Cash Flow Guys Podcast

There’s no denying that everyone is talking about a market crash if that’s the case…where are these epic deals you might be wondering?  Deals are happening all around you, but you won’t be part of them if you don’t get good at discovering opportunities. Epic deals never get advertised until AFTER they close, that’s because deals are created by a buyer and seller negotiating, not by a Realtor or Wholesaler running an ad.  Therefore, if you are only focused on that which is “For Sale” it’s likely the real opportunities will be missed because of misguided focus.   How to get focused: What if you chose to ignore what’s “For Sale” in favor of finding problems to solve instead?  The likely outcome would be that you would find it much easier to negotiate with sellers that have true motivation beyond just price.  It’s a motivated seller that will be more likely to consider seller financing provided that the terms offer a practical solution to whatever issue they may be facing.  An example of this would be if a seller

It’s a Perfect Storm... Currently, we are experiencing a global monetary crisis The oil and gas industry is a mess The US is in the middle of a mortgage meltdown... The Stock Market is a train wreck The current number of unemployed people in America is larger than ever before... The catalyst to tip the scales is the Global Covid 19 Pandemic! All of this lends itself to a rough market in real estate, buying confidence is at an all-time low.  When buyer confidence wains, we must work harder to sell big-ticket items. How you might ask? Well...Understand this...People will always want a deal and in this episode, I’m going to discuss how you can deliver them a deal while still keeping much of your profit in your pocket. When you bought your home you should have gotten an appraisal, now is a great time to have it reappraised if the construction work is finished.  If not finished, put together a statement of work to inform the appraiser of what is to be finished and when.  A good appraiser can use this info to compl

In this episode I’m going to talk about some of the pitfalls regarding mortgage relief programs that are in play lately.  A term I hear often is “forbearance” which leads some people to believe they are going to not have to worry about paying their mortgage...this is FALSE. A forbearance is defined by Google as “the action of refraining from exercising a legal right, especially enforcing the payment of a debt.” Note that the above definition says nothing about forgiving debt, instead it involves the lender’s ability to choose to refrain from taking legal action. Many borrowers are being told by the “Facebook Expert Team” that they can call their lender and then be able to skip a couple of payments.  The reality is that although the lender may agree to avoid using legal remedies to collect a couple of late payments, however, those payments remain due and can be demanded in a short as a couple of months! Imagine thinking you were off the hook, and then you get a bill in the mail for several months mortgage paym

Below is a link for you to get access to the stimulus package documentation on the Congress website. After getting caught in the Google Black Hole myself I figured this way was easier. That link is: CashFlowGuys.com/Bailout I'm sure you have noticed the misinformation out there about what is going on in the world right now. For Pandemic guidance, follow the World Health Organization and CDC. For many Americans there are lots of benefits available from the stimulus package.  I’d suggest you read the table of contents to see what may apply to your situation. Although we are in troubled times, I ask that you avoid taking on debt during this crisis unless it is necessary. Many of the options offered by the SBA are forgivable yet certain conditions apply.  Be sure to read those sections of the bill to be sure the terms are crystal clear to you. There are better ways to put cash in your pocket besides borrowing money from credit cards and such. (Think eBay) Before borrowing money, research what grants may be availa

WOW oh WOW Ladies and gents, please take a minute to read THIS: Written by Barry Habib, a very well respected economist in the mortgage industry. The direct link to his article is: https://mbshighway.com/mortgage-crisis.html The Coronavirus Meltdown The current Coronavirus crisis is having a critical impact on the Mortgage Industry, which could potentially make the 2008 financial crisis pale in comparison. The pressing issue centers around the capital that’s required by Mortgage Lenders to be able to function and meet covenants that are required for them to continue to lend. Here’s How the Mortgage Market Works Let’s begin with the mortgage process. A borrower goes to a Mortgage Originator to obtain a mortgage. Once closed, the loan is handled by a Servicer, which may or may not be the same company that originated the loan. The borrower submits payments to the Servicer, however, the Servicer does not own the loan, they are simply maintaining the loan. This means collecting payments and forwarding them to the

This week we are going to talk about how to avoid taking losses based on recent events. Stock Investors...Losses come from only two events, the sale of a stock or the permanent closure of the business in which you own stock If you are invested in companies that have solid histories the stock prices will rebound once consumer confidence is restored. If you are a buy and hold real estate investor do not sell now!  Instead, wait for markets to rebound.  If cashflow is low maybe you can refinance for a lower rate or if you have paid down equity refinance for a smaller loan balance which will reduce your payments and therefore increase your monthly cashflow. Another way to increase cashflow is to offer additional ametities if it makes financial sense to do so.  An easy way to to buy a washer and dryer and lease it to the tenants.  Adding a storage building can also be a huge profit additon. If you are a house flipper, it’s time to get to work finishing your projects and get those properties listed and sold.  DO NO

Today, we are going to learn about the different types of appreciation and how you can split the profits. Raising private money becomes much easier when your financial friends get more choices. There are five types of appreciation: Found, Forced, Phased, Inflated, Passive I dive deeper into how to use these in my Private Money Crash Course which you can find at PrivateMoneyCrashCourse.com It’s important to note that we can only control three of the five.  The two we cannot control are inflated and passive. Inflated Appreciation is what many people refer to when they mention hyperinflation.  When supply and demand are not balanced, appreciation will increase or decrease. When there is more demand then there is inventory “inflated appreciation” occurs.  That’s what many markets are experiencing now across the US. Be very careful in basing investor returns or gains on the inflated appreciation. Passive Appreciation is what occurs with the ebb and flow of market conditions.  It’s what's derived from timeline tren

Today is going to be a private money crash course, in fact I have a ton of info to share so I am going to break this up over a couple of episodes. This week I made a post in the Cash Flow Guys Community Facebook page asking people to share with me the hurdles they were struggling with when it came to raising private money. The post received several great responses which inspired this episode. Below are some of the most common responses: Self-doubt can be overcome by understanding how to structure or “underwrite” a deal to be sure it is profitable.  Many folks I run into don’t really understand the “how” of deal structure.  They don’t really know what a good deal looks like.  Instead, they tend to just a deal by its initial asking price and don’t go much farther than that. A while back I decided to build a fix for this problem, you can get that fix FOR FREE at HowToMakeDeals.com Its a four-part video course (soon to be expanded) to help busy people learn the ins and outs of breaking down deals and structuring

It comes as no surprise that sometimes sellers (and their agents) get offended when we make offers on properties listed for sale.  In this episode I will discuss how we can learn to make offers on investment property without offending the seller. In the beginning I would refuse to make offers in fear of upsetting the seller or their agent.  I looked at lots of properties but spun my wheels when it came time to writing offers. Then, when I mustered up the courage to make an offer I got shot down.  I thought about this perplexing situation a bunch, and then it hit me… Understand this….You can’t control the emotions of another person, but you can control the release of a trigger…and I was releasing triggers like crazy! More sales have started with the salesman’s mouth closed than when it was open. Eventually I learned that if I didn’t trigger them they won’t get offended.  To work through this problem I began to focus on communicating effectively by asking well thought out questions to learn more about the selle

Society, as it pertains to real estate investors, has lied to us. We have been suckered into believing that a property that is for sale can be “off-market” and therefore supposedly a “good deal” Let’s apply some good old fashioned logic to this. If more than one person in a given market knows that a property is for sale, it’s “On Market” regardless who controls the transaction An off-market property is not in any way, shape or form for sale. Example: A listing broker with a “pocket listing” has something for sale that is not listed on the MLS this is not an “off-market property” because its for sale.  It cannot be off-market and for sale at the same time. Example: A wholesaler who has an assignable contract between themselves and a seller who plans to assign their rights in the contract at closing does not have an off-market property because they are trying to sell their interest in a contract that will facilitate the sale of a property. Example: A wholesaler who has a PSA who intends to double close the tran

In this episode, I track down my good friend Chris Krimitsos to discuss his groundbreaking book “Start Ugly” which you can find at CashFlowGuys.com/StartUgly This episode is quite different from any other episode I have done before, because... I “started ugly” as Chris likes to say.  Starting ugly for this episode all began with a phone call, with no expectation of an answer or any idea of the conversation about to happen. For me...starting ugly is about not putting much thought at all into the limiting belief of “what if I fail?  Instead, I have learned to think more about “what if I succeed?” The book is a parable about allowing yourself to take imperfect action in order to overcome the many roadblocks we face in getting started on a new idea. Today, my idea was to call Chris (without him knowing in advance) and begin to interview him about his book and to discuss his event multimedia conference called Podfest.  Lucky for me he answered the phone! But...what if he hadn’t answered the phone?  I mean heck...

I hear this often…”there are no deals in my market”  I call BS on that statement.  There are no deals for You because you are not doing the work to create them.  That is because you don’t have enough leads or the wrong leads.  How to you get in front of more people?  You search for problems and you convert those problems into opportunities by offering sellers a solution (instead of 75% of ARV minus repairs) Most folks only focus on trying to buy what’s for sale.  That’s cute and all but what happens when another buyer has the same idea as you?  A bidding war that’s what!  Speaking of bidding wars and auctions, who really wins those anyway...the highest bidder?  I think not, the highest bidder often overpaid. You can only pay what an asset can afford to pay and the only way to determine that is to spend time speaking with motivated sellers.  When you focus on finding problems instead of properties you will quickly realize that your deals will become much better because you are providing solutions to the seller

In this episode, I dive into the summary of this series on the questions we need to be asking every seller and likely don’t.  When I ask “Is there anything else I should know about this property” I often pick up more tidbits I can use to build out an offer that will get my seller to say yes.  The reason they say yes is that they know I care about their situation and know that my offer isn’t a guess, instead it is specifically designed to meet their needs in regard to price or terms. Keep in mind that I don’t mean that sellers always say yes, quite the contrary, however, my success level of putting together profitable deals right from the start is much higher than most. Another question I ask is “Do you have any idea why the property has not sold yet?”  You’d be surprised how often I receive a very honest answer.  Having a seller go through the process of openly admitting they are priced too high goes a long way towards getting them to reduce the price themselves, without any help from me.  Additionally, they

Any idea what the seller will do with the proceeds of the sale?  This question I guarantee that 99.999% of buyers never ask.  Why? Because if you are the type of person who is always trying to predict what will happen next it can be terrifying to ask. In this episode, I give you many reasons and methods of how to ask this question in ways that make it easy for the seller to answer.  Knowing what the seller’s plans are for their equity once a property is sold can mean a simple negotiation that results in seller financing or a lower cash offer if they need cash fast. Be careful assuming what a seller needs and wants, doing so will almost always result in you giving away more than you have to.  Instead, when the time is right, ASK this question and then use the answer to craft a great deal that will be easy for the seller to agree with. When you learn to use the seller’s answer to show them the opportunity for benefits from selling to you that no one else discussed with them you separate yourself from the herd i

In this week’s episode, we continue discussing the top 23 questions that you should be asking every seller.  Why a seller is selling can provide clues into the level of motivation a seller has.  By being able to gauge the seller’s motivation you can better access how to negotiate (or if you should even bother negotiating ) a great deal. I am a huge believer in win/win or no deal as a mantra, the only way to structure a win/win deal is to fully understand the seller’s situation so your offer will heal their pain.  A seller with no pain needs to wait for a retail buyer who falls in love with the view or the living room drapes.  You as an investor need not bother making offers to unmotivated sellers, its a complete waste of your time and their time. Asking about the acceptance of “payments for equity” instead of seller financing or seller funding is a much better way to discuss this sometimes uncomfortable topic.  Please understand that this topic does not need to be uncomfortable, yet we sometimes tend to try t

In this episode, I continue my series on the top questions that we need to ask but rarely do.  Starting right out of the gate we arrive at repairs which is by far my favorite method for phantom negotiating a great deal. Phantom negotiating is the term I use to describe the use of psychology to impact how someone views something.  In this instance, when I engage the seller or Broker in conversation about what repairs they honestly feel are needed it changes their view of the subject property.  I ask them about the details of why they feel the repairs are needed and what they feel the cost would be. You see, when the seller mentions it, the topic is no longer taboo to them because after all, they brought it up in the first place.  That said, don’t belabor the topic because you must maintain good flow in the conversation for it to be fruitful. During the conversation, when the opportunity strikes, we can always circle back to the topic to get the answers we need or in this case to “plant the seeds”. No matter wh

This week we continue down the list of the 23 questions we must get the answers to.  Being a P.IG. is something to aspire to.  By this, I mean Professional Information Gatherer, someone who is really good at getting the facts needed to properly underwrite a deal.  As our friend Larry Harbolt says, “the good Lord gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason” which means less talking and more listening. When I make calls to find out information about properties we are interested in buying I am sure to record each and every call for my own use.  In every instance when I playback the recording I hear new information that was already told to me once, but I swear I never heard it before.  If you start doing this you will be shocked to learn how much you were told but did not hear.  There are tons of apps that allow you to record your calls, just remember that unless they recordings are for your own exclusive use, you must get the other part’s permission to record.  If the other party denies permission, you cannot ma

In this episode, we discuss the details of the primary 23 questions we need to know about every property that we consider buying.  “How,” you ask these questions will have a big impact on the answers you receive.  To make deals with sellers that make sense, we must be solving a problem which is why this process is so important.   As the saying goes, “We Get More Bees with Honey” it’s important to ask these questions in a conversational way so that the seller does not feel drilled by a wartime interrogator.  If you weave them into the conversation while remaining focused on listening to the seller’s situation, we will be better prepared to make offers that are easy for the seller to accept without much consideration.  

Ok, I’ll be the first to admit when I am wrong, and THIS Time I was wrong, I am speaking about direct mail.  The reason I have not been a huge fan of this method of marketing is that it’s generally the least effective form of marketing I see.  Although it does work to some degree, the “acceptable” engagement rates are lackluster at best. Word on the street is that an acceptable response rate on direct mail is around 2% which for me is simply unacceptable. If you have been paying attention, you have heard me say that I am studying the art of writing sales copy from people like Jim Edwards, Gary Halbert, Dan Kennedy, Eugene Schwartz to name a few.  This week I just finished Dan’s book called “The Ultimate Sales Letter” when I had an epiphany I felt I needed to share with you. I discuss this in greater detail during the episode so be sure to listen in to grab those nuggets and put them to use immediately.  After all, how many “We Buy Houses” letters or postcards are you willing to pay for? PS: A GREAT way to sta