Real Estate Investing Mastery Podcast

Every real estate investor needs to be thinking about two things: taxes and entity asset protection. Tommy Thornburgh from Prime Corporate Services joins me today to talk about both. I’ve been working with Tommy and his company for years and recommend them to my students and clients – they’re such a great resource for the community.When you’re new to real estate, you may have a ton of questions about taxes and how to structure your business to get the most benefits and protection. Tommy recommends getting everything set up at the very start before you start doing deals. Make sure you have a system in place to keep track of your expenses. Having a tax professional familiar with the real estate files for you ensures you don’t miss any of the many deductions available to investors. The money you spend on these services almost always comes back in tax savings.Visit www.joemccall.com/LLC to find out how you can set up your own LLC and get your taxes done with Tommy and his team. What’s Inside:—Why you should

Larry Goins was one of my original mentors back in 2005 when I started to take interest in the real estate industry. Even before everyone else started doing real estate day trading, Larry was already doing it for many years and he’s been in the business for a very long time.When I was getting my feet wet in the real estate business, I devoured every course and book Larry put out. The way he taught and talked about real estate was very simple, very down-to-earth, and very easy to understand and apply. Larry has been in the business for 35 years now and a couple of years ago, I had the pleasure of creating a little course with this powerhouse.We’re re-launching this course and re-opening the doors for anyone who just wants to sink their teeth into the business even if you don’t have thousands of dollars to spend on marketing. The course is called Small Town Profits and we’re doing a live webinar where Larry will talk about how he got into the business, what he does to thrive in a market full of competition, and

Gavin knows firsthand what it’s like to encounter a scammer. In his case, they created a fake power of attorney, and he didn’t catch it until after they went to send the money during closing. Bad guys are everywhere today and advances in technology make scammers hard to catch. That’s why due diligence is so important. No matter if you’re just starting out or a veteran in the real estate game, skipping your own investigation and research in a deal could have big consequences.When you’re emotionally involved in something, common sense can go out the window. Even if you’re the smartest person in the world, it’s easy to miss the signs when excitement takes hold of you. When you’re too eager and skip the due diligence process, you might find yourself out of money and looking for a lawyer. Whenever something feels too good to be true, it probably is. Always trust your gut and stay alert to steer clear of scammers.What’s Inside:—Why the due diligence process is so important in real estate deals.—Examples of what sca

For some reason, there’s always been a disconnect between investors and realtors. I want to banish that forever, because if you’re not working with realtors, you’re missing out. They have the resources to help you find deals and get the highest price, whether you’re looking to sell houses or land. When it comes to investment properties, you’ll want to work specifically with an investor-friendly agent. It’s really easy to find them and I’ll show you the tools and tricks I use to do so.Realtors can list your properties on the MLS where they’ll get thousands of eyes. They can also act as boots on the ground if you’re not working with local real estate. With residential homes, they’ll be able to tell you what kind of neighborhood a listing is in and provide some insider information. If you’re working with vacant land, they might be able to provide information on local codes and zoning restrictions as well as whether there’s water, power, and sewer. Realtors also have access to premium listing accounts and website

One of my favorite topics to cover lately is land investing. I’ve been doing it for about 3 or 4 years now and have been ramping it up over the last several weeks. As you may already know, my teenage sons have been working on land deals with me on a very part-time basis. We’ve done about $150K in deals so far and we’re just now getting into selling land with owner financing.Ligia and Mike are a couple from Colorado who reinvests their land deals into bigger properties that produce longer-term cash flow. They’ve funded their lifestyle with land investing, which allowed them to reinvent themselves over the last five years. They got introduced to the concept through podcasts on cash flow businesses. Mike signed up for a coaching program but didn’t wind up using it until he and Ligia stopped working in their full-time corporate jobs and they decided to go all-in. Today, they run a thriving real estate business that affords them the life of their dreams.What’s Inside:—How Ligia and Mike funded their lifestyle with

People get overwhelmed when they think they have to do everything in their real estate businesses. When you’re just starting out, it’s important to understand how everything works, but it’s unrealistic to think you have to be an expert in every area. It’s easy to fall into a trap of spending all your time trying to be the best at everything, and it comes at an expense. When you try to do it all, you lose opportunities and leave money and deals on the table. That’s why it’s so important to build a network of experts around you so you can lean on them.If you feel like you’re in over your head, place your focus on making key connections with the right people. We all have our strengths and weaknesses, and that’s OK. Not everyone is a tech wizard or knows the ins and outs of every piece of paperwork. The most successful people realize that they don’t need to know all the details when they’re friends with other experts. Lean on your connections for help with titles, creative financing, or insurance. When you can ou

Victor Reynolds is a successful vacant land investor based out of San Francisco. He started his career as a software engineer and spent a lot of his time commuting to and from Silicon Valley. He got into selling land after listening to podcasts and taking a course and quickly started turning a profit. Victor’s first properties were cheap, and he sold them for way more than what he bought them for. He was inspired to keep going but was doing it more as a side hustle while he kept his full-time job. Victor then leveled up with a coach and did some mindset work and from there, his business skyrocketed.Victor focuses on both big and small deals and sells for three times the price on average. His revenue per month this year so far is $24K and he’s on track to hit $30K. Right now, Victor is a one-man show and runs his business by automating his processes with technology. Check out his popular Facebook group Land Investing for Professional Millennials.What’s Inside:—How Victor grew his land investing business from a

Setting a new virtual assistant up for success is the foundation of a great working relationship. When things go wrong, people are quick to blame the VA, but it’s on you to give them what they need to do their job. You’re responsible for providing them with the right tools and for getting them up to speed on your processes and best practices. They can’t learn without you.When building out your real estate business, your VA is often the first person you hire. Since they’re your right-hand partner, it’s important to choose the right fit for your needs. Depending on what you’re going to have them do, you’ll need to screen them for personality traits and skills during the interview process. Having them take a simple skills test or do a sample call from a script are both good ways to see what they’re made of. To keep your staff accountable without micromanaging them, consider using a scorecard system and providing them with as much feedback as possible. Don’t forget to let them know you appreciate them and thank t

Like I always say, we’re not in the real estate business. We’re in the marketing business. No one knows this better than Ryan Smith. He’s been in this game for a long time and is an expert on direct mail. He spent his early career doing cybersecurity in the military and later got into wholesaling locally in Florida. His company LeadSmith offers done-for-you marketing services, training courses, and consulting for house flippers and wholesalers.Consistency is key when implementing a marketing strategy. There’s a rule of seven that it takes on average seven touches before someone sees you. Many people start a marketing campaign and give up before their strategy has a chance to take off and hop over to something else. Sticking with it will eventually yield results. Ryan and I discuss his messaging strategies, which lists are great when you’re first getting started, and why direct mail works, even amongst today’s technological advancements in marketing.Ryan’s direct mail campaigns are some of the most unique I’ve

Building a real estate business involves a lot of moving parts. You want to build a business that serves you, or else you’ll wind up in a job that drains you. Chances are, you got into real estate to have the freedom to live the life of your dreams. When you hire the right people, get a solid marketing strategy in place, and automate your processes correctly, it makes all the difference.To make sure your business is built the right way, you’ll first have to wear the hats of every mission-critical role. You have to become an expert in order to know what kind of person you need to run each piece of your business, so you don’t have to. When you’re bringing new people on, it helps if you have documentation on all your processes so it’s easy to get them up to speed. Making serious money in real estate requires you to get out of your comfort zone. Determination and an unstoppable mindset are key, and no one is going to do this work for you. Take your time and set up your business right so you can reap the benefits

Vacant land in rural areas is in high demand across the country, and you can make a lot of money from these kinds of deals. Whether you sell it for cash or use owner financing, you can easily set yourself up with some life-changing, sustainable income in a short amount of time. I’ll share my process with you and show you how I narrow down potential lots and which geographical locations I like to focus on. I’ll also walk you through my marketing process so you can replicate it in your own business.There are three keys to success in real estate: marketing, automation, and delegation. Find out more about how you can master these elements and grow your business in our bootcamp. Gavin and I teach all our students what we do in our own businesses to get the best results. Go to MADBootcamp.com/now to join us.What’s Inside:—The 10 steps involved with a vacant land deal.—Tools and resources to use for leads and market research.—Info on our MAD bootcamp.

Novations are gaining traction and a lot of people are talking about them these days. I didn’t know what they were until a few months ago, so I wanted to bring Corey Geary on to explain to them because he’s an expert. He’s perfected the strategy for these types of deals and leads what he calls the “Novation Nation”. You can even get started with novations by using old leads and potentially make more than you would in a traditional wholesaling deal.Corey started out doing fixes and flips and decided to jump into novations after being in a few masterminds. People were scaling their businesses nationwide, and Corey was able to turn his local business into a national one as well. A novation is essentially a replacement of contracts, where you act on behalf of the seller and “novate” the contract to the end buyer. Corey lists his novations on the MLS to retail buyers.Although he’s made some mistakes along the way, Corey now teaches his novation strategy to others. Check out NovationJoe.com to learn more about this

Gavin hosts Fred and Lateresa on the show to share the successes they’ve been having. They have been following our program closely, taking consistent action, and seeing great results over the last several months. They even kept the momentum in their business going as they moved from Virginia to Texas! Their commitment and willingness to stick with it are really paying off.One of the biggest reasons Fred and Lateresa were able to keep things running during their move was their direct mail campaign. They relied on some key partnerships to help them out as they focused on this important life transition. Now that they have a solid pipeline, they’re working on setting up a texting strategy to help manage follow up. This year, they plan on hiring a VA and strategizing with them so they can make the most of the assistance.Fred and Lateresa stay encouraged and motivated, thanks to our group coaching calls. It’s important to hear from our clients as much as possible, learning how they dealt with their own unique scena

Clint Turner, founder of Learn.Land, joins me to talk about how he makes $50K per month on vacant land deals. Clint is in his mid-twenties and already has himself a solid real estate business. He also has a free Facebook group called Learn Land University that shows people what they need to start doing their own land deals.To date, Clint has done over 600 deals since getting started, and he’s only actually set foot on about five or six of them. He started out doing small lots to get a proof of concept but then moved to higher dollar deals after realizing he could make more money with the same amount of time and effort. Clint uses owner financing which generates a steady revenue stream. It’s very rare that a vacant land deal goes bad, which is a great reason to add this strategy into your portfolio.What’s Inside:—How Clint built Learn.Land.—Clint’s strategies for making $50K per month.—Why owner financing works for vacant land deals.—Resources and websites Clint uses in his business.

Wow! We just came back from our 2-day virtual event called the M.A.D. Bootcamp where Gavin and I taught Marketing, Automation, and Delegation. The little back story why we did this bootcamp, two weeks ago, we did a New Market Challenge. And 9 days after the challenge, we documented everything we did for marketing and nurturing the leads we got. Gavin went into the housing market and I went into the vacant land market.A week after the challenge, I paid a company to send out our direct mail. And last I checked today, we’re at a 2% response rate. Now, to put that in context, when you’re in a super-competitive housing market, you’re lucky enough to get a 0.5% - 1% response rate and we’re predicting this will go up to about 3-4% response rate by the time the campaign finishes.By the time the bootcamp started, I literally got a seller to say ‘Yes’! That ‘Yes’ didn’t come through but we got more contracts the following days! So, I have 2 properties under contract and have about 4 more who have said ‘yes’ but are sti

It’s no secret that being brilliant at the basics of real estate is the key to building sustainable momentum in your business. Along with goal setting, being prepared, and knowing your “why”, getting these basics nailed down is what’s going to allow you to make 2022 your best year yet. The new year is always a time of high enthusiasm, so it’s important to keep it going all year long.Mastering the basics includes four main areas: marketing, talking to sellers, making offers, and following up. The best part is that you can build a team and outsource these tasks. As long as they’re getting completed consistently, it doesn’t matter who’s doing them. Uncovering a seller’s motivation should be your top goal when talking to them, along with getting a sense of their timeline and urgency. The price point of a property depends on its condition, so make sure you’re getting that information as well. Creating and delivering the perfect offer is always easier when you have all the pieces of the puzzle.Gavin covers a lot of

David Olds is the owner of EZ REI Closings, a transaction coordination company that helps wholesalers by taking on the burden of the administrative portion of closing. He started his business in 2016 in his backyard of Chattanooga, TN and has since expanded into virtual markets.David and his team work directly with some of the largest title companies in the country, sending them deals to get them closed. He also uses transactional funding in double-close situations and explains all about how it works. The team partners with notaries and title insurance companies and gets everything done within a virtual setting. I’m really interested in how to make transactional coordination work for vacant land deals and David walks us through the process.EZ REI Closings is helping a lot of people close more deals so they can get back to doing what they do best – buying and selling houses. For more info, head to closelikejoe.com.What’s Inside:—How David built EZ REI Closings and expanded into virtual markets.—Details on tran

Today’s REI Secrets episode is special. I’ve done houses for many years since 2008 and lease-option deals have been my bread and butter. But when 2022 came in, I decided that I will be talking more about vacant land deals. I’ve been doing this for a few years now – started with my teenage sons on a part-time basis. It’s never been the focus of my business but recently, I’ve put more attention to it, have been doing more of it, and am including it full-time in my business.In the last few years, two teenage boys have been involved in over $150k of profits in vacant land deals that we’ve done in a super PART-TIME basis. Can you imagine how much more that would be if we did it full-time?In one episode, I interviewed a student of mine and to date, he’s generating over $10k a month in passive income from his notes on vacant land deals. It makes sense to give this more attention. So, we’re going to start investing more in vacant land for cashflow inside of our raw self-directed IRAs. And looking at the numbers, I’m

Gavin and I just came out of a 3-day free challenge a couple of weeks ago where he virtually went into a new market for houses and I went into vacant land. We did the 3-day challenge and then did real marketing the next 9 days after and we documented the whole thing.Gavin briefly shares his experience from that challenge and what he’s done next to cultivate those leads. He budgeted $1000 on marketing like cold calling for an entire month. As for me, there are 3,006 counties in the United States and I went into 2 counties for vacant land leads. I’ve spent $800 on direct mail for each county and leads have started coming in a couple of days ago.So why are we sharing this? We’ve been teaching marketing, automation, and delegation for years. This is Gavin’s and my bread and butter. Over the years of being in the REI business, both Gavin and I have learned that you can avoid wasting thousands of dollars on bad marketing, you can eliminate tedious tasks by setting up an effective system and you can have someone els

Goal setting in January helps you prioritize your business, getting you in the mindset to keep the momentum going all year long. Gavin shares his tips for how to kick things off on the right foot. Getting the results you want in 2022 all depends on having your game plan ready to go.The world of real estate is challenging and ever-changing. You’ll have periods where you become frustrated but knowing your “why” for starting your business will always keep you motivated. Becoming super clear on your vision will help you focus when things get hard to handle. From that space, you can start building short-, medium-, and long-term goals. Your long-term goals will be tied to your overall vision for your business, while your short and medium goals will be more of those quick action items that keep moving the ball down the field.Don’t forget to write your goals down so you can go back and see how much you’ve achieved. Execute your plan so that your dreams have the opportunity to come alive. Check out the links below to