Justin Stoddart
Welcome back to The Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I’m your host, Justin Stoddart and I’m fired up about today’s episode, it’s going to teach you as a real estate agent, how you can gain leverage by getting on the other side of the transaction to where you become not only a marketer of properties of servicing buyers and sellers, but you becoming an investor as well without having the typical means that you think you need to have in order to become an investor.
Justin Stoddart
So before I get into that, let me remind you that if you go to thinkbigger.realestate, you can sign up for a weekly summary, that will give you all the episodes that happened that particular week, and links to the episodes that are most relevant for you and your business. Additionally, I want to remind any of the audience that may be listening from outside of the Portland market, that if you’re looking for a good lender, or licensed real estate agent, I’m not one, but I’m happy to make a referral and introduction to one. So if you have anybody moving this way, please reach out to me, I’m happy to make an intro on your behalf. So with that being said, let me let me introduce today’s guest, his name is Zachary beach. He is a phenomenal individual. He’s He’s the co author of a book called the new rules of real estate investing, actually had one of the other co authors on previously, maybe some of you got the book at that point I did I read the whole book, I can’t say that about every book that I promote on the show. But this one caught my attention all the way to the end. Because it really opened up a whole new paradigm as to how one can be an investor before they think that they could have been an investor. So you’re gonna want to get your hands on that, again, the new rules of real estate investing, I’ll put links in the show notes. And then at the end, we’re going to talk about a webinar that you can get on. If you’re like me, and you’re you’re very mobile. And sometimes sitting down to read a book can be challenging actually actually read this on a vacation. That’s how I made time for it. But oftentimes, I’ve listing the book. So if you’re wanting to get information, there’s going to be a webinar they’re going to talk about at the end. So stay tuned to hear all about that webinar that will again teach you to get on the other side of the transaction, which can be the more lucrative side of the transaction. So with all that said, Zachary beach, today’s guest, he is a coach, he is a partner, and he’s an investor smart real estate coach, calm. And, Zach, you want to thank you for coming on to the think bigger real estate show today.
Zachary Beach
Hey, Justin, thanks for having me on. You made me sound terrific. Maybe a little better than I am. So I very much appreciate the introduction and I’m super grateful for being on your show.
Justin Stoddart
You know, I I love the branding that you guys have your your your shirt, I want to pay special attention fact up. I’m going to remove your name here for just a second so people can see it. Wicked smart, this is your tribe, right? A tribe of people that subscribe to your way of thinking that have become investors at a scale they didn’t think they were able to invest at now these these people are wicked smart. Right? And that’s kind of the conference that you guys host. This is this is your tribe. Is that is that correct?
Zachary Beach
Yep. The Wicked Smart Community and we are from New England, which makes it even better. So we should just remove the our it’s wicked smart. Yeah, so these are the the associates that we partner with around the country. And we lock arms with and that we help complete these types of transactions by buying and selling on terms, which we can certainly dive into. And then we lock arms to help them scale a business as well.
Justin Stoddart
I love it, man. So exciting. Let’s, let’s get into this. Again, the purpose of this show is not just to help people build great empires, big income, have success, but it’s to help them have success and significance, income and impact building not just statues of themselves, but really building great communities. And so I want to talk a little bit about your, your a dad, and you’re expecting another child. Talk to us a little bit about how that becoming a father and a good father at that has helped kind of change your perspective on on why business and investing matters?
Zachary Beach
That’s a fantastic question. It’s actually the first time I’ve been asked that. Yes. And so thank you. I think we all get caught up in, you know, the monetary value of business. I think it’s once you take a step back and you realize what you actually are doing it for is where the significance comes in. That’s great that we can make a whole bunch of money, but what are we actually doing that for? What do we need the money for? So actually becoming a father has, I would say, like 10 times my growth, because I gotta learn faster, I have to produce more, and I have to produce it in a shorter period of time. So being a father has, has forced me to get really good at project management, time management, and just overall getting just better at my craft. But it also brings you back down to earth too. Because after you’re, you know, you’ve been, you know, you’re out there in the world. And you’re you’re buying properties, you’re, you know, helping people build their businesses, and you’re, and you’re you’re really out in that business world coming back home, brings it back down the earth and makes you realize exactly why you’re doing it. And it also brings you back to being present. It’s really hard as being an entrepreneur to not think about business when you’re home. And I would say that was that’s been one of my hardest things as being a father is, is really transitioning from leaving the office and being home. And it’s something that I’m constantly trying to master. But it’s it’s been tough. I’ll tell you that.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, yeah, I think when you’re an ambitious professional as we are and as this audiences, there’s that that does tend to be a challenge, right is how do we how do we turn it off? To end and and turn on great fatherhood? Right? So we’re, we’re not there, physically, but our mind is elsewhere? How do we how do we, both of us, right, both our body and our mind, be their present, I found that when I when I can do that, and I and similar to you, I struggle with it. It’s something that I’m working on. It’s a number of kind of big steps I’ve taken this past year to help improve that, but it’s still a work in progress. But it’s interesting how much more I enjoy life. When I do go on all in at home like I do go all in at work and it’s there’s so much more joy that’s not available when your mind somewhere else.
Zachary Beach
Yeah, I was told by a mentor of mine. And he said that if you’re really ambitious entrepreneur, you have to be present no matter where you are. So when you’re if you’re traveling for business, be there be all in there, like you just said, be all in, when you’re at home be all in so that way, when you’re on the road, you know, thinking about home, and when you’re at at the office, or when you’re you know, working, you know, thinking about home, so I may I messed that up, we’re live, so we’ll just keep rolling with it. So with that being said, it’s just you have to be, you have to be really present when you’re doing work. And you have to be really present when you’re at home.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, it’s great. It’s great insight. You know, interestingly enough, I had the thought also, you know, we’re talking today about helping real estate agents become not just, you know, sellers and buyers agents, but also becoming investors themselves. And I can’t help but think of how important it is to, to exchange some of the trade time for money to earning passive income, right, so where you own things that are earning money for you, even when you’re not working. And I know that’s a lot of what we’re talking about which going back again to this emphasis of being great parents, being great at home is great at home as we are at work. That’s your the strategies and and and, and tactics that you teach, have to help agents gain that leverage so that they do have time freedom.
Zachary Beach
Yeah, I mean, obviously, you can be more present at home, if you’re not necessarily worrying about your finances, I think they did a survey. And it’s like 95% of Americans are either thinking about or worrying about their finances. So if you have investments that are producing, you know, income, well, you’re not working, and then it makes it a little easier to be a better parent. Now, I’m not saying I definitely don’t come from a position where I didn’t come from much money, great loving family, but my mother was a cashier at Lowes. And she still is. So I didn’t come from much money. So I can understand the struggles of financing. And I can understand how that brings a little bit, it brings a bit of an edge to when you’re in your day to day life. So if you can produce income through these investments, it just makes life a little easier.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, great point. Alright, let’s get into this. This buying real estate on terms, right? I mean, is that at the end of the day, if you were to give this what we’re going to talk about today a label, because again, I think most people think I’ll become an investor as soon as I have, you know, $100,000 saved, right. So in my market, the average sales price is north of $400,000. I know, in other parts of the country, it’s different. But let’s say, you know, take out traditional financing have to have 25% down, you know that, that becomes a really big inhibitor for a lot of people have stepping into the investing space. And and what I understand that you and the wicked, smart community, teach and embrace and live, is that you don’t have to wait to that point in order to get into the investing space. Is that true?
Zachary Beach
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So I think there’s a lot of paradigms that come around investor, right, the word investor means that you’re either raising a bunch of capital, so you have to know how to speak to other investors to raise capital, or you have to have a lot of capital yourself in order to buy property in order to produce, you know, these income producing assets. Because I’ve been a bunch of podcasts. And the question us at the end of them is, if you had $50,000, like, what would you do with it? And my response always is, or if there’s a beginner out there, and they have $50,000, what would they do it my always my responses, I would keep that money in your own pocket. And what I would do is I would learn to buy and sell on terms because we don’t use our own cash, we don’t use our own credit. And we typically are not, you know, working with other investors to raise capital. And we do that by buying and selling on term. So what that means is you’re buying on contracts, so either a lease option, or you’re buying and letting the seller be the bank on seller financing.
Justin Stoddart
That’s totally different paradigm, isn’t it? And it definitely speeds up the pace at which a lot of people can become an investor, when rather than using your own personal money or investor money, you’re tapping into the established capital, if you will, of the person that already owns the property.
Zachary Beach
Yeah, so a majority of our community, the wicked smart community are green investors, either they’re coming from a background of being realtors, or they’re coming from a background of the corporate world, or maybe they were self employed originally. But what the transition looks like is it’s not that you got to raise a bunch of capital or have a bunch of capital in order to do it. It’s let’s teach you the skills on how to speak with sellers and buyers how to construct deals, in a way where you’re using the different terms and in terms are are the two different pieces, really, it’s an agreement terms, and there’s the financial terms. But it’s how to construct those where you’re able to get the seller what they want, the buyer can potentially get what they want, as well, and you’re able to be in the middle and control this deal and produce large profits.
Justin Stoddart
I love it. Let’s walk through. So let’s say that I’m a real estate agent, right? For those that know me know that I’m not, let’s say that I I am and I haven’t yet invested in properties and or I do but my capital is tapped right. I’ve used my capital for other investments and now you’re telling me that, that I I can still be an investor? What would be? What would be your advice to me that should be my very first step?
Zachary Beach
Yeah, absolutely. So let’s say and I want to preface this as you know, you being a real estate agent, there’s a certain box that you work within, typically it’s you have a certain price range that you work within depends on the typical seller, so a seller that is looking to sell their property now, meaning they have to pull out all of their equity in order to move on. So things that fit outside the box, which are houses that are people are selling for what they owe on a property, we can create great profits on people that are selling exactly what they Oh, maybe functionality comes into play where a house sits on the market for like six, seven months. And it’s not selling because of functionality or somebody who’s not willing to work with a real estate agent. Because they don’t want to pay commissions. So they sell it for sale by owner and they don’t care, they don’t want to deal with the commission. So there’s many different facets out there. So what I suggest is now you get to become a one stop shop. So if you come across one of those things that don’t fit inside your box, well, now you can speak with sellers, you can say hey, actually, I have some other options that I could actually buy your property instead of listing it for you. And I can buy it a couple of different ways. Either I can buy it on a lease purchase, which simply means that when you are agreeing upon a price, I’ll then take over any and all responsibilities of that property. So if there’s mortgage maintenance, taxes, insurance, any no future pairs ain’t no responsibilities, and then honor before a specific date that we agree upon in the future, I will then cash you out, meaning I’ll pay off the remaining balance your mortgage, and the equity that we locked in at the beginning with them to yours.
Justin Stoddart
And and what’s it what’s the benefit of the seller at this point is that they haven’t been able to sell the property prior to this point. Or is there some other reason why somebody who could sell it to a traditional buyer would want this same setup?
Zachary Beach
Yeah, so there’s a couple things that fall into place where, okay, they want to maximize their equity. Right. So being a real estate agent, you’re taking on average, what roughly 5% commission from a seller’s pocket. So as you can help them keep that and you could actually become an investor and benefit on larger profits and just 5% Commission, just something someone that the properties above to expire, maybe you have a listing, and the property is about to expire, well. Now you actually have other options. And majority of the time, we all know it’s probably price, it’s probably a zero to do with you being the the real estate agent, it’s either the market is telling them one thing, such as price, and you know, it can’t go. So instead, you now have the ability to buy the property as it’s about to expire. And then other people such as people are looking for debt relief. So if you are going to if somebody is going to sell the property for roughly what they owe, then they are coming out of pocket for your commission in order to sell the house. So instead, you can buy it, what we call subject to the existing loan, which means you can take title, and the mortgage will still stay in their name. And now you’ve actually saved them 5%. So it’s more likely that now you get to become a solution, instead of coming and save them coming out of pocket. So a large amounts of equity. So maximizing profit debt relief, functionality, there’s a whole bunch of different reasons out there why people can’t sell traditionally, or choose not to sell traditionally.
Justin Stoddart
So the first audience that a real estate agent, and keep in mind that I know that a lot more people than just real estate agents watch this. So you don’t have to be a licensed real estate agent to employ the same tactics. But again, we’re looking at through the eyes of a real estate agent for the purposes of today’s conversation, but keep in mind that these conversations that we’re having can be had by anybody have to have a license to have like to employ these similar tactics. Right? Correct. Yeah, if you if you are a real estate agent, the first audience you would look at is, what listings do you currently have that aren’t selling? that are coming up on expired, that you could approach them and say, Look, I’ll buy this property? I’ll buy it from you on terms. Right. So that’s the first one. The second one is other properties that maybe have gone expired? And, you know, I’m, I’m not a big fan, personally. And I know some are and I don’t hold that against them no heart and you know, no, no judgment. But I’m not a big fan of of agents calling expires right now, I know that there’s a whole case against it. I’m very relational I, to me, I don’t believe that that’s in the best interest of the consumer, when you have 30 people calling the same person and trying to get the same deal, right. And I think creates a bit of a bad like a bit of an ambulance chaser identity for the industry. And again, some agents do it very professionally, respectfully, and they do great, great business. So but there’s a few bad apples that don’t and it tends to tarnish it for for the others that are that are good. So but what I understood as I read your book is that you’re, if you’re now calling expires, you’re not calling with the same offer as everybody else. You’re not saying I’m a real estate agent, I’d like to list your home. But rather you’re saying I’m an investor, I see your home did not sell. I’m an investor, I’d like to look at the possibility of buying your house. Is that true? Is that? Is that how you go about that?
Zachary Beach
Yeah, so there’s two things I want to hit there too. Of course, there’s, there’s bad apples and every single industry in the investor world as well. So two things, though, so you can be the real estate agent that gets referrals from all the other real estate agents, because now you’re the term specialist. So if they come across a property that they’re having trouble with, now they have a person to refer to, which is super important. That’s like, I would say one of the major benefits that comes to being licensed as an investor compared to not being license. And then yes, also, if you’re going to be calling on these properties, now you’re calling on to buy them not to list them. Of course, the runoff can be right you call them, they don’t want to sell to an investor, of course, your spin off and can be well I can list your property. I mean, so you have, if you can become a one stop shop where if it doesn’t fit into the investor hat, it can fit into the realtor hat and then vice versa.
Justin Stoddart
It just, it gives you more tools in your toolbox to be able to serve that client, right, I believe that sales is leadership. And that if you are leading people to a better, brighter future, you need a number of different tools to be able to help that person to be able to serve that person and leave that person. And what you’re saying is this is just one more tool, the skill sets the knowledge, the expertise that people learn, right through your coaching program gives them the ability to step confidently into these situations to say, I’m calling on that, as an investor, I’m now approaching you as an investor, as an investor, with the possibility of purchasing your home and opening that conversation.
Zachary Beach
Yeah, it also bridges the gap to right, there’s only some realtors that actually specializes working with investors. So now if you have the hat on that you’re an investor working with investors is easier. Plus, you’re also also able to buy property. So it always bridges that gap. Now, there should not be a real estate deal. If it’s a good one that comes across your desk that you don’t know where it goes, and you should be able to profit from it,
Justin Stoddart
You should be able to profit from all of them now, right? Because that seller has raised their hand and said, Look, I have a problem, I got to get like I want to get rid of this property. And before you had one tool, you had a hammer, right? I can help you sell it, I can help you sell and you’ve got a line of 30 people behind you that are saying I can help you sell it, I can help you sell it, I can help you sell it. Hence, the consumer gets a little aggravated because everybody’s coming in trying to solve the problem the same way saying I can I can market it sell it better than that person, maybe you can. But when you hear that over and over, it starts to get a little bit tiring for the consumer. But if you come in and with an entirely different approach and say, Look, I have a saw this doesn’t need to be hammered. This needs to be saw this season, right? This season me, you know, screwed, right? Or it was probably not the best. You know, arrange There we go. And I screwed over. I’ve got a wrench and this thing needs to be, you know, turn. So anyway, I think that’s a really interesting approach. What other opportunities are there beyond that? What is maybe one more key takeaway that real estate agents need to identify as being. And maybe it’s a script through which they approach people or another really important tactic that that you can help people with as far as taking advantage of this terms market?
Zachary Beach
Well, let’s, let’s look on the flip side, we’ve only talked about sellers, there’s roughly 80% of depending on the area that you’re in, but 80% of the buyers out there cannot qualify for a loan. So what we’re doing is, and we’re not talking about every single buyer out there is great that can’t qualify for loan, we’re talking about people that had a legitimate hiccup in their credit or someone who’s self employed just needs time to show that’s that’s your we work with, we sell our property, so rent own program, with people that are just outside of finance ability. So think about as being a realtor, all of the buyers that you’ve had to turn away, because they’re not able to qualify for a loan right now, you have a huge pool. So once you have a property under contract, you have a huge pool of buyers that you can sell to and by having a bigger pool means you’re going to be able to work with, you’re going to be able to get the best buyers out there, who those are the ones that are going to end up creating the major profit for you.
Justin Stoddart
Because now you’re helping these buyers buy on terms, you don’t have to go through the traditional financing route. You know, it’s it’s a really interesting way to look at this offer that you guys have when you could be the investor or you help other people step in and be that because you’re right, I mean, the approach of the typical mortgage loan officer is you’ve got to meet these parameters. And if you don’t, well, we’ll work with you until you do meet these parameters. Right? Once you meet these parameters, then we can help you the good one say will accompany you know we’ve got a credit repair service. And here’s the things you need to do. They’re getting some coaching, knowing that once they get over that threshold, okay, now we can go by what I hear you saying is it for these people over here, we can actually help you by now like we can actually help you finance it now based on terms,
Unknown Speaker
Yes there are a couple different ways you can do it. So in a standard sandwich lease is or at least option you’re in the middle. So you have a contract with the seller, you then sell the property to the buyer. And you’re there collecting the the what we call the three paydays. So the non refundable deposit, the monthly spread, and then you get additional principal pay down on the back end and the additional premium actually transfers once it actually closes. So what you’re doing is you’re bridging the gap. So you have a buyer that needs 24 months before they can become mortgage, more qualified. In the meantime, they’re able to tie up their own, they’re able to tie up the property, live in the property and work towards becoming work towards becoming mortgage ready. So you’re able to create this amazing opportunity for people that were going to have to rent or wait or did not know how to become a buyer. So you’re able to help them change from being just a tenant to a buyer. And then the other way is if you buy if you are buying the property on seller financing, meaning you’re getting title from the seller, you can actually you can actually go ahead and sell it seller financing, especially if you have really long terms, you know, say like 10 years, I mean somebody, somebody can then may not even have to go to a bank and eventually can just refer you out
Justin Stoddart
Interesting. All kinds of different strategies, right? I mean, the point I want to make here as we wrap up, number one is that this book is going to be really important to you the new rules of real estate investing. But beyond that, again, I want to send everybody that’s listening to this, if you’re a real estate agent, and you’re like, I need to know these strategies, I need to understand these better, here’s a great place to go smart real estate coach calm forward slash webinar, you can learn about the strategies and there’s opportunities for at that point to further join the community and get familiar with how you can increase the tools in your tool belt. And I want to make this this point is it a big a big push for me any anytime I’m talking with an agent, is that you have to transition from being a marketing person, a salesperson, to being a consultant and a valued advisor. And the very best advisors out there have superior knowledge, but they also have superior network and a superior set of tools to be able to help people. And this fits right into their I think it would be a very powerful move for a real estate agent to learn these tactics, and be able to give people additional options when they need to move. And they don’t fit within the typical parameters. And or as we described, as we started off the show of you benefiting from this by becoming the investor, right? Even if you’re not helping other people do it, you’re becoming the investor. And you’re acquiring properties that before you were not able to acquire because you didn’t understand how this works. So it’s it’s really really great stuff, mode, encourage everybody to go watch the webinar. I’m excited to do that having read the book, I think the webinar is going to be offer a lot of value, and help me to be more valuable to my real estate clients and audience as well. So let’s do this is Zachary, I want to end with the final, this final question, but before I do that, you did mention that now that we’re friends, I can call you, Zach. So now I can pivot to calling you, Zach.
Unknown Speaker
Well said it was it was like I mean, you you could I couldn’t have said it any better than you just said when you’re talking about bringing added value. I think as we all grow as individuals, the whole point is personal growth is adding more value, because you get paid for what you bring to the world and the value that you bring to the world. So I couldn’t have said it better. That was that was fantastic.
Justin Stoddart
Awesome. Thank you for that. So this is our signature question. I’m excited to hear hear your answer. Is it Zachary, you’re obviously a big thinker, right? You’ve chosen a path that not only create success, success, but also create significance. By having success through other people helping other people have success. I love to hear your thoughts on what you do to continue to be a big thinker. To continue your own quest to expand your own possibilities. What does that look like for you?
Zachary Beach
Yeah, um, the I would say the two major things is I’m constantly hungry for knowledge. If I’m not reading a book, then I’m usually watching a documentary. Right now I’m stuck on the inside Bill’s brain on Netflix, which is about Bill Gates. I mean, that’s fantastic. So I’m always looking for new things to acquire as far as knowledge and not necessarily like just anything but whatever I’m on right there to push the needle forward. And then constantly surrounding myself with people that are way ahead of me. I constantly want to be surrounded by mentors or friends that think bigger than me or, or way ahead of me, maybe by 510 years and that way, I know pretty much anything’s possible. So I just continue to make the thinking big a reality in my life. So that way, there’s no way I can think small.
Justin Stoddart
I love it such a powerful answer. And I appreciate you sharing some time with us and pouring your expertise into us. I’m again excited to have you a part of the think bigger community. And I want to end with this request to all of us which Zachary is made easier, which is to GO THINK BIGGER. Thank you, Zach again for your time today being on the show and look forward to our continued friendship.