How To Get Started Investing In Real Estate Intelligently With Anmol Singh – Real Estate For Women

There are so many deals you can find out there. You just have to know how to invest in them intelligently, so you become a real estate success. In this episode, Moneeka Sawyer interviews Anmol Singh, considered as the leading trade psychology expert and founder of Live Traders, which is now voted as the number one trading educating firm for three years in a row. Anmol shares his expertise to guide us on how we can invest in real estate intelligently where deals are brought to you rather than you hunting for them. How can we obtain the capital to invest? How do you trade stock to invest in real estate? What are the different areas to invest in, and what are their pros and cons? How do you get started in this industry? Anmol answers all of these and more, so tune in to this episode to not miss out!

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How To Get Started Investing In Real Estate Intelligently With Anmol Singh – Real Estate For Women

Real Estate Investing For Women

I am excited to welcome to the show Anmol Singh. Anmol made his name as a high paid consultant in the trading and investing industry. He launched Live Traders in 2015, which is now voted as the number one trading education firm for three years in a row. He has coached and trained over 1,000-plus traders and investors, some of whom have now gone on to run their own hedge funds. He is considered the leading expert in the trading psychology space. Having helped thousands of traders all over the world, dealing with psychological and behavioral issues that arise when high stakes are on the line. He remains an avid stock market and Forex trader, and spends his day working with students of his trading firm, Live Traders and continues to financially back them. He also is involved with other entrepreneurial ventures and franchise stores in addition to maintaining an international real estate portfolio. Anmol, welcome to the show.

Thanks for having me. I’m looking forward to chatting with you.

I went on my world trip in ’99. About a few years before that, I was a day trader with options. I loved it. That’s how we paid for our trip around the world. We packed up everything, put some backpacks on our backs, and for six months we headed out into the world. The stock market paid for that. While doing that, my other side hustle was in real estate. It’s interesting how the two can play together. In my household, the way things work is my husband handles a stock portfolio. I’m not an active trader anymore, but I manage all of the real estate. The two can go hand in hand. They don’t have to, but I’m excited about having this conversation with you because I haven’t met anybody else that does this trading and real estate thing, and making it both successful. They do take a level of focus, both of them. Could you tell us a little bit of your story and how you got to where you are?

I started trading in college. I went to Brunel University in London so I was in my college, and then it came a year where you have to start applying for internships. I was like, “I’ve got a great Business degree. I’m going to get a job easily.” I started applying everywhere, but I wasn’t able to get a job for some reason. I got a bunch of interviews but never secured a job. I was like, “I need to start to probably look elsewhere and maybe make my own career.” That’s how I was introduced to trading. By being online and searching about it. I started learning. I found one of my mentors, Jared Wesley, who taught me how to trade. He was trading already for fifteen years.

He took me under his wings and mentored me. Three years down the line, now he’s my business partner with our venture at Live Traders. I was like, “I’m your case study right here. We already did it. You already taught me and I’m making money now as a trader. Clearly your education is working. How about we team up? You can do the education side. I can handle the business side of things.” That’s how Live Traders was born. We’ve been now educating and teaching other people using the same model that he used to teach me. I have been trading for several years now. I’ve been trading all my life.

You’ve been trading for several years. You’ve been through serious downturns too?

Yeah. The first year of trading was all downturns. Nobody made it in the first year.

It’s interesting because if you know stock, you know that you can make a lot of money on the downturns. It’s much more fluid than real estate. Real estate is my foundation. It’s like the brick wall. We keep adding bricks. It keeps going up. The stock market is much more fluid, much more liquid, much more volatile. It depends on how you want to look at it. I do love the stock market also. From your perspective, tell us how to find a good deal. Let’s focus on real estate.

In real estate, the thing with good deals is that people have a misconception that they can just go online and they can find a great deal, which you can sometimes. There are a lot of good deals online available. You just have to be willing to search. You have to have the mindset of not what the property looks like right now, but what it’s potential could be. Maybe there’s more square footage. Maybe I can add something here. That’s how you look for good deals. You have to have that vision of what it could look like. There are a lot of properties that I’ve had that were maybe $1,000 a month rent properties. We took those. We changed the whole layout. We changed the kitchen. We made it a luxury apartment that you can now get maybe $6,000 to $7,000 or even getting $1,000 for.

You have to look for what added value can you make to the property. That’s how you could find a good deal. The other thing which we can talk about down the road is building a network so the deals are brought to you rather than you hunting for deals online. If something is online, my guess is people have already contacted the property owners. Other people already looked at it because you can see the website traffic, X number of people have already looked at the property. Is that a good deal? Maybe not. You have to build a network and you have to start throwing out fillers and have these people who are looking out for the deals for you and bringing them to you for a percentage of something. You have to build a dream team, which we can touch upon later down the segment.

In EXTRA, we’ll do a deep dive on how to build a dream team so the deals come to you rather than you chasing them. I love that idea. Let’s talk a little bit about obtaining the capital to invest in real estate.

Obtaining the capital, there are many different ways to do that. When I started trading, the capital for investing in real estate for me came from trading. I was making money as a trader. I was having those profits, which it didn’t make any sense to me to keep it in the bank account, which is producing nothing for you. It didn’t even make sense to add to my stock portfolio because I already had a good amount of money in there. What I did is I took my income from my trading and park it into real estate properties. What people can do for capital is think about what you can do 1, 2 or 5 years from now. Start saving a portion of your salary or your income that you’re getting, so that in 1, 3 or 5 years’ time, you’re in a position to invest in something.

In the meantime, you can hone your skills. You can get good at it. You can study. You can get to your knowledge so that when you do have the capital, you’re able to invest. The other way you can do that is through a network. You have to be willing to network. You have to be willing to go to these real estate meetups or your local real estate organization. I know people don’t like going out of their house for something physical. It’s a lot of people. I don’t know what to say. You might feel anxious, but you have to be willing to put yourself out there. That’s how you build connections with people.

Trust me, people are out there looking for deals. They want good deals. They want somewhere to put their money in. If you can be the guy or girl who could find them the good deal, raising money is easier than what people think it is. You just have to find a good deal. It all starts through the deal. If you have a good deal, the money will come, but you have to be willing to go out there and go to these meetups, go to these REO meetings and all of that.

Both of those are good tips. The one thing that you said that I want to highlight is it’s okay to take the time to build the capital. People are eager to, “I want to get in right now.” Yes, I will say it’s always a good idea financially to get in. If you don’t have the capital to do it, you don’t want to lose hope because you can’t do it right now. You can plan for your future and that’s a good way to go. You’re planning and saving to build that capital to do an investment. Learn along the way so that when you’ve got the money, you’re ready to hit the ground running. If you’ve got a side hustle, you can use all of that money for the side hustle to save and then you get there a lot faster. We’ve talked about networking a lot in the past, so that’s a great way to find capital. Thank you for that. Give us your perspective cashflow with real estate.

Every real estate investor’s dream is to get a property that’s cashflowing. There are also realities within different markets. If you’re in California, New York or the high-income state, it’s possible but it’s hard to come by. There are certain states where cashflow is 1, 2, 3. You go somewhere in Arizona, which is becoming hard now as well. You go to Texas. There are certain places you can get cashflow. Cashflow is important but if you’re in New York like me, cashflow is not the primary goal. The primary goal is to get the income to pay off the property for you. The approach that a lot of investors use here is that all they need is the downpayment.

They’re building a portfolio for real estate. They have the money for the down payment and have enough rent that’s covering your taxes and your mortgage. If it’s covering your taxes and mortgage, it’s not technically producing cashflow, but somebody is paying off the property for you. If you’ve got a 10-year lease, 15-year lease after which a property is being paid off, all you put in was that downpayment and somebody just paid off the property for you. In my books, it’s a win if you think long-term. Even if you build a portfolio of 10, 15 properties that people are paying for. You only put in one property’s worth of money in different down payments. In 10, 15 years’ time, once all those properties are paid off, look what happens to your net worth.

Suddenly from putting in a $20,000, $30,000 down payment to now having a portfolio of ten properties that’s increasing your net worth overnight, but it takes about ten years. That’s the approach I would use if you’re in New York or California or somewhere in those areas. For other areas, it’s the same thing. Look for, “Here are my expenses. Here’s what I’m paying for mortgage. Here’s what I’m paying for insurance and taxes.” As long as you’re getting more than that. You can list it for much higher than that as a rent, if the area warrants it for. Don’t lose hope if you’re not getting that rent, just get them to pay the property off. In ten years’ time, you’ll have a good portfolio that everybody else paid for.

Investing In Real Estate: Sometimes, there’s a lot of good deals online available. You just have to be willing to search and think not of what the property looks like right now but what its potential could be.

Also, you get cashflow on it then.

That’s when the game gets fun because now everything is paid off and you’re getting good cashflow from different properties.

Could you tell us a little bit about where your properties are?

I have the least amount of investments in New York, mostly it’s commercial real estate. I’m in the process of negotiating a lease. Hopefully, it should be signed. That property will produce cashflow. It’s going to make about over 8% cash-on-cash return. For example, my mortgage on that would be $5,200. I paid taxes $3,000 or $4,000, but the rent I’m probably going to get is going to be $12,000 or $13,000. That property is producing cashflow. How did I get there to make that cashflow is I added some value to the building. It was an automotive company that wanted to use that as a repair shop. I installed the lifts already in there. For everybody coming in who wants to run that business, it’s a gold mine. I don’t have to install all this equipment. It’s already installed for me. I’ll pay you extra. That’s how you get the cashflow. That’s one of the properties. Most of the portfolio is in India. My family and me were big into real estate in India. We have commercial real estate where we rent out to Microsoft office space, State Bank of India. That’s all commercial real estate. We have a lot of residential.

All the new developments that come in, we try and acquire at least a couple of properties on those developments. In London, we have small flats near the airport, which are handy because they always rent. We’d never had a tenant leave and weren’t able to fill it because it’s near the airport. Even airlines want their staff to stay somewhere. It’s easy to lease that out. That’s where we primarily have our investments, in India, in the developing areas, the capital states. In London, we have a few flats around the Heathrow Airport. In New York, we have the commercial automotive service station.

Which part of India are you in?

In Delhi.

We have a lot in Pune. The thing that I wanted to point out here and what I thought was interesting about that is he is in very expensive markets. India is a little bit more affordable for us Americans, but you wouldn’t believe the way that property is skyrocketing there. We sold something over there. These are high-cost markets. This is a different strategy than most people talk about. It’s a strategy that I’ve also followed, which is buy something. Don’t take a negative cashflow on it. Don’t worry too much about cashflow. Make sure that it’s getting paid down. Eventually, you benefit from the cashflow. It’s a little bit of a longer-term strategy, 10, 15, maybe even 20 years.

On the back end of that, you’re in markets where the rents are high that with just a few doors, you can make a retirement level cashflow. This is something that I love. I don’t like managing a lot of doors. Doors meaning houses or apartments or whatever. I don’t like managing a lot of properties. For me, I like the idea of I’ve got a few high-end so I do all executive properties. I do high-end properties so that they’ll start to cashflow, and I’m doing business with people that are going to stick around. They’re going to keep the house well. It’s going to be easy for me to manage. I don’t have too many of them, but I’m making a retirement cashflow.

It’s low maintenance. You get better clients. They are going to take care of the property. There are other markets too. This is not to say that there are other markets people can play in. There are people playing in other markets. For me, the type of tenant is important because they’re going to take care of the property. That means fewer expenses for you over time to maintain the property. Whereas you could play in the high-volume market, but then with a high-volume market comes more work. It comes more maintenance. It gets a different quality of tenant. You have to take care of the property. I’m in the same boat as you are. I would much rather have fewer doors but have high-quality tenants that they know they’re going to be there for a while.

Talk to us about the way that you’ve done this. How did you trade stock to invest in real estate? How can other people do the same?

I started with my partner, Jared Wesley, the guy who taught me how to trade. He did the same thing. When I started, I was pretty young in trading. I’m like 19, 20 years old. I was looking up to him. He was trading in the markets for many years and he did the same thing. He has a lot of real estate investments. He was taking his 10%, 20% of whatever he’s making from trading and putting it in a rainy-day investment account. He kept building that by adding 10%, 20% every month. Once he had a good sum, he’ll say, “Let me buy that property.” That’s how he was investing. I learned that same methodology to do that.

For example, he has a lot of industrial real estate, which is a market that I haven’t gone in. It’s great because in industrial real estate, you’ve got clients like FedEx that have the whole lot that they’re using. They’re not going anywhere. They’ve been with him for many years. If anything bad happens even to the roof, which he has to technically replace, he could still have leverage. He’s like, “I don’t want to replace it. Are you going to leave?” They are not going to leave. They’re going to replace it. They’re going to work with you, “It’s okay. We’ll pay half. Let’s fix it.” It’s more costly for them to move and leave. I’ve learned in that market. I follow his footsteps.

I didn’t do industrial real estate, but I did more commercial and residential because that’s what I understood. That’s another thing. People should invest in what they understand. Industrial might sound good or mobile homes might sound good to you. If you don’t know the market, don’t invest in it. That’s why, even though New York is a high-income or high-maintenance market, I would rather invest here because I know the market and I know that it’s not going to be ups and downs. It’s going to be stable. Your money is secure. Whereas in a high-risk market, you can get a better reward for your money, but in the downturns, it’s also going to be much faster. It’s a trade-off that people have to make a decision for themselves as to what fits their investment criteria.

Do you think the risk is more based on market or investment class?

Both market and class. If it’s an upcoming market and Amazon is opening a new office space there, the market is going to go higher. What if there’s temporary space that they’ll leave? Suddenly all those jobs get pulled out of the rug and then that affects the whole area. For New York, there are many businesses, many jobs that few companies leave. It’s not going to affect the market. New York is crowded. In certain markets, let’s say you invest in a suburb where there’s one big factory, one big company. You’ve got a risk. If that company leaves, a lot of jobs in that area leave with it. That causes the rents to go down. Subsequently, your cashflow would go down.

They’re much more prone to economic downturns. It’s something that I think is going to happen in the next few years. Those high-risk areas are going to be the first ones where people are going to pull their money out. They’re going to be like, “I’ll take 0.5% return in New York. At least my money is safe rather than looking for 10%, but potentially losing 20%.” High-risk markets, you get a high reward, but you’re taking high risk for the high reward.

How about classes like industrial, commercial, residential?

Investing In Real Estate: One super tip to get started in investing is to be an active searcher for deals.

Going forward, residential, industrial is the way to go. Commercial is going to be the next one that’s going to get caught up in what’s going to happen. That’s primarily because retail companies are declaring bankruptcy all over the place. Even Hertz Car Rental, Victoria’s Secret, and Nordstrom are declaring bankruptcy. All these retail strip malls are going to be affected down the line. More importantly, what people aren’t thinking in commercial, office space is going to be heavily affected. People are getting the sense like, “Zoom is not that bad. We could do this.” We’ve been doing it for a few months now. People are now used to it. They’re like, “We can do that. We could cut our overheads. I don’t think we need that much office space. I don’t think we need to have these big office spaces. Tuesdays are work from home days.”

A lot of that is going to happen, which is going to mean that people are going to need less and less office space. People are going to feel more and more comfortable working from home. That’s the trend that it’s going. There is no doubt about that. That’s going to be heavily affected. For me, I’m not investing anything to do with retail or anything to do with office space. Those are going to be hurt the most. It’s already starting with ripple effects.

Even in India, certain tenants would be like, “We can’t pay rent this month because of COVID-19.” They quote an act of God law. All this stuff happens. You’d have to go through all of that. There are ripple effects for that. If people don’t pay rent, those people won’t be able to pay their mortgage. That’s what happens. The bank is going to take the property. It’s a ripple effect, which usually takes a few years to kick in. What’s happening now, people will start feeling it a few years from now when the ripple effects take place.

I had a friend that was like, “Moneeka, what do you think about commercial?” I’m like, “I’m going to stay far away from that.” Commercial as in multiunit residential, I’m okay with, but anything to do with retail, I’m watching them on the sidelines. I haven’t looked at industrial. That’s an interesting thing. Did you want to expand a little bit on that?

Industrial would mean, let’s say you have warehouses that Amazon can use, which is a great investment for a lot of my friends. They had these warehouses for a long time. Nobody wanted it. Now Amazon is offering crazy amounts for those warehouse space because their goal is to have same-day deliveries everywhere. For them to have the goal of same-day delivery, they need to have warehouses in different locations that can deliver. Warehouses or truck spaces where people can park their vans and trucks, fleets can be parked. Those kinds of industrial real estate are what my circle has seen the best investments in. It’s something you can find, which is a nice space for a warehouse that could be used or something where a lot of fleets of vans and trucks and all that could be parked like FedEx. That would be what I mean when I say industrial real estate.

Do you mean storage?

Storage is good too, but I like relying on businesses more than people. Stale storage and all that, I’m not a big fan of. I don’t like relying on people. I like relying on businesses like FedEx or Amazon or something like that that I know are good. They’re public companies. They don’t want any of these issues. They’re going to be okay. I would focus on that.

Do you mind me asking, Anmol? This may be a personal question and you can say, “No, I’m not going to say this here.” How much did you start when you were trading?

I started with $10,000 that I borrowed from my father, which I lost most of it in a few months.

Tell us a little bit more about that story and the journey to get to where you can start investing in real estate.

I left India. I went to London. I was studying my college degree over there. In the second year of university, I came back. I’m like, “I know what I want to do. I want to trade the stock market.” I’m like, “I’m serious.” They’re like, “Why don’t you get a job? You’re getting the degree. You’re on the path. Why don’t you apply internship?” I’m like, “I did but I didn’t get anywhere. I’m going to try this.” My dad probably thought it was going to be a good lesson for me to learn how not to mess with money. He’s like, “I’ll give you $10,000 to try it out.” I’m like, “Thank you.” Six months later, I had maybe $2,000 or $3,000 left out of those $10,000.

That was a learning lesson, but I built it back up and how I build backup is I started writing articles because I was good with research. I wasn’t good with a mindset. I was researching and writing articles for Yahoo! Finance and they were paying $150 an article. I was in my dorm room in college. It was $150 an article. I write ten of these a week. I started writing them almost in college in my dorm room. They were paying $2,000, $3,000 a month. I built my capital back up and then I was like, “I’m going to do it properly this time.”

How long did it take you before you had built up enough that you could start investing in real estate?

That probably I would say is year four when it started to kick in. I still had money before, but I didn’t have confidence to put it in real estate. Year four is when I was speaking to a lot of people, then I got the confidence, seeing other people invest in those properties. New York, the first investment I made was in 2015, which is the commercial property that I ran a business on it as a franchise business. I ran that business for a few years and I was like, “I can make more money renting it.” I close that business and now I’m renting it and hopefully, the lease will be signed.

You took $10,000, got it down to $2,000 or $3,000 and then you grew it back up. When did you start investing again with how much?

In the same year. I was just a beast. Yahoo! Finance didn’t care how many articles I write. I’m going to write all of them. I went back in exactly with $10,000, but I spent $6,000 to purchase some courses and stuff like that. I still played with $4,000, but the good part was when I connected with my partner. They had a firm where they were backing the traders that graduate from their program. I spent $6,000 and graduated from their program, and then the firm hired me as a trader. They gave me $50,000 of their capital to trade in exchange or like 70/30. We used to split the profits. They had levels that you have to go through, level 1, 2, 7, all the way to level 10, where they were giving you $10 million. I went from level 1 to 7 in a year’s time. In level 7, I was trading $3 million off their capital and we were splitting profits 70/30. That’s when I was making some good money. I was trading with their money for a long time. One or two years I’ve traded with their capital.

Is that the structure that you offer in your own trading company now?

Yeah. We offer that when people graduate and we see that they can do it, then maybe I can put some of my money behind him. If they’re trading similar to me, they’re trading my strategies, I know they’re going to eventually do well. If they do everything correctly. I do the same model. I’ll take 30% of your profits in exchange for providing you the funds.

Investing In Real Estate: One strategy to be successful in real estate investing is actually doing it. The way to do that is to start making phone calls.

I haven’t had anybody like this on this show. Thank you.

Thank you.

Anmol is Indian as am I. You come from this entrepreneurial background. Our parents all say, “You have a good degree. Why not get a good job?” We have this entrepreneurial spirit. It’s fun to talk to somebody else like that. Thank you.

The feeling is mutual.

Anmol is going to be sharing with us how to build a dream team in EXTRA so that you can have deals coming to you rather than you having to hunt for them. I’m excited about that conversation. Could you tell people how they can get in touch with you?

The best way to get in touch with me would be through my social media channels, Instagram or Twitter. My username on both of them is the same, which is @DeltaNinety. It’s a trading terminology for options traders. Go to PreppingForSuccess.com/book, where there are some free guides and things for you.

He is giving away a free chapter of his book with 60-second success show videos every alternate week. He’s got some videos and a free chapter of his book. He also wanted to offer you something regarding trading. Do you want to talk a little bit about that?

If you feel interested in trading and you’re like, “Maybe this could be something that I might be interested in,” and you want to learn more about trading or get started in the financial markets, the best way to go would be to LiveTraders.com. You’d be able to download a free eBook on our website along with some more information. If that’s something that interests you, you could even call the office and have a fifteen-minute strategy session with someone from our team. They can tell you if it’s even right for you or not right for you because it’s not right for everybody. They might say, “Maybe come back later,” or they might say, “This is where you can start.” That would be the place to go.

Thank you for that. Are you ready for our three rapid-fire questions?

Yes.

Anmol, tell us one super tip on getting started in real estate investing.

One super tip to get started is to be an active searcher for deals. Always be searching. If you’re bored at night, you’re sitting, you’re having a glass of wine, it’s morning having coffee, look for deals. Look for what the fluctuations in prices have been. In the beginning, it good to get a sense of pricing. Search around for deals, look at what the market area prices are around you, and keep looking every week and you’ll see the trend.

What is one strategy on being successful in real estate investing?

One strategy to be successful in real estate investing is doing it. The way to do that is start making phone calls, start calling brokers, and putting the fillers out there. That way you’re also telling the brokers, “There’s this guy who was maybe interested in investing.” You want to introduce yourself to different brokers. Call ten brokers and introduce yourself, “I’m a local investor in this area. My name is this. This is the type of properties I look for. I would love to get a deal done in the future. Nice talking to you.” As simple as that. Start putting out fillers out there and start somewhere.

What would you say is one daily practice that contributes to your personal success?

Daily practice is being your word. Be a person of integrity. That means do what you said you were going to do and then do it when you said you were going to do it. Not like, “I want to start this thing on Monday.” Monday comes and you’re like, “Let me start on Wednesday. I’ll start tomorrow.” Do it when you said you were going to do it and watch out how things will change. Be a person of your word. If you don’t believe in you, then how do you expect others to believe in you?

Anmol, this has been amazing. It was such a great conversation and it expanded my mind. I love talking about the two pieces together. That’s such a big part of the way that I run my life. You’re the first person that’s done this on the show. Thank you for what you’ve offered so far.

Thank you.

Ladies, thank you for joining Anmol and I for this portion of the show. I am excited for what he’s going to be covering in EXTRA, which is all about building the dream team. You can start having deals walking right in your door. That’s going to be fun. If you’re subscribed to EXTRA, please stay tuned. If you’re not, but would like to be, go to RealEstateInvestingForWomenEXTRA.com and you get seven days for free. It will show up right in the same platform that you’re on. You don’t have to go hunting for it. There are lots of good benefits to subscribing. You get a lot of good juicy information. Sign up there. I appreciate you. I’m looking forward to seeing you next time. Until then, remember, goals without action are just dreams. Get out there, take action and create the life your heart deeply desires. I’ll see you soon.

Important Links

• Live Traders
  
• Instagram – Anmol Singh
  
• @DeltaNinety – Twitter
  
• PreppingForSuccess.com/book
  
• RealEstateInvestingForWomenEXTRA.com

About Anmol Singh

The stock market always goes up. Up and down – but historically, it always goes up.

The difference between profit and loss comes down to your understanding of how to trade and your ability to make logical and fast decisions based on constantly changing data.

Trading is a truly special and unique business that can be done anywhere with an internet connection… providing you the freedom and flexibility with your time and lifestyle.

My team and I at Live Traders can show you how to ride the emotional roller coaster trading can be. And for those that are patient, disciplined and hardworking, the financial rewards are unbeatable.

If you want to be a successful trader, we can show you how to execute trades, review the different scenarios you’ll be up against, and most importantly, how to remove the emotion from it.

Are you ready to achieve your dreams? We have the skills and experience to help you master the craft and the platform to show you what successful, profitable trading looks like – and you’ll be pulling profit out of the market regularly!

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Moneeka Sawyer

Moneeka Sawyer is often described as one of the most blissful people you will ever meet.   She has been investing in Real Estate for over 20 years, so has been through all the different cycles of the market.  Still, she has turned $10,000 into over $5,000,000, working only 5-10 hours per MONTH with very little stress.

While building her multi-million dollar business, she has traveled to over 55 countries, dances every single day, supports causes that are important to her, and spends lots of time with her husband of over 20 years.

She is the international best-selling author of the multiple award-winning books “Choose Bliss: The Power and Practice of Joy and Contentment” and “Real Estate Investing for Women: Expert Conversations to Increase Wealth and Happiness the Blissful Way.”

Moneeka has been featured on stages including Carnegie Hall and Nasdaq, radio, podcasts such as Achieve Your Goals with Hal Elrod,  and TV stations including ABC, CBS, FOX, and the CW, impacting over 150 million people.

blissfulinvestor.com

How To Pick The Strategy That Is Right For You! Journal #7 Real Estate for Women

How are you going to choose the real estate strategy that is best for you? Our strategies can change over time as our needs change. That’s what’s going on for Moneeka Sawyer right now, which is why she’s trying something new. In this journal entry, she shares how and why she picked the strategy she is focusing on. How about you? Have you chosen your strategy, and did it work for you? Per your request, Moneeka is doing a “starting something new” video journal. This is entry #7 where you can learn real-time what goes through her mind when she’s starting a new project – how she makes decisions, how she deals with her fears, what factors she considers. Perhaps this will give you some ideas on how you can approach starting something new. Please email Moneeka with your thoughts, feedback, and insights. If you would like a replay of the webinar I mention in this episode, just go to https://blissfulinvestor.com/borwebinarreplay.

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Listen to the podcast here

How To Pick The Strategy That Is Right For You! Journal #7 Real Estate for Women

Real Estate Investing For Women

We’re doing another journal entry. I’d like to talk a little bit about how to pick the exact right strategy for you. This is such an interesting topic. We talk about this a lot whenever I teach a course or we did this in the summit that happened earlier in 2020. I have gone on a completely what might look like a tangent. One of the questions that I got from one of you was, “Everything that we’ve heard, you focus on executive properties. You like to have very few doors.” That’s been my strategy. It keeps me blissful. “Why all of a sudden, have you decided to move to the BOR method with Roger?”

I want to talk about why I’m doing it and hopefully, that’ll give you an insight into how I chose to pursue this strategy. Here’s the truth. Every single week, I talk to another amazing expert on my show and I can’t help but get shiny object syndrome. There are many opportunities and cool things that we can do. One of my highest values is to learn more and to do new things and to have it venture. I’m tempted by all the different opportunities that come across my desk when I’m talking to people on my show. I can’t pursue all of them so I have to pick. You have to pick which ones you’re going to pursue.

I’m sure you go through the same things like, “This is another amazing idea,” but there’s only so much money that you have. There’s only so much time. How do you know if that strategy is for you? I have jumped both feet in with Roger. Let me tell you exactly how and why I chose to do that. When I look at a strategy, first of all, I look at, “Does it make sense financially? Am I excited about it?” In this particular case, I know you ladies have heard that I’m in an appreciation market. I have a ton of equity in the homes here in California, and now I’m looking to change to a cashflow strategy. Cashflow is not something that I’m good at. It’s not something that I focused on.

I made quite a lot of cashflow, but it’s happened because I’ve owned properties for a very long time. So much of my success has been because I’ve given myself the time to be right. A lot of the cashflow has come because I’ve owned these properties for a long time. The rents have gone significantly higher than what I pay in my mortgages and my expenses. I made cashflow, but I don’t make the kind of cashflow I could make if I better utilize the equity in these homes. This is a learning curve for me. I’m taking a look at what kind of strategy can I do to retire David? I’m looking at retiring in 2 or 3 years. For me, retirement is being able to retire David, so we can travel more, replace his income.

I feel like I’m already retired. I’m already doing exactly what I want with my time. I’m cool with it. To be able to free up my husband and release us from the need of his income so that when we feel like taking vacation, we can. When we feel like taking a day off, we can. When we feel like there’s a different priority, like my parents or his parents, we can make that a priority. That’s what I’m talking about is trying to replace my husband’s income. If we’re going to do that, what am I going to do? On this show, we’ve had a lot of people talk about how to buy property. Here’s one thing that’s also interesting. Because we’re in COVID, lending practices have changed dramatically. I’m not able to get loans at all. Even before COVID, I was having trouble because I already have five loans in California. The way the laws work, when you have more than five loans, things become very expensive.

Those loans, I don’t qualify for it. It’s a roundabout way of saying that getting loans is not an option for me now. That will hopefully change and I’m okay with it. I was looking for ways to invest that did not require regular traditional lending. I’ve looked at some things, there are courses that you can take on private money. You’ve read that on my show. There are courses that we can take on no money down. You’ve read that on my show. There are a lot of different things that we can do. I’ve taken some courses. They’re all good. One of the things that I found is that I take the course and it’s good, but I’m not inspired enough to take action. This is a Moneeka problem.

I’m not inspired enough to take action. One of the things that I know for sure is that if I’m not inspired to take action, there’s something in that strategy that goes against my core values. One of my core values is freedom. I feel like I’ve spent the last many years paying my dues. I’ve done a lot of learning. I’ve done a lot of calling. I’ve done a lot of putting together systems. I’ve done a lot of stuff. I’m not particularly excited about taking on a full-time job again to create a new system, to make another strategy work for me. This is a Moneeka problem and not all of you, ladies, are in that same place, but I’m trying to show you that I’m recognizing my faults and the places where I fall down.

I need to find a strategy that allows for that. I am not one to fight myself because the more I fight myself, there’s another part of me that digs in my heels and says, “I don’t want to do that.” I’m spoiled. I needed to find a strategy that aligned with my lifestyle that I like and my core values. When I talked to Roger initially about the Buyer’s Club, there were a couple of things that he said that allowed me to consider this as a possibility. First of all, it required very little money. I had some money put aside that I could invest. I couldn’t buy anything here in California. I needed to get loans if I was going to do that, but I did have this cash that I could use.

The Right Investing Strategy: There’s only so much money and time that you have. How do you know if that strategy is for you?

One of the things that was amazing was that the full price of the house, I could buy several of them with the money that I had put aside. We’re taking a look at sort of the specifics of the strategy. That was good. The other thing that I loved is that basically, I could buy the property for very little money and then I would carry a note. We sell it as a seller carryback. I carry the note of the loan for the person that buys it. They’re purchasing it with a seller financing deal contract. The nice thing about notes is that they’re very low risk. I have this property, I carry a note, that’s a very low risk. It makes me less vulnerable, which I love.

The other thing is I don’t like having to manage my properties. Up until now, I’ve always had executive properties because I don’t like having to manage the properties. I like the tenant to manage the property. If someone is buying the house and I carry the note, now I’m the bank. They are responsible to manage the property and fix it up and do all of those things. Here’s an example of what I mean. If you buy a home and you get a loan, somebody carries the loan. Let’s say one of the banks, Bank of America carries the loan. If something goes wrong in the house, like a light bulb goes out or you need a new kitchen appliance or the tub gets all blocked up or the toilet starts to overflow, you don’t call Bank of America and say, “Come out here and fix this. This is a problem in the house.”

Bank of America is going to say, “Why are you calling me?” They are carrying the note. They’re just the lender. In this particular strategy, that’s exactly what’s happening. I become the lender and not responsible for all of those things in that house. That’s also amazing. It’s low maintenance. It’s aligned with the way that I like to own properties and make cashflow. I don’t have to manage the property. I love that. It’s very low risk and it’s a high return on investment between 33% and 52% or something like that, depending on the property and how you structure the deal. That’s all stuff that Roger will teach. Anybody who’s doing this with me, don’t worry about all of that languaging. Those are the things that I love.

The key here is that it’s a cashflow property. I can take the equity from a home, invest it and then I get a huge amount of cashflow relative to what I’ve invested. I can do that. I can scale it so I can make the income that I need to make to replace my husband’s income as a software programmer. There are many amazing things. There are a lot of good reasons to do it, but those reasons are reasons. That’s all intellectual. The reason that will more than anything else keep me moving forward in a strategy and keep me motivated and help me when times get rough, because no matter what business you’re doing, no matter how good it looks, there are going to be things that go wrong, challenges, rough spots and bad days.

The thing that helps me to move forward on that, first of all, is I have a lot of confidence because I use my bliss strategies regularly. I’m well practice of those and you should get there too so that when challenges happen, I have strategies that will help me to keep myself low stress and calm so that I’m resourceful and I can find ways to fix problems in a way that doesn’t make me crazy or make me lose sleep at night. That’s one of the things. The other thing is to know how this fit into my core values. I’ve said this many times before and I want you to see how this works in my own life. Your core values are going to be the things that determine whether something is aligned with you or not, whether you’re going to feel pulled or whether you’re going to feel aligned.

When something goes wrong, are you going to want to dig your feet in because you’re stressed out or are you going to be pulled forward because it’s a beautiful alignment with who you are and what you want? The best way to do that is to look at your core value. Let’s do that. Some of my top three core values are learning, adventure and trying new things, and giving back. How does this strategy fit into that? First of all, it’s new. There’s a lot of learning that needs to happen. I love that. It’s not complicated, but there is learning and there is expansion. This is the very first time I’m looking at investing out of state. I’ve looked at it a couple of different times with turnkey and stuff like that. I probably will pursue that when I have more cash.

For me, the turnkey thing is not viable because I can’t get loans and that’s what I would need to do. For now, that’s not an option for me, but what I can do is this. I’m going to learn about investing out of state. I’m going to learn about a cashflow strategy, which I’ve never focused on before. There’s a lot of learning for me that I’m excited about, and it’s not going to take a huge amount of time. That’s the other thing is I like to learn. I like to have adventure, but I don’t want it to consume my life and stress me out. It’s not so much that it’s going to consume my life, stress me out, make me feel stupid, but there’s enough that it engages my mind, my heart and my excitement. That’s the other thing about adventure. I like to try new things. This is something new for me.

The other thing is giving back. Everything that I’ve invested in, with one exception, is in a redevelopment area. I like to invest in areas where I’m uplifting the community, where I’m creating something fabulous for a neighborhood that needs that new energy. Most of my homes are executive homes. I put somebody in there, uplift a neighborhood, buy a place, fix it up, put in people that are going to love the home as if it’s their own. I uplift the community. In this particular case, I’m creating housing for people that are on the opposite side of the spectrum. In one place, I’m doing executives and on the other side, this is people that are in trade jobs.

The Right Investing Strategy: Your core values are going to be the things that determine whether something is aligned with you or not

They’re in the trades. They’re doing a lot of the manual labor. They’re in construction. They’re doing things with their hands. How is it possible that I can use one strategy with executives and that this works? Here’s the thing. This plugs into my desire to uplift communities and to give back and to help people. I’m buying a place that has been auctioned off. It’s boarded up. It’s often an eyesore in the neighborhood and that’s true with my executive properties. That’s the kind of properties I often buy there too. I don’t usually buy them from auctions. I buy them as REOs from banks. Here, I’m buying it from an auction house. When I purchase that place and I sell it to somebody, they’re going to go in and fix it up because they purchase it.

I sell it as is. They purchase it. I carry the note. Now, they’re responsible to fix it up. They take down the boards, fix it up, make it livable for them and their family. That then uplifts the neighborhood. Here’s the other piece. Roger told me in one of our conversations, and I think he said it in our webinar. He said he once sold one of these places to a husband and wife of an adorable little family in Florida. When they went over to sign the contract and turn over the keys, the woman started crying. She had a tiny little baby in her hands and she was pregnant with the next child. She was standing in the driveway and she started to cry and Roger was like, “What’s wrong? What happened?”

She says, “These are tears of joy.” When her first baby was born, there were many medical problems, they didn’t have the right coverage, and they were buried in medical bills. After that, they’re paying off their medical bills. She couldn’t even fathom ever being able to own a home for her beautiful little family. Now, here she is, signing a contract and getting keys to her very own home. Roger has 5 or 6 of these stories that he can rattle off the top of his head. I’m sure there are more. His thing was, “I want to be a part of more of those stories,” and I’m with him. I want to be a part of those stories. I want to give back to communities and I want to uplift people’s lives.

This is an opportunity to create housing for people that normally wouldn’t be able to get housing. It’s amazing to me. After taking a look at all the different opportunities that are out there for me and narrowing it down to a few, and then looking at this one with Roger, I was able to dive all in, into this strategy because it aligns with who I am, what I need in my business, whether the numbers work. What do I need? What are my goals? What are my resources? What’s my emotional desire around this and what are my core values? What’s my big why? This particular strategy aligns with all of those things. Of course, I’m all in. No matter what level of frustration there is, no matter how much I have to learn, this feels like a full body, “Yes.”

That may not be true for you. You’ve read a lot of our strategies on my show and out there in the world. This strategy may not be good for you, but when you’re looking at a strategy for yourself, when you’re looking for a way to invest in real estate, take these things into consideration. What is your goal? What do you need? What’s your big why? What’s your emotional desire? What are your resources, time, and money, and ability to get loans in my case, your relationships? What are your core values and how does this line up? That’s why I needed the choices that I’ve made about choosing this new strategy to create the cashflow that I’m looking for in my life. How are you going to do it in the future when you’re looking at a strategy for yourself? Think about that.

I hope this was helpful. I hope this gave you an idea of what’s going on for me and how you can utilize that in your own life. If you happen to be interested in joining me in the Buyer’s Club with Roger so that you can do this same thing, you can listen to our webinar that we have a replay of. To do that, go to BlissfulInvestor.com/borwebinarreplay. Whenever you have any questions, please email me and then either Roger or I will respond. The other thing is I do teach a lot of this stuff about how to determine what strategy is best for you. I’m talking about core values, resources, your big why, all of those things. I do teach that stuff because it’s such a big piece of what my coaching has always been, whether it was with executives or with coaches or with you, ladies.

Real estate investors in my coaching for the last many years, I’ve always used that as a very first jumping off place for people. It’s the foundation. If you’re interested in that, email me and I can send you some links to some coursework you can take a look or you can go to BlissfulInvestor.com, go to courses or events is also another place to look. You can take a look at the coursework that’s available and see if that might be interesting to you. No pressure. You can go with what I’ve talked about. I pretty much summed it up. I hope that was super helpful, ladies. Please let me know if you have any questions. Always remember, goals without action are dreams. Get out there, take action and create the life your heart deeply desires. I’ll see you soon.

Important Links

• BlissfulInvestor.com/borwebinarreplay

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Moneeka Sawyer

Moneeka Sawyer is often described as one of the most blissful people you will ever meet.   She has been investing in Real Estate for over 20 years, so has been through all the different cycles of the market.  Still, she has turned $10,000 into over $5,000,000, working only 5-10 hours per MONTH with very little stress.

While building her multi-million dollar business, she has traveled to over 55 countries, dances every single day, supports causes that are important to her, and spends lots of time with her husband of over 20 years.

She is the international best-selling author of the multiple award-winning books “Choose Bliss: The Power and Practice of Joy and Contentment” and “Real Estate Investing for Women: Expert Conversations to Increase Wealth and Happiness the Blissful Way.”

Moneeka has been featured on stages including Carnegie Hall and Nasdaq, radio, podcasts such as Achieve Your Goals with Hal Elrod,  and TV stations including ABC, CBS, FOX, and the CW, impacting over 150 million people.

blissfulinvestor.com

Real Estate Investing Advice From A Financing Perspective With Jen Du Plessis

There are so many people who claim to know everything about investing, but unless they do it themselves and are on the ground, it’s better not to take their advice. Far from that, Moneeka Sawyer interviews someone who has a wealth of knowledge and experience about real estate investing. She brings over Jen Du Plessis, America’s Mortgage Mastery Mentor, to share with us some great investing advice from the financing perspective. Jen reveals some of the myths of financing and the things you need to know about local lenders while also sharing advice along the way. Believing that we can live our legacy while building it, Jen then reminds us to live a beautiful life and to play with passion.

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Listen to the podcast here

Real Estate Investing Advice From A Financing Perspective With Jen Du Plessis

Real Estate Investing For Women

I am excited to welcome to the show, Jen Du Plessis, America’s Mortgage Mastery Mentor believes that you can live your legacy while you were building by working on purpose to play with passion. She is recognized as an influencer in her industry as the best-selling author of LAUNCH: How To Take Your Business To New Heights. Hosts of the top-rated podcast, Mortgage Lending Mastery, which I’d been on, and is a highly sought out and charismatic international speaker speaking on stages with such icons as Darren Hardy, Tony Robbins, and Les Brown.

She works with mortgage loan officers and real estate professionals who are overwhelmed, stressed out, and sabotaging their personal lives for the sake of their business to help them multiply the results in record time while having the courage to say yes to their personal lives which sometimes means saying no to clients. She has been seen and heard on Good Morning America, Sirius/XM Radio, Voice America, and Mortgage News Network, and has been recognized with the Women With Vision Award as one of the Top 20 Most Powerful Women in the mortgage industry.

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Jen, how are you?

I’m great. I am excited to be here. We had so much fun on my podcast. I can’t wait to have as much fun on yours. We clicked well so it’s an exciting time and I’m happy to share whatever I can for your audience.

I was feeling the same thing. I get to talk to Jen again. I know that your focus is on helping real estate professionals do their job and run their businesses better but tell us a little bit about your investing journey.

I was investing way before. I have ten aunts and uncles. My mom was 1 of 10, five men, five women. All of the men are real estate investors. I was exposed to it since I was young. I was cleaning apartment buildings at Central Michigan University where they own a lot of property. My mom and dad were investors as well. They had a unique way that they did things. That was left to my brother and I when they passed away. We started our own investing. In fact, we bought our first home when we were nineteen years old. My husband and I got married a few months later.

By the time we were 24, we had five properties. At that time, it wasn’t popular for fix and flip and things like that. It was, buy the house and they were cheap back then. You’d save a little money and buy a house. Sometimes we pay cash or we had seller financing and stuff but we did step investing. Part of step investing is also that we didn’t need the cashflow. Therefore, all of the cashflow went back into paying everything off as we went along the line. Later, we traded in the houses for the hotels on the monopoly game and that’s multifamilies and stuff. These days, we’re doing Airbnbs and we’re doing subject tos.

We buy subject to properties. I’m excited about this new market and it’s sad because we’re in COVID challenge. While we’re in the COVID challenge, some people are going to lose their homes. I’m excited about the opportunity to help them, not just to take from them. Furthermore, I was training real estate agents for years and I would ask them, “How many of you own your own home?” I found that a lot of real estate agents never even owned their own homes. They got into real estate and never owned their own home. Those that did own their home, I say, “How many of you have investment properties?”

I can honestly tell you, of the eighteen years I was teaching real estate agents, less than 1% of them owned many homes. To me, that’s like me being a Mary Kay Consultant and saying, “I don’t wear makeup but you should wear makeup.” A sales guy saying, “I still riding on a horse and buggy but you should buy a car.” I found that they weren’t buying their product. I didn’t want to be in that position as a mortgage lender. I wanted to be in a position where I was buying the product that I was helping people achieve and obtain to grow wealth. One of my niches was doing investor loans.

I tell people this all the time. When you’re looking for a mortgage broker or you’re looking for a real estate agent and it’s for your investments, make sure their investors themselves because anybody can sell a house but somebody who understands what it’s like to be an investor, the things you need to look for, they’re going to be a huge asset. I don’t know how or why they do this but a lot of times, they’ll get in the way of you investing in a property because they don’t understand the process. It’s not a perfect home but as an investor, you’re usually not looking for a perfect home for you to live in. A lot of times they don’t understand that you don’t want to see all these condos where they have to be owner-occupied. They’ll keep sending you stuff and it’s not even a qualify for your strategy. It’s important that you are dealing with people that understand what you’re trying to do, and then that could be a huge asset.

I also think that when you deal with people that are in that space, they have their own teams. When your team isn’t available, something goes awry, or they’re too busy, it’s great to be able to tap into their teams as well and the resources.

There are a lot of benefits to dealing with agents and mortgage brokers that get it. Since you’re in mortgages, talk to us about the myths of financing.

We were talking about this in the green room saying, “Are they myths? What are they?” I know that your audience is everywhere from someone who is thinking about investing all the way up to the experienced investor. I want to be careful. I don’t step on any toes on either side. I would say from the perspective of being a mortgage lender and being in the top 200 loan officers in the country, I know what it takes to get these loans done. If you’re starting, go to your local mortgage broker or mortgage lender.

Find someone who understands investments but go to your local mortgage lender. Don’t seek out hard money, private money, and all those things unless it’s a quirky property because otherwise, you’re going to be paying a lot more for it. I would say, start your journey with a traditional mortgage lender and then learn how that process works. For example, after a while, we get to the point where it was painful to get a mortgage and through traditional financing. What do we do? We went to the bank.

That would be your next step. Once you accumulate however many properties, it doesn’t matter, but you have ten mortgages on, you’re going to start running into problems with a traditional lender. That’s going to start scooching you into alternative financing or I call it situational financing where your situation requires that we look elsewhere. That takes you into banking and making it a small commercial loan.

That all by itself is trouble. Good luck with that one. Believe me, we’ve had to go through that and you have to do that as soon as you get past four units anyway, you start heading in that direction. That’s the next step. A lot of people came to me and said, “I’ve been working with this bank for seven months and we can’t get this two-unit closed.” I’m like, “What are you talking about?” It’s knowing that you may have to go through the banking environment. Once you get past the banking environment, there’s a little-known bridge that helps you do build the gap between banking and hard money or private money. Not all hard money and private money is bad.

It’s good but there are this nice little bridge and a lot of people don’t know about it. There are two pieces to it. One is in the mortgage space, there’s something called Qualified Mortgage or QM. This is as a result of Dodd-Frank because of the big credit crisis that we had in 2007 and 2008. As a result of that, everyone has to meet these qualifying mortgage criteria. If they don’t meet those criteria then there was nothing available except going for hard money or maybe finding a bank. They could do a commercial loan. In walks this non-QM, Non-Qualifying Mortgage criteria there are some loose guidelines in there and these are securitized loans. They’re safe. They’re securitized on the secondary market. It’s not like Susie Q out here, Joe Blow, or anything.

Those are good options. The only thing is, there aren’t as many investor options as there are owner-occupied. For example, if you had one day out of bankruptcy, you can get a loan in this as long as it’s owner-occupied. There were a few little non-owner-occupied that allowed you to have more financing on more properties which was not what the traditional lending does. That was a good sense and then we lost QM with COVID. A lot of people don’t know it because of forbearance, everyone stepped back and said, “We’re not going to give anybody a loan and let them not make their payments.” A lot of that has retracted but it’s going to come back and it’s still there. That would be the next step.

Residential, non-QM, banking, and then you get to the financing that I do. I call it situational lending. What I do is I have access to over 45 different lending investors that consist of hard money, private money, securitize money, buy and holds, fix and flips, multi-units, apartment buildings, mixed-used, all of that comes in there. Because of my mortgage experience I’m able to package these loans better than the average person that you would run on the street. I’m able to package these loans, then fish them out to the investors, and find out who’s most interested. Every one of them is case-by-case and I get a finder’s fee. That’s it.

They take over from there and I get a finder’s fee. This has been good for me as was good for me as a lender because if my investors came to me and they had no outlet, instead of saying, “Let me make some phone calls and see if I know Joe Blow down the street who will charge you 12% and four points.” This is a great way for me to move into that market. I’m doing that as well. I’ve got my own private investors and hard money guys too but I still seek them there. I would say, if you’re starting off in investing, I want you to know that there are a couple of gaps that can be filled with some financing and you weren’t aware of rather than going all the way to hard money or private money immediately. There are still options that are wonderful out there for you.

I want to backtrack a little bit to get more clarity. The first thing you said is to go to a local lender and then you said next, you can move to banks. I’m not sure what the difference is between that. Could you clarify?

What’s the difference between a loan officer, mortgage broker, and a lender? The name doesn’t matter for the individual. If you called me a mortgage broker, a mortgage lender, a loan officer, mortgage advisor, it wouldn’t matter. In fact, I was a certified mortgage planner. I have a certification like a CPA in mortgages just like they have in accounting. That doesn’t matter what I’m called. The institution for whom I work with is what’s different. Banks have loan officers sitting in their bank and sometimes, they are the bank loan officers where they can do residential and commercial. Sometimes banks have loan officers sitting in their branches and they are part of the mortgage division of their bank so they don’t do commercial. As a result, they’ll have a commercial loan officer and a residential loan officer still inside of a bank.

Investing Advice: Find someone who understands investments but go to your local mortgage lender. Don’t seek out hard money, private money, and all those things unless it’s a quirky property because otherwise, you’re going to be paying a lot more for it.

You move from there and you go to a mortgage lender. A lot of times, they’re referred to as correspondent lenders. Their staff, their loan officers, originate loans find and help you get a loan. The loan is underwritten to the guidelines of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and maybe another investor like Wells Fargo or Bank of America. A lot of different companies out there. This is how I use the terms, that lender funds using their warehouse line, their line of credit. They fund in their name, and then they sell to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. A broker is a loan officer, the same thing, but they don’t fund in their own name.

They originate the loan, they help you get the loan but they send the loan to Wells Fargo or another lender to have them underwrite, make the decisions, and fund the loan in their name. They’re a finder. A lot of people think that brokers are more expensive, banks are less expensive, or vice versa. The bottom line is we’re all the same. The pricing is all the same. It’s just the way it’s delivered. It’s about who you feel most comfortable with. I will tell you that when you go to a broker and you go to a lender, you’re going to have more options in investing, financing than you will when you go to a local bank. When you go to the bank, you’re going to have their guidelines. Some of them do sell to Fannie and Freddie but it’s a cookie-cutter.

Everybody else can do Fannie and Freddie anyway. Those are the rates that you see every single day. You have more options going through a broker and a correspondent than you do going through a bank. Here’s what I would say. I need a broker, a lender, and a banker in my repertoire. You need every one of them. There’s this thing called overlays. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac put out a box that says, “These are our guidelines.” What happens is there are negotiations of overlays. You’ll say, “How come this lender can do it and that one can’t?”

It’s because it was part of the negotiation. It also might mean that it’s a little bit more expensive because it is a little off, stretching your Band-Aid, or a rubber band, your box. I would have all of them in my repertoire and then I would have the private lender, the private money, or the hard money. Now, I’m introducing two other entities which are the non-QM loan officer who does that type of financing as well as the type of financing that I’m doing which is completely different. I don’t do anything owner-occupied at all. Everything is an investor.

You said you’re the finder, what exactly are you doing? Tell me about what this looks like for my ladies that might want to call you on that.

I had a call with a client and she’s looking at buying an 84-unit apartment building in Atlanta. She has somewhat of a portfolio. She still has to get me some documentation to figure that out. What happens is that I collect all the documentation, I build the package not just in tax returns and things like that, but in the DSCR. I make sure what that is. I made sure I note the comps are out there. They have the experience and I’m building their bank statements, their pay stubs, and everything about the property. I’m building that presentation as well as behind the scenes like, “What do they want to do with this? What is their exit strategy look like? Is there an exit strategy? Is this a buy and hold? What are we trying to do with this?”

I then present that to 40 different investors and say, “Who’s interested.” Everyone goes, “Me.” Believe it or not, there’s this big world out there that most people don’t know about but it’s all done digitally. I upload all the information digitally and then I get back 3 or 4 different people then I hop on the phone and get through the details and make sure that this is an area that we can send to them. They write a letter of intent and then I introduce the two parties to say, “Here you go, take it from here.” I don’t get involved with any of that side of it anymore.

I’m the guide who brings you there and says, “Here are my selections of investors. Which ones do you want to invest in your lenders? Which terms seem to be best for you? You can move forward with that.” I’m building that whole package. Here’s what’s funny. A lot of times, there’s no appraisal required, it’s an equity loan. A lot of times, no credit is required, down payments are required but no income verification. Those were the old days but that was through traditional financing, that is gone, and that is not coming back.

What’s coming back is this new hybrid for investors of no income verification, no asset verification. Sometimes no credit or 10% down on an investment property which you can’t get through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac at all. It’s cool because people value those investors who have experience and know what they’re doing. If you don’t have the experience, that’s okay. You might have to put 20% down but you’d have to do that anyway. They value the experience that investors have. I reward them by making it easy.

Are the rates competitive?

The rates are extremely competitive. I don’t have any issues with any of the rates. They’re scalable depending on the term, sometimes credit score, down payment, how many units. Also, where you are, is there a metropolitan area around you or are you to find something that’s out in the country that’s 84 units. That’s going to have a big play on it as well. As you know, rates are in everything when it comes to investment. It’s about the numbers. My company has lent my other company money at 18% so I can make more money. It’s a different area. I needed the write those on one and I needed the income.

Are those longer-term loans or do they have to be paid off in five years? Does that work?

It ranges. The fix and flips are totally different, 6-month, 12-month, 18-month renewals up to 24 and 36 depending on the situation. The buy and holds are 30-year loans. What we’re looking at for her is a 30-year loan on an apartment building.

That’s unheard of. Are you affiliated with a particular company doing those loans?

It’s my company. Whoever else does this, we all pack into there. This was out of a need for my own need to find alternative financing. I stumbled upon them a few years ago. It’s been a Godsend because there have been some great opportunities. In owner-occupied, I’ve had some traditional loans fall apart. Not in this context because it was owner-occupied but I’d be able to go to my private money lender and still save the deal, refinance it later. It’s a great opportunity. It was out of my own need and that’s how I stumbled across in it. It continued to grow with the fact that investment has continued to grow. There’s more confidence, more data to support the fact that we know someone who has one unit is going to perform differently than someone who has 100 units of properties. There’s common sense in there. There certainly isn’t in residential anymore. It is a cookie-cutter.

Are they still lending during COVID? A lot of the lending money has dried up like you were saying with the non-QM.

In traditional financing, non-QM and Jumbo is gone. There are very few places that are doing Jumbo. I’m not even in the business. This is how I love knowing. Freddie Mac came out and said that they’re going to be reducing their high balance conforming. This is a big problem in a lot of high ticket areas. I live in Loudon County which is the wealthiest County in the United States of America. These loans that they’re talking about, they already have taken away because of COVID and they’re talking about taking back the next layer down because of COVID, these are cookie-cutter houses and it’s going to impact our particular area.

Other areas like Florida where the house values are substantially lower. It’s not going to have an impact. There’s still lending in the non-owner-occupied in the investment space. We had a lot of retraction and then it came back again. We had a retraction again with forbearance when that came out. It dabbled back in a little bit. We lost a chunk of investors that we would have. We’ll have them back eventually but forbearance on a commercial is completely different and what is perceived to be a commercial even if it’s residential is completely different than a residential property. It has more risk. That was a blanket policy.

There’s an awful lot to think about around lending.

This is why you need to get with someone who knows what they’re talking about.

That’s exactly where I was headed. Sometimes you read this stuff. Ladies, you might be reading this and going, “My head just blew up. I don’t even know what they’re talking about.” That is true. Even for me, every once in a while, someone will come on the show, “Jen said a couple of things.” I was like, “What does that mean?” I was a mortgage lender. Things are changing all the time. Ladies, don’t get intimidated. The key is to find some people that are investors themselves so they’re interested in this financing that’s going to be a little bit different. It’s going to have different rates, different opportunities, different languaging, and you want to make sure that you’re talking to somebody who understands it themselves so that you’re not having to educate them. They can educate you and take a look at all the options.

Educating on your timeline, your time clock, and your money. I would say if someone is reading this and they’re thinking about buying something that isn’t going to be traditional financing for whatever reason whether it’s the condition of the property, the type of the property, location, or no longer qualifies for traditional financing is to get with me or someone like me in advance. Get your financials to pull together. The deal of the century comes around every week. Anytime it comes around, you aren’t starting from scratch. You get your ducks in a row.

Investing Advice: When you go to a broker and you go to a lender, you’re going to have more options in investing, financing than you will when you go to a local bank.

You said something interesting. There are many times we go out and we look at a property and we’re like, “I have to have this one. There’s never going to be another deal like this one.” The same thing will happen next week or next month. There is no such thing as a deal that you have to have. There are good deals that come up. You want to make sure that you put yourself in a position that if you find an amazing deal, you can take it. If you find an amazing deal and it’s not awesome, you can walk away because you’re set up to do another one. You don’t have to make bad decisions because you think this is the only deal and you’ve got the financing set up for this deal. You want to make sure you are positioned to make the best choices and buy the best properties for your strategy.

Hurry up and stop or stop and hurry up. Both ways are crazy. Getting a call saying, “I have to close in ten days.” Good luck. I can do that on a subject to but I can’t do that in others.

Tell everybody how they can reach you if they do want to ask you questions.

The best way to reach me is [email protected], that’s my email address. Reach out to me and say, “I’d like to have a conversation and get my ducks in a row for something or have you explained this. Not so fast.” I’ve been doing this for many years so I know what I’m doing but have that conversation. You might want to talk it through and say, “I’m not ready to do anything yet but I want to understand it a little bit more.” I’m happy to answer your questions especially as women, we need to be lifting, supporting, and leading each other up. That would be the best way to get a hold of me.

Thank you for that. As women, we do need to be lifting each other up. It’s important. Thank you for offering your time. We’re going to go into our three rapid-fire questions but before that, let’s talk a little bit about what you’re going to be talking about in EXTRA. I know you got some juicy stuff so why don’t you share those.

As my bio said, I believe that people can live their legacy while they’re building their legacy. Often, we’re laser-focused on building and not having this beautiful life at the same time and then dying and not the life, or retiring and then passing away not too many months later because now that purpose has gone. I believe that we can live our legacy while we are building in it but it requires that you’re working with focus so that you can play with passion. That working on focus for me is mastering your priorities so that you can be the master of your life. If it takes you an endless amount of time to do something then you will take that endless amount of time to do it but if you have a timeline, you will finish it. If I gave you 5 miles on a flight path where you had to take off, you would take the whole 5 miles. If I said, “You have to get this plane off the ground before you hit that tree 100 yards away.” You would do it.

What I do is I help loan officers, realtors, and investors how to prioritize everything in their lives. I call it Lifestyle Business Mastery so they can have the best of both worlds. In real estate investing, when the gurus say, “You can be an investor, you need one hour a night to dedicate.” You’re sitting there and going, “What am I going to do in that one hour? I don’t have a plan. I don’t have a strategy. I’ve got all these kid things going on and I can never get to it.” That’s what we’re going to talk about is some of the steps to take to start getting in that direction. I have four businesses, they’re all doing well and it’s because I know how to manage my priorities. I don’t do things that aren’t going to move me forward and serve my greater purpose in life and the outcome I want. That’s what we’re going to talk about.

We’re going to be talking about lifestyle, business, mastery, and EXTRA. That’s going to be amazing. I’m excited about that. Tell us one super tip on how to get started investing in real estate?

Know what type of real estate aligns with your core values, your passion, and your financial wherewithal right now.

What is one strategy for being successful in real estate investing?

Draw a line in the sand for your cashflow, don’t waiver. If your cashflow is every house has to cashflow $250 then do not sign the contract for $249, $9.99. Don’t do it.

There’s this line and we have to cross it.

You do not cross this line ever even, “I love the house. It’s cute.” Do not cross that line because once you start crossing it, it becomes a habit and you make bad mistakes.

The next one is, what is one daily practice that you do that you would say contributes to your personal success?

For me, it’s time management, it’s priority management. I get up and I know exactly what I need to do. I get in, I get out, and I go play. That is the key to it. If you master your priorities, you can become the master of your life. We all have the same 24 hours. I maneuver within them quite different than other people to everything that I want to excel. I don’t care if it’s personal or business. If I want to excel something, I maneuver that. I mastered those priorities and make the right choices. It’s small choices that can bite you. They’re like mosquitoes. The constant small choices versus the big elephant. It’s not the big choices that hurt you, it’s the small ones that hurt.

I can’t wait to hear more about that in EXTRA.

I can’t wait to share it. Come on over.

This has been awesome, Jen. Thank you for all that you’ve shared in this portion of the show.

You’re welcome. Good luck to everybody. Thank you for having me.

Ladies, we’ve got more coming in EXTRA. If you’re subscribed, stay tuned. If you’re not subscribed but would like to be, go to RealEstateInvestingForWomenExtra.com and you can subscribe. You get seven days for free so you can get this EXTRA and then many others, see if it’s for you. If it’s not, you don’t subscribe but at least you can try it out. For those of you that are leaving us, thank you for joining Jen and I for this portion of the show. I appreciate you. I look forward to seeing you next time. Until then, remember, goals without action are just dreams so get out there, take action, and create the life your heart deeply desires. I’ll see you soon.

Important Links

• LAUNCH: How To Take Your Business To New Heights
• Mortgage Lending Mastery
• [email protected]

About Jen DuPlessis

Jen Du Plessis, America’s Mortgage Mastery Mentor helps mortgage loan officers and real estate agents who are overwhelmed, stressed out, and sabotaging their personal lives for the sake of their business to multiply results in record time and have the courage to say yes to their personal lives (which sometimes means saying no to clients).

During fifteen of her 37-year career in the mortgage industry, Jen has been listed in the top 1% of loan officers nationwide; spending 3 years in the top 200 of nationally ranked originators and has funded over $1 Billion in mortgage loans. She is recognized as an Influencer in her industry as the best-selling author of LAUNCH-How to Take Your Business to New Heights, top podcast host of Mortgage Lending Mastery, and highly sought out and charismatic speaker; speaking on stages with such icons as Darren Hardy, Tony Robins and Les Brown.

Today Jen is passionate about empowering mortgage loan officers to achieve professional and personal breakthroughs so that they stop the daily chaos by identifying their priorities to gain calm to take back control of their business and life. She is guiding her coaching students to attract clients rather than chasing them. And lastly, she is devoted to helping each student’s business grow exponentially rather than hitting the reset button to have the same results year-after-year.

She has been seen and heard on Good Morning America, Sirius/XM Radio, Voice America and Mortgage News Network.  Jen has been featured in publications such as The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post; is a regular contributor to Mortgage Executive Magazine and Mortgage Women Magazine and has been recognized with the Women with Vision Award as one of the Top Women in the Mortgage Industry.

Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share!

Moneeka Sawyer

Moneeka Sawyer is often described as one of the most blissful people you will ever meet.   She has been investing in Real Estate for over 20 years, so has been through all the different cycles of the market.  Still, she has turned $10,000 into over $5,000,000, working only 5-10 hours per MONTH with very little stress.

While building her multi-million dollar business, she has traveled to over 55 countries, dances every single day, supports causes that are important to her, and spends lots of time with her husband of over 20 years.

She is the international best-selling author of the multiple award-winning books “Choose Bliss: The Power and Practice of Joy and Contentment” and “Real Estate Investing for Women: Expert Conversations to Increase Wealth and Happiness the Blissful Way.”

Moneeka has been featured on stages including Carnegie Hall and Nasdaq, radio, podcasts such as Achieve Your Goals with Hal Elrod,  and TV stations including ABC, CBS, FOX, and the CW, impacting over 150 million people.

blissfulinvestor.com

Lifestyle Business Mastery with Jen DuPlessis

Today I’d like to welcome to the show our guest Jen Du Plessis

About Jen DuPlessis

Jen Du Plessis, America’s Mortgage Mastery Mentor and believes that you can live your legacy while you are building by working on purpose to play with passion!

She is recognized as an Influencer in her industry as the best-selling author of LAUNCH-How to Take Your Business to New Heights, host of the Top Ranked podcast Mortgage Lending Mastery, and is a highly sought out and charismatic international speaker; speaking on stages with such icons as Darren Hardy, Tony Robbins and Les Brown.

She works with mortgage loan officers and real estate professionals who are overwhelmed, stressed out, and sabotaging their personal lives for the sake of their business, to help them multiply their results in record time while having the courage to say yes to their personal lives (which sometimes means saying no to clients).

She has been seen and heard on Good Morning America, Sirius/XM Radio, Voice America and Mortgage News Network and has been recognized with the Women with Vision Award as one of the Top 20 most Powerful Women in the Mortgage Industry.

In This Episode We Talked About

How Jen has mastered her business to live the lifestyle she desires and you can too!

Moneeka Sawyer

Moneeka Sawyer is often described as one of the most blissful people you will ever meet.   She has been investing in Real Estate for over 20 years, so has been through all the different cycles of the market.  Still, she has turned $10,000 into over $5,000,000, working only 5-10 hours per MONTH with very little stress.

While building her multi-million dollar business, she has traveled to over 55 countries, dances every single day, supports causes that are important to her, and spends lots of time with her husband of over 20 years.

She is the international best-selling author of the multiple award-winning books “Choose Bliss: The Power and Practice of Joy and Contentment” and “Real Estate Investing for Women: Expert Conversations to Increase Wealth and Happiness the Blissful Way.”

Moneeka has been featured on stages including Carnegie Hall and Nasdaq, radio, podcasts such as Achieve Your Goals with Hal Elrod,  and TV stations including ABC, CBS, FOX, and the CW, impacting over 150 million people.

blissfulinvestor.com

Maximize Profit on a Vacation Rental with Ryan Matthews

Ryan Matthews is an inspirational speaker, author and decorated veteran who trained elite Army K-9s and then became a civilian dog-trainer using his proven formula to train over 3,000 dogs. He earned almost $1,000,000 in 2½ years. As a workaholic; his success was plagued by the effects of a childhood trauma and PTSD. At age 30 he was diagnosed with multiple, life-threatening conditions.

After a near-death experience, he felt like a failure. He decided to transform himself and

share his story to help others thrive.

Author of “The Canine Connection” and “Heel Your Dog, Heal Your Life”, Ryan mission in life is to share his gifts and talents to positively transform the lives of others. His TEDx talks are called “Overcoming PTSD with Dog Training Techniques” and “Let’s Treat Each Other More Like Dogs.”

For more information visit www.WorldOfDogTraining.com.

In this portion of the show we discussed:

• 5 things people are looking for in a vacation rental
• How to get top dollar for your vacation rental property

Moneeka Sawyer

Moneeka Sawyer is often described as one of the most blissful people you will ever meet.   She has been investing in Real Estate for over 20 years, so has been through all the different cycles of the market.  Still, she has turned $10,000 into over $5,000,000, working only 5-10 hours per MONTH with very little stress.

While building her multi-million dollar business, she has traveled to over 55 countries, dances every single day, supports causes that are important to her, and spends lots of time with her husband of over 20 years.

She is the international best-selling author of the multiple award-winning books “Choose Bliss: The Power and Practice of Joy and Contentment” and “Real Estate Investing for Women: Expert Conversations to Increase Wealth and Happiness the Blissful Way.”

Moneeka has been featured on stages including Carnegie Hall and Nasdaq, radio, podcasts such as Achieve Your Goals with Hal Elrod,  and TV stations including ABC, CBS, FOX, and the CW, impacting over 150 million people.

blissfulinvestor.com