One of the most important things to identify as an investor when you're deciding to get into this world of sourcing your own deals through direct to seller marketing is knowing your farm area. Where are you going to market? Where are you looking for deals? Who are your competitors?

Can you comprehend a 40 or 97 unit portfolio coming across your desk? What would it look like for your business to take up an opportunity like this and execute it well? Or if you are newer to the game, like Ryan, find a 2-property opportunity ending up with a duplex and a seller-financed 8-unit.

The aspect of property maintenance and collections is critical to maintaining your flow with property management. Look at this as customer service, once you have your property leased you need to follow through on your end to set the right expectations.

People are very, very passionate about the topic of who you should market to, who you should not market to, where you should buy lists and from what providers. In this episode, The Good Stewards get into what we're using that's working, what lists we've tested, and then kind of, where you should start and kind of some things you can add in to get there.

If you intend to scale your business, systems need to be in place. Put your business in a position where it can run independently from you by delegating tasks, outsourcing but in a way that is referenceable in the event something goes wrong.

Your long term financing plan is the secret to scaling your business more quickly than you would just with private money. The Good Stewards dissect what options are out there, who the best partners are and the way to set your best foot forward when developing a relationship.

Leasing and screening is the secret to retaining your investment. Make property management easier by starting early with a project management system.

Don’t fudge together your deals. Pre-offer and post-contract due diligence is critical to knowing the properties potential forward and backward. Put together a list for those phases and stick to it, don’t leave anything up for assumption, unless you write out those assumptions.

The biggest thing is just getting started and getting in front of people. There are always good deals--it doesn’t matter what metro you are in. It comes down to your marketing, and with scalability in mind, direct mail and online advertising have worked best for us to lock down deals at about $3,000 per acquisition

FAN QUESTION: The 1% rule doesn’t work in my market, should I invest in-state or out-of-state?

Having a short elevator pitch of what you do and what you offer is paramount to building a private lender network.

Think of 30 people you think may have money with no prejudgement. Private Lenders have more security lending with us because their money is tied directly to an asset with a title, rather than unsecured in the stock market. If anything goes wrong, they own a property with equity built-in​.