All Forum Posts by: Zachary McDonough

 Can you share what the content of your letters to the heirs is? What specific words do you say? 

We know shopping for a new house or investment can be hard. EVERYONE WANTS TO FIND A DEAL! However, identifying renovation costs is NEED-TO-KNOW if you’re going to buy right. *it’s been a while* Our next meet-up is on that very topic: spotting big-ticket repairs.

Do you choose the red or blue pill? No, I am not talking about politics. For those who haven't seen "The Matrix," the two pills represent two choices of reality. The red pill yields an understanding of the unsettling reality and life-changing truth hidden behind the illusion of the Matrix. The blue pill creates a contented experience of ordinary reality. In the world of entrepreneurship, the choice between the red and blue pills is a daily occurrence. The red pill entrepreneur is constantly uncomfortable, curious, and striving for their future self. The blue pill worker (9-5 job) does not typically deal with that; steady income, a structured work schedule, and known outcomes put the mind at ease. What other options exist? With a 9-5, someone can exist in the present, enjoy family, focus on other balanced activities, etc. Entrepreneurs, instead, thrive in the future, dreaming of what is to come. However, when they reach their desired outcome, they've already shifted their focus to larger outcomes. Therefore, they are ALWAYS existing in the future.

Can we take both pills? Can we remember our past, be content, while striving for a greater future? I think so. Whether you are an entrepreneur or not, you started reading this because of the title (or maybe you're my good friend who read this because of me). Either way, you intend to create opportunities for financial, spiritual, physical, and intellectual growth. With growth, we experience this seemingly continuous gap between our current existence and our desired destination. Dan Sullivan, a well-known entrepreneur and founder of Strategic Coach, calls this "The GAP". We exist in the gap as we set goals, reach them, and reset them over and over, being in a constant state of strife and struggle. It's good for us until it's not.

So how do we solve this? How do we avoid "burnout," throw in the towel, and decide we're not lucky? Two words. BE GRATEFUL. Gratitude is the vehicle that will push us through the highs and lows of wealth, mental, physical, and spiritual growth. Had a tough day? Be grateful. What went well?

Finding positives in a negative situation is easier said than done. However, there's so much upside in living when you realize you were gifted in life and have an extreme purpose.

So what now? How do I discipline myself to practice gratitude?

Go to Amazon, Walmart, Target, or wherever you shop, and buy a notebook. Each day, write down 3 things you are grateful for. It doesn't have to have happened that day or week, but it's important to daily list things that you are grateful for. I personally recommend doing this in the morning. It's a great way to start your day, but I am also biased since I do it in the morning and am a morning person. Do it every day for 21 days, and it will become a habit.

I've been doing it for 2-3 years now, and it's a game-changer. In the last three years, I've bought 9 houses, built a successful real estate agent business, started my own meetup, and built a huge network of like-minded people working towards big things. This habit has been a main contributor to having extreme clarity. Start now, you won't regret it.

Quote from @Irene Nash:

Good staging is absolutely worth it, no matter what market you're in. Saying staging is only for slow markets is like saying you can 'get away with not doing it' in a hot market. Yes the home may sell fast even without staging if it's a hot market, but *good* staging (not crap, old fashioned staging or over-staging that hides the house and makes it look cluttered) always increases the market value, so why should we only strive for that in a slow market?

Case in point, I'm going to attach a before and after example from my real estate website, I would post the link to the page that contains all the other before and afters but pretty sure that is against terms of service. 

RE pricing, if you wait for offers (offer review date, unless that would be weird for your market area) then you give the market a chance to correct the price point if you list it too low. There's no way to tell from the price range of other homes if your proposed list price is at the property's actual market value.

Sample before and after below is the same room. Second photo was staged by me and my husband and professionally photographed. The difference is not just for people with no imagination, one photo clearly shows more value to online viewers and the same staging makes the property present far better (aka higher value) in person as well.

 Second this as a realtor too. Good staging makes a huge difference. Data supports home staging as well.

Agents will be your best bet. 

City data

Local news outlets

Other investors

I would love to hear about where people syndicate their data from for neighborhoods.

Find some local meetups. Personal connections are your highest source of ROI. Invest in relationships. I know wholesalers who function as the real estate yellow pages. They make tons of connections, and people end up seeing them as a complete source for deals and vendors.

That's what you should shoot for.

 Yes sir!

Just remember you are building something way bigger than yourself. Work towards building up the next generation in your family, just like your parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents.

Do you take the red or blue pill? No, I am not talking about politics. For those who haven’t seen the Matrix, the two pills represent two choices of reality. The red pill yields the understanding the unsettling reality and life-changing truth hid through the illusion of the Matrix. The blue pill creates a contented experience of ordinary reality. In the world of entrepreneurship, the choice between the red and blue pills is daily. The red pill entrepreneur is constantly uncomfortable, curious, and striving for their future self. The blue pill worker (9-5 job) does not typically deal with that; steady income, structured work schedule, and known outcomes put the mind at ease. What other options exist? With a 9-5, someone can exist in the presence, enjoy family, focus on other balanced activities, etc. Entrepreneurs instead thrive in the future, dreaming of what is to come. However, when they reach their desired outcome, they already shifted the focus to larger outcomes. Therefore, they are ALWAYS existing in the future.

Can we take both pills? We remember our past, be content, while striving for a greater future. I think so. Whether you are an entrepreneur or not, you started reading this because of the title (or maybe you’re my good friend who read this because of me). Either way, you intend to create opportunities for financial, spiritual, physical, and intellectual growth. With growth, we experience this seemingly continuous gap between our current existence and our desired destination. Dan Sullivan, well-known entrepreneur and founder of Strategic Coach, calls this “The GAP”. We exist in the gap as we set goals, reach them, and reset them over and over, being in a constant state of strife and struggle. It’s good for us until it’s not.

So how do we solve this? How do we not “burnout”, throw in the towel, and decide we’re not lucky?

Two words. BE GRATEFUL.

Gratitude is the vehicle that will push us through the highs and lows of wealth, mental, physical, and spiritual growth.

Had a tough day? Be grateful, what went well?

Finding positives in a negative situation is easier said than done. However, there’s some much upside in living when you realize you were gifted life and have extreme purpose.

SO what now? How do I discipline myself into practicing gratitude?

• -Go to Amazon, Walmart, Target, or wherever you shop. Buy a notebook.
• -Each day, write 3 things you are grateful for. It doesn’t have to have happened that day or week, but it’s important to daily list things that are grateful for. I personally recommend doing this in the morning. It’s a great way to start your day, but I am also biased since I do it in the morning and am a morning person.
• -Do it every day for 21 days, it will become a habit.

I’ve been doing it for 2-3 years now. It’s a gamechanger. In the last three years, I’ve bought 9 houses, built a successful real estate agent business, started my own meetup, and built a huge network of like-minded people working towards big things. This habit has been a main contributor to having extreme clarity. Start now, you won’t regret it.

Hey, you! Yes, you with the W2 job feeling bad about how you are “just over broke (J.O.B)”! Take a second, turn off the Andrew Tate video, Hormozi, or whatever entrepreneurship video and listen to this. Your W2 is your superpower. Contrary to common BiggerPockets and entre-influencer, your W2 is most times your best asset to financial freedom, by increasing your lendability, constraining your time, and counterbalancing the highs and lows in the business world.

There’s a large limiting mindset looming in the real estate world and common to BiggerPockets. You may know what I am talking about but if not, I will break it down.

Financial freedom is not a race. It’s not about who’s first.

Financial freedom is a marathon. I heard a great quote the other day (unknown who said it), “If you are persistent, you’ll get it. If you are consistent, you’ll keep it.”

We all want to keep, not just get it. If not, 70% of lottery winners would NOT go broke (according to fortune.com). Consistently, they do and so will you if you sprint so hard and burn out.

Now, before we dive into why your W2 is a superpower, there are players in the real estate space who have built fast and long-lasting financial freedom. I am extremely humbled to meet them but am not telling you to bet on replicating their exact speed and results. Will you get there? Yes. Will you get there as fast? Maybe or maybe not. Understand that patience and consistency guarantees you success, nothing else. You can do everything perfect but it doesn’t mean overnight you will be financially free. Great, now that’s out of the way. Let’s break down why you have a superpower that will build major generational wealth.

Increasing your “lendability” may be your top value-proposition as a W2. Many of us are inspired by Rich Dad Poor Dad (R. Kiyosaki), and he states the importance of leverage versus liability. When the bank views you as a borrower, they see stability due to your J.O.B.; while new “pure” entrepreneurs have no financial asset to leverage against. If the goal is wealth over everything, rental investing should be our investment strategy, whether it’s househacking, BRRRs, etc..

So your steady paycheck lowers your DTI, makes underwriting easier, yields the best terms (rates, points, etc.), and makes it easier to stack wealth. New entrepreneurs have little to no asset to match your W2. They are forced to find partners to fill the money needs, giving up equity or substantial profit(s) in order to get started. Otherwise, new entrepreneurs will have to become "boots on the ground" or "real estate gophers" for bigger enterprises to get substantial knowledge to build intellectual capital to secure more equity or profit(s) in the same deal. Last option, new entrepreneurs have to build cash flow businesses, then turn around and buy real estate to build wealth, while the W2 workers need to advance in W2 pay, buy real estate, and build wealth. Both have the same goals but one has significantly less steps to achieve it, making it more achievable.

Constraining your time: Time constraints force the W2 employee to build a business, not another job. I often remind my client that money is a tool to buy time. Money is infinite, time is not. I can concede that new entrepreneurs do have a competitive advantage over W2 employees, which is more time. However, all of our life, humans are used to structure. In school, we have time-blocks for each class, due dates for assignments, and tests for assessments. Entrepreneurship doesn’t have that. There’s very little intrinsic feedback loop. Good entrepreneurs must create that. All W2 employees are given some sort of structure. Your job might have a limited or strict structure, but there’s a structure. If not, you wouldn’t have a job.

This structure forces you to find people you can fill those gaps, building a company or business structure. Otherwise, you build another outside job that taxes more of your time, which may lead to inevitable failure if you cannot transition out of your W2 in an accelerator manner.

Through the highs and lows, your W2 builds a level of stability, whether it’s placebo or not. For some jobs, your W2 is not stable. However, considering an average person with a J.O.B., there is an immense stability that a steady paycheck can provide during times of crisis. In the E-Myth Revisited (M.Gerber), the author talks about building systems that run without you during times of crisis (i.e. bad health of you or loved ones, vacationing, personal turmoil). Where the average entrepreneur gets caught is on the rise, building their passive business. During this process (before completion), something terrible happens that severely limits their ability to work on their business (“not in their business” -M.Gerber), resulting in partial or complete stops in their revenue generation.

Now, you can see why people without related financial resources (i.e. spouses, parents, family) can struggle to build wealth alone. Consequently, the W2 job might be the great weapon against market changes, personal stumbling blocks, and other highs/lows in business.

So what now? As much as you may hate having a W2 job, understand the great privilege you have to be qualified to be for a job and be reading an article/post from 2023, talking about escaping the 9-5 through real estate. My grandparents grew up where people begged for work to feed their family. My in-laws fled Detroit, MI in 2008 where their wages were cut by 50% overnight due to economic collapse. In 2023, we live with immense privilege. In my opinion, it is our duty to our current and future family to appreciate the privilege and continue to build something even greater.

You have all the tools at your disposal to build wealth and escape the 9-5. I encourage you to accept the slow and steady grind to build generational wealth. It can be fun to exist in the present and envision your future self, thinking back to this very moment. My goal was not to convince you to work a job forever. In fact, I think you should be working towards leaving the W2 world, but take it slow. Go out and make tons of money. Keep re-investing until it’s stupid to continue working.