those.

I asked Palak how she transitioned from her full-time job into real estate investing. She walked through how she analyzed the feasibility of working from home while raising her kids rather than remaining in her corporate position. We talked about how vital it is to have the support of your spouse as you move into a venture, especially when investing money.

Palak discussed different investing strategies she utilizes in her real estate market of Philadelphia. She primarily employs the BRRRR (buy, rehab, rent, refinance, repeat) Method to grow both her portfolio and passive income. Palak talked about different ways she ‘supercharges’ that particular strategy.

I asked Palak if she is at all interested in other types of real estate investing such as wholesaling or flipping and she talked about how that would require her to expand her skill-set which would defeat the whole purpose of why she got into REI in the first place - to spend more time with her children. She is willing to spend money to hire a reputable wholesaler, agent, or general contractor so that she doesn’t have to spend the time learning those tasks.

Then we discussed how Palak finds her deals. She starts off by saying it does take some time and effort to build a good deal pipeline, but it begins with cultivating good relationships. She works with wholesalers and has done several deals with a realtor, but she still often finds workable deals on the MLS. We talked about how important it is in working with realtors to train them to the specifics you are looking for as an investor and how you run your numbers.

Palak then walked us through a deal she did that ended up cash-flowing $3500 per month. She says she loves the property because so many positive things came out of doing that deal, such as completely revamping the neighborhood and even helping a neighbor to start a business.

Palak said that since they figured out this super-charged BRRRR strategy she really wants to help other investors, especially dual-income families trying to raise kids. She has started a coaching program and has a new cohort beginning June 6th that you can check out by visiting https://www.openspaceswomen.com.

I hope you will join me for this terrific and super-informative interview with brilliant engineer-turned-real estate investor, Palak Shah!

Notable Quotes:

“I felt like a lie had been sold to me - you are told ‘get an education, establish your career, have kids, and everything will be fine,’ but it’s not like that because everything gets really complicated.”

• Palak Shah

“I wanted to make an impact and do something meaningful, but I wanted to do it on my own terms.”

• Palak Shah

“When it was time to figure out what I was going to do next, buy-and-hold investing seemed like the best option.”

• Palak Shah

“When we were a family with two incomes, we just thought of real estate investing as a way to park our money.”

• Palak Shah

“Working from home during the pandemic may open people’s eyes to the fact that they don’t want to go back to the corporate grind.”

• Mike Simmons

“Companies may need to take notice and be more flexible.” 

• Mike Simmons 

“Is this why I gave up my life, so you could grow up and eventually quit your job?”

• Palak Shah’s Mother

“It is underrated how important it is to have a spouse that supports you.”

• Mike Simmons

“When it comes to investing, that is a couple’s decision to make together.”

• Palak Shah

“You have to figure out how to meet in the middle so you can achieve the best for your family.”

• Palak Shah

“There is just so much information out there, so I wanted to make sure I learned the business properly, and once that was done, there was no stopping me.”

• Palak Shah

“The BRRRR strategy allows you to take a finite amount of funds and grow a portfolio exponentially.”

• Palak Shah

“As you get better at any strategy, you are able to have better margins.”

• Palak Shah

“My ‘why’ is to have more time with my kids.”

• Palak Shah

“Knowing what you want and going after just that - there is a lot of power there.”

• Mike Simmons

“It’s the shiny object syndrome.”

• Mike Simmons

“The key is to really know your property avatar.”

• Palak Shah

“For an investor interested in the BRRRR strategy, you need to know two things: can I cash out and can I cash flow.”

• Palak Shah

“With worst-case scenario planning, ask yourself: is that an amount of money you are comfortable losing to learn all the things you will learn from that deal.”

• Palak Shah

“I have learned a lot from deals where I lost money.”

• Mike Simmons

Links:

7 Figure Flipping

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

Palak Shah's Website

Palak Shah on Instagram

7FF Video Vault

In this episode, I am joined by Amanda Han. As a CPA, tax strategist, and real estate investor, Amanda Han combines her passion for real estate investing with her expertise in tax tactics. Her goal is to help investors with tactics designed to supercharge their wealth-building using entity structuring, self-directed investing, and income offset opportunities to keep more of what they make.

Amanda begins by giving us a little bit of her background. She talks about how both her parents and grandparents were real estate investors but encouraged her to follow the more traditional route of getting an education, followed by a good job. She began her accounting career at Deloitte, just by chance, in their real estate specialty group. She realized very quickly some of the tax benefits her investor clients could take advantage of, increasing their income while not necessarily working a ton of hours.

Amanda explained that the majority of real estate investors are not aware of the tax strategies available to them. She pointed out that it isn’t necessarily anyone’s fault but that the tax codes are written in a convoluted way. Reaping tax benefits requires very specialized knowledge for each and every industry.

I asked Amanda to explain a little about what is going on with the tax situation during the current COVID-19 pandemic. She said as part of the Cares Act pandemic relief package, the new filing deadline is July 15th. Most of the states are following these guidelines, and Amanda recommended getting more information from AICPA State Tax Filing Guidelines.

I wanted to find out Amanda’s recommendations for newer or smaller investors on when a good time is to begin working with a CPA and employing tax strategies. She said it was important for even brand new investors to consult advisors in order to form to proper legal entities necessary for both tax benefits and protection, and also how to use them effectively.

I asked Amanda to explain a strategy that I have recently become familiar with which is cost segregation. She said first that one of the things that is so attractive about real estate investing is the depreciation that can be claimed no matter how much is put down on the house or other factors. Cost segregation is just the next level of this type of tax advantage. It involves defining all of the components of a particular investment property, not just the building itself. Some of these components may be eligible for an immediate deduction, providing the possibility of taking a higher deduction upfront rather than having everything depreciate over the standard timeframe.

Amanda went on to explain strategies that could benefit some types of real estate investors but not others, giving specific examples. She also gave some great, practical advice on how to determine whether an individual’s tax advisor was helping employ these strategies.

I then asked Amanda about the charity that she and her husband and business partner, Matt, formed named Animals for Armed Forces Foundation. The foundation helps to place shelter animals with current or retired servicemen and women. Normally on Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day each year they will work with local shelters to place animals in military homes for free, while the foundation pays for any necessary fees. Amanda talked about how rewarding it is to receive pictures of these pets in their new homes with their forever families.

We then talked about the two books they have written on tax strategies for real estate investors (see links at the bottom). She said that she and Matt read a lot of books about taxes benefits for investors and found them difficult and dull to read and wondered how people who were not CPAs would get any useful information from them, so they wrote their own books to help people find strategies that could help them. The first book is story-based about specific successes and mistakes made by investors and provides actionable, easy-to-understand advice about various tax schemes.

If you are like me, you may not know much about taxes, but please join me for this interesting, motivating, and believe or not, fun interview with tax expert Amanda Han!

Notable Quotes

“I think there is a misconception that investors think they only need to work with a CPA or an attorney when I have ‘X’ number of rentals.”

• Amanda Han

“It is more transaction-focused rather than a number of rentals in terms of who could benefit from tax planning.”

• Amanda Han

“In the tax world, there is never a one-size-fits-all strategy.”

• Amanda Han

“In the spirit of Michael Scott, now say it like I am a four-year-old.”

• Mike Simmons

“Flipping burgers - not nearly the upside of flipping houses.”

• Mike Simmons

“Our firm specializes in proactive tax planning.”

• Amanda Han

“We have people whose tax preparer is their father-in-law… you can’t fire your father-in-law.”

• Amanda Han

“We always recommend this team-of-advisors approach, where we are all working together.”

• Amanda Han

“I like talking to people that do good things, good people who aren’t just business, business, business, cutthroat - people who care.”

• Mike Simmons

“I don’t like not knowing, but I just don’t know, so thank you for telling me your book is basically for dummies.”

• Mike Simmons

“Our goal in writing the book was to show people what can be done.”

• Amanda Han

Links:

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

Keystone CPA Facebook

Keystone CPA Website

AICPA State Tax Filing Guidelines

Animals for Armed Forces Foundation

The Book on Tax Strategies for the Savvy Real Estate Investor

7FF Video Vault

For this episode, I interviewed friend and fellow 7 Figure Flipper Dana Mace. She begins by talking about her background and how she began in real estate investing. Dana said that because her step-dad owned one of the largest, privately-owned real estate businesses in Virginia, investing this way was just part of their family culture. She bought her first property at the age of 21 years old and hasn’t looked back since.

Dana was born and raised in Virginia Beach and this metropolitan area is where her business is focused. She and her husband started their newest company, Ubiquitous Properties, with the goal of scaling their flipping business to 60 each year. Dana explained that they picked the name Ubiquitous because it means “omnipotent; all over, everywhere” and that is their objective. We discussed the markets in our prospective areas and what an average deal sold for.

We talked about different strategies for getting on wholesalers’ lists and what was really successful for Dana in her market. She also shared with us how she evaluates her deals. Dana also gave us an idea of the key people she wants to have as part of her team so that she can scale up to a particular level.

Dana shared some of the struggles she has been dealing with this year, but how determined she is to push through and make her business succeed. In order to raise some capital, they pulled off a 7-day flip, and Dana describes what that experience was like.

Next, I wanted Dana to talk about why she started her YouTube channel and what its purpose is. She said that she thinks that the best way to scale something and to learn is just to talk about it. She had initially intended to show a lot of before and after house-flipping situations but was encouraged to put on more varied real estate content, as well.

Join me for this super fun, upbeat and honest interview with fiery real estate investor Dana  Mace!

Notable Quotes

“I knew that real estate was the thing to go into.”

• Dana Mace

“If anybody wants a tip, tell them to buy real estate.”

• Dana Mace’s Stepdad

“I have been very fortunate to have people surrounding me my whole life that know a lot about real estate so that I have been able to learn and grow.”

• Dana Mace

“I knew I wanted to do something cool with my life and something cool with my money.”

• Dana Mace

“I just wanted to flip it. I am just flip-happy sometimes.”

• Dana Mace

“No one understands completely how well you are doing because you are just a ninja and crushing it, just doing your thing and not making a big deal about it.”

• Mike Simmons

“When life “lifes” on you, what are you gonna do?”

• Dana Mace

“Life makes its move, and sometimes it feels like ‘Check.’ It is only ‘Checkmate’ when you give up.”

• Mike Simmons

“Find the people that are good at things that you are not.”

• Dana Mace

“The number one thing that has made the biggest difference in my business is getting out of my own way, realizing what I wasn’t good at, quit lying to myself about it, and bring someone in that could handle that for me.”

• Mike Simmons

“What does scaling really look like to me? Being better tomorrow, a little bit better than what you were today.”

• Dana Mace

Links:

7 Figure Flipping

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

Dana’s YouTube Channel

7FF Video Vault

In this episode, I had the pleasure of interviewing multi-family property investor Teghena (Tenny) Tolofari. Prior to establishing Xsite Capital Investment in 2019, Tenny spent several years leading a major sales force in one of the fastest-growing financial services companies in America. He is also a Global Cyber Security professional supporting the likes of Boeing and Deloitte. Tenny’s major role is building relationships with brokers, property management companies, and investors to ensure the success of their property investment business.

Tenny began by sharing the story of his humble beginnings as a child in Nigeria. He was initially very insecure about his abilities and did not do well in school. Because of the class system in Africa, Tenny realized the only way he could break out of the poverty of his youth was to immigrate to the United States. He made a bet with his mother in which she told him she would find the means to send him to graduate school in America if he could finish college with high honors. That motivated Tenny to get to work and accomplish this goal.

Upon arriving in the States, Tenny began his graduate degree in Management Information Systems at Virginia International University and then transferred to Bowie State University. After graduation, even though he had great jobs and was able to bring his family over to the U.S. from Nigeria, he continued to ask himself, “What’s next?” He then began to learn about finance and it opened up a whole new world to him.

Like so many other budding entrepreneurs, Tenny started self-educating by reading Rich Dad Poor Dad and Rich Dad’s Cashflow Quadrant by Robert Kiyosaki. He found that the financial service platform gave him the opportunity to start his own business and work with others with more experience. During this process, he met his partner, Leslie Awasom. After discovering they were reading many of the same financial freedom books, they began their working relationship by meeting at a brewery to play the Cashflow 101 Board Game. Because Leslie already had a real estate investing company, they decided to merge their business efforts in January of 2019.

Tenny talks about how both he and Leslie were very invested in educating themselves and went to many financial and real estate boot camp and mastermind events. They decided they were going to focus their real estate ventures in the multi-family market and bought their first property, a 192 unit apartment building in Marietta, Georgia. This year, they are looking to expand these efforts.

I asked Tenny how he feels when he hears people born in this country talk about how they don’t have the same opportunities as others and can’t afford to improve their situation. Tenny said it used to make him mad because he believes those are just excuses for not improving yourself, but then realized you can only be who you surround yourself with. We discussed how important it is to appreciate and use what you have and encircle yourself with good people. Tenny talked about the sacrifices he had to make, yet how driven he was to succeed.

Tenny then explained what syndication is because that is what he primarily deals with in his business. He explained the difference between the two business classifications that they have, 503B and 503C, as far as dealing with investors. He also detailed why they decided to go into multi-family real estate investing rather than other options. He gave several examples of the advantages of owning multi-family including spreading out expenses such as management companies and adjusting for vacancies. Tenny also detailed their philosophy for finding and funding deals.

We talked a lot about different ways to build relationships and how important this is in real estate investing. Tenny said one of the strategies that they have when trying to enter a new market is to talk to the property management companies first in order to get an in with the big brokers in that area. 

I hope you join me as I get to know this dynamic investor and fantastic human being who built a successful real estate business from nothing with self-education, hard work, and desire!

Notable Quotes:

“You can only be what you surround yourself with.”

• Tenny Tolofari

“Everyone has the opportunity - it’s just how badly do you want it and what are you going to to to get there.”

• Mike Simmons

“I know what I want. I didn’t want that life, like so many of my friends back home, that are struggling to take care of their family.”

• Tenny Tolofari

“A lot of people don’t appreciate what they have. They just don’t understand.”

• Tenny Tolofari

“Gratitude and perspective are things that can help people change.”

• Tenny Tolofari

“People change due to two things: desperation or inspiration. Mine was both.”

• Tenny Tolofari

“I’d never done commercial real estate before… I just had to put myself out there and learn.”

• Tenny Tolofari

“And this is one of my superpowers that I know God blessed me with - I can pick up the phone and call anybody.”

• Tenny Tolofari

“It’s got to be deeper than that… you’ve got to mean it.”

• Mike Simmons

“There’s a lot of things going on in the world right now, a lot of people are scared, but you don’t stop, don’t freeze, keep moving.”

• Tenny Tolofari

Links:

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

Rich Dad Poor Dad

Rich Dad’s Cashflow Quadrant

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

MONEY Master the Game: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom

Robert Kiyosaki’s Cashflow 101 Board Game

Tenny’s Website

Tenny’s Phone Number: (202) 569-5072

7FF Video Vault

For this episode, I have invited four of my friends and fellow real estate investors to talk about their specific market experiences thus far during the COVID-19 pandemic. I asked each of them to introduce themselves and tell us a little bit about their business.

Adam Rae lives in Colorado Springs and operates his business in southern Colorado. His business works in wholesaling, flipping, and rental properties.

Andy McFarland lives in Utah and is also involved in wholesaling, flipping, and owns rentals in three different markets:  Salt Lake City Utah, Albuquerque, NM, and Indianapolis, Indiana.

Jeremiah Johnson runs his business remotely from his home just outside of Denver and does primarily wholesaling in the markets of Wichita and Kansas City.

Terry Burger does business in the markets of Atlanta Georgia and Greenville, South Carolina, performing primarily flips.

We began by discussing our different states and markets and the limitations we are seeing with the varied stay-at-home orders and how that has immediately affected our businesses. With the US economy impacted so severely by the pandemic, we all shared our projections about the real estate market going forward. We also considered how the different facets of the business could be influenced by the response of buyers, sellers, and lenders. We talked about different ways we have all implemented some cost-saving measures internal to our businesses, as well.

This episode is filled with “actionable intelligence” that will benefit investors of all kinds, in any state of business development.

Notable Quotes:

“History does not repeat itself, but it often rhymes.”

• Mark Twain

“Real estate is the local perception of a national opinion.”

“Our asset class is looking pretty sexy right now.”

“We’re not going back to living in tents anytime soon.”

“Real estate is a slow-moving animal and you aren’t going to miss the boat if you don’t buy something tomorrow.”

“I think your grandma’s economics still work here… live on less than you make, invest the difference, have cash reserves, have staying power.”

“I wrote down “actionable intelligence” - I absolutely love that and need to make it part of my vocabulary.”

“It is important to develop empathy and not ego through this.”

Links:

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

7FF Video Vault

7 Figure Flipping

Adam Rae's Website

Andy McFarland's Website

Jeremiah Johnson's Website

Terry Burger's Website

In this episode, I interviewed Will Brown, who is a 20-year-old real estate investor and tech entrepreneur who dropped out of college in May of 2018. Since then, he has run and built a team from scratch without any outside funds to go on and do over 90 deals and $900,000 in assignment fees in less than 2 years. He has since handed the reins of the wholesaling business off to a partner and is 100% focused on building his AI tech startup in Los Angeles. He is massively into personal development and supports others in carving their own path and creating themselves into who they want to be.

Will began by summarizing what brought him to real estate. He and his mom attended a mastermind event in the Fall of 2016, but they didn’t have the money to invest, so that left a little bit of a bad taste in his mouth. In January 2017 he was playing a video game that let you buy and cash flow real estate, and he thought that learning about it for real would be a lot more interesting than sitting on his couch! His first google search on the subject led him to a BiggerPockets podcast, and there was no stopping him from there.

Will started investing by cold-calling off of a probate list and putting himself in the proximity of other real estate investors. He offered his services, in the case of his first deals, by installing security systems in order to learn from other investors. We discussed how you can’t start any kind of relationship by asking for what you need first. Will talked about the need to know your skill-set, and the willingness to work hard for someone else without concern about the outcome in order to learn and grow.

Will gave a detailed description of his first solo deal, and he describes the challenges he faced. He talked about the importance of having a great lawyer and how he managed different aspects of the deal that were new to him. He feels like he learned so much from this first deal and the mistakes they made will never be repeated.

Will described how they find their deals, and talks extensively about building a team. He hired an assistant in the Fall of 2018 and was able to scale his business exponentially because he was able to spend his time more effectively. It helped him so much to have someone to help him do the things he wasn’t particularly strong at.

Will provided the list of technology he currently uses to find deals and the listeners can find these links further down in these show notes. He speaks in-depth about his sales funnel and what he has found to most effectively convert leads to deals.

I asked Will to explain what he is involved in now and how he found a partner in order to run his real estate business. He talked about paying his partner really well in order to keep him and put him on a tiered commission schedule in order to entice him to stay. His partner is now running the real estate completely on his own with minimal interaction with Will.

Will is now completely invested in launching an artificial intelligence company in Los Angeles, which he conceived in a Cabo San Lucas hot tub while at a business mastermind event. His concept is grown from the question of how to provide resourcefulness to humanity because if you solve one problem, another is created. In order to address this, Will is working on creating AI personal assistants for people to help people in problem-solving and life balance.

You have to check out this super energized interview with up-and-coming entrepreneur, Will Brown. He gives a ton of great advice based on a solid foundation of respectable values, along with being an extremely entertaining interviewee.

Notable Quotes:

“Not to say, do this: step, step, step. But it gave me the inspiration of ‘Hey, this guy has done this before,’ and it kept adding proof that yes, this is possible.”

• Will Brown

“I had the drive of setting up the blueprint of my life and laying out the foundation now, not only in acquiring assets but also learning to be a leader, learning to delegate, learning to fail forward, how do you do this, how do you do this... ”

• Will Brown

“You’ve got to love the process. You know, all the crap you have to go through to get it. If you are focused on the results, you are not going to get it.”

• Will Brown

“So what Will did is he basically decided he wanted to be around people who were doing real estate. And you offered your services, you offered to be of value to them. You didn’t say, ‘Show me how to do it, help me start my business, me, me, me.’ Instead, it was like, ‘what can I do for you?’ and then oh, by the way, I get to be around you when you do this.”

• Mike Simmons

“Number one, you are going to be uber-successful. Not because of whatever result you create there, but because of that mindset. That you are willing to give and give and give and give without any expectation in return, but knowing that it comes back.”

• Will Brown

“You had a problem and you figured it out. It’s like chess. It’s like, ‘Check’ and then you move out of that position and you clear the board a little bit.”

• Mike Simmons

“People that try to do it themselves because they are in a scarcity mindset - you are not going to scale if you are just doing it yourself.”

• Will Brown

“Once that shift happens and you get it so viscerally, you can’t go back. Because if I just went back to real estate, I would always be wondering what could be.”

• Will Brown

Links:

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

Will on Instagram

Will’s Website

Investor Fuse CRM

Spokeo Research Tool

Call Rail Automated VM

Lead Sherpa Auto Text

7FF Video Vault

In this episode, I had the pleasure of interviewing buy-and-hold real estate investor Henry Washington. I asked Henry to kick things off by sharing his background and what brought him to this type of investing. He said that getting married and the talk of starting a family really changed his mindset about his lifestyle and how he was going to support a family. Like so many others, his real estate journey began by reading Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki.

Living and working in NW Arkansas, Henry started by just telling everyone he knew that he was a real estate investor and came upon his first deal this way. He then started a marketing campaign by sending postcards and found three more deals. I was really curious about Henry’s first marketing strategy and he explained that he wanted to stay away from what everyone else was doing in order to find a niche market. 

Without having any background in construction, Henry talked about how he first started estimating rehab costs. He created a square-footage-based spreadsheet with costs for each discipline he found straight from Google searches. He eventually met and partnered with a guy who had a very strong construction background who proceeded to evaluate properties for him. This partnership allowed Henry to scale his business at a much faster rate.

I wanted to focus on the subject of partnerships with Henry for a bit and I asked him to talk about the elements that were contributing to the success of his partnership. He stressed the importance of shared values and vision and also attributes such as integrity, honesty, and the desire to help people. He also emphasized the importance of open communication in minimizing conflict and successfully working together.

Henry has his values listed on his website and I especially wanted him to define what he means by “servant leadership.” He talked about the importance of focusing on helping people and then success will follow. He believes the more you lead by serving, the more contagious that behavior will be. He recognizes the deals he is getting is because people have a situation and it is vital to him to meet them where they are and make the situation beneficial to both parties.

We then shifted gears to talk about lessons learned by dealing with contractors. Henry talked about the importance of having a detailed scope of work upfront so that he did not waste time talking with contractors that were never going to take the job anyway because of the state of housing market. He also worked extensively with his partner on honing his cost spreadsheet so that he could basically dictate the price of any construction work. Henry talked about the importance of keeping his valued contractors happy so he could establish long-term relationships.

I know that many real estate investors struggle with finding deals, so this was the next topic I asked Henry about. He said his most lucrative deals are currently coming from his lead generation website that he runs a Google ad words campaign on.

As far as Henry’s advice for people just starting in this business, he said after someone has done their due-diligence of self-educating, he advises them to focus their resources on figuring out their market and what a good deal looks like before deciding on a lead-generating strategy. The next step is learning how to properly evaluate properties once they have leads. Henry is convinced that focusing on these three things in order to buy a good deal, is the key to success in this business. Using these principles, Henry continues to grow his business while still having a full-time job in the IT industry. 

Henry is a great guy, with a ton of character and depth, so I hope you join us for this newest edition of Just Start Real Estate!

Notable Quotes

“I never saw real estate as something I couldn’t do - I just didn’t know what I didn’t know.”

• Henry Washington

“Being a landlord is easy. I couldn’t fix it if I wanted to… I gotta call a guy.”

• Henry Washington

“You heard what people were doing and decided to do something different.”

• Mike Simmons

“The scale you can get when you have more people helping you - there is a multiplier there.”

• Henry Washington

“You learn really quick in this business, it is not a real estate business, it is a people business.”

• Henry Washington

“I need to be a solution to your problem.”

• Henry Washington

“It is funny how it works out - the people that focus on helping folks end up having more financial success.”

• Mike Simmons

Links:

7 Figure Flipping

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

Rich Dad Poor Dad

BiggerPockets Pro Member

Henry on Instagram

Henry’s Website

7FF Video Vault

In this episode, I interview buy-and-hold real estate investor Erin Helle. Erin begins by giving us her background and what brought her to this type of investing. She began her career in the military, first attending West Point Academy and then serving on active duty. Because her husband was also in the service, they knew that both of them being on active duty would be short-lived as they planned to start a family. She resigned her commission after about eight years of active duty to participate in the Army Reserves but was released when the Army discovered she had a heart condition. Upon leaving active duty, she began to explore real estate as a way to earn an income and be present for her family.

Since she did not have her own team at that point, Erin decided that any property requiring rehab wouldn’t work for the first go-around. Erin’s first deal, in May of 2018, was purchasing a newly constructed house, still in the process of being built. What she got was a completely rent-ready property, where she went directly from closing to meet her new tenant with keys.

Here I talked about how I had never heard of anyone getting into this industry by paying full-asking price for a newly constructed house, found on the MLS, but that is what is so great about real estate! There are so many ways to do it and be successful.

For her second deal, Erin pursued a flip property, which she and her dad did much of the work themselves. She talks about having learned so many lessons having to do with building relationships with contractors, budgeting, planning, and especially the selling process. The ability to close on the finished property proved to be a little difficult because of the demographics of the area that it was in. Erin knew she had so much to learn, felt like she had exhausted avenues for learning, and thought just getting in there was the best way to move forward.

Having a construction team upfront was one of the biggest lessons she learned from this project. When trying to contract certain aspects of this project out, she found that contractors would either not show up to bid the job, or would be awarded the job and still not show up. Erin also found that some portions of the job were way more costly than she anticipated and had budgeted for. Learning the timing and order of how the individual construction tasks were performed was also very enriching for her.

I then asked Erin what her primary investment strategy is and how she thought the current COVID-19 situation might affect that. She said she doesn’t plan to do any flips soon, but that she is always looking and open for new opportunities. She doesn’t think her rental market is going to be adversely affected by the quarantine situation and doesn’t think she will have to use any type of government assistance that may be available to her. I also shared my thoughts about this unusual situation and I talked about a video I saw that compared the real estate market now to the housing crisis in 2008 and how it was affected after 9/11.

I also wanted to find out how Erin finds her deals, so that is what we discussed next. She talked about the importance of KPIs (key performance indicators) and doing them consistently to see results. We discussed how her business model is more relationship-based than through paid marketing.

Erin then talked about the challenges of running her business remotely and how important it is to have a good team in place in each investment location. We talked about the necessity of a checks-and-balances system to keep everyone on task and doing good work. I commented that I could have an hours-long podcast on how to find, hire, train, and maintain a good team!

In regard to this, Erin talked about the systems she has in place to run her business. She said it is very simple, driven mostly by spreadsheets and contracts. This helps her to keep both herself and her teams on task and the expectations are very clear from the beginning.

I asked Erin what she would do differently if she could wipe the slate clean and use all the lessons learned to start her real estate business again, and she said she would not do anything differently. She believes strongly that any set-back she has experienced has contributed to the person she is and the business she is running.

Join Erin and me for a great interview featuring super actionable advice on both buy-and-hold and find-and-flip real estate investing!

Notable Quotes

“Sometimes the more you know, you can get in your own way.”

• Mike Simmons

“I learned what a release of lien meant in that [first flip property], so that was huge.”

• Mike Simmons

“It’s just resourcefulness, dealing with the situation and figuring out how to get through it.”

• Mike Simmons

“If you have the will to get there, you will figure out a way.”

• Mike Simmons

“Water finds a path.”

• Mike Simmons

“[Flipping] is not what I’m supposed to be doing. It is a way to make money, but it's not contributing to my end state.”

• Erin Helle

“I’m encouraging listeners to figure out what they want to do because that’s half the battle.”

• Erin Helle

On systems: “I don’t think you need to have a fancy system or pay for a platform, I think you can do it in a notebook if you wanted to.”

• Erin Helle

“I wouldn’t do anything differently. Everything that I have learned and every step I have taken backward has contributed to the person you see now and the business you see here.”

• Erin Helle

Links:

7 Figure Flipping

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

Erin on Facebook

Erin on Instagram

Erin's Company Website

Erin's Email

7FF Video Vault

In this episode, Coach Mike Venos joins me to talk about several life lessons he has learned through over 35 years of coaching kids of all ages. Mike has been the Head Swim Coach at Brother Rice High School for 22 years, Mercy High School for 4 years, and Beachwood Recreation summer club for 17 years. In the time that he has served as the head coach for these teams, they have captured a combined nine Class A / Division I State Championships and 24 Catholic League Championships. He has coached 14 individual and 15 relay-team State Champions, over 50 All-Americans, and two United States Olympic Trial qualifiers. 

Mike has received many local, state, and national accolades during his very successful career, is a member of the Catholic League Hall of Fame and will be inducted into the Brother Rice Hall of Fame this spring. In addition to coaching, he teaches Theology at Brother Rice.

Due to everything currently going on in the world concerning the COVID-19 pandemic, my goal with this show is to glean some wisdom for people in dealing with challenges. I started the interviewing by asking Mike why he thinks some people rise to challenges and some shrink from the same opportunities. Through interacting with his students and athletes he said you find out how much you can push them, the kids that are willing to go the extra mile, who is hungry to succeed, and who is born with innate ability take on difficulties. He said certainly these attributes can be innate to a person’s personality, or sometimes can be drawn out of them.

We discussed how sports are such a great forum for allowing people to make mistakes and learn from them. We also discussed the role of parenting in producing people who are more resilient human beings and how different parenting is today then it was when we were kids.

We backed up a bit to explore Mike’s background. He told me his dad was in sales and his mom was a Religious Education teacher, and how he got into swimming because his dad told him he wasn’t going to sit on the couch waiting to play his primary sport, which was baseball. Even though joining the swim team was not his first choice, he learned to love the sport for several reasons. He said it is a sport that you absolutely get out of it what you put into it, and because it is individual in nature, there is no hiding behind a talented teammate. With his love for the sport, he began coaching, which very naturally led him into teaching. He talked about how his upbringing helped develop creativity, which helps him find different ways of interacting with and reaching his athletes and students.

I then wanted to explore some of Mike’s coaching philosophies. He had given me several famous quotes he lives by and we proceeded to walk through those. First, he said that it is very important to have a philosophy and not just a plan based on Bear Bryant’s quote, “Show class, have pride, and display character. If you do, then winning takes care of itself.” That led to a lengthy discussion about having your values as the foundation for everything you do and then formulating a plan from that core. A person’s ethics and morals don’t change based on circumstances, but if you make a plan before examining what you believe in, that could lead to dishonorable or damaging decision-making. We discussed how important a person’s character and integrity it is and how much easier it is dealing with people of virtue.

Coach John Wooden famously said, “Things work out best for those who make the best of how things work out.” We discussed the importance of not trying to control the uncontrollables. Mike said that sometimes finding out what you can and cannot control can be difficult, but it vital to keeping your stress level low, enjoying life and succeeding. We discussed how appropriate this message to our current world situation and the wide range of people’s reactions to social distancing and quarantine mandates.

Coach Venos then talked about trusting the process and his own personal motto of “It’s not about winning but being the best” which is born out of Pat Summit’s famous quote of, “Our emphasis is on execution, not winning.” Regardless of your business, it is important to stick with your philosophy and goals, be flexible when required, but trust in your abilities, in the work you have put in, and that things are going to work out. We need to take the perspective that life is a journey, keeping the big picture in front of you, even when faced with obstacles. 

We talked about the New England Patriots system and how they built a dynasty on trusting the process, even while not having the most talented players and having to adapt to different strengths.

The quote of, “Get comfortable being uncomfortable” attributed to the Navy Seals led us into a conversation of the Seal officers we know and many of their admirable qualities, especially in times of challenge. The ability to rise to the current challenge and to look at obstacles as opportunities rather than some kind of punishment is essential at this time and as we approach an uncertain future. We pointed out how this time of forced isolation was actually a gift - a time to engage with our families, deepen relationships, and reevaluate our priorities. 

Coach Venos’ convictions may be born out of a lifetime of teaching and coaching, but they are applicable to all industries, age-groups, and walks of life.

Quotes:

“I like to surround myself with and hire people who have athletics in their background. People who have been on a team, because they typically know what it means to work hard to get something and to sacrifice for the betterment of others.”

• Mike Simmons

“You don’t let the goal define who you are.”

• Mike Simmons

“How people appear on paper is not as important as what they are made of.”

• Mike Simmons

“You can make a good kid fast, but not necessarily a fast kid good.”

• Coach Venos

“Most of my philosophies are not original… you have to look at successful people and emulate them.”

• Coach Venos

“How many times do we ask for a reset button?”

• Coach Venos

“If we keep dwelling on the negative aspects, we are going to miss these opportunities that are right in front of us.”

• Coach Venos

“People are making decisions right now out of fear that are not in their best interest.”

• Mike Simmons

“Good athletes don’t rise to the occasion, they fall back to their level of training.”

• Coach Venos (a variation on Navy Seals quote)

“Every boo on the road is a cheer.” 

• Scotty Bowman

“You have to reframe challenges as opportunities.” 

• Coach Venos

“It is a time to re-form family bonds and reinforce all the relationship in our lives.”

• Mike Simmons

Links:

Coach Mike Venos

Jocko Willink

7 Figure Flipping

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

Coach Bear Bryant

Coach John Wooden

Coach Pat Summitt

Coach Scotty Bowman

Navy Seals