Today I want to talk with you about the three biggest mistakes that I’ve made in my real estate investing career. The first one was really diving in without being educated properly. My wife and I, we bought a bunch of properties at the wrong time, and we got crushed by the recession. So we didn’t take a lot a time to learn about market cycles and buying real estate at the right price. We had very good high paying jobs at that time. And we just assumed that if anything should change well we’d be able to cover anything with our income. That was stupid, all right? So education is critical. Understand exactly what you are doing so that you prepare for bad times. Because bad times do happen, and you have to be able to roll with those punches.

Second. I didn’t get a mentor early enough. This kinda goes hand in hand with education, right? If you have a good mentor? They can help you understand a lot of these things from their own experiences. So, you can get a lot of education from books, but I think experience is one of the best teachers. So why not rely on the experiences of somebody that’s been doing this 20, 30 years. They can teach you so much more than you can get from any guru course or anything like that. So rely on the experiences of others. Take those experiences, understand them and then apply them to your own investing strategy.

And then finally the biggest mistake I made was, once I got those things in my life, education, good mentor? I didn’t go big enough. I didn’t go big enough right away. I was still timid. I was still hurt from getting crushed in the recession. So if you wanna get big? You gotta commit. You gotta be all in to going all in. So scale your business. Just put it out there that you’re gonna get big. There is no other choice, okay, but to get big in real estate. So those are my top three lessons that I’ve learned so far. I’m sure there’s gonna be more to come. But if you’re thinking about getting started? Take heed of those three things. Get educated. Get yourself a mentor. And then once you get the understanding, go big or go home.

If you got any questions, we can be a resource to you. Check us out at odellbarnesreo.com Find us on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/OdellBarnesREO Or Instagram at www.Instagram.com/OdellBarnesREO and then be sure to like and subscribe on our YouTube channel.

I’m coming to you today with confessions of a reformed financial advisor. Today I’m going to be talking to you about something really important called inflation. To understand what you need to put aside for your financial future, you have to understand how inflation works and how it’s going to impact your ability to have the same spending power by the time you get to retirement compared to what you have today. Let’s talk about one of the biggest causes of inflation, which is going to be population.

1993, 25 years ago, we had five and a half billion people on the planet, and today, we have about 7.6 billion. That doesn’t seem … it’s about one and a … so one and a half percent growth over time, but two billion people, I don’t care how big the planet is, it’s going to make an impact. Basically what that means is that cost of goods is going to continue to go up because we’ll have a shorter and shorter supply, unless we find ways to replicate things like on Star Trek. So just think about what things cost 25 years ago compared to what they cost today. Just in simple terms, a stamp was about 30 cents. Today it is about 50 cents. A gallon of gas was about 1.10, and today is about 2.75. If you think things aren’t going to cost you more by the time you hit retirement, think again.

Now, I know what you’re thinking, “Well, I’ll be continually making more money.” That’s not necessarily the case because wages are actually flat over the last several years. So, while productivity has gone up because of technology and other things, people aren’t paying us more to do it. So you have to consider that when you’re thinking about, “All right. Am I going to make enough money to combat inflation over time?” Obviously we deal in real estate, and we’re not into mutual funds and stocks and things like that which your financial advisor is going to try and sell you. Those are fine products and I think you should diversify and have a multitude of things, but here’s why rental properties are going to help you outpace inflation.

Let’s say for instance that your ultimate goal is to have 100K in annual income by the time you retire, and that’s in today’s dollars by the way. So if inflation keeps going at the pace that it is, which is currently 3.22% over time, then that means you’re going to have to have something that kicks off 222,000 a year in 25 years from now. What does that mean? Well that means you’re probably going to need to have about 4.5 million saved. If that kicks off, a 5% return on investment every year, which is conservative. I mean, the older you get the more conservative you become. So, that number seems really large.

A lot of people think, “All right. Well, I have an aspiration of $100,000 but saving four and a half million seems kind of tough, especially when my wages aren’t going up and the cost of everything that I buy is going up.” Let me show you how real estate can make the difference. Remember that the average inflation was 3.22%. Guess how much rents have gone up in just the last 25 years. They’ve gone up 15%. Since 1960, they’ve gone up 64%. That’s pretty significant. So you have to find a way to get involved in real estate because it’s one of the few ways that is going to give you a real asset that gives you significant growth beyond inflation, and is going to give you income in retirement. So this is going to kick off income for you every single month.

Think about that four and a half million dollars. Well, if the average rent was $450 a month, that means you need 41 rental properties to kick off that kind of income. Do the math. How many rental properties would you have to buy between now and retirement to make that number happen? That number doesn’t seem so big, so especially when you can get involved in real estate at pennies on the dollar with some of the deals that we have. So check us out at odellbarnesreo.com, and if you’ve got further questions on this kind of topic or anything else, don’t hesitate to give us a call. We’d love to work with you help you build your own portfolio that you can use to fund your retirement and maybe even quit your job a little bit sooner. Check us out today at OdellBarnesREO.com on Facebook at Facebook.com/OdellBarnesREO or on Instagram at www.Instagram.com/OdellBarnesREO.com or on our YouTube Channel

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In this video I am going to talk to you a little bit about virtual wholesaling and exactly what that is. Essentially, what we do is we do buy properties in bulk from banks and auctions around the country. Then obviously, we are based out of Florida so I cannot be in Missouri or Michigan or Ohio or Delaware or wherever it is we have properties. So we have to sell those virtual. How do we do that?

Well, we have a large database of buyers that we have building up over the years. And the easiest way to do that is to begin building your buyers list. So you have to start finding and networking with people in areas in which you can acquire property and say, “Listen, I am buying properties. Tell me a little bit more about you’re looking for and how I can provide that property to you.

If you don’t have a buyers’ list in anywhere but you have a property, you can still virtually wholesale the property quite easily. We do this a number of different methods. It’s going to be Facebook, Facebook Marketplace, Facebook groups, Facebook garage sale groups, Craigslist, Zillow, Trulia, and on and on and on, Instagram. There are several different places, bigger pockets, so many different places that you can sell properties today. So virtual wholesaling, you need, in order to understand, what is the value of this particular property, there are tools that will allow you to do that.

One, you can speak with a local realtor. They can give you an idea of what the MLS comps are, which are the most valid pieces of justification that are going to detail what a property is actually worth. Second, you can get this information also from Zillow or Icons.com or Realtor.com. So you can do a virtual drive through that neighborhood on Google maps. If all the properties are boarded up, that maybe that’s not a property that you want to buy or maybe it is. Maybe you say, “Well, alright, I know I can get this property for pennies on the dollar and I can sell it for just a few more pennies per dollar than I paid for it and make a quick profit.

So virtual wholesaling is not hard. It is scary to a lot of people cause they say, “Well, I can’t see it, I can’t touch it, I can’t taste it.” But once you are able to do it enough, you begin to get confidence in what kind of properties you are dealing with and what those properties are worth. So the biggest step is one, take action, two, educate yourself about that area, find buyers and then find a property. If you don’t have buyers in any particular area, then you might not want to start out that way. You might want to start in areas in which you do have buyers and then build upon that until you have gotten enough confidence to know that, alright, if I pay $5,000 for a property today, even if I don’t have any buyers in that area, I know I can quickly sell this for 75 hundred to ten thousand dollars, just based on information that you are able to gather from the internet or even from people with boots on the ground in that area.

If you’ve got questions about how we can help you do this, we are happy to give any advice on it. Reach out to us at odellbarnesreo.com on Facebook.com/odellbarnesreo or even Instagram.com/odellbarnesreo This is what we do. We do it daily. We do it quite well and we will be happy to assist you in doing it as well so that you can build a real estate investing business for yourself.

Let me tell you about the trolls we get in our business.  We buy real estate in bulk from banks that most people would run away from.  They come with problems, but they also come with great opportunity because of the price at which we’re able to buy them and at the price we sell to our buyers.  We work a lot of our business on Facebook and target ads to areas in which we have properties in order to get the word out to that community that they property is available, so we get a lot of trolls local to these areas.  They may even know the property having seen it around town.  People that have nothing better to do than to scroll Facebook and comment their useless opinion.  Here are some examples:

“That house is a piece of s&%* and should be torn down”

“You guys are scam artists”

“You should be thrown in jail for selling such a piece of crap”

It goes on and on.  Initially, this really used to bother me and get under my skin, but now I really just kind of feel bad for these people.  I feel bad because I realize that they’re doing nothing with their God given potential and they know it.  So, they lash out and attack others that are taking action that they’re too damn scared to take.  It helps them justify who they are or better yet, who they aren’t.  Furthermore, I think that they are missing the opportunity to make their community a better place to live.  Who really likes driving through town seeing empty houses that need work?  Take some pride and share the post and maybe you can help revitalize your own community.  The realist in me says this will never happen, but maybe, just maybe one troll will read this and redeem their ways.  I really do wish I could help these people see that the problem isn’t a property that I’m selling; the problem is them.  The fact is, that people never change; unless they change.

If you’ve ever been a troll, I encourage you to take a good hard look at yourself and ask yourself if it’s the person you want to be.  Do you need to attack someone on their business?  Do you need to have that argument online that Trump is the best or Trump is the worst?  Do you need to belittle someone for the way they do things?  How do those things really serve your life and your purpose?  Do they make you a better person?  Do you really think you’re going to convince someone that your belief is the best?  Here’s the truth; you won’t and you’re wasting your time.  Dedicate your time to being positively productive.  The problem isn’t someone else, the problem is you.  If you get upset reading this, then that’s a good indicator that I’m telling you the truth and you need to make a change.

If you’re not a troll and have been attacked by one of these bozos, the best advice I have is just keep doing what you’re doing.  Having some haters is an indicator that you’re on the right track to doing great things.  Block them, move on and know that you’re seizing the opportunity that they refuse to.

Be great!

Ben

“Uncle G” as he’s called to his students, is simply one of the best marketing and sales guys in the world; if not the best.  The first event I attended of Grants was in Miami a couple of weeks ago.  It was just a one day event that had guest speakers like billionaire Sara Blakely (owner of the Spanx empire), her husband Jesse Itzler (creator of Marquis Jet, and Ziko Coconut Water) and Daymond John (creator of FUBU and huge entrepreneur from the show Shark Tank).  It was a great event, packed with value and I got some great insights from Grant and the guest speakers on marketing and scaling a business.  That event, is largely a tune up for the big 10X Boot Camp and a way for Grant to build that audience and sell some tickets.  It’s effective, because he whetted my appetite enough to want to pay for the 3 day event.

The 10X Boot Camp was 3 full days of breaking down the inner workings of your money, your marketing and sales cycle and your team.  It was like drinking from a fire hose but it was incredibly enlightening.  When I tell you that Grant went full throttle the entire time, I’m not exaggerating.  The man is 60 years old and after the event, he was getting in a round of golf late Sunday afternoon.  All I wanted to do was crawl into bed and give my brain a rest and he’s still going!  Unbelievable.

Anyway, Grant is one of the few people in the space of entrepreneurship that I listen to.  The other two are Andy Frisella (MFCEO Project, 1st Phorm Supplements) and Ed Mylett (World Financial Group, The Ed Mylett Show) both of which have been speakers for Grant at his 10X Growth Con event.  When a man owns his own $50 million dollar jet, and over half a billion in real estate, you tend to listen to what he has to say about building a brand and a company.  A lot of events that I’ve been to (I’ve been to a bunch), aren’t heavy on content.  They tend to be a lot of fluff without any real strategies involved.  Grant ALWAYS over-delivers at his events.  Now, will he try to sell you some other products he has?  You had better believe it.  I walked in expecting to get pitched, and it happened quickly.  It’s who Grant Cardone is and I cannot hate on him for it.  He asks for the sale better than anyone I’ve ever seen.

Grant’s entire team is incredibly talented and dedicated to the entire enterprise which was so great to see.  Each person is not only very good at what they do, but very nice, driven and passionate about the entire 10X universe.  Everyone is approachable, including Grant and his lovely wife Elena.  Given the size of their following, it’s like meeting a celebrity, but they’re genuine and great people that are really trying to help and bring people up in the world which really inspires me to want to do the same.

I won’t share everything from the event as I’d be here typing all night.  But I’ll share just a few of my favorites:

1.  Money follows attention

2.  You cannot get time and money, unless you invest heavy amounts of time and money 

3.  Stay broke and keep raising your targets

#1 was definitely my biggest takeaway from the event  We are not yet known enough in the market and that’s got to change.  So, expect to see a lot more content from us in the coming weeks and months.  I might offend some of you with the amount of content, and I’m willing to accept that and take full responsibility of it to grow and expand our business.  With that being said, we are going to do our best to make it valuable and useful to you in the real estate space and I sincerely invite you to share your thoughts along the way.  My ultimate goal is to create a large investing community that grows together.  Whether you’re buying 20 houses a year, looking to do your first deal, or looking to buy a house for yourself and figure out how you can make a better future for yourself, we want to help you!  It’s our intention to find great deals on property around the country to sell you and help you make some money or passive income in the process.  I look forward to it, and I hope you do as well. 

Be great! 

Ben

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Recommended Reading:

The 10X Rule   Be Obsessed or Be Average

I didn’t realize it at the time, but a can of SPAM gave me one of life’s greatest lessons about being poor.  At one of the lowest times in my life, all I had to eat in my house was literally a can of SPAM.  It was something my former roommate had left behind after he left me holding the bag on a lease.  What a great gift!  I remember it like it was yesterday because I remember eating it and saying to myself, I’ll never let myself get into this position again.  SPAM changed my life!  How many people can say that?

Fast forward 21 years to where we’re growing into successful investors, and it would be so easy to take the money we make on a deal and then go out and blow it on crap that won’t mean anything to me in a few years.  I try to think about what I really need when it comes to my income and I stay broke.  I need the following:

• To feed my family

• To pay my bills

That’s it.  What else to I really need?  Anything else is going to keep me poor by driving up my cost of living.  Do I want to drive a nicer car?  Hell yeah.  Do I want to live in a nicer house?  Of course.  Do I want to take a trip to Europe?  Absolutely.  Here’s what else I want; complete financial freedom.  Working and staying broke helps me get closer to that primary goal every single day.  If I work and stay poor, it’s not going to happen and I might be faced with that can of SPAM once again.  That alone keeps me pressing forward.

So what do you do?  Invest in yourself.  If you’re getting a good score every now and then with your properties, figure out how you can take those scores and buy some more scores.  How can you stack wins?  Figure out specifically how many wins you need to stack before you can start getting some of the things you want in life.  What’s your number?  Where do you become not only free, but have the freedom to do the things you dream of?  You have to figure out that number and work your way backwards.  How many rental properties will it take?  How many notes will it take?  Notice I didn’t say how many wholesale deals or fix and flips will it take?  That’s a job and it’s not freedom.  You need to focus on income streams that are as passive as possible.

Only more income will get you free.  Ask us how we can help you create more income with our properties today!  This is a movement to help as many investors get free as possible.  Are you getting on board?

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Here’s why.  They don’t understand the key investing questions that we ask ourselves when we look at a deal.  Better yet, they may just not know the right questions.  Isn’t that often the case when it comes to getting what you want out of life?  Successful people ask better questions and as a result, they get better answers.  Thank you Tony Robbins for drilling that into my head.  If I ever meet you in person, that’s the one thing I’ll tell you that you’ve helped me with; asking better questions.

Anyway, here are the key questions and how we look at them

1.  Why are we investing in this?

Are we buying this to flip?  Are we buying it to fix and flip?  Are we buying this to hold a note?  Why are we getting this property.  In other words, I have to think with the end in mind and work my way backwards on every deal.  If I can’t flip it, can I hold it and create cash-flow?

2.  How much work will this investment require?

How much time will it take for me to handle this deal from start to finish?  Time is money right?  So if we’re concerned about velocity of capital, we have to think about how we would price it to get it off the books quickly.  We have to consider if there’s a market for it in that area, and the other needs that go into moving the property.  We try to delegate as much as we can, but every property needs something.

3.  Will it be a win for us and for our investors / buyers?

We look at deals to make sure everyone wins on the deal.  Do we win as a company?  Do our buyers win when they get the deal?  Do the people who buy on a note win?  Do they get a property cheaper than market rents?  Do they get a project they can handle?  If you set up your investment to help everyone win, I think that pays dividends you cannot even count.

4.  What are the risks?

Every investment comes with risk.  However, my mentor said something to me once that has stuck with me in every real estate deal I’ve done.  “Price cures all”.  If you buy a deal at the right price, then your risk is very, very low.  Think about the Great Recession.  So many people, including myself, bought at the worst time.  So, if you’re following the crowd on deals, let me just tell you, at some point, you will get burned.  Take calculated risk and if your model tells you the most you’ll pay for a property is ‘X’.  Then you had better not pay ‘Y’ because you’ll likely end up regretting it.

5.  What are the rewards?

What is the upside potential of a deal?  Fortunately, we look for multiple exit strategies, so we have a good idea about what we’ll end up with on a deal.  However, the market really determines what you can get out of a deal so you’ve got to have a good pulse of what the upside potential is before laying out money on an investment.  Know how to look at comps.  Talk to your network in the area.  Cold call investors, management companies and realtors.  To fully understand the impact of your network, go back our post on The Power of Networking

6.  Can we make it a passive investment?

This is critical and always my favorite question to ask on anything that we buy.  Can we make this a deal that creates passive income?  Financial freedom is totally tied to the amount of income you have coming in.  I cannot be free, if I trade time for money.  My goal is to trade the money I have for income in my investments.  Once your passive income exceeds your monthly obligations, that’s the critical mass of freedom baby!  I have my eye on that number every single day and it’s measured to the penny.

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A quick blog post this week on someone that I think you should all know, if you don’t already.  One of my mentors is Andy Frisella.  He may not know that he’s my mentor, but I think he’s one of the people I can count on one hand that has helped me beyond words.  Andy Frisella has become my go to guy for inspiration and practical strategy as an entrepreneur. He can be a tough pill for some people to swallow because of his direct and unabashed honesty, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. If you’ve never listened to his podcast, The MFCEO Project, you’re doing yourself a major disservice.

The reason I love the quote in this photo, is because it calls upon the law of attraction and the rules of the universe. What you think, you become. If you think you’re going to be successful, tell yourself that every single day and create a vivid visual of what that looks like, your brain will find a way to manifest it. If you focus on things that don’t drive you towards your goal (drugs, alcohol, TV watching, scrolling Facebook, staring at a wall, etc) you’ll get exactly the result that comes along with those things. That result is the status quo. You’ll be one of those people that thinks “why can’t I get a break?”. “That guy is so lucky.” Blah, blah, blah.  The truth is, luck has nothing to do with it.

To become the best, you have to feed yourself with the best. The best thoughts. The best information. The best mentors. The best peers. Surround yourself with people playing at the level you want to be at.  When I meet Andy face to face, I will shake his hand and thank him eternally for what he does by giving back his experiences and sharing his successes and struggles with the world. If by some small chance you’re reading this Andy; thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! What you do matters and you’ve changed my life immensely.

You can check him out at the links below.  If you’ve never listened, but your big boy / girl pants on because he is unfiltered.  I hope you enjoy his content as much as I do and that it helps you achieve more in whatever it is you do.  If you do, please share it with someone that you think it will help.

Be Great!

https://andyfrisella.com/blogs/mfceo-project-podcast

www.AndyFrisella.com

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