Racking Up Rentals

People often ask, "what's your response rate on your direct mail marketing to Sellers?" It seems like a simple question, but the answer is not as simple as one might think. The counterintuitive truth is this: good marketing is hard to measure. In this episode, Jeff explains what good marketing is—and what it is designed to accomplish—and explains that good marketing should be difficult to track because it is relational in nature, not transactional.

Thoughtful Real Estate Entrepreneurs know that taking a relationship-based approach to negotiating with Sellers not only feels right, it works really well to get deals done too! But when done well, these nurtured Seller relationships can propel our businesses even further in the future through referrals! In this episode, Jeff interviews veteran real estate investor Melissa Johnson, who shares her insights on doing business in a way that generates future referrals for more acquisitions!

Many investors want to transition to full-time real estate entrepreneurship, but feel like they need to keep their day jobs so that they can continue to qualify for bank loans. They say, "I'll quit my job after I've maxed out my conventional loans." But is that a good way to think about it? Is the investor accidentally limiting themself with this mentality? In this episode, Jeff discusses two important considerations when deciding if you should be focused on maxing out your conventional loans, or not: First, don't let the lender tail wag the investor dog, and second, don't assume bank loans are better.

Let's be honest, as humans we tend to invest a lot of our energy worrying. What are we worrying about? Often times it's risk. And as real estate investors, we think about risk a lot—what is the risk of this deal I'm doing, or in my investment strategy, or in choosing Property A over Property B? But what exactly is risk? And how should we develop a responsible perspective on risk, so that we consider it appropriately without letting it paralyze us? In this episode, Jeff discusses the two big categories of risk we need to consider, and asks the question, "what type of risk do you want?"

In this episode, Jeff interviews John Crutchfield, a full-time, successful real estate investor and entrepreneur who encourages people to "grab the map" and take charge of living the life they want. John shares his story of getting started as a real estate investor, transitioning from his previous full-time career and ultimately becoming one of the biggest real estate investing players in his market through doing great, creative and entrepreneurial real estate acquisitions.

Everybody loves the BRRRR Strategy—Buy, Renovate, Rent, Refinance, Repeat—because it allows investors to recycle their cash and repeat the process over and over again without needing additional capital. But can you do the BRRRR strategy with Seller financing? Yes you can! In today's episode, Jeff shares two simple frameworks for using Seller financing to BRRRR properties and build your rental portfolio. Plus, Jeff also shares one advanced bonus framework using the principles of Supercharged Seller Financing.

We know that before we can Solve the Deal—and ultimately get the Seller to say yes—we have to Solve the Person, so that we understand our audience and know their perspectives, opinions and motivations. But where do we start? In this episode, Jeff shares a simple way to begin Solving the Person: every Seller is either moving TOWARD something, or moving AWAY from something. Once you understand which of these your Seller is doing, you can make great progress Solving the Person.

Instead of racking up rentals by simply buying existing properties and renovating them, what if you were to physically build your rental properties from the ground up? And what if instead of keeping all those homes, you sold many of them and built a great business and brand as a homebuilder? In this episode, Jeff interviews George Hale of Woodhill Homes, a top-notch homebuilder in Oregon. Jeff and George discuss why sex sells when it comes to homebuilding, how to decide whether to keep or sell a new home, the value of adversity, the idea that in every negotiation, someone is lying, and so much more.

There's an old expression in real estate: "Your Price, My Terms…or My Price, Your Terms." It's an extremely simple idea, and provides a great, simple framework for thinking about how we can negotiate win-win deals with Sellers. In this episode, Jeff explains how to use this simple rule of thumb to be creative and thoughtful in your deal structuring efforts, and ultimately to craft more proposals that get accepted.