Real Wealth Network: Building a Community of Real Estate Investors with Kathy Fettke

February 20, 2024

Title: “Real Wealth Network: Building a Community of Real Estate Investors with Kathy Fettke”

Episode: 220

“Understand what you are trying to achieve and stick with it because it’s easy to get distracted.”

In this episode of Profit First for REI podcast, we have Kathy Fettke. She is the CEO and Co-Founder of Real Wealth Network and the host of The Real Wealth Show.

Kathy is a real estate investor, licensed Realtor, and a certified coach who will give you great information into the wholesale flip-side and the passive side. She also talks about her journey into the passive side of investing. Enjoy the show!

Key Takeaways:

[00:52] Introducing Kathy Fettke

[02:20] Start of Kathy’s real estate investing journey

[03:54] Her first property

[06:37] Understanding the power of leverage and where to use that leverage

[10:11] Over leveraged

[13:06] What goes on today with Real Wealth?

[15:16] Kathy’s advice for first-time real estate investors

[21:13] Learn and understand investment

[24:04] Connect with Kathy Fettke

Quotes:

[02:55] “Saving the 10% in investment and 10% in emergency savings, you could blow that quickly in an emergency. I wanted to be with my family and have a passive income where money still comes in and you are not working.”

[08:56] “It’s hard to fail when you know your stuff. It is easy to fail when you don’t because that’s when you trust people whom you think, do know.”

[15:27] “Where you start is figuring out what you need.”

Connect with Kathy:

Website: https://realwealth.com/

Tired of living deal to deal?

If you are a real estate investor or business owner who is tired of living deal to deal and want to double your profits, head over here to book your no-obligation discovery call with me. Either myself or someone from my team will hop on a short call with you to get clear on your business goals, remove any obstacles holding you back, and map out a game plan to help you finally start keeping more of the money you work so hard to make. – David

Transcript:

Speaker 1 (00:00):

Understand what it is you’re trying to achieve and stick with it. Stick with it, because it’s really easy to get distracted and to say, oh, so-and-so’s doing this, or, oh, they’re buying notes and those guys are doing tax liens and that guy over there is doing foreclosures and you just like want to do it all and that’s where you get in trouble. So come up with your strategy, get really good at it before you look at anything else. Yeah,

Speaker 2 (00:25):

If you’re a real estate investor who’s sick and tired of living deal to deal, then welcome home. Hear from everyday real estate investors just like you, and discover how they’ve completely transformed their business by taking a profit First approach. This is the profit first for REI podcast, where we believe revenue is vanity. Profit is sanity. It’s time to start making profit a habit in your business. So here’s your host, David Richter.

Speaker 3 (00:52):

Today we have Kathy Feki of the real wealth.com and Real Wealth Network. I’m super excited to have her on today. She gives great information if you’re looking to go from the wholesale flip side to the passive side, she’s a great resource, talks about her journey, but then talks about the passive side of investing. So many people I run across want to jump into the rentals, multifamily, syndications, all that. She gives some great advice. Listen to this episode, become more knowledgeable and get in her network as well too. She can help you as well. Thank you for being a listener and enjoy the episode. Hey, it’s David Richter here again of the Profit First REI podcast here with Kathy Feki of the Real Wealth Network. Super excited because she has made a huge impact, lots of investors’ lives, and excited to have her on the show. So Kathy, thanks for being a guest today on the show.

Speaker 1 (01:39):

Thank you so much. Happy to be here.

Speaker 3 (01:42):

Okay, so let’s just dive right into it. What even made you want to start Real Wealth Network and make the impact that you’ve made today?

Speaker 1 (01:50):

I’d like to say that I had an idea of what we were going to create, but I really didn’t at the time. It was a desperate attempt to understand how some people created this thing called passive income and were creating wealth, and I wanted to know how they did it. I didn’t know anyone personally who was independently wealthy.

Speaker 3 (02:10):

Okay, so that’s how you started, but then how did it transform into what you, I mean, did you start buying properties? Did you go through the ups and downs? Tell me a little bit about the journey. Yeah,

Speaker 1 (02:20):

It really started with a radio show that I had in San Francisco when my husband was told he had six months to live when they discovered he had melanoma. We had two young kids. I was a stay-at-Home mom. I had been working in the news business but hadn’t for years. So that was terrifying. Not to mention the thought of losing my husband, but also not knowing how to support my family. Rich is healthy and fine today, so that’s the good news. But what this moment in time did for me is had me really realize I need to have a backup plan because the saving, the 10% an investment and 10 in emergency savings, you can blow through that really quickly in an emergency. And I wanted to be with my family and be able to have this thing called passive income where money’s still coming in and you’re not working. I just thought that was incredible. And how do you do that? So I just shifted my entire radio show. It was just a Saturday show that I kept while I was a stay at home mom and shift to that concept of how do you do that? And I started interviewing people and that’s really how it started. The listenership of the show. They wanted more information too. They wanted the same thing I wanted. So together we learned, this was before podcast, before blogs. It was hard to get the information.

Speaker 3 (03:37):

Okay, so that’s what started, it sounds like that’s what started your educational journey too, down that road and interviewing people. And then did you start buying properties then? Was there one magic episode where you’re like, okay, I got to go do this, or I don’t know, how did you actually get started with the first property?

Speaker 1 (03:54):

Well, when we need money, we need things. You get desperate, you make things happen. And we were in that position, so I thought, well, how do I make money when I’m, I still want to be home. And the first thing that came to my mind was sponsorships because I did have the show and I hadn’t really worked on getting sponsorships. So at the time that’s when mortgage brokers were getting paid lots and lots of money. This is back in 2004. So I called all the mortgage brokers I could find and finally got one. And the only way I was able to get that sponsor to pay what I was asking was to offer kind of a co-host position. And he said yes. But I came home from that going, oh no, rich, I’ve just sold out. Now I have a mortgage show, I’m going to lose my audience.

(04:35):

And Rich said, well, why don’t you just find out what they’re doing with those loans? And that’s kind of how it started where I started to really understand what kinds of things you can do with leverage. I had no idea you could just go to a bank and get a loan because you can’t on most things, but with real estate you can because there’s an asset tied behind that loan. If you don’t pay, they take the house. So basically this method worked and our listeners were really fascinated as well as to what my sponsor’s clients were doing with those loans. So our phones rang off the hook. My sponsor said, this is far more successful than I expected, so why don’t you get your mortgage license and help me? And sure enough, our money issues were gone because back then it was pretty easy to do loans and you could make a lot of money.

(05:22):

My first loan was a million dollar refinance, and at one point, which was pretty typical, actually low, a lot of other mortgage brokers charged three points. I charged one and that was $10,000 for that one loan. So we didn’t have issues with making money after that. Great news that Rich was fine, but I started to see that these loans made no sense and that it was going to blow up because there was no qualification needed at all, no backup verification, nothing. And it just made no sense to me. So I was lucky enough to interview people like Robert Kiyosaki on the show where I would say this, does this make sense? And he’d say, no, it doesn’t. It’s going to blow up probably in 2007. And the way that I’m protecting myself is selling all my assets in these markets where prices have gone up so quickly. And he said, I’m exchanging and doing the 10 31 exchange and buying in Texas because the numbers still make sense. There’s job growth, there’s population growth, but it’s still affordable. So that just made sense. So an answer to your question, it was really that interview with Robert Kiyosaki. It was like number one, understanding the power of leverage and number two, where to use that leverage.

Speaker 3 (06:28):

Okay. So then did you take his advice? How did you fa the 2000 7, 8 9, that downturn of the market?

Speaker 1 (06:37):

Yeah, so you could technically say that we bought at the peak because it was 2004, 2005, even 2006 when we were buying in Texas. And those properties in Texas did fine. They stayed rented, they didn’t go down in value. And then by 2013 it just took off and prices went crazy in Texas. However, I didn’t stick to that plan. And this is something I have learned and I teach now is stay in your lane. Don’t do something that is new to you or new to someone else without really researching it. So if I had just stuck with what I had learned from Kiyosaki, which I could see, we would’ve really gotten through that recession with no problem. But instead, I kept a house, a couple of houses in California because I just thought, well, California always does well. And then bought three houses in Boise where there wasn’t really a lot of job diversification at the time.

(07:34):

There were two major employers and only one by the time the recession hit, we bought new construction in Tennessee. Again, all good markets today, but back then the foundation wasn’t, there wasn’t the kind of job growth in population growth happening in Texas. The problem in Tennessee is that we got construction loans that ballooned, and by 2009 balloon means basically you got to pay it. Once the house is built, you’ve got to find a way to pay off that loan, and usually that means you get another loan. Well, by 2009 you couldn’t, banks had failed, but also we were limited to 10 loans, whereas before that it was unlimited and we had more than 10 homes. So it was like we had to give those properties back to the bank. We didn’t have a way to pay that balloon payment.

Speaker 3 (08:21):

Okay. So would you say that’s one of the biggest lessons you’ve learned along the way? Stay in your lane, really dig into what you’re good at. I guess, is there any other ones that you’ve learned that on your real estate journey that are either bigger than that or hold water to that one?

Speaker 1 (08:37):

I have learned far too many lessons. I’m too trusting. And so it really does come back to what that main one is. Study, learn, know your stuff, then you just can’t really get ripped off. It’s hard to fail when you know your stuff. So it is easy to fail when you don’t because that’s when you trust people who you think do know. So that’s kind of the issue that I had. Some of the deals that I did later is again, venturing out into multifamily before really understanding it, venturing into development before really understanding it. And that’s so typical. Even a family member of mine during that time bought the house next door thinking, oh, we’ll just flip it. And turns out there’s a lot more to it than just like, oh, I’ll fix it up and sell it for a profit. So a lot of us do that, and that’s kind of the entrepreneurial American spirit is just jump in and figure it out. But I got to tell you, it’ll be a lot easier to not dive in the deep end to learn how to swim first.

Speaker 3 (09:35):

Yeah, yeah, no kidding. So looks like early on you learned the make money scale because on this podcast, profit First, making sure that you actually have a profit at the end of the day and you’re keeping money. Sounds like you learned how to make it up upfront through the mortgage industry and then you started buying the houses. You started on your passive income journey. Did you ever learn throughout that journey the keep money skill of like, okay, I’m going to work my butt off to get the deals in the door, but I need to make sure that the money’s actually being put to good use and I’m keeping some of it as well too. Did you ever have that along your journey?

Speaker 1 (10:12):

Well, and that again was what made 2009 very difficult is we over leveraged. So back then you could get, I don’t know if you know this or you might, but you could get unlimited investor loans, no money down, no verification, nothing. You just fill out some paperwork and you could get a loan. So it was pretty easy to over-leverage. Back then with the Texas properties, it didn’t matter, even if no money down, a hundred percent financing, no verification, those properties still did great. The fundamentals were still there, it worked. It’s like I said, with these other loans, these construction loans that ballooned, you better have a backup plan. So I’m very cautious about short-term loans, adjustable loans, that’s another thing that happened a lot back then is sure you could get a loan, but it would adjust to a bigger payment and most people were just qualifying and expecting that lower payment forever and all of a sudden when it adjusted, that’s what we’re seeing today in commercial real estate. So I very much stayed out of the mess that’s happening today in commercial real estate. I’d already been through that. I already know what it’s like to have an adjustable rate that shifts on you or a loan that’s due that you can’t pay, which a lot of people are experiencing today.

Speaker 3 (11:21):

So then when did Real Wealth Network really take off? When did this become more of a movement where you got a lot of people involved versus just the Saturday radio show?

Speaker 1 (11:31):

Oh, I love that you called a movement. Really what it felt like back then when I just started interviewing people, I felt like I was just getting this Secrets of the Wealthy that nobody knew about because it wasn’t out there. You didn’t have access to information like we do today. So I was getting these secrets and sharing these secrets with the audience, and it did become a movement and it grew really quickly. And because of that, I started to get invited to speak at local real estate investment groups or reas as they call them. And I would sit in the audience, they’d invite me to come speak or to be the mc or just kind show up, and I would sit in these different groups and just be like, oh my gosh, what they’re telling is incorrect and they’re misleading people and they’re charging a ton of money for it.

(12:14):

And I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing and I thought, there’s no way I can associate with these groups anymore. I don’t want to, even if it’s good exposure for my show and for what I didn’t want to do it. I thought, okay, well how about we just put them out of business, start our own. That’s honest. That’s going to tell people the truth. It’s real, the secrets of building wealth. And that’s when Rich and I were like, oh, real wealth. Yeah, we’ll call it that. Real wealth. We didn’t charge any money. There was never anything for sale. It was just come and learn, expand. Of course, I was a mortgage broker at the time, so it helped my mortgage business, but I just wanted people to have the information that would change their lives and was changing my life,

Speaker 3 (12:56):

And that’s what it grew into. Okay. So today, what do you have going, do you do webinars, live shows? Just if no one’s ever heard of you, how would you explain what goes on today with Real Wealth?

Speaker 1 (13:07):

Yeah. Today we have the same model. We give free education. There’s no fee to sign up and be a member. We give a lot of data information, try to help people understand where we are in the market, what’s going on with the economy, what’s a good opportunity today to help people understand investing so they know how to make decisions. If somebody says, is it a good time to invest or Where should I invest? You’re not ready, you should know. And so we want to provide that information so you have enough knowledge that you don’t have to ask those questions. You just know what your next move is going to be. And so tons of free resources, free webinars, over 500 on our website. We do fresh ones every Thursday at noon Pacific. We do tours to different areas. This is not altruistic. We are real estate brokers.

(13:53):

So if somebody buys a property, we do get a commission for that or a referral fee. But we want to make sure that we’re only referring our members to people that we have a long time relationship with. We have property teams and property management companies all across the country in the fastest growing markets that have been recommended by our over 70,000 members. It’s kind of like a Yelp for real estate where our members will tell us, Hey, this property manager is great or this one isn’t. And if we hear negative reviews, instead of just cutting them out of the network, we set up a mastermind in training to find out what’s your weak link? How can this property manager in Atlanta help you in Dallas, Texas be better? So we do a monthly training with them. That’s also free to them to just consistently improve the services that they offer. We don’t own those companies, but we just want them to have really high standards. If they’re not able to get there, we do take them off the referral list until they’ve improved their systems.

Speaker 3 (14:52):

Okay, that’s very neat. So you’ve created this network and you’ve created a great education platform as well too that just trying to help people it sounds like can do what they need to do in the real estate space. So then what would you say to someone who’s newer in the real estate space? I don’t know either where to start or a bigger lesson or something like that if they’re looking to get into the real estate game?

Speaker 1 (15:16):

Well, I wrote a book called Retire Rich with Rentals. To answer that question, that question would come up a lot. And the first chapter of my book is that it’s where do you start? And where you start is figuring out what you need. If you and I might have different needs, different starting places, it’s kind of like if we both want to get to Phoenix and let’s say Phoenix has just got a big bundle of gold and we want to get to Phoenix, but you’re in Atlanta and I’m in California, it’s different. We’re going to have different paths to get there. Same goal, different starting points. So that’s what you have to look at. And I know you teach this, it’s like where are you in your life journey and what’s going to be the best strategy if you have a really high paying job?

(16:02):

Let’s say you’re a doctor, a dentist, and in my case, a lot of tech workers around where I live and people in the entertainment industry, they make good money, but they have no free time. So the ultimate goal is they want more free time and they want a place to put their money that they know that over time when they don’t want to work anymore, that that money has created enough wealth that they can quit working. But then there’s other people who have tons of time, they have all the time and no money. So you’re going to have a different strategy if you have a lot of money and no time, you’re going to be looking for passive investments or you should be. I started to get invited to speak at these doctors and doctor’s events this past year, and it was all these doctors looking to syndicate multifamily.

(16:49):

I’m like, what are you doing? You can’t be a syndicator. A syndicator means that you run a project and you’re taking other people’s money. If you’re a doctor, you should be a doctor. You don’t have time to do this on the side. So I was really concerned about some of that, but if you don’t want to be a doctor, well that’s fine. Quit and do something else. But if you’ve got a good job and you’ve got good money, you probably are better off investing with someone who does have time and you can invest your money with them, make sure they have lots of experience in a track record and great integrity and values and so forth. Again, if you have lots of time, no job and no money, you’re going to have to scramble like I did. I was like, oh, when we blew through our savings and our investment funds during a time of challenge, you got to find out how to make some money, and then you’re not in a position to invest.

(17:41):

That’s important to understand. Investing comes later. You got to make money now. So the way that I knew how to do that was sponsorships. So you just have to figure out what’s the best way to make money. And that might be if your job of choice is to be in real estate, maybe you’ll be an active real estate investor, not passive. So active real estate investments would include flipping, flipping houses, wholesaling, houses, subject to these are the types of things that become a job for you, but they create income, but it’s not investing. It’s not investing. So really understanding the difference is important.

Speaker 3 (18:16):

Would you give the same advice to someone who’s in real estate, but they’re wholesaling or flipping or doing more of the active side? It’s like they already have a taste for real estate, but should they be the flipper and hire out the passive invested side, or should they go and dive into it themselves? What’s your opinion on someone that’s already kind of in that

Speaker 1 (18:35):

Realm? Oh my gosh, that’s such a great question. So Jamil Dany, who is, oh gosh, he’s one of the biggest wholesalers in country. Yeah, I was a co-host with him on the market, and he is great at making money in real estate as a job. What he was not great at is investing in real estate and had lost money over and over again. Lost a ton of money in 2008. So on the show, he said, Hey, you guys, I have the chance to wholesale this apartment building and make a million dollar wholesale fee, or I can keep it. I’m like, Jamil, wholesale it and take that million dollars and invest with somebody who knows how to manage an apartment. You don’t know how. And he goes, yeah, but I’m getting a good deal. I think I’m just going to do it while he ended up losing a million.

(19:26):

So it’s just like, yeah, an answer to your question, it’s the same thing. Just because real estate doesn’t mean you know it or understand it, what he knows is wholesaling. I don’t know how to wholesale. If I tried to wholesale, I would not do well. Maybe on the first one maybe I would don’t know, but I’d have to study it really carefully. But there’s so many different ways to make money in real estate. First is understanding, is it active? Is it passive? Okay. You got to know the difference between those. And then in this case of active, where he’s wholesaling, he didn’t know really how to value a building for hold and then what the asset management process is of that. And I said, if you’re going to do this, please get a partner. Who knows? Anyway, I can only talk about it here because he talked about it on the show and it’s already public knowledge.

(20:14):

And he’ll admit that he made his mistake there, which many of us have. Like I said, I syndicated an apartment building without having done it on my own first. And even though my partner was experienced, it turns out he was kind of a shyster and it was really challenging. I had to boot him out. It got legal involved, he lied and a bunch of things, and that’s no fun. So like I said, you can jump in the deep end, you’ll probably survive. You might not, but your life will be a lot easier if you just started in the shallow end and learn how to swim.

Speaker 3 (20:47):

Yeah, I hear that a lot from people that are in the real estate space. They just think, oh, I’m doing wholesale and I’m just going to buy some flips or rentals on the side, and it’s like, it’s a whole nother ball game there of being able to jump into that. I like that answer. I feel like this whole theme of this episode is staying in your lane, whatever you’re doing. So I think

Speaker 1 (21:09):

That’s Well, and I will urge everyone to learn and understand investment because I know too many flippers who have gotten closer to my age, and I’m older. I’ve been doing this for 30 years, so you’ll get old someday. Trust me. It happens whether you like it or not. And you don’t want to be that person who says, darn it, I wish I’d kept some of these properties. Now what do you want to flip houses till you’re 90? So you’ve got to really determine, yeah, you can make a lot of money flipping, wholesaling, all that, but then what are you doing with that money? And there are many ways to invest it. Just make sure you do at least 10% follow the rules. It’s a job versus investing, and you should be doing both.

Speaker 3 (21:56):

Well, that’s good. That’s good stuff. And that’s where it’s like you’ve created this whole community of this real wealth network to be able to, well, it sounds like you’ve got a ton of resources and knowledge. If they wanted to learn and go down the rabbit hole of the passive side, really what you focus on is the passive side.

Speaker 1 (22:14):

And only because I had to listen if I lived in anywhere but where I live, I live in California, I would be active. I think it would be fun. But Rich and I, we tried enough times here buying million Fixers, and it’s like it’s hard. It’s hard in a high priced market. So once I learned again from Kiyosaki that Dallas had the most important things to look for, job growth, population growth and affordability, it was like, okay, that makes sense. California has the job growth and population growth, not so much right now, but that affordability piece, that third piece of it wasn’t there. So to be able to fly to Dallas and at that time by $140,000 brand new homes in a class, neighborhoods that rented for more than 1% of that purchase price, so $140,000 purchase, they rent for 1500. It was like no brainer, just made sense and brand new.

(23:13):

So I could own it from afar, not worry too much about it. So it was really out of a necessity. And then when I started talking about that on the Real Wealth Show, our phones blew up. Again, not just people who wanted mortgages, but people who wanted that because they were used to having what Rich and I had a million dollar house that rents for 3000 a month or 2000 a month, they could have a million invested. They could 10 31 that and buy five or six properties. So more diversification in a landlord friendly area with growth and at that time, four x or five x their income. Yeah,

Speaker 3 (23:50):

Wow. That’s the power of it, and that’s the power of that knowledge, knowing that’s even out there and then having someone to guide you down that path. Speaking of guiding, how do they get in touch with you? This has been an awesome episode. So how do they become part of that network, that community?

Speaker 1 (24:04):

Thank you. It’s really easy. You just go to real wealth.com, real wealth.com. You sign up for free and you can have a discussion with one of our investment counselors. That’s also free. Again, we make our money if you buy and it comes from the broker, it’s broker, the broker feeds not marked up. I know other groups like this who mark up the properties by 10 grand. I won’t mention names. We don’t do that. We just share this little piece of the 3% commission, but we do not volume that everybody’s happy. We could pay our employees. So you can have that conversation to help understand what it is you’re looking for, what areas. There’s kind of linear markets where there are more cashflow, less growth, and then there’s growth markets where there’s more chance of appreciation, but less cashflow right now. And depending on where you are in life, one of those markets can be better for you or a mix of both. So we’ll help you go through that. So real wealth.com, you can hear the Real Wealth Show podcast, and then of course, I’m on BiggerPockets on the market podcast.

Speaker 3 (25:05):

Awesome. So real wealth.com, that’s where you can get a part of that community and then sounds like have a consultation call too with investment advisors of like, okay, here’s the different opportunities there. If they want to go down that road too, which is great. It’s great to have education, but it’s also great to take action too once you have that knowledge. So I like that you give them an outlet for that as well too. So this has been really awesome. Is there anything else you want to leave them with before we wrap up?

Speaker 1 (25:30):

Well, I got the chance to interview you, and I think what you’re doing is so great too. Just helping people really understand their strategy and how to scale properly, how to really understand what is the outcome. So I can’t emphasize that enough. Understand what it is you’re trying to achieve and stick with it. Stick with it, because it’s really easy to get distracted and to say, oh, so-and-so’s doing this, or, oh, they’re buying notes and those guys are doing tax liens and that guy over there is doing foreclosures, and you just want to do it all, and that’s where you get in trouble. So come up with your strategy, get really good at it before you look at anything else.

Speaker 3 (26:06):

Yeah, that’s really good. If you’re listening to this and you need someone like that in your life to make sure they’re pointing you in the right direction from the financial standpoint, you could head over to simple cfo.com, grab one of our fractional CFOs because if you like making money, you need to keep it to need someone there that understands that side, that can help you, especially if you’re thinking about jumping from wholesaling, flipping to rentals. It’s like, okay, what are the numbers? Before you get into that, I don’t want you losing a million dollars Jamil.

Speaker 1 (26:31):

It’s like making

Speaker 3 (26:32):

Sure you know what’s going on before you jump into it. Scaling profitably, like she said. This is great stuff. Thank you, Kathy for being a great guest today on the show. And remember, if you are listening to this Make Profit a Habit in your business. And Kathy, thank you once again.

Speaker 2 (26:49):

Thank you. This episode of The Profit First for REI podcast is over, but there are plenty more where that came from. Are you ready to learn how David and his team can help implement the Profit First system in your business? Schedule a discovery call@simplecfo.com right now. We’ll see you next time on The Profit First for REI podcast with David Richter.

Title: “Profit First Strategies with Jay Conner: The Power of Private Money”

Episode: 242

There are 15 reasons to love about borrowing private money over traditional money. One of them is making your own rules for your private money.

In this episode of Profit First for REI podcast, Jay Conner, a nationally renowned real estate investor and the king of private money. He talks about how private money works.

Jay helps you get your money from private lenders and will share with you the mindset that will get you money in the door without you ever having to worry about it.

Listen and enjoy the show!

Key Takeaways:

[01:01] Introducing Jay Conner

[05:00] Introduction to private money

[08:30] The Great News Phone Call

[11:23] Why don’t you use your own money?

[13:18] Maintaining relationships with private lenders

[15:40] Private money vs traditional money

[22:05] Things that make them want to recommend you

[25:18] Advice for real estate investors

[29:01] Connect with Jay Conner

Quotes:

[07:34] “If you are talking about private money and raising private money with an individual and you got a deal for them to fund, you already sounded desperate.”

[12:07] “If you want to scale your business, private money is the way to go.”

[16:05] “In this world of private money, we make the rules. We set the interest rate, we sent the length and all of that.”

Connect with Jay:

Website: https://www.jayconner.com/book-details/

Tired of living deal to deal?

Transcript:

Speaker 1 (00:00):

I got 15 reasons I love private money over traditional money. I won’t share all 15, but the biggest one is it puts you in the driver’s seat. The traditional way to borrow money is you go to the bank and get on your hands and knees and you’re begging and chasing. Well, they are making the rules right? Like the lender is making the rules. But in this world of private money, we make the rules, we set the interest rate, we set the length of the note and all that.

Speaker 2 (00:34):

Speaker 3 (01:01):

We have Jay Connor back on the podcast. I love Jay Connor. He helps you get your money, the money from private lenders and that whole framework and process, but he does it from a passion and a place of heart. And servant Teachership. I feel like he goes out there and is a servant teacher of how private money works. Listen to this episode. He gives the magic question he tells about desperation and private lending, and I thought his perspective was so good, and then ultimately the mindset that will get you money in the door without you ever having to worry about it. So listen to this episode. Can’t wait for you to get value from it. Thank you for being a listener of the Profit First. RII podcast. Have a great episode. Hey, here’s the profit first RI podcast. Really excited to have Jay Connor back because he’s the came of private money. And this is where I love to go into this topic because I don’t care what kind of business you’re in, you probably need help with this, but especially if you’re in the real estate world, this comes up all the time at every event I’m at with every conversation I have. So we’re having the cane here talk about private money today. So Jay, thanks for being on the show.

Speaker 1 (02:07):

Hey David, thank you so much for having me come on here to talk about my most favorite topic. Of course, that being private money. And why is that? Because private money’s had a bigger impact on our real estate investing business than any other strategy that we’ve implemented in our business.

Speaker 3 (02:24):

Why did you go down that road though? I mean, you teach this all the time. You’re helping a ton of people, like anyone I’ve ever talked to that works with you is like he taught me how to do and I got money and it actually works. So I mean, how did you even go down that road where it made a difference on you and then you wanted to get it to others?

Speaker 1 (02:43):

Well, I actually backed into it. I didn’t do it on purpose. So here’s what happened. So my wife, Carol, joy and I, we’ve been investing in real estate, single family houses, other real estate full time here in eastern North Carolina since 2003. And here’s what happened. From 2003 until 2009, David, all I knew to do in my real estate investing business was rely on the local banks to fund my deals. I mean, all I knew to do was go to the bank, get on my hands and knees, put my hand underneath my chin, raise my skirt up so they could look at all my personal financial statements and stuff and actually beg to get my deals funded. That’s all I knew to do. And so I had a big wake up call in January of 2009 after being in this business here in Eastern North Carolina. I called up my banker.

(03:38):

I told him about these two deals I had under contract in Newport, these two single family houses. And David, I learned like that over the telephone that my line of credit had been shut down with no notice. My banker, his name was Steve, and the bank was bb and t at the time. I said, Steve, what in the world are you telling me? My line of credit is shut down. I got two deals under contract. You gave me no notice. Why is the bank closing my line of credit? He said, Jay, don’t. There’s a global financial crisis going on right now. I said, no, but now you just gave me a global financial crisis. Financial crisis, yeah, I ain’t got no way to fund my deals. And I got ’em under contract. So I hung up the phone and here’s what happened, David. I sat here and I asked myself a very important question.

(04:27):

And so I’m going to share this question with your audience right now. This question I’m going to share with you will help you solve any problem you’ve got. I don’t care if it’s business, financial, career, health, relationships. I don’t care what your problem is. By the way, David, these people going around and saying, any problem, you got some opportunity I want to throw up. I didn’t have no opportunity. I had a problem of not funding my deal. So here’s the question I asked myself. The question I asked myself was, Jay, who do you know that can help you with your problem? And when I asked myself that question, I immediately thought of my good friend Jeff, who lived in Greensboro, North Carolina at the time, and he was investing in real estate. And so I called him up and I told him what happened. And he said, well, Jay, welcome to the club.

(05:18):

I said, what club? He said, the club of the bank shutting you down and losing amount of credit. They shut me down last week. I said, well, how are you funding your deals, Jeff? He says, well, have you ever heard of private money? And I hadn’t. So Jeff told me about private money. He told me about self-directed IRAs and how people can use their retirement accounts and funds that they currently have and move them over to a self-directed IRA company and then loan that money out to us real estate investors, either tax deferred or tax free depending on the type of account they’ve got. Well, that just opened up my whole world. I’d never heard of that. And so what did I do? How did raise $2,150,000 in less than 90 days after being cut off from the bank? Well, here’s what I did, and here’s the secret sauce I put on my teacher hat.

(06:10):

So I put on my teacher cap, which is my private money teacher cap, and I just started teaching people in my own network what private money is, how they can earn high rates of returns safely and securely. And what’s interesting, Carol, joy and I, we got 47 private lenders right now. Not one of them had ever heard of private money and private lending. Not one of them had ever heard of self-directed IRA companies and what a third party custodian is. That’s important by the way, to establish a relationship with a self-directed IRA company because over half of my private lenders are using their retirement funds. And if I didn’t have that relationship to introduce them to move their retirement funds over, I’d be missing out on over half of my private money. So how did I go about raising all this money when I was cut off from the banks?

(07:02):

I led with a servant’s heart. I led with education. And here’s a really, really important point. I separated the activity. I separated the conversations of telling people what private money is and how they can earn high rates of return safely and securely and having a deal for them to fund. You see, desperation has got a smell to it. And when you talk about is that not true, David? Yeah, very true. So if you’re talking about private money and raising private money with an individual and you got a deal for them to fund, you’re already sounding desperate and you’re not even trying to sound desperate. So we don’t talk about deals and when we’re first exposing somebody to how they can earn high rates of return, we talk about private money. So how do we separate those conversations? Well, when someone has told me that they’ve got, let’s say they’ve got $150,000 they want to invest and get high rates of return conservatively, I’ll say, great, I’ll put your money to work for you just as soon as possible.

(08:11):

I don’t talk about a deal upfront. If they’ve got retirement funds that they want to get higher rates of return on, I’ll introduce ’em to the self-directed IRA company that I recommend. They’ll get their funds moved over. And so here’s what happens and here’s the magic sauce, David, I give ’em and I call ’em up with what I call the great news phone call. What in the world is the great news phone call? Well, the great news phone call is not a pitch. I’ve never pitched a deal in my life ever since I started raising private money in 2009. I pick up my handset with my cord attached to it here in North Carolina and I call some of your, don’t even know what that is. And let’s say, David, let’s say you’re one of my private lenders. So I’ll put my phone right up here and you’ll answer the phone and we’ll have a little chitchat and I’ll say, Dave, I got great news for you.

(09:06):

I can now put your money to work. I got a house in Newport with an after repaired value of $200,000. The funding requires 150. Closing is next Tuesday. You’ll need to have your funds wired to my real estate attorney next Monday. I’m going to have my real estate attorney email you the wiring instructions end of conversation. Notice I didn’t ask If you want to fund the deal, of course you want to fund the deal. You’ve been waiting for the phone call. I’ve told you the program. I’ve taught you the program, you know what kind of rate you get, what the maximum loan to value is, the program that I’ve taught you. And so now you’re waiting for the good news phone call, which I just gave you. And in addition to that, if you as my private lender, if you’ve moved your retirement funds over to a self-directed IRA company, you ain’t earning any money until I put your money to work.

(10:04):

You moved it at my recommendation. Now I’m ethically bound to put your money to work. You ain’t earning any money until you actually put her to work. So again, we separate conversations, we leave with a servant’s heart, we educate, and by the way, David, these people going around saying don’t just get the deal under contract. The money is show up. I want to throw up where is the money going to show up? Is it just going to rain out of clouds or something? No, get the money lined up and you can get it lined up fast. Just like me. There’s always going to be deals.

Speaker 3 (10:38):

Yeah. Oh man, that’s really good stuff. I love how you went down that road and it helped you personally. Now you’re just teaching a lot of people. I love that magic question. Who do you know that can help me with my problem? It’s that who, it’s not always the how. It’s the who did I know, and in that point it really helped you. I also run into a lot of times, I don’t know if you see this, where there’s someone who’s like, I could save a couple interest points if I just use my own money versus a private lender’s funds. What are your thoughts on that of always taking down your own deals versus going out there and putting the work into getting a private lender?

Speaker 1 (11:17):

Sure, I get that question all the time. They say, Jay, you making all that money? Why don’t you use your own money to invest in real estate? Why are you still borrowing private money? Well, here’s the answer. If you’re just going to do one deal, that’s a great use of your money. That’s a fantastic use of your money. But do you want to scale your business? I mean, right now we’ve got seven different projects going on, single family houses simultaneously. Well, I don’t want my money buried in seven houses or projects simultaneously, which here in our local market can easily be over 3 million with the prices of our homes. So if you want to scale and really, I mean most people have got a bottom of the bucket in their checkbook. So if you want to scale your business, then private money is the way to go. Another answer to that question is, do I want to pay myself 8% or do I want to use my money for something else,

Speaker 3 (12:22):

Right? Yep.

Speaker 1 (12:24):

So that’s a couple of answers to why I use private lending and why I’m still using 47 private lenders,

Speaker 3 (12:33):

Which is great. I love what you said. If you want to scale, it can run out of cash real quick. If you just keep using your own money where a lot of people have to choose between, okay, paying some percentage points or sleeping at night, and it’s like, I think I like your option a whole lot better, especially if you’re looking to grow. But I like how you said that one deal. That’s okay, but if you are looking to be a real estate investor, this is something you’re going to have to go down that road. Now, last time I asked you some questions about the private lending process. I don’t think I asked this one though, is how do you maintain a relationship with that many private lenders? You’ve got 47 people in your network that you call up with the good news call. So is it like how do you maintain a relationship with all those people?

Speaker 1 (13:22):

I mail ’em checks.

Speaker 3 (13:25):

I love that. That’s a great answer. Oh man. No better way to keep a relationship there.

Speaker 1 (13:33):

I mean, they love getting money in the mail, right? Yeah. They love mailbox money, so I mail ’em checks.

Speaker 3 (13:41):

So you mail ’em checks. So you’ve built a good enough business where you can keep 47 lenders busy and their money active.

Speaker 1 (13:50):

Well, to be totally transparent, I mean, it is a juggling act to tell you the truth. I mean, there’s more money than there is deals.

Speaker 3 (14:00):

Yep.

Speaker 1 (14:01):

There’s more money than there is deals. And so we got 47 private lenders. Some of them have got $30,000 with us, some of ’em have got a million dollars with us. I can’t buy a house for 30,000, but I can use 30,000 for rehab money. You can use private money, borrow private money in a junior position, you’ve got to disclose that. But I can put private money in a junior lien. But what comes into play there is what we call total loan to value. So I’m not going to be borrowing more than 75% of the after repaired value. I didn’t say the purchase price 75% of the after repaired value. But let’s say back to that example that we just talked about, David, where if I’ve got a after repaired value on a home of 200,000 for easy figuring, I can borrow up to 150,000. That’s 75% of the after repaired value. But if I buy it for a hundred thousand, which I do all the time, 50% of the after repaired value, I can have a private lender in first position at a hundred grand. I could have another private lender in second position at 50 grand. So add a hundred to the 50, now one 50 divided by 200,000 after repaired value, I got a total loan to value of still 75%.

Speaker 3 (15:27):

Yeah, I love that. And it seems like private money gives you flexibility and

Speaker 1 (15:32):

Options. Does that make sense?

Speaker 3 (15:34):

Yeah, that makes sense. A hundred percent.

Speaker 1 (15:37):

Oh, absolutely. Flexibility is where it’s all at. I got 15 reasons. I love private money over traditional money. I won’t share all 15, but the biggest one is it puts you in the driver’s seat. The traditional way to borrow money is you go to the bank and get on your hands and knees and you’re begging and chasing, well, they are making the rules, right? The lender is making the rules. But in this world of private money, we make the rules, we set the interest rate, we set the length of the node and all that.

Speaker 3 (16:14):

I love that. Flexibility is the ultimate play in real estate. You want to have flexibility and you want to be able to have that. So I love what you teach. Who is the person that you’re trying to teach out there? Is it the person that’s done one deal a thousand deals? Who are you trying to help the most with your business?

Speaker 1 (16:33):

Yeah, that’s interesting. At my live events, which is called the private money conference, and my live events, we have about 60% or so have already done deals. They’ve already done deals. They want to scale their business. They are real estate investors wanting to scale their business, and about 40% are looking to get their very first deal. So I’m helping everybody. I mean Stu and Harriet Baldwin from New York State, they enrolled and joined my mastermind membership community and they already had a portfolio of a hundred houses. They’d already raised over $2 million in private money, but they wanted to see how I went about it. Well, just one webinar that I recorded with them brought in 1.2 million in additional private private money. So I’ve worked with real estate investors that are brand new and those that are also seasoned to help them get more private money ready to go for their business.

Speaker 3 (17:33):

I love that. It sounds like a lot of people out there need private money, and even if you’re just getting started, if you don’t have the funds to do that first deal, like you mentioned, you do that first deal, that one deal at a time, it might be okay, but this sounds like a great spot where if you’re getting into it or if you’ve got lots of stuff going on, this could be another way to make sure your company can keep running without what you ran into with the banks back in 2007, eight or oh nine. Would you say that’s true as well?

Speaker 1 (18:04):

Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, I’ve met very, very few people. In fact, I can’t even think of one. I haven’t met any real estate investor that says, I got enough money.

Speaker 3 (18:20):

Yeah, me either.

Speaker 1 (18:22):

I can’t use any more private money. However, David, you are looking at one right now. I got about almost $2 million right now, what I call sitting on the shelf waiting to be deployed. And I tell you what, I’ve had new private lenders come into my world that want to invest and just to prove to them that I can perform. I’ll take the new private lender’s money and pay off a current private lender, refinance the deal so I can get their money to work for ’em, right?

Speaker 3 (18:53):

Ah, yep, that makes sense. I like that. As you grow and scale, you might run into that issue and you make one lender a little bit happy. I mean, at least they’re getting paid off, but then they probably come back to you and say, I want you to put my money to work again. Do you have that come up a lot?

Speaker 1 (19:12):

Quite frankly, when I pay ’em off, they’re not happy.

Speaker 3 (19:17):

That’s why I said just a little happy, maybe a little bit.

Speaker 1 (19:20):

But when I pay ’em off, they’re not making any money on that money. In fact, with a new private lender, I’ll get ready to pay ’em off cashing out on a deal and I’ll call ’em up and say, Hey, just want you to know that you’re going to have a check coming in the mail from a real estate attorney’s trust account. We’re paying off this house. And they’ll say, Jay, can’t you just keep the money? And I’ll go, no, I can’t keep the money unless I’ve got your money secured by a property because we do not borrow unsecured funds. Now, here’s maybe a little advanced strategy for some folks, but I do substitutions of collateral or loan modifications all the time. If it’s a small amount of money that a private lender’s invested 30, 40, $50,000, and we use it for rehabbing a property. So when I’ve got another property I’m getting ready to start on, I’ll substitute the collateral and keep that 30 or $50,000 note in play. So they keep earning money on that money, but we will substitute the collateral just to a different project that we’re moving to.

Speaker 3 (20:25):

That’s awesome. So then sounds like you have a good problem. It’s like, I want that. Well, I think a lot of real estate investors would rather the problem, I have too much money versus I’ve got these deals and I can’t fund them. So I really like how you teach people that and where it could snowball into this, where it’s like, I’ve got 47 private lenders, I’ve got to go out there and get the deals for ’em. Absolutely. And I really like that. And

Speaker 1 (20:50):

For goodness sakes, you don’t start out with 47 private lenders. I started out with one, right? I started out with one and then that quickly became two and three and four and five because private lenders tell other people what’s going on. So I haven’t actively attracted private money for years because our current private lenders just keep sending us people. In fact, day before yesterday, day before yesterday, I got a phone call from the mother of a good friend of mine, his name’s Craig, lives in Newburg, North Carolina. Craig had told his mother about this investment thing that I got going on and she had never heard of it, which is really funny. I’ve been doing it now private money since 2009. So she calls me up and she says, Hey, my son’s been telling me about this investment thing you got going on. Tell me about it. So word of mouth gets around very, very quickly when you start doing business with private lenders the way I do.

Speaker 3 (21:53):

Yeah, I like that a lot. So in order to get people to talk like that, what are the biggest things that you do for your current private lenders that makes them want to recommend you?

Speaker 1 (22:07):

Well pay ’em on time.

Speaker 3 (22:08):

There you go. That’s a big one. Sounds like that would be a really great place to start.

Speaker 1 (22:12):

Pay ’em on time. But I also have three times a year I put on a party for our private lenders at the Dunes Club. So we have three times a year a VIP reception over at the Dunes Club on the beach, and it’s just an evening of private lenders getting together and we have a good old time and I feed them and give them all the soft shell crabs they want, and I tell ’em to bring their friends with them.

Speaker 3 (22:42):

Yeah, that’s awesome. So number one though, that anyone can do at any stage is pay people on time. So actually pay, would you say, what about communication? I hear that come up sometimes too. How do you do a good job on the communication with your private lenders as well?

Speaker 1 (23:03):

Well, it must be good enough. They never go away,

Speaker 3 (23:06):

Right? Yeah, that’s the big things I hear.

Speaker 1 (23:10):

Here’s one thing I have not delegated as far as communication. I personally, I mean my relationships with my private lenders are very, very important. So I personally pick up the phone, pick up the phone, and call my private lenders when I have got a deal for them to fund. I do not delegate that out. I could

(23:37):

Delegate that out, but I don’t, when I got a deal for them to fund, I’m the person on the phone keeping that relationship When I’m getting ready to pay them off. I don’t have a check just show up in the mail. Of course they got to sign a payoff instruction letter if a different closing agent is closing it for a buyer. But before any of that happens, I personally call ’em up and I tell ’em that we’ve got that property sold. We’re getting ready to pay you off. Or I’ll call ’em up and I’ll say, Hey, we’re getting ready to pay this property off, but I will keep your note open so you can keep earning money. I’m just going to substitute the collateral. We got some documents we’re going to email to you for you to sign and send back the communication. I’m personally involved in putting their money to work and letting them know when we’re cashing out and where they are on the deal.

Speaker 3 (24:31):

That’s awesome. Then since it’s the profit first I podcast here, I love this concept of the private money because you need your cash in your accounts. So to be able to run your business, do those things, and then setting up a separate account just for your private money lenders, so it makes it easier to do what Jay just told you to pay them back, to pay them back on time to be in good communication with them. So now this has been really good. Do you have any other advice before I ask you? How could they work with you? How can they get in touch with, because I know this is something that is needed desperately, that I send people your way all the time. I know I trust you to help people, but any other last minute advice here that you would give to the real estate investors listening to the podcast?

Speaker 1 (25:18):

Sure. I appreciate you asking that question. It’s going to be very hard to own a lot of real estate

(25:26):

Until you own the real estate between your ears. So what do I mean by that? People ask me, how do I start? How do I start raising money? I can tell you how you start raising private money. You get your heart right, you get your mindset right. So what do I mean by that? Well, what do you do? You lead with a servant’s heart, you lead with education, you put your private lender money hat on, you private lender, teacher hat on, and you leave with education, don’t pitch deals, and you really, really are concerned about the other person and realize, part of this mindset is realize you’ve got an opportunity to change people’s lives, right?

Speaker 3 (26:11):

That’s so good.

Speaker 1 (26:13):

We’ve got countless people that are particularly in their retirement years, that have thanked me and Carol Joy for making a difference in their retirement years to where they can, I mean, they don’t want to touch their principal. They want to live off of their principal investment. So they’ve been able to travel, go see grandkids, do all this stuff that they couldn’t do otherwise until they got involved in our program. So just know that you’ve got a way to really make an impact on other people’s lives. And lemme tell you another part of mindset. It ain’t about reaping. It’s not about reaping. It’s all about sowing. It’s all about sowing. I can’t be reaping all that private money and deals until I have sown and given and led with value first. So how you sow is how you’re going to reap.

Speaker 3 (27:08):

Yeah. Oh man, this is so good. I’m glad I asked that question because I hear the passion in your voice and I hear that you really care about the people you work with, the people that have private money lenders out there, you care about that relationship. I love what you said. Get your heart right, get your head right. I also think, like you said too, that if they don’t have that desperation has a smell. So if you’re out there, you’re desperate and you’re just going out there, then you won’t have people like you have that want to keep coming back, that want to continuously invest in you. So that was, I think, the best advice that you could give right there. Get it between your ears and get your heart right. I absolutely love that. And just to recap too, I love your magic question.

(27:55):

Who do you know that can help me with my problem? Then one day you’re going to wake up and you’re going to be like Jay, and you’re going to be helping other people with their problem. I’ve got money. I want to put it somewhere, and you’re the able to get them to where they can be. Desperation has a smell. I love that. And then honestly, I love that pivot. You are like, it’s not about the reaping, it’s not about the interest that I’m making or the profit I’m making for the deal. It’s more about sowing those seeds and ultimately you’re changing lives. That’s why you get private money, and it’s like that interest that you’re paying them is twofold. It’s like you get to sleep at night, you’re not using all your money and you’re getting to help someone else get a return that they wouldn’t be able to get anywhere else or in someone that they trust as well too, and that’s a little bit more tangible than the stock markets or all this other Bitcoin, some of that stuff that’s floating around out there. So this has been awesome. So how do people then, Jay, take that next step with you? Do you have a book? You talked about an event. What can people do?

Speaker 1 (29:01):

Absolutely. Well for your audience, David, I’ve got two gifts. First of all, I finished writing my book Where to Get the Money. Now, this is not a ebook. This is a book book that we actually send in the mail Autographic where to get the money. Now the subtitle is How and Where to Get Money for Your Real Estate Deals Without Relying on Hard Money Lenders or Traditional Lenders. It’ll walk you through step by step how to get all the private money you would want. Very, very easy to read. It’s $20 on Amazon, but you can get it for free. Being David’s audience, just cover shipping. You can go to www dot j Connor, J-A-Y-C-O-N-N-E r.com/book. So I’m an er, not an or. So that’s j Connor, J-A-Y-C-O-N-N-E r.com/book, and we’ll three day priority mail it out to you. Now, in addition to that, I’ve got an upcoming $3,000 per ticket live event right around the corner. But for your audience, Dave, I’m going to let everybody come for free with a measly $97 registration fee. This private money event. You can check it out at www.theprivatemoneyconference.com. The private money conference.com. That’s coming up right around the corner in June. Get on over there. Registrations are open, and I’d love to meet you in person at the private money conference.com.

Speaker 3 (30:31):

Awesome. I’m excited about that too. I love what you’re doing and you’re solving a big need that we hear all the time. Just like all people always needing to sharpen their acts when it comes to private money, you graciously have also invited me there to speak about Profit First. So I’m excited to get to tell people about that so they can get more private money and be more confident and not be desperate when they go and ask for people. So I’m really excited about that as well. So make sure we’re going to put those links there, but make sure either get his book or go to that event. I cannot endorse Jay Moore because I know how many people he helps, but then he also has the heart. You heard it right here. That’s how he wants to help you too. It’s very much a heart and a mission and a passion for him.

(31:13):

So Jay, thank you for coming on, for sharing your wisdom, your knowledge today. If you are listening to this episode and you feel stuck like, what the heck is going on? Where is my money? I don’t know what to do. I’m a little bit nervous to go out there and get private money. I can’t keep my own house in order. That’s where you could go to simple cfo.com where we can help you walk you through that process. We’ll link you up to Jay too. If you need private money or need to learn about private money, this is who we recommend. I recommend Jay to many people, so make sure that if you need that help you go to simple cfo.com. But Jay, again, thank you for being on the show and sharing your wisdom here today.

Speaker 1 (31:51):

David, thank you so much for having me. God bless you.

Speaker 2 (31:54):

This episode of the Profit First for REI podcast is over, but there are plenty more where that came from. Are you ready to learn how David and his team can help implement the Profit First system in your business? Schedule a discovery call@simplecfo.com right now. We’ll see you next time on The Profit First for REI podcast with David Richter.