Have you ever wanted to pull the trigger and buy that first investment property? These 5 real estate investing experts gave Mind Renovation Nation the inside scoop on their journey to make this happen.
These 5 investors are at the top of their investing careers and continue to break their investing ceiling each and every month. The three big takeaways from each of the conversations were as follows:
1. Passion - Real estate investing is in the blood of the top producers. It is an obsession and a passion. They work at it every single day.
2. Persistence - This business is one where you will not get rich quick. It takes years of practice, persistence, and effort.
3. People - Finding a mentor or a coach significantly increases your likelihood of success.
Paulie Kazanofski
1. How did you get started in real estate
I got started when I met my Uncle Jimmy who lives in Southern California. I lived in Montreal and saw his lifestyle and how successful he was. I grew up very poor and wanted to make something out of my life. They were in the real estate game and I had this insatiable desire to be like him. So I went to California to work for him for free, and picked his brain over and over again. I listened and took notes, and that was my first introduction to success and what it takes to be successful.
2. What roadblocks did you first have in obtaining clients?
The biggest thing for this question is that a lot of people don’t know where to start. That is the biggest roadblock. Most people overanalyze and can’t figure things out. I just grind away and figure it out.
3. What was the technique you initially used to find clients?
I send out mailers and set up appointments with people losing their houses that needed my help.
4. Was there a specific tool or resource you utilized when you first got started?
I used a service that answered all my calls and had a script to ask all the proper questions about the client’s houses and what their problems were with their houses, i.e. they were upside down, roof leaks, deferred maintenance, etc. and how much they owed and wanted for the house. The service screened them for me and told me the difference between a good lead and a bad lead.
5. Is there a prospecting technique that you currently utilize that helps generate your leads?
I use a lot of mailers, I get my leads from the MLS and wholesalers that know what they are doing. Most wholesalers suck and don’t know their numbers. They send me their so-called “deals” yet they don’t have a clue on the difference between a good deal and a bad deal. I also do a lot of short sales and I have an in house and an acquisition guy that I taught how to evaluate a real deal versus a fake one.
6. What was your greatest struggle when you first got started?
Money, raising it and being able to show the credibility and knowledge I had for the hard money lenders to feel comfortable and confident in lending me the money.
7. What did you do to overcome it?
I hustled my ass off and acted as if I was already successful. I told them that I had many, many years of experience when in all actuality I didn’t. I had the hustle in me to get the job done. I bet on my own character and work ethic to get it done.
8. What are you most excited about as you move forward with your business?
I am always excited about growing and getting in the uncomfortable zone, because that is where growth happens. I am excited about getting better at systemizing and delegating to alleviate the stress from the day to day grind and building a bunch of “mini-me’s” to do the work.
9. If there was one thing you could say to someone considering giving up on their real estate career what advice would give them?
I would say look, I know this is not for the faint of heart and it is really hard and difficult and a grind and you have to bleed to get to where you are, but if you want to live in the top 1% of the population then this is the necessary evil to go thru. Don’t ever give up. Learn to accept the failures and learn to embrace the failures and laugh at them and learn from them instead of shy away from them. If it was easy, then everyone would do it. And again, if you believe you are not like everybody then you won’t quit, but if you are like everybody, then this might not be for you after all.
10. What motivates you to get up every day and work hard?
I love this question and I know what everyone says. They say they want growth and they have goals and want to help the world and buy puppies for everyone. But I am going to say it to you bluntly and honestly unlike most people. I do it for the freaking money. I never want to go back to being poor, and that is why I stay uncomfortable because I am passionate about grinding every day. The people that say money isn’t everything are usually broke and have nothing, and that is why they say it. I tell the truth that no one else will and say I do it for the money bro. Don’t get me wrong, the more money you have, the more people you can help. You go from success to significance. And that is why I do what I do. But most people have it backwards and that is why they are not successful.
Paulie Kazanofski is one of the top real estate investors in the U.S. as well as a highly successful entrepreneur, speaker, and TV personality. He has been featured on A&E’s Bid, Build and Design and was the subject of a documentary called The 24-hour Entrepreneur. Paulie was a World Champion Kickboxer and carries that intensity from the ring right over into his work, as well as when he coaches others on how to become successful real estate investors and entrepreneurs.
Paulie states “I knew I wanted to be successful from a really young age. I came up in a really tough neighborhood and I promised myself I would do whatever it took to live a better life than what I saw people living when I was growing up.” It’s this mentality that has led him to do over 300 real estate deals and create a demand from others to show them how he did it. “I created the “Dream, Hustle, Thrive” system because so many people just kept insisting that I show them what I was doing. I never expected this kind of success,”
From humble beginnings, Paulie has achieved so much more than he ever imagined and that is exactly why he believes in helping others as much as possible. Kazanofski states “the reality is that my people are my family. I make sure that everyone that works for me or with me is happy and that they are in an environment where they can thrive because that is the most important part of the “Dream, Hustle, Thrive” system.
Sam & Daniel Kwak
We got started in real estate investing through a training program and they gave us the opportunity to earn while learning with them so we took the chance! We paired up with a mentor that we found through the training program and ever since then, we've been knocking deals out of the park!
2. What roadblocks did you first have in obtaining clients?
The biggest roadblock for us was that we were young and had zero experience. Hence, not many sellers trusted us in buying their properties. But after conveying the fact that we knew what we were doing, they began to work with us.
3. What was the technique you initially used to find clients?
We actually found our first deal using Facebook! I was looking for handymen in the area to build that relationship with and a landlord in the area reached out to us to ask if we would be interested in buying some of his properties. So we did!
4. Was there a specific tool or resource you utilized when you first got started?
Most of what we know today came from the training program and the mentor that we are working with. I guess you can say that we're leveraging someone else's knowledge as a tool! Also, our training program comes with a LARGE community of real estate investors so it wasn't a lot of work to find the resources we needed to do real estate deals!
5. Is that a prospecting technique that you currently utilize that helps generate your leads?
We have a certain technique where it's pretty much automated now. We have a virtual assistant that we trained on how to find deals using a database that we have access to.
6. What was your greatest struggle when you first got started?
It was the lack of impatience to do as many deals as we wanted. At first, we want to tackle 100 units all at once but we realized that you don't want that! You have to start with a pace and then gradually increase that pace. Now we're at a place where we're buying 36 units, 19 units, and 24 units.
7. What did you do to overcome it?
It's all about beliefs and managing your fears. Once you have a solid pace, always seek to challenge yourself. One bite at a time.
8. What are you most excited about as you move forward with your business?
I think the way we're headed now at the speed we're in, I think we're going to retire before we hit our 30s! Pretty darn exciting!
9. If there was one thing you could say to someone considering giving up on their real estate career what advice would give them?
Real Estate Investing is not a get-rich-quick scheme. You definitely need to dedicate at least 10 years into this business until you can really harvest the "fruit of the labor" as some may say. Daniel and I are only at year 3! We got 7 more to go!
10. What motivates you to get up every day and work hard?
The fact that I can take the money we're earning and invest it into other people and especially for the Kingdom of God. We're pretty serious about our faith so we believe that everything and anything that we do, it has to be done for a higher purpose! That's what motivates us!
Sam & Daniel Kwak: www.thekwakbrothers.com
Real Estate Investors, Entrepreneurs, Mentors, and Brothers!
Sam & Daniel are serial entrepreneurs. They have launched several different businesses and have authored a book, Fire Your Boss. They now train entrepreneurs and small business owners on how to CRUSH it in real estate investing & marketing. Sam and Daniel are advisers to 40+ real estate investors! No matter what background or education you may have, Sam and Dan can help you start in learning to raise the money and find the right deals!
Sam and Daniel have very humble beginnings. Immigrated from South Korea in 1999, the Kwak family only had $2000 cash in hand and a small 1 bedroom apartment in the Albany Park area in Chicago. Today, Sam and Daniel are doing countless real estate deals and helping others to get involved in the industry!
Stefan Aarnio
I got started in real estate because I was sick and tired of being a broke guitar teacher making $10,000 a year and living at my mom's house. I was 22, broke, lived with my mom, had no car, no job, no cell phone, no girlfriend, and had no money. I read Rich Dad Poor Dad and started saving 70% of my income to take real estate seminars and get out of my situation.
2. What roadblocks did you first have in obtaining clients?
Credibility is the hardest part of being in real estate. At first, no one wanted to invest with me, not even my own mother. It wasn't until I got educated and got my dentist interested in investing with me did I start to get traction.
3. What was the technique you initially used to find clients?
I worked for a private equity firm when I was 23 and learned that educating clients is the only way to attract high-value clients. Real estate and investing are scary to a lot of people and if you don't educate your customers then it is nearly impossible to sell. My business really took off when I wrote a book and published it: Money People Deal: The Fastest Way To Real Estate Wealth
4. Was there a specific tool or resource you utilized when you first got started?
I read over 50 books, went to every free seminar, every club, and every paid seminar, and spent a lot of money traveling all over the world to get trained to become a top player in real estate. In the last 8 years, I have spent over $300,000 on training, coaches, and mentors
5. Is that a prospecting technique that you currently utilize that helps generate your leads?
I do a lot of pull marketing, education, education, education. We do online as well as offline. It's all about getting the messaging and media right. There are only 3 ways to get deals: Networking, marketing, and negotiating.
6. What was your greatest struggle when you first got started?
I think the biggest struggle when I got started was finding a mentor. I had to pay a coach to train me and get me to really succeed. When you start out you are worthless to most mentors so they don't want to work with you. I think there is nothing wrong with paying for mentorship these days. It's the faster way than trying to figure it out.
7. What did you do to overcome it?
I paid for mentorship, coaching, and training. That was my foundation.
8. What are you most excited about as you move forward with your business?
I'm most excited about vertical integration in my business. Today I own a flipping company, a home staging company, and an education company and I'm looking at getting into junk, storage, and auctions. It all goes together in an ecosystem.
9. If there was one thing you could say to someone considering giving up on their real estate career what advice would give them?
If you want to be a master it takes 10 years and 10,000 hours. You have to respect the grind. Real estate is not getting rich quick, it's getting rich permanent, but you have to invest in yourself first. Most doctors and lawyers go to school for years to make 6 figures and spend 100k plus on education. If you want to earn like a doctor, you have to train like a doctor.
10. What motivates you to get up every day and work hard?
I'm motivated by the game and my purpose. I believe in training others and making the world a better place. "Give a man a fish, he's fed for a day, teach a man to fish, he's fed for life... teach a man to teach fishermen and end world hunger." My goal is to end world hunger by teaching people to fish for themselves. I could live a nice life without this mission, but it's a huge mission so I think bigger.
Stefan Aarnio: StefanAarnio.com
Stefan Aarnio is an Award Winning Real Estate Entrepreneur, author of Money People Deal: The Fastest Way to Real Estate Wealth, and the 2014 winner of the Rich Dad Hall of Fame award. Starting with only $1200, Stefan has built a multi-million dollar portfolio for his partners and has earned himself a spot on The Self-Made List. Stefan has accumulated properties at an alarming pace controlling 25% of his local niche through his understanding of Real Estate Joint Ventures. Stefan’s philosophy is simple, find great deals, build a fantastic team, pay everybody and create partnerships for life.
Jason Palliser
2. What roadblocks did you first have in obtaining clients?
Did not know where to look for good properties and how to talk to them, so I just relied on wholesalers.
3. What was the technique you initially used to find clients?
Wholesalers
4. Was there a specific tool or resource you utilized when you first got started?
No tool. Just hard-core bootstrapping to find deals at first. I was working too hard. Then I started training bird dogs to find deals for me.
No tool. Just hard-core bootstrapping to find deals at first. I was working too hard. Then I started training bird dogs to find deals for me.
5. Is that a prospecting technique that you currently utilize that helps generate your leads?
Using DATA “That doesn’t know how to lie” helps me search online for good deals instantly. Median Sales Price helps me know what to hunt for with lightning speed.
6. What was your greatest struggle when you first got started?
Not knowing the step-by-step process to close deals efficiently. I was always backtracking.
7. What did you do to overcome it?
I had some people let me shadow them from start to finish and I developed my own process to close deals efficiently.
8. What are you most excited about as you move forward with your business?
Fact that I am a lead generation specialist and I wake up knowing that every day there are tons of potential deals to make money on and that all I have to do is follow my process to land deals.
Fact that I am a lead generation specialist and I wake up knowing that every day there are tons of potential deals to make money on and that all I have to do is follow my process to land deals.
9. If there was one thing you could say to someone considering giving up on their real estate career what advice would give them?
Understand that there is a much better process approach to eliminate wasted investor motion that will change your investment attitude overnight and to find a mentor that can show you how to do it asap. No one is self-made, so find a monster that is willing to teach you the real investment-winning formula.
10. What motivates you to get up every day and work hard?
The fact that I have over 3,000 investment transactions closed and that getting good deals is just a numbers game. I have to follow the formula to close deals.
Jason Palliser: www.BiggerBusinessBlueprint.com
His speeches and training have impacted thousands of business owners from almost every area of business spanning from real estate to large healthcare companies. The energy he delivers to all that come for a thirst for something bigger in business is second to none.
Jason tackles business growth subjects spanning from building a brand, all the way down to building the best process to achieve unimaginable results. The flagship moments come when he reveals the path to the best business growth blueprint and ties a bow on it with several layers of CEO leverage that deliver bigger business with less effort (one of the greatest entrepreneur success principles).
Daniel Dawson
1. How did you get started in real estate?
Back in 2003 I was finishing up business school in Minnesota and one of my last semester classes was "how to interview well "... I thought heck I don't want to work for someone else. I want to create long-term wealth. Just then I purchased Rich Dad Poor Dad, the rest is history! That book fundamentally changed how I thought about life, wealth, and what I have been taught.
2. What roadblocks did you first have in obtaining clients?
I own several real estate businesses, one of which we do have a client is the tenant placement company. In MO you have to be a licensed real estate salesperson before being able to get clients. That was a very minor roadblock. The next is gaining the trust of landlord clients, they need to know that you can perform, which can take time.
3. What was the technique you initially used to find clients?
I used several methods including Craigslist posts and real estate investor meetup groups for networking.
4. Was there a specific tool or resource you utilized when you first got started?
I think getting started it's really important to figure out a niche or two and find where those people are at. For me in the real estate investment business networking on and offline with meetup groups, Facebook groups, and LinkedIn helped.
5. Is there a prospecting technique that you currently utilize that helps generate your leads?
In our tenant placement business, we also like to lead by giving landlords a free rental analysis of their rental property. That is a great opportunity to start a discussion.
6. What was your greatest struggle when you first got started?
It's all about hustle, being flexible to perform to the clients, and proving that you can.
7. What did you do to overcome it?
Keep your head down, work 7 days away to execute for your client, and keep doing it until you build a name for yourself.
8. What are you most excited about as you move forward with your business?
Being able to hire people that are better than I am and being able to scale the businesses.
9. If there was one thing you could say to someone considering giving up on their real estate career what advice would give them?
If you are struggling, it's most likely because you're not generating enough revenue. I suggest looking for lowing hanging fruit, what's happening in real estate? Is the first-time home buyer market hot? Are real estate investors flooding the market? Tons of renters? Once you find a couple niche markets exploit them as much as possible. When I started the tenant placement business I was brand new in town and just moved there, but I looked around found low-hanging fruit, and double down on the marketing, networking, and execution.
10. What motivates you to get up every day and work hard?
Growth, leveling up to be able to handle more clients, processes, and people.
Daniel Dawson has been in real estate since 2003, through different companies. He is the owner of more than $8 Million in rental properties, and a co-founder of KeyBot the world's first leasing robot. He is also the owner/broker of The Tenant Factory a top-rated tenant placement company in St. Louis that has leased more than $75million worth of rental properties. He is also the owner of St Louis Wealth Builders, we rehab and resell single-family homes to end buyers.