Originally posted by @Shiloh Lundahl:
My intention of this post is not to offend. It is simply to learn of what other investors do who get frequent requests for information.
I would say a couple of times a week I get a call or an email from someone on BiggerPockets requesting some type of information. They may say something like, “I liked your podcast and I wanted to ask you...” and then they start talking to me about a deal that they are analyzing or an investment strategy they want to use and they want my input. At first, when I started getting these types of emails or calls, I felt flattered that someone would ask me for real estate advice. So I would share my contacts with them or take the time to help them analyze a deal or even take them to lunch and outline my investment strategies with them.
After doing this for several months, I noticed that I was spending a lot of my limited time sharing information, giving advice, helping people analyze deals, giving the names of my contacts to others, etc. and then the people would just go away after they got what they wanted and I wasn’t getting much out of the exchange. It felt nice to give at first, but after awhile I have started to feel like I am giving a lot of my time (which is very limited for me) to people who might not be mindful that they are asking me to dedicate my time to them for nothing in return. I guess they just think that is something that I should want to do or be willing to do. I want to be help people learn how to invest in real estate which is why I host meetups, however I don’t like to just have people take without giving.
For those who have had this happen, what do you do?
Valid question.
I invest in "off market" Low Money Down, Owner Financing, Subject to, Wraps, Land Contracts, Lease Options, etc Creative Financing type deals. A very lucrative part of real estate. As a result I get swamped with people intrigued by the process and wanting the results I get. However I've found that it is typically a one way street taking up a lot of my time.
About a year and a half ago, I thought the solution would be to teach a group, no cost up front, simply split the results and had about 50 people from Bigger Pockets signed up from Chicago, New Orleans, El Paso, Brooklyn, Phoenix, L.A., San Antonio, Austin, Memphis, and on and on. I offered free guidance using "Best Practices" for each aspect of creative investing. I spent a fair amount of time putting the process and materials and resources together. I started by teaching the basics. I was available by email, phone, and text.
Results were that when we got to the critical point of making calls and actually trying to find sellers, every one but three of the students dropped off the radar. Turns out that people love to talk about success but most people won't put the work into it.
The student in San Antonio, which is a good market, couldn't get past trying to find deals on the MLS. I spent a lot of time working with him to figure out how to find deals that made money. The deals he sent me were always overpriced MLS listings. Somehow he wasn't able to grasp the concept of talking to people who weren't on the MLS.
One student in Chicago "got busy with work" and didn't follow up on a couple of opportunities.
My student in Austin applied the concepts and we bought an "off market" house for $100 down & $9,000 cash in the Austin area. He thought that was pretty cool. Total cash in was $9,100
The underlying note is $186,000 and we gave the seller $9,000 at closing so we are into it for $9,100. We sold to a buyer on a Wrap for $250,000 for a profit of $55,000 which we split. He took his share along with some other money he had and has bought into 1,100 apartment units on a passive investment. He and I continue to invest together.
Bottom line is, at this point I have a prepared response that I cut and paste to their messages which directs them to my website. If they have a serious interest they will have read the website and they can answer the questions I ask them. For most people that is all they really are looking for. For the serious investors, I spend time with them and if they are accredited or sophisticated we do deals together and that part has paid off very nicely. Some buy Turnkeys from me, some invest in large projects with me and some are sources for other contacts.
It's nice to be nice to the nice, but it's more fun to actually be finding and buying properties.
