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COVID-19: The Perfect Storm of Ethical Opportunity

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Though we find ourselves in very difficult and uncertain times, the COVID-19 pandemic has created the Perfect Storm of Ethical Opportunity for Thoughtful Real Estate Entrepreneurs. Beginning right now, and for at least months if not years ahead, Sellers will need the unique gifts and talents that TREEs can offer them: empathy, listening, tailored proposals and a relationship-oriented approach. In this episode, we discuss all the reasons why Thoughtful Real Estate Entrepreneurs were born for this current situation. This will be TREEs’ finest hour!

Episode Transcript

Before we jump in to today’s episode, I want to tell you about something new. And something cool that we just made for you. I wrote it myself. Now, here’s my assumption, if you are listening to this podcast, it probably means that you want to build long term wealth with a rental real estate portfolio. And you would probably like to do it with some creative financing. And as I talk to people who want to do that, I know a lot of questions come up. And I thought there’s really no great single resource that really captures the entire picture of how that works. But I have solved that problem because I have written a new PDF that is just for you. And it’s called the step by step guide to buying your first or next rental property without relying on a lender to approve you for alone. Like I said, I wrote this thing myself. And if I do say so myself, it’s pretty thorough. And in this, you’re going to learn a few things. I’m going to teach you about the three key strategies to find and negotiate quality off market real estate deals that nobody else even knows are for sale. I’m going to teach you about what I call the YESSES Framework for getting off market sellers to accept your offers. And then I’m also going to teach you the 11 simple steps that you need to take to get your first or your next deal accepted without needing to go to a bank and apply for a loan and just hope that they give it to you. So if you would like to get this free downloadable PDF, just go to rental wealth guide.com and you can download it right now, www.rentalwealthguide.com and get your download of the step by step guide to buying your first or next rental property without relying on a lender to approve you for a loan. Now on with the show.

Successful real estate investing isn’t all about we buy houses and motivated sellers. That’s the lowbrow approach, and it gets real estate investing a slimy reputation. Gross. There is a better way, a more genuine human approach. We are thoughtful real estate entrepreneurs and this is Sleaze Free Real Estate Investing.

This is Jeff from the Thoughtful Real Estate Entrepreneur. Welcome to a special episode of Sleaze Free Real Estate Investing, a show for those of us who never have felt at home in the We Buy Houses crowd. In this show, we take a stand against what we call the lowbrow approach, the mainstream guru seminar distressed seller approach that ends up giving real estate investors a slimy reputation. Instead, we discuss the strategies, tactics and philosophies we call the thoughtful way and enlightened approach to real estate entrepreneurship that focuses on constantly sharpening the sophisticated real estate entrepreneurs three most critical capabilities, seller relations skills, deal architecture, skills and opportunity vision. When all three of these capabilities are successfully in motion, you can make an excellent living today and build long term wealth, while creating value for everybody that you touch along the way. Please do yourself and do us a big favor by hitting the subscribe button in your podcast app right now.

So today is a special episode directly in response to the current pandemic situation that we find ourselves in, and the economic repercussions of that that we are seeing unfold all around us. The other day, I did a Facebook live training video about why exactly I feel that today and the weeks and months ahead are the perfect storm of ethical opportunity for thoughtful real estate entrepreneurs. In fact, I believe we were made and born four times like this. And in this video, I explained exactly how I arrived at that perspective and gave lots of reasons of why that is so true. And why now creates an amazing opportunity for thoughtful real estate entrepreneurs to help ourselves by helping other people. So I’ve taken the audio out of that video. And I’ve put it here today on this podcast episode. And at the end of the video, I make a very exciting and special announcement, something I’ve never done before. So listen to the end so that you don’t miss that amazing opportunity as well. All right, thank you so much. Let’s launch right into it. Enjoy.

Hi, I’m Jeff from the Thoughtful Real Estate Entrepreneur. Thank you so much for carving out a few minutes to be here with me. This message I’ve been looking so forward to sharing with you for the last couple days because once I realized this — it had a really profound impact on me and so I’ve been excited to share it with you. I want to just tell you right off the bat, the thesis of what I want to tell you today is that I’m going to show you why right now. And in this moment, and as well as the weeks and months, maybe even years ahead of us are the best time we’ve ever had to be thoughtful real estate entrepreneurs. Now, don’t think that I’m saying, we’re going to have an amazing opportunity to buy fire sale price, deeply discounted properties, because sellers are going to be freaking out. In many ways. That’s exactly the opposite of what I’m saying. And I will explain that to you just a second. What we’re going to do, what’s going to make this such an amazing time for us is that we’re going to use our special powers, our special skills, our talents, and our gifts as thoughtful real estate entrepreneurs, to truly, truly help people who are going to need our help more than they ever have. This is what the great marketer Jay Abraham recently called ethical opportunism, we are going to help other people and, in the process, help ourselves because sellers need us right now. They absolutely need what us thoughtful real estate entrepreneurs — TREEs — what TREEs only can deliver to them. It is our obligation to use what we’re capable of doing to help these people who need this so badly. It is also though not just your obligation is your opportunity to help yourself in a big way. And that’s a big part of what we’re going to talk about today. Because as a thoughtful real estate entrepreneur, you are only one seller away from the financial stability that you are seeking as well. At the end of our conversation, I’m super excited to share with you something I’ve never done before, and I’ve just been the last couple days. As soon as I had the idea and had been excited to share it with you, I’ve barely been able to wait. So in a few minutes, I will share that really cool announcement with you.

So, like probably many of you, I was aware of the Coronavirus situation through the news, which I don’t watch too much news, but I was aware of it. But it was news to me and I was tracking it but I certainly was not worried about it. But then I saw March Madness get cancelled. And I thought “Hmm, that’s interesting.” And then I saw the NBA get cancelled. And then I saw a travel ban to and from Europe. And I started seeing news article after news article about companies shutting down and things closing and being postponed indefinitely. And suddenly, I went from barely being aware to actually quite worried.

After all, I was thinking to myself, how could you know, billions and billions of dollars of revenue that was scheduled that’s being cancelled? How could that not affect us? How could that not trickle down to employers, the employers who have jobs for our tenants? How could that not trickle down to our housing market, the value of our portfolio, how could that not trickle down and affect the sellers, who we’re currently working with as well. And I’m going to be honest with you, although I’m a little bit embarrassed to say it, but I kind of freaked out, I got very nervous very quickly. And I’m guessing that maybe I’m not totally alone in that. And that maybe you were feeling the same way as well, worried about losing a job, either yours, or spouse or a loved one worried about not having enough money to pay for the bills coming up; worried about what the future looks like worried about. Maybe if you have rental properties, your tenants not being able to pay you worried about a flip that you just bought that you’re midstream with. And now you’re wondering if the whole market has shifted beneath your feet. Or simply maybe you were just worried that this is just another setback in this real estate that you’ve been trying to get going at. And it’s just a sign that you’re never going to get where you’re trying to go. I get all of that I totally understand and actually relate to so much of that, as well. So the question on our minds, of course, it’s how can we save ourselves? How can we stay afloat? How can we keep our families fed and housed and clothed and safe, not to mention healthy, for crying out loud with this crazy pandemic situation? I get all that fear because I’ve been feeling it a lot as well.

But I knew I realized very quickly that I was losing the battle of control in my mind, and I knew that if I was going to have any fighting chance at being able to handle this difficult situation, I had to get ahold of what was going on between my ears. And so I started working on everything I could think of to get my mind right. I listened to my mentor and coach Greg Pintos recording which I’ve shared with you.

Right here on Facebook, if you haven’t listened to that, go back and find it, listen to it, listen to it again, a virus on the move, I listened to that multiple times, I started journaling, I started, you know, meditating and thinking deeply about the whole situation. And, and just reading and trying to get control of my mind. And I started to remember a very profound quote, actually, by Zig Ziglar. This is, I believe, one of his most famous things for a guy who’s known for saying a lot of really smart, very helpful things. He said, you can have everything you want in life, if you just help enough other people get what they want. That by itself in any economic climate is a really a profound thought.

And as I thought about that, I had a kind of a major epiphany, because I started thinking to myself, you know, the people who have real estate right now that they were hoping to sell, they were planning to sell, how are they feeling right now? Well, they’re probably feeling fear. They’re feeling major uncertainty of their own, they’re feeling probably indecisive, not exactly sure what to do. They don’t know they don’t have a crystal ball just like you, right? So they don’t know which way all this is going. And those people who are in that frame of mind, then what is it that they need actually the most right now? Well, they need confidence. They need trust, they need a calming presence around them, they need a guide.

And right, then, two big light bulbs went off. For me in my mind. The first one is that if you want to save yourself during this uncertain time, you can save yourself as much as you want. If you just help enough other people save themselves to direct application of what Zig was teaching us with that brilliant quote that he had. So if we want to increase our own financial stability, we can do that to whatever degree we want to as long as we help enough other people increase their own financial stability. And secondly, I started to think about it. I realized the thoughtful real estate entrepreneurs approach, the thing that I’ve been learning for many years, the things that I’ve been putting my own spin on the thing that I’ve been finding a way to articulate to you guys over the last year or so it is perfectly designed for exactly where we are. Right now. It is made a match made in heaven. And as soon as I realized that, I realized that not only is this not the worst time, this is the best time that has ever existed for us to be thoughtful real estate entrepreneurs, for us to be trees. And I’m going to spend here the next few minutes explaining to you why that fit is so absolutely perfect.

Three things I want to cover. The first one is that our approach as thoughtful real estate entrepreneurs is people centric, it’s people oriented. It’s about creating value for people, before we try to get value from them. Right? We don’t just show up and start trying to sort of get value from sellers, like most real estate investors do before we even know these people, we create value for them first, well how do we create value? What type of value am I talking about? Well, right now there’s one thing I would say this is true all the time, but now more than ever.

There’s one thing property sellers need now more than ever, and that is confidence.

They need peace of mind.

And where does confidence and peace of mind come from? confidence and peace of mind come from working with people who they feel like they can trust? Well? Where does trust come from? Trust comes from relationship.

Our whole approach is relationship oriented. From the moment we even decide how we’re going to reach out to somebody, even that part is thoughtful we decide to send letters because that’s the way that we can position ourselves in this relationship-oriented manner the best way possible get that message across to people. We send real letters like real humans, you know, like a real human wrote a letter to another real humans on a mass mailing of letters that were made on a printer and say we buy houses that’s not what we do. We don’t text our sellers. We don’t cold call them we don’t shoot them offers with our thumbs to people that we don’t even know on properties. We know almost nothing about that’s what the mainstream people do. Oh absolutely. That’s what the low brow people do. That’s what most of the seminars will teach people how to do but that’s not what we do. And that is perfect. For right now. We don’t go you know spewing prices at people. The second we meet them because we had a move on if there’s not going to be a deal there. That is exactly the opposite of what we

Do so my point here to you is that your ability as a thoughtful real estate entrepreneur, to create trust by leading people by guiding them by giving them confidence and making them comfortable as you walk them through a transaction, something that they probably don’t do all the time, but you do quite a bit. If you as you do your thing as a tree and make them comfortable through that process,that is what we do. And that has never been more valuable than it is right now. It has never been more needed than it is needed right now. Because like let’s be clear about something.

Sellers right now who are vulnerable or about to become vulnerable, those who need to sell, they see the market shifting, they’re scared. That’s like blood in the water to the exploitative lowbrow investors who are circling. I’ve been tuning in and kind of listening to like, what’s the rest of the real estate industry saying right now. And those people who are in that kind of what I would call lowbrow category, they’re getting excited. They’re salivating because they smell that blood in the water. And that is not us. Those people deserve to be saved by us from the exploitative lowbrow real estate investors. They not only do they deserve a better financial outcome and a better transaction; they deserve a better experience. They deserve an experience that is designed sensitively to where we are as a world and as a society right now. And that is something that we can and always do as thoughtful real estate, entrepreneurs, because we know you have to put a relationship in contract before you can put a property in contract. And that thought is not is never even crossed the mind of your traditional typical lowbrow real estate investor. So in short, sellers will value our relationship-oriented approach more now than they ever have, and probably ever will, in the future. We are made for this moment. Here’s the second thing. We are excellent at seeing opportunities where other people can’t see them and never will be able to see them. Right? When you talk to just somebody, especially someone off the street, or maybe just a lowbrow real estate investor and you ask them how money is made in transactional real estate?

The answer is buy low, sell high. Okay, well, buy low sell high is great. I mean, we thought for real estate entrepreneurs like to buy low and sell high too. But if you think about the spectrum of sophistication, of real estate strategy, buy low sell high is like the caveman level of sophistication. It’s very, very simplistic. And it’s, it’s great, it’s a good thing to do when you can, however, there’s so much more beyond buy low sell high that we as thoughtful real estate entrepreneurs know and have trained ourselves to master but that most other people aren’t even aware of, let alone have trained themselves to master. And in a changing market like we’re entering right now. There will certainly be lots of opportunities for people who can see opportunity in not just buy low sell high situations. If a market is decreasing in values, for instance, which it may or may not. But if that’s the case, buy low sell high becomes a very tricky proposition because you might buy a property today and it would be less worth less two weeks from now. But if you have a mastery of other tools besides buy low, sell high, and you understand sophisticated deal structures, if you understand finance, if you understand tools like options and lease options and subject to and all sorts of different things if you understand the intricacies of seller financing. And the insane amount of value that seller financing terms can bring to you as a buyer, not even just with that deal you’re buying. But way down the road well beyond that deal as well. If you know all that stuff, you are going to be able to see opportunity where the sharks that are circling with the blood in the water and their blunt instrument of buy low, sell high we’ll never be able to see in a million years. So that’s our second reason. The third reason is that we give people tailored proposals we don’t even make offers as thoughtful real estate entrepreneurs. You know, the word offer is probably the most common word used in real estate, and real estate investing. But we don’t make offers. You know why? Because offers say, Hey, here’s what works for me. Are you going to take it or are you going to leave it? A proposal on the other hand says, I’ve been listening to you. I asked you some questions. I listened to your answers. And I think I understand what would be the perfect scenario and here’s my recommendation on how we can together get you where you’re trying to go. I’d love to get your feedback. Let’s work on this proposal.

Together, that is a completely different that’s 180 degrees from making offers to people, because one size fits all offers that especially that are just very price based, are not going to be what sellers need in a weird, changing and dynamic market that feels uncertain to them. They don’t, they don’t want, they’re not gonna want out of the box solutions, they’re gonna want somebody to sit down and listen to them, ask good questions, and then tailor like literally like a tailor make the right measurements and give them a proposal. That is, it is designed just for them, it is not at all the same as the proposal that tomorrow’s seller will get or the day after the value of proposals over offers, in this upcoming chapter of a changing market, and sellers who are uncertain is going to be absolutely at a premium. So between these things, we’ve got our people-oriented approach, we’ve got our ability to see opportunity where normal investors never would. And number three, our ability to create proposals and not offers for people that actually hit the mark. See, we were designed as thoughtful real estate entrepreneurs for moments like this. And that should be as encouraging to you as it’s become to me over the last few days. And that’s why I’ve got so excited about sharing this message with you. And just as a side note, keep in mind that being a thoughtful real estate entrepreneur isn’t just about working with sellers, it is also about working with tenants, and lenders, and investors. And it could be the neighbor of the house that you’re, you know, the property that you’re working on. And you have to be able to create agreement with those people. This approach that we have is so helpful in the entire spectrum of everything related to real estate, entrepreneurship and investing.

So the message that I want to leave you with before I share my announcement with you, is that how you’re going to survive, because let’s be honest, we are worried about ourselves right now. And that’s okay. That’s okay. But how we are going to survive, is by helping enough other people survive, because the ultimate resilience because that’s really kind of what we’re working to create for ourselves right now is we’re feeling a little vulnerable, we’re feeling a little exposed. We’re trying to create resilience for ourselves, especially financially, otherwise to health wise, etc. But financially, it’s going to come from your resourcefulness. Your resourcefulness is what makes you recession proof. It doesn’t mean you’re not subject to a recession, it doesn’t mean a recession won’t impact you, or that you won’t feel a recession if that’s what indeed happens. But it’s what makes you resilient through because here’s something that is a profound thought that I’ve thought about before. If everything went completely wrong in my world and my portfolio, somebody could foreclose on a property that I own. And that would be bad I that would hurt. But nobody ever could foreclose on what I know.

They could never foreclose on my skills and my ability to create rapport with another human being.

Nobody could ever foreclose on my ability to ask good questions and actually listen to what the other person is saying. And then respond in a thoughtful and empathetic manner.

No one can foreclose on my ability to create agreement with other people, my ability to see opportunity where the average person doesn’t, my ability overall, to have knowledge about real estate deal structures that the average person doesn’t have. No one can foreclose on that. And when you’re a thoughtful real estate entrepreneur that is extremely comforting to know that nobody can take those things away from you.

So right now, what we have is an opportunity, but I’ll tell you what else we have, we have an obligation. My coach, Greg Pineo, always says, if you’re able, you’re obligated, and I remember the first time he said that to me, and I sort of, you know, shook my head and said, okay, but I think really deep down, I was thinking if I’m able, well, it’s possible for me to do that. But I’m not sure I’m obligated to do that. But over the years, as I’ve thought more and more and more about that, I realize how true it is. I am able to show up today and give you this message because I’ve had the clarity of this message over the last week. And it was my obligation to share with you It was my obligation to create this reframe for you just like it created a reframe for me. It is your obligation as a thoughtful real estate entrepreneur, to get out there and to do everything that you can to use these talents and these skills and these capabilities and these gifts to the best of your potential for the benefit of yourself and your family and

Also, for the benefit of the sellers out there who need us in our approach more than they ever have.

You know, as trees, we’re on a mission to reclaim a positive reputation for real estate investors, because unfortunately,

the vast majority of real estate investors do things in a way that has created a bad reputation and a sleazy, lowbrow kind of way.

We rebel against the idea that in order for a buyer to win, the seller has to lose. That is scarcity mentality at its finest. And that’s not who we are. That’s not how we do things.

This could be our finest hour as thoughtful real estate entrepreneurs, right? Doesn’t mean that it’s not going to get a little bumpy doesn’t mean it’s not going to be hard. But what it does mean is that this is what we were made for. This is if you have subscribed to this school of thought, like I have a long time ago, this is what we were amazed made for and we are obligated to rise to the challenge.

If you’re able, you’re obligated. And if you’re watching this video right now, that’s you. So I’m really excited to announce something to you.

I have been inspired by what I’ve seen a few other great leaders who I admire do over the past week or so, as this situation has unfolded. In our world, I was listening to a podcast by Dean grassy OC. And at the end of the podcast, he mentioned that he and Tony Robbins had put together some additional extra resources that they were making available for free to people during this time because people are at home, people have a little bit more time on their hands, people are more concerned and worried than they normally are. People are looking at ways to invest this strange time, but sort of the extra amount of bandwidth they might have into improving themselves. And I thought that is really, really cool. And I really respected that they did that. A couple days later, I listened to another podcast completely unrelated. And that person too, took a bunch of things that he normally would charge for, and put it up on a page and said, these are yours for free during this period. So I was inspired by that. And I asked myself, what would I normally be selling that I could give away right now, that would be the most impactful thing possible for as many people as possible. And what I came up with is my signature course that I’ve created, that we call seller relations mastery. And the full title is how to earn an incredible living, and build lasting wealth in real estate, by mastering the uncommon art of seller relations skills, because in many ways, that’s what we do as trees, we do the seller relations thing. So I’m giving you this course away for free for a limited amount of time. While things are a little bit weird in the world. And I hope you will take the opportunity to, to learn and to take me up on this offer and to invest your time and your energy in learning these things. So that it really for two reasons. Number one is when you know when things sort of thought out, and you’re able to get back out in the real world and start reaching out to sellers and doing everything that you are fully equipped to be able to do that because I know that’s what’s going to help you prosper the most that you possibly can. And that’s really, really important. Secondly, though, is there’s all the people out there who need to be served. And I want to see them done right by as well. All of those sellers, all of those people who need and will benefit from the thoughtful approach. So I’m doing it for you. But I’m also doing it for them. Because everybody wins when we take this more thoughtful approach. And we put down the blunt instruments that the lowbrow investors use, we get real people face to face having authentic conversations voice to voice as it might be for a little while having authentic conversations that lead to thoughtful proposals.

Let me read real quickly the names of the six modules. So just to get a sense for what is in the course and sort of the table of contents. So the first module is how to get started and how to set yourself up for success. module number two is how to find great deals. And that that actually has got two parts Part A and Part B because there’s so much I wanted to convey there. And I didn’t want it to be too long. So there’s two parts of Module Two, Module Three, how to use seller relations skills to negotiate great deals. module number four, how to analyze your deals using the Triple Threat acquisition strategy. module number five, how to get the seller to say yes, find the money and get the deal closed. And module number six, how to grow your business and manage your wealth building portfolio.

So if you’d like to take me up on this offer, that is available for a limited time, we don’t know how long we’re gonna make it available, because we don’t know how long the situation is going to go on. But at this moment, it is available to you. And all you have to do is go to seller relations, mastery.com slash free. And right there, you can just enter your email address, we’ll email you the information on how to log in, you could be looking at the intro module and module number one and five minutes from now if that’s what you would like to do. So thank you so much for taking the time, I really hope that this has helped you see and have this sort of a same epiphany that I’ve had over the last week, which is that we’re going through some tough times, and we’re concerned for ourselves, and we’re concerned for others. But we were made for this, you know, if you’ve chosen some other school of thought in real estate investing, it might not be coming in handy right now. But this we were we were made for this and the world needs us. It’s this perfect intersection of helping ourselves by helping others. I hope you’ll take me up on this opportunity. This offer seller relations mastery, comm slash free I hope to see you in the class and let me know if I can do anything to help you.

So there you have it. I hope you enjoyed that special audio recording from the video I recently did explaining why exactly I feel like right now is the perfect storm of ethical opportunity for real estate entrepreneurs who do business, the thoughtful real estate way. This is our chance to help ourselves by helping other people. And I want to do my part, it’s my obligation to help you do your part. I hope you’ll take us up on the offer for this free course for a limited time only. So please head on over there now seller relations mastery.com slash free to take advantage of that special opportunity. Please be well stay healthy. And I look forward to seeing you in future episodes.

Hey there Thoughtful Real Estate Entrepreneur. Before we got started with today’s episode, I want to talk to you for just a second about marketing. Because you can’t buy properties unless you have leads of properties and sellers who are considering selling those properties. As you know, we as thoughtful real estate entrepreneurs love off market deals, we love face to face negotiations with sellers because that’s where we know we can absolutely have the best shot at creating a tailored win-win negotiation with the seller. But the question is where do the leads come from? Well, as we’d like to do it here at the Thoughtful Real Estate Entrepreneur, it’s Direct Mail Letters, but you can’t send letters unless you know who to send letters to. That’s why I created a free PDF report for you to download right now called How to get a targeted ready to use list of quality off market seller leads without spending a dime. In this free report, you will learn the three simple steps to get the perfect list at no cost to you at all. And let’s be honest because we’re thoughtful real estate entrepreneurs. We will also explain to you why this strategy and this technique works the way it does. To get this free report immediately just go to seller direct mail calm and you can grab it. Just enter your email address and we’ll email it to you absolutely immediately. Now onto today’s episode. Thanks for listening to Sleaze Free Real Estate Investing. Remember, solve the person to unlock the deal and solve the financing to unlock the profit.


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