Real Estate Investing Mastery Podcast Volume 1

In this episode, Alex and I conduct a fascinating interview with Craig Ballantyne. Craig is an author, fitness trainer, self-improvement coach and editor of the personal development newsletter, Early To Rise.

The level of inspiration and motivational ideas in this episode is amazing, much of which can be found in Craig’s book, The Perfect Day Formula. He covers areas of business, health, weight loss, family and personal motivation.

And you’ll hear him tell how he broke free from what he calls, “crippling anxiety.”

Craig encourages you to create a life that your business fits around, rather than a business that your life must fit around. He talks about how to let your vision be at the center. He also shares – looking back – about what he feels was his biggest mistake.

As an investor, you’re looking for motivated sellers – but you never want to be the motivated buyer. You should always be the reluctant buyer.

In this episode, I explain how you might become that motivated buyer – the one who is so desperate for a deal that you find yourself chasing the seller. The harder you chase, the harder they run. You find yourself so desperate that you end up trying to turn a non-deal into a deal.

This happens where there’s a shortage of leads. A shortage of leads happens only when marketing has slowed down.

Your attitude should be: “I am here with the solution to your problem.”

This episode came about after I attended a class on home staging. Because I’m also a licensed Realtor, I’m required to take a certain number of hours of continuing education classes to maintain my license.

I came out of the staging class pleasantly surprised.

While I, personally, may never need this service, I was reminded of the necessity of staging a home and having it done professionally.

Plenty of numbers and statistics presented throughout the class prove that staged properties not only sell for higher prices, but also sell quicker than those not staged. This can also work for rental properties, since staging can attract a higher quality of tenant.

More people shop online now, which means you need professional photos for your website. Photos are more effective when a house is staged.

Realtors. Friend or foe?

Some investors aren’t sure. And actually, Realtors can be both.

But if you know what you’re doing, you can make friends of the foes, and make close allies of the ones who are already friendly. It all boils down to knowing how to design your business to integrate the services of an agent.

In this episode, I outline several strategies for working with agents. It’s important to keep in mind that 80% of all people who are either buying or selling a property, contact a Realtor first thing. (Read: They are not calling an investor.)

So, this should tell you where the buyers and sellers are. This is where the goldmine is located.

The problem comes when investors overthink (and overcomplicate) the process. All you need to be concerned with is making the offer. That’s it!

I’m back from Spain, and with international travel so fresh on my mind, I’m giving out some great tips on how to survive traveling internationally. Just in case you might need them someday.

But the main point of this episode is to answer a question from one of my podcast listeners…

The question has to do with how incoming calls should be answered in your business. You hear me talk a lot about having seller calls answered live, and I go into detail as to why this is so important.

Finding a competent and reliable VA to answer calls is also a goal to strive for. But that won’t happen overnight. Your VA might be from the Philippines (as mine is), or might be local, which works great as well. And you’ll have to train them. Until that time, you can use a live call center.

The key is to do what your competition is not doing – answering calls with a live person.

Again, I’m still in Spain enjoying the workshops, the relationships and the location by the ocean. At one of the workshops, I heard a comment that I really like…

This guy said, “It’s not a matter of win or lose, but rather win or learn.” What a great perspective.

The point is that you never “lose,” you simply learn from mistakes. It’s about making progress as opposed to reaching for perfection. So don’t be afraid of the seeming “failures.” Just determine to “fail forward faster.”

In other words, the key is to always be taking action. Don’t let fear of making mistakes paralyze you.

This is why it’s so important to have a coach. A coach can prevent you from making really serious mistakes. They’ve been there and know what to avoid.

This episode is recorded from Spain where I’m attending a workshop – and I’m looking out over the ocean as I’m recording. Just getting to be here – taking time off from my business and interacting with other investors – brings me to the subject that I want to talk about…

There’s been a pendulum swing lately from the whole premise of the “Four-Hour Workweek” (made popular by Tim Ferriss), over to working long days with no days off to launch your business into success. I call it, The Hustle.

So which is better? Does it have to be either/or? Could there be a balance?

Those of you who know me at all, know that I love systems. More to the point, I love systems that work, so I don’t have to.

I feel sorry for people who are so busy building a business, they forget to build a life.

Do you agree?

As I recorded this episode, I was driving to the airport to leave for Spain. Whenever I get ready to leave town for a few days, I’m amazed at how much I can get done in a short amount of time.

Why is that?

It’s because I have an immovable deadline. I have no choice. I’m leaving on a specific date, which cannot be changed. So my various projects must be completed before I leave.

So, in this episode, I’m giving several examples of how I set deadlines for myself, my partners and my coaching clients.

The act of setting – and keeping – deadlines is absolutely crucial for running a successful business.

In this episode, I share the story of a student of mine who blows me away with his spunk and ability to hustle.

This is a young college student, attending school full time, working part time – and because of his lack of cash, he simply marketed on Craigslist. Recently, he flipped his first investing deal for around $16k.

Want to know how he knew what to do?

He watched teaching videos on YouTube. When it was time to create a contract, he went to Office Depot and bought one of those pre-printed $3-form contracts.

(This all happened before he and I connected.)

Here’s a young man who did not use his lack of knowledge, lack of experience or lack of money as an excuse.

What’s your excuse?

When I started out in real estate investing, my very first coach was Shaun McCloskey. I appreciated his coaching because he had a heart and a passion for helping others. Such passion, in fact, that for a long time he simply did it all for free.

Years have passed, and now Shaun and I both have successful coaching businesses, and we both have that passion for helping others.

In this episode, I give Shaun the floor for him to talk about how his coaching business evolved from a freebie situation to charging for his services. His insight presents a great backdrop for the new workshop that we are developing.

Shaun has had experience not only in coaching, but also in teaching and training others to coach. He can point to a long list of successful coaches he trained.

Shaun and I both are often asked how others can get started in the coaching business – so much so that we’ve decided to answer that – and we’re setting up a workshop for those interested and the details are all here.