SIC 044: Survival Skills for RE Investors
If you prefer to read… here’s the transcript
Joe Bauer: Welcome to the Seattle Investors Club Podcast where we talk about the nuts and bolts of real estate investing. My name is Joe Bauer and I have my cohost Julie Clark. Julie how are you doing today?
Julie Clark: I’m all good in the hood Joe. What’s going on, what’s going on everybody? Sitting here sweating it out in the Seattle heat which has been nice, I’m not complaining. At least I’m not complaining if everybody can hear me, but it has been a spectacular summer here in Seattle. We are where we at, August … Where are we at? The eighth or the ninth or something like that?
Joe Bauer: Looks like the ninth.
Julie Clark: The ninth, yeah. We have a Seattle Investors Club meeting coming up this weekend with our friend Tamar Mar about apartment syndications, which is going to be awesome. You guys hopefully y’all by the time you’re listening to this, you were at that meeting and found awesome value there for yourselves. But Joe, I think more exciting, where are you at?
Joe Bauer: Oh my gosh, I don’t even know these days Julie. I wake up and I look around, eat some food. But I’m actually-
Julie Clark: [crosstalk 00:01:21]
Joe Bauer: I’m actually looking out on Flathead Lake in Montana, which is really cool.
Julie Clark: That sounds good.
Joe Bauer: It is a huge lake. Like we think we got big lakes in the Washington State area, nah, not so much. This thing is humongous.
Julie Clark: Is it a boating lake? Can people get a boat on there?
Joe Bauer: Oh yeah. And it’s so big that even though it’s surrounded by these awesome houses, there’s not very many boats because the lake’s just so big. Like you look out, looks like an ocean and then there’s mountains on the side. It’s amazing.
Julie Clark: Sounds like Lake Quarter Line. Is it like Lake Quarter Line kind of?
Joe Bauer: Yeah. But I haven’t been in Quarter Line enough to know how big that lake is so it could be similar. This is just humongous. Humongous lake but beautiful 70 degrees, 80 degrees awesome stuff.
Julie Clark: And you guys are hanging there for a few days or what?
Joe Bauer: Yeah. We’re going to be here … Well, we’ve been here for a couple of days and then we’re headed tomorrow to Glacier area and then I’m obviously flying out to meet up with you for the weekend and then we’ll be exploring Glacier National Park and trying to avoid the grizzly bears.
Julie Clark: Yeah. Well, I’ll have some bear spray waiting for you back here at home.
Joe Bauer: Perfect.
Julie Clark: Like mother you a little bit while you’re in town [inaudible 00:02:44]. Well, awesome. Well speaking of bear … What is it? Bear spray is kind of a survival. Hey, look at that transition.
Joe Bauer: Yeah.
Julie Clark: Yeah. Survival out in the woods is what Joe’s living life these days. But today, here on the nuts and bolts of real estate investing, we’re going to talk about survival skills for real estate investors. How about that? For me, it’s always fun to see how I can make this transition off our chitchat into the topic. And I think that I pulled that one off pretty good.
Joe Bauer: That was a good one. That was really good.
Julie Clark: You guys liked that one? Yeah, feeling good about it. So survival skills for real estate investors, we’ve gone through probably, I don’t know how many years and years now of what I call a tough market in some ways. It’s been hard on lead generation for real estate investors but if you’ve got one, if you’ve got a deal, home run, major home run for the last, I can’t even think, years and years here. But we are now officially in the Seattle market, we have hit what I call the peak, the ceiling. I’d feel no hesitation in saying that. Do I think it’s a big deal? No, I think it’s good. A little bit of balance. I’m not saying like some sort of downturn, just an adjustment and a bump and a blip and maybe a little bit of bouncing around between two to 5% of price reductions.
Julie Clark: But with that said, if you are out way north or way south or something like that and you’re on the 5% into that little bump or blip, because I think buyers are like, “Oh, I don’t have to go all the way north or south. I might actually become closer in to Seattle or my first choice neighborhoods.” I think the impact will be a little bit more the further out you are but all still, we’re still in the seller’s market for sure, no panicking going on. But there is a bit of uncertainty in the air and I think that is going to be a great time for buyers and is going to be a great time for investors right now. Sort of they’ll be paying attention to what’s going on and really getting your marketing out the door and going for it. But being conservative a little bit on what comps you’re using. Anybody who has questions on that, at least in the Seattle area give me a call and I’ll give you some more detailed thoughts or join us at the Seattle Investors Club meeting and we can talk more about it.
Julie Clark: Speaking of, Joe, one of the things we’re starting to do every month for all you people listening that attend our meetings or thinking about attending our meetings, which you should ’cause there’s major nuggets that come out of there when the cameras are off, we’re starting like this monthly kind of coffee meetup before the meeting, right?
Joe Bauer: Heck yeah we are. And yeah, if anybody wants to join us, make sure that you check out our Facebook group at Seattle Investors Club because we’ll be posting all of the times and locations on there.
Julie Clark: Yeah. We might even start bursting those out mid month if I don’t get bugged down with all these awesome leads as the market changes a little bit, but it’s been good. It’s like totally the ability to talk in detail about stuff with a smaller group of people unless for some reason you all show, which I doubt you will. But if you have a chance, come join us. Right now we’re just doing it before the meeting in Renton at the Starbucks down the street at least for the moment. Instead of four o’clock meeting, we’re meeting about 1:30, just to hang out.
Joe Bauer: Yap, 1:30. Get there a little bit early, hang out, have some coffee, discuss some things that maybe you don’t have the want to discuss in front of a big room or you just want to hang out with us and see what we’re up to.
Julie Clark: Yeah. Great time to bring all your questions and get … It’s like going to the doctor and getting free advice. We’ll be there answering all those questions. So let’s jump into it because I’ve got two girls here on the verge of a fist fight over some toys that they got for their birthday. So I need to get them off to camp in a while here. Got one in skateboard camp and one in kind of family fun camp with another family that we know. So a little separation … healthy. Got twins as you guys know so let’s do it. So what we got Joe? You want to kick it off, survival skills for real estate investors or you want me to lay into it here?
Joe Bauer: I’ll give you the first one and then I’ll jump in.
Julie Clark: I thought a grizzly bear might have ate you there for a minute. I lost you.
Joe Bauer: No grizzlies yet.
Julie Clark: No grizzlies yet. All right, go for it. Let’s do it, let’s kick it off. We’re just going to kind of free flow this based on our own experiences after years and years and years of doing this. What we think the survival skills are, maybe there’s going to be some that you’re like, “Yeah, obviously.” But maybe at the end I’m going to say, “Guess what, I don’t think these skills are necessarily survival skills.” I’ll have a few of those at the end too. So let’s do it.
Joe Bauer: Cool. Do you want me to go first?
Julie Clark: Go first, just go for it.
Joe Bauer: All right. So I’m going to get real broad on this one and the survival skill that I’m going to give … And let me give you a little bit of background on this, I’ve done coaching for the FortuneBuilders and I’ve had the privilege of working with a lot of people. And the thing that I have noticed in our business, my businesses I’ve had in the past and then these other people’s businesses that I’ve worked with, is the ability to set your goal and not quit. So the survival skill is the ability to not quit. Because, like Julie said, we’ve had hard markets. Seems like forever since we’ve had a really easy market to get deals out of. But it’s that you set up that goal and you just don’t quit.
Joe Bauer: And sometimes you have to adjust along the way but the path is that you just … Let’s just say that the mountain that you’re climbing, you just keep on climbing that mountain until you get to the top. And some days are going to be harder than others. But the people that I’ve seen and the thing that I’ve taken away from my businesses is that it is just that you keep your head down and you do a little bit more each day and you try something. And if it doesn’t work, then you go in a different direction and you try that. And if it doesn’t work, then you keep on trying. And I feel like the majority of people that I’ve seen that have not made it successful, it’s just ’cause they didn’t stay in the game long enough.
Joe Bauer: If you really want to be a real estate investor, do not quit. Just keep learning, keep trying things, keep getting better at your craft and keep moving forward closer to the top of that mountain.
Julie Clark: Right. That’s right. That one wasn’t even on my list of stuff because quitting doesn’t even enter my mind. When you said that I’m like, “Oh good one.” I’m like, “Why didn’t I think of that?” Because quitting never enters my mind, ever. So there you go, that’s valid. Everything he said there is so true. You know what the truth is guys, let me give you the secret sauce here about real estate investing or real estate in general, whether you’re just a broker or you’re an agent investor like me, is that it’s a rollercoaster.
Julie Clark: That’s the simple truth of it. Is that it’s a rollercoaster and therefore you could have a week where you lose … I have it where I lose like three deals in a row all on the same day or all on the same week and I’m like, “Holy, what is wrong with me? Something. Have I lost my touch.” And I freak out for a minute and then two days later or the next week, I get three more leads. It’s like birth and death. And that is the truth about how real estate in general works. It’s a rollercoaster and as long as you know it’s a rollercoaster and you expect the dips and the rolls, they won’t bother you when it happens. So the biggest thing, Joe’s right, that what happens, we’re talking about survival skills here, is that people just quit surviving. They forget about the survival part. They don’t do what it takes to survive. They quit.
Julie Clark: When the bear shows up, they don’t whoop out their bear spray and keep going, they run the other direction. We have been faced with those things every year. Every year I feel like we have those times that we face, and I think we talk about ’em maybe less now. We might acknowledge ’em to each other but then we know that we’re going to keep going. We just pivot, we kind of go, “Aargh.” Then we just pivot on. So that’s a good one Joe. Yeah, [crosstalk 00:11:43]
Joe Bauer: Yeah. What do you got Julie?
Julie Clark: What do I got? Well, I got kind of the underlying number one, I’d say, most important thing for real estate investors or agents or anybody who’s in sales to have, and that is a survival skill. You must, must, must know how to be good and have some consistency at lead generation. Period. Nothing else matters, honestly. You could have great phone skills, you could have a lot of confidence, you could be an analytical genius, you could be a design person that has a great eye for design. You could, all these things, be a great delegator. You could do all these things but none of ’em matter if you don’t have any leads.
Julie Clark: So a survival skill in my book, the number one survival skill is lead generation. Got to know how to do that. It’s the lifeblood of your company, it is everything. You got to have a consistent plan. There’s a little few components behind that. So to survive, you need to be able to lead generate. How do you do that? Networking, direct mail, hustle, sphere of influence, telling everybody you know that you’re looking for properties, even your neighbors and your moms and dads at schools, on the soccer team. It becomes a lifestyle. If you’re going to be in this business, it’s a lifestyle that you live and breathe it. You can’t compartmentalize it, unless you just want to do one or two deals a year or pick up one final deal a year, one or two, then maybe … You still need leads so you still got to figure out how to get those properties even if you don’t want to have a volume game. Network with agents, that kind of thing. It takes effort.
Julie Clark: We’re talking probably more so to the people that … ‘Cause most people who are listening probably want to get some volume going in there business and do this full-time, either as an agent, investor or my favorite, both, agent and investor. So once you figure out maybe I also think … I used to say you got to have a line in every stream. That’s what I used to say but I guess I kind of feel differently about that now. I think you need to have credibility out there with social media and things like that but we don’t go to the auction. That’s a line in every stream. We focus, on our company, on direct mail and I think it works very well for us because we’ve mastered it. We’ve mastered how to do it and all the components to it and it is an ebb and flow and it can create some stress and it can then be like, “Holy cow, this is awesome.”
Julie Clark: But just being consistent about whatever you choose. If you can’t do everything, especially if you’re on your own, pick one that you’re most comfortable with. If that’s door knocking or networking or direct mail, pick it and become and expert at it. And then what happens is the phone rings and everybody is not ready the first day to sell their house to you. That’s rare, maybe 10%, maybe if you’re lucky 15% of the calls you get, maybe if you’re lucky, will want to sell immediately. Like that week or 10 days or whatever. 95% or more of the deals come in followup. So I see people who can actually get their market at the door, they do it. And maybe they have a little money and they spend it. But guess what, they don’t followup.
Julie Clark: So a major survival skill layered into the lead generation is followup. You need to have both because lead generation doesn’t work unless you have consistent marketing of whatever type you’re going to do, networking or whatever and consistent followup. It’s got to be 50/50 and there’s no room for error, there’s no room for laziness on either side of that. So, my number one survival skill for all real estate investors is to be good at lead generation. Fair enough?
Joe Bauer: Well, you know what Julie, that was my next one on the list but I said it as never stop marketing.
Julie Clark: There you go.
Joe Bauer: And the angle that I would take on it or that I’ve failed at this one before is that the boom and the burst or when you do your marketing, you get a bunch of leads that come in and you stop. But the thing that you got to do is just continue doing it. And I know that Julie and I are saying basically the same thing but it’s sometimes interesting to hear it from different perspectives. And I think of it as all right, you never stop marketing. You talk about your business all the time. Like Julie would say, you’re constantly bringing up your real estate business because you’re so excited about it. You never stop putting out the direct mail if you’re doing some other kind of marketing in Google Ad or just social media.
Joe Bauer: You have consistent schedule for it because the times that you’re going to feel lean are when that marketing is not working or is not coming in or it’s not going out the door. So you have to have that constant system, as I put it into play, of the marketing going out. And even it’s a system to be talking about it all the time. When you’re in conversation you put those habits in place. So when someone asks you how you’re doing, you’re like, “Oh, I’m great. Looking a lot of properties right now.” It’s like, “Oh, interesting.”
Julie Clark: I actually think there’s a layer on top of lead generation. There’s so many components to lead generation but you bring up a good point. If you’re a real estate investor or a real estate agent or like I said, both ideally, you have to live and breathe it. If you’re compartmentalizing when you’re wearing you’re real estate hat and when you’re not, your survival skill is not there. It is not there. It is a lifestyle business if you, again, if you want to do any type of volume. It is 100% a lifestyle business. If you find an opening or a subtle way to drop real estate, you need to be doing that at all times, right?
Joe Bauer: Totally.
Julie Clark: Not living and breathing and having it be a lifestyle business of how you operate, I think is a failure on the survival skills. So there you go. Just lately lead generation has many components to it; consistency, marketing, followup and accepting that you’re going to have walk into it as a lifestyle. Again, we’re not talking to everybody on the planet out here, but we’re talking about those people who … I would say even if you’re a onesey, twosey deals a year person, you got to be able to have your mind open to talking about real estate when it crosses your path. If somebody just happens to say something, you got to be in the moment. So there you go, knit that one down to dust. So let’s move on beyond that.
Julie Clark: Second one on my list here is … Let’s say you’re a lead generator and that works out for you, even if it’s networking or whatever, phone skills. You guys got to have phone skills to survive. I look at even some big real estate offices, even my own real estate office where they’re generating leads and they have somebody on the phone. Well that person on the phone is not really that great therefore I am 100% that I can bring my phone person on there who has been trained and that’s due to volume, just over and over, repeating and practicing, and then that will be a totally different story on the success of securing appointments, I guess I would say. Phone skills are so important for survival in real estate. You need to practice, that’s why people have scripts. I hate scripts but it’s a good place to start just to get your flow down. What’s your message?
Julie Clark: We’ve found that we actually do not have to change what we say to anybody. Our message is the same to every single person that calls. It is that we are going to provide you what all your options are. There’s more than one way to sell your house these days. We’re both brokers and investors. We’re going to give you a cash offer and we’re going to compare that to what a listing might look like in some of the other programs that we offer. You have nothing to lose except you’re going to become fully informed in order to make a decision that works best for you. Don’t just go find out what a listing looks like, go get all your options. And that’s what we do, no obligations. If somebody’s going to sell their house, they’re considering to sell their house, we’re going to get in there because our phone skills are so good. No doubt about it, I have 100% confidence in our team in regards to that.
Julie Clark: Now, we’ll we get every deal? No we won’t because some people are unrealistic or sometimes I kill deals if I think that they’re bad, obviously bad deals or even listings. If I don’t like the location or think they’re cocky and too much work, I’m not going to put my name on it. So phone skills, these are things that you guys when you are out there in video land and all your gurus that you’re listening to, these are the topics. Don’t go watch how to rehave a house, you don’t have a house. These are the things that you need to know about first. How to become a ninja at lead generation. That means all that stuff, how to pull a list, what list to pull, consistent plan. I mean, that’s … How much homework is needed? You just need to have a consistent plan. You guys get that? Be consistent.
Julie Clark: And then be consistent with your followup. And so the only thing you need to go study or you need to just decide, what are you most comfortable with on your lead generation? Then go become and expert at that. One or two of those things, you don’t have to do anything. I used to kind of say have a line in every stream like I said, but now I think being a specialist is better. And then back it up with phone skills. I’m sure there’s all kinds of videos to watch out about there. In fact Joe, we have one that we can drop in on our how to speak with sellers. We have a podcast topic on that?
Joe Bauer: Yap.
Julie Clark: Boom, there you go. Just scroll down on the notes at the end of this show, on this podcast and Joe will have the link to that podcast that we can keep moving you right down the path here guys. Hey, look at that. Do you know what’s nice Joe? A little side note here about after doing so many of these podcasts, they all work so nicely together. Like when talking about a topic and we can say, “Oh yeah, remember we talked about that.” And then loop it back in for you guys. It’s great. So don’t forget to look at those show notes at the bottom of this podcast because it’s sort of like a blog I guess where you can continue on with the subject matter as they are fitting in to what we’re talking about, right?
Joe Bauer: Yeah. You just dig deeper if you want to. So if you need to improve those phone skills, you just click the link below in the podcast show notes, which are at seattleinvestorsclub.com/44 and you can deep dive into how to speak to sellers.
Julie Clark: Yeah, yeah. So there’s phone skills for you as a survival skill. Makes no sense if you don’t know how to speak to people on the phone if the phone rings. And then what happens? What happens after that? Well, then you get in the house and you’re face to face with somebody and that’s a little bit different than being on the phone. Those are people skills that need to kick in now. This is another survival skill. People skills is important.
Julie Clark: I mean, we have some people that we’ve had on our team that are just so good in person that it is amazing. They’ve been better than me or anybody else that we know. I’m thinking about Max and Amanda, they’re so good. They’re just so natural. And as far as people skills go, do you know what the number one answer is guy, you don’t have to have to worry about, guys and girls, like how much experience that you have. You don’t really need to worry about that, you just need to be yourself. People like genuine people. You don’t have to walk in there in a suit, although I do suit up. I guess I’ll say at a certain price point and then I do. But in general, people want people that are going mirror them. So remember that, you don’t need to come in there as a corporate professional. You need to just be able to relate to people and be yourself. And don’t overthink it but go in there and just talk to them like you’re talking to your neighbor.
Julie Clark: And another topic will be the things that you can talk about. We’re not going to dive into that today ’cause we’re just talking about general survival skills but people skills, I mean, do you either have it or you don’t? What do you think Joe? Or can that be taught?
Joe Bauer: I think that totally can be taught Julie. I was that kid growing up that was hiding underneath the table because I didn’t want to order my food because I had to talk to the waiter or waitress. So you can totally learn those things, I had to do it myself. Throw yourself out there, get in front of people as much as you can. Read and learn about how to talk with people and then just try things. It’s all an experiment, I mean, all these stuff. It’s like people take things too seriously and I know that I used to when I would have to talk to sellers or other investors or whatnot, but looking back now, it’s just all and experiment. It’s like, “Hey, did those words that I used and did that tonality that I used work? Yes or no. Oh, yes it did. Let’s use that again, let’s try that again, let’s try those words. Or it didn’t work, no big deal, let’s try something different.” It’s all kind of like play and-
Julie Clark: You know what’s interesting? Is you’re actually coming at this from an introvert’s perspective, right?
Joe Bauer: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Julie Clark: That’s the interesting thing. So half of you listening out there might be more on the introvert side so I’m the opposite of that. I’m the opposite of that and I’m like, “I don’t even think about it at all. I just walk in there and be myself.” You know what the mentality is that works also? Is I don’t care. I get in the moment and I don’t care if I get the deal or not, I’m there to provide the seller or the buyer, whoever I’m working with, with the best information that I can, give them the best advice, whether they work with me or not. And that is I’ll call a people skill.
Julie Clark: You can’t go in there caring in my point of view. Like you can be paying attention, like Joe says, about what talking points that you use and maybe your tonality which comes back to mirroring that person. If they speak softly, you speak softly and that kind of thing. But also you should be there out of genuineness. If you show up out of genuineness and you’re just going to give them the best information that you can and that you know is the right information, then that’s all you can do. And my win that I feel as if I always feel like I won if I provided just the best information and I did the best that I could and I know I gave them good information, I always feel good about it. I’ll tell you we had an appointment yesterday out in Snoqualmie Ridge and we gave them … Like if they’re willing to sell, like I said guys, we’re going to get in the house. It doesn’t even matter at this point whether they have a relationship with a realtor. That’s how good we’ve gotten.
Julie Clark: I am constantly this summer trumping out relationships with realtors because I have a skillset and a bunch of tools that I can do that in a nice way. This one actually, even yesterday, they were ready to sign tomorrow or be today. Right now while we’re talking with another realtor and our phone person, Claudette, got me in there. Anyways, I said, “You know, it doesn’t matter. Get me in there anyways.” She was able to get us in the house anyways because we provide options and it’s another opinion because we’re confident when I’m in the house what’s going to happen. I went in there and I did my thing and had awesome rapport with the people because I was just being myself and I didn’t care. And they had another realtor lined up and I was enthusiastic, gave them great advice, brought ’em their comps, told them like what is and gave ’em very specific answers. Not like, “Ah, it’s about this or it’s a range of that.” I was specific, to the point, direct, energetic, positive and friendly.
Julie Clark: And guess what, I left there, ’cause I had my kids in the car waiting out in the car ’cause they had to go to camp and I said, “Well, I don’t think I’ll get that one because somebody was supposedly coming to take picture of the house.” But I did great and felt good and what do you know, at the end of the day at five o’clock, I get a call and they say, “Guess what, we’re canceling our other realtor. We’re going with you.” And it was a listing but I don’t care. 15 grand is okay with me. I think that’s probably okay with you guys. Some of you who bought your properties wrong over the last few months are going to be even lucky to make 15 grand with marketing investment here but …
Julie Clark: Anyways, what’s so awesome about it is I didn’t really know exactly what situation was going to be when I get there, I had an idea. But I could have put my hat on either way as an investor or realtor and I always provide all those options and there it goes. And it’s because of people skills that I got that. We had our phone person Claudette get us in the door with phone skills and then we’re up against basically a brick wall and people skills brought it home. It’s called survival. Those are survival skills that are key. And those people skills will not only translate into leads on dealing with sellers or buyers or whoever you’re talking to, those people skills also work with, back to number one, your lead generation and your networking and stuff like that and your daily life of your real estate lifestyle, right?
Joe Bauer: Heck yeah.
Julie Clark: So people skills work with your neighbors and the people at school and soccer team people and whoever, wherever, anybody that you meet. So people skills are a big deal and I’m just to the point where I don’t analyze. I mean, I’m not going to say I don’t pay attention to what works but half the people out there are going to feel more comfortable paying closer attention and thinking about it a little bit more like from Joe’s perspective.
Joe Bauer: I think that you get into the zone too. Like at this point, I only do that because I know that I’ve done it before so I can come at it from a perspective the same as you with the kind of analytical approach of, “Hey, I’m going to go into it just trying to help people as much as I can. And then because I’ve had to think of it as a research project because I was an introvert, then I can have that floating around the back of my head and kind of observe it, if that makes sense.
Julie Clark: Now, I don’t do this but I probably should, although it might spin me out of oblivion, the NLP, whatever that is, right?
Joe Bauer: Yap.
Julie Clark: I mean, you are into that or you understand that. I haven’t really delved too much into that. I think it’s an awesome topic that we should cover. Hey, let’s get, note to self Joe, side note, let’s get somebody here. Let’s do that topic, right?
Joe Bauer: Yeah. If anybody knows Tony Robbins, we’d love to have him on the show.
Julie Clark: That’s right. Anybody who’s … Six degrees of separation. If anybody know Tony’s gardener or chef or driver or … We’ll get in that way, we’ll backdoor our way in.
Joe Bauer: Yeah. And I think that a lot of the stuff that you’ve done and that you’ve taught us for our seller personalities and whatnot, is very similar. So it’s the same stuff, it’s just called … Well, we haven’t called it Neuro-linguistic Programming or NLP but it’s the same kind of stuff.
Julie Clark: Right. And I want to say, just for the record ’cause I want to give credit where credit’s due, that I learned about this topic from Sean Terry, Flip2Freedom, Extreme freedom and all that stuff. I like Sean, he’s been my favorite guru, one of them. I have two or three that I actually pay attention to and he’s one of ’em and that’s where I learned this from. So just want to make sure I give credit to Sean Terry for teaching me that. Thanks Sean. But let’s keep moving on.
Julie Clark: People skills. We got what? Never giving up on your goals, we’ve got lead generation and all the layers there in there, we’ve got phone skills and people skills and we are surviving. We’re starting to look like survivors here.
Joe Bauer: What?
Julie Clark: What? Next up on my list would be confidence, to be confident. I think confidence is attractive. People are … Oh oh.
Joe Bauer: I got you.
Julie Clark: Okay, you got me. I live on the water over here guys. We’re right by the water and sometimes seaplanes … I’ve actually got the train trucks down here by the water down below me and sometimes their equipment zaps me out for a minute but confidence. You know again, I don’t know, can confidence … It can be taught, right?
Joe Bauer: Yeah.
Julie Clark: And that kind of practice too. I mean, it simply comes with practice. But being aware that you should be confident in how you carry yourself when you’re in people’s homes or when you’re just talking about real estate in general. I actually think that’s why I was able to get that away from another investor. I don’t walk in and say, “Well, this will probably work.” I’m specific like, “Do this, do that. Don’t do that and do this.” That’s a form of confidence. Confidence in my ability to give direction, in my ability to give clear answers. And people are attracted to that in regards to they think that you know what you’re doing. And whether I do or not, is out for debate, but it sounds good. I’m just making this up as we go guys. You all know that. There you go. Just doing this podcast is a test of confidence, let’s just say it that way. But I think confidence is a skillset everybody should be aware of, that they should have. If you feel like you lack confidence, maybe go seek out …
Julie Clark: You know what I think that I was going to say earlier is that practicing by just going to networking events … When you go to a networking event, who cares what you’re there for or what it is, but you’re around a group of people and you’ve got to go talk to people. That’s good practice. It doesn’t have to be about real estate or whatever your hobbies are. Go in a room full of people and just go talk to them and practice being confident and practice your people skills. If you’re more comfortable talking about baseball or football or sowing or dogs or whatever it is. Go find a group like that to practice on when you’re in your semi-comfort zone of your topics that you feel you know really well. And push yourself to practice your people skills and your confidence. All that jazz.
Joe Bauer: Absolutely. Abso-freaking-lutely. Get that confidence going. Well, this one’s going to come with a grain of salt for me but my next thing that was to always be learning but I think that we need to prefix that there’s something called analysis paralysis there. So I don’t want people to jump to, “Oh yeah, I’m going to be learning, learning, learning and then I’m going to go out and talk to people.” No, I think this as a survival skill only works and is only important after you’re jumping in the water a little bit. Then it’s important to be learning, then it’s important. And you’re going to learn from all different spaces. So even going to these networking events, that’s a form of learning. Going to a mastermind, that’s a form of learning.
Julie Clark: Listening to this podcast.
Joe Bauer: Listening to this podcast. But make sure that you’re doing these other things and not just listening to this podcast. Although we do love you for listening to the podcast.
Julie Clark: We do. I think you need to get around other people, that’s the point, get around other people and practice about talking to strangers.
Joe Bauer: Yeah. And talking to strangers, get confident talking to strangers and know that that’s a form of learning as well. And then put other things in place with like the reading or the going to events, like Sean Terry’s event. Go to his event, go to the FortuneBuilders events, go to all of these things where you can, number one, you can get to talk with people that you don’t know. And you can talk about what you’re up to so you can sharpen that elevator pitch, and you can learn at the same time. So that you’re able to maybe learn about, what, NLP or learn about new deals that you could do or learn about new ways of talking with sellers like what we mentioned on another podcast. But make sure that that is part of one of the hats that you wear.
Joe Bauer: Because something that we get to do is we get to meet a lot of people with the Seattle Investors Club and it’s really cool. And over the years of running that club, we get to see the difference between the people that are continuing to be successful year after year and the people that look like they’re kind of in a rut.
Joe Bauer: And some of the things that you can see from these people that are continuing to be successful is they’re constantly going and meeting with new people and going to events and networking and doing all of this stuff that is involved with getting out of your comfort zone, talking to strangers and learning.
Julie Clark: Exactly. 100% agree. I’m going to keep pushing on here because I got skateboard camp coming up here. But I’m going to move on to the next one that I think is a survival skill for real estate investors and that is analytical skills. You got to … Again, you don’t want analysis paralysis. I actually have analysis paralysis, I’ll self admit that. I can find myself caught up in there but I’m not going to go deep onto this one but if you’re not a numbers person and you don’t know how to calculate numbers, you’re going to have a problem surviving. You’ve got to have some analytical and research skills and they’re two different things, I think. So researchers gathering a bunch of information and then analytical skills is then what do you do once you have that information. How to pop out a good decision.
Julie Clark: So obviously, people need to know how to use a deal analyser or calculate whether something’s a good deal or not. And that is pretty common sense skillset that … I mean, skillset common sense. I mean the fact that it’s on the list should be obvious to everybody. And again, if you’re a one man show or a one girl show and these are skills that you feel that you don’t have, then as we always do, we suggest that you go decide which skills that you enjoy the most or what you think you’re going to be the best at and then go partner with somebody that has the opposite skillsets that you do.
Julie Clark: But you know what this list is good for today? Who to look for. Who has good skills, that phone skills, people skills, who’s confident, who’s a good lead generator? Well what, maybe you’re good in the analytical, maybe you’re a good decision maker, maybe you’re good at marketing or something like that. But these skillsets that we’re talking about would be on the dating list of matchmaker.com if you’re a one man or a one girl show that you should be looking to partner up with somebody. And I mean, partner up could just be one deal.
Julie Clark: They need you as well so you don’t need to be shy about it ’cause if they have the opposite skillsets on the list than you do, then that’s the match that you’re looking for. You don’t want to go matchup with somebody that you guys do exactly the same thing and are good at exactly the same thing, then there’s a lot of time wasted. So that’s another point here today, is use this as your matchmaking list of people that you need to go seek out and partner with, especially if you’re getting started. That doesn’t mean you need some super experience, the most experienced person in the room, but it would be nice to get somebody who’s maybe a click or two ahead of you would be the goal. What was that movie with Leonardo DiCaprio, you stay like one step ahead. Catch me if you can.
Joe Bauer: Oh yeah. That was good.
Julie Clark: Yeah. So I’m going to keep clicking on here. I think the next skillset is that you got to have the ability to be a bit of a visionary. And I say that because we’re talking about real estate. And when I say visionary, I think a major skillset that I have that a lot of rehab people don’t have, a lot of people that flip don’t have, is to see what actually needs to be done to the house. I think people that are flipping and that do flipping even in volume have a hard time scaling back from the full meal deal. And guess what, you don’t need to do the full meal sometimes in certain markets. Like we just didn’t need to do the full meal deal to get top dollar in the market that we’ve been in.
Julie Clark: Now things have changed and I’ll say that you don’t need to do the full meal deal as the market adjust. Not because the market is so hot and on fire and you’re going to be able to seel anything, but now, I would be concerned about doing a full, full, full blinged out rehab because I don’t think that’s what the buyers want. They don’t want to buy something top of the market with all the equity sucked out because they think there’s going to be an adjustment down. So my opinion is you got to leave something for them to do. Maybe leave the bathrooms downstairs undone or maybe leave the rec room just nice and clean but not all blinged out downstairs with all the new tile and all the jazz down there, with all the can lights, I don’t know. But I’m talking fast now ’cause we’re going to run out of time.
Julie Clark: But being a visionary. Is there something … What do I need to do to this house that’s going to be good enough? Not just a one way of seeing it, you got to be able to see opportunities in different lights, I guess I’ll say. Option A, option B or option C, in which one would it fit? And I think that’s a major skillset and a survival skillset and lets you actually even excel beyond others if you know how to have some vision rather than just do one thing all the time.
Joe Bauer: Totally.
Julie Clark: Just an opinion on that. So that was visionary skills, if you guys get what I’m talking. Do you have questions ’cause I’m going to put the gas on right now so I can get out of here today on time? But I’m going to keep tracking here. I think in general the most successful people I see in life and a survival skill is people who are decision makers. I know-
Joe Bauer: Yes.
Julie Clark: … smart people and they can’t make a decision to save their life. And they can be as smart as they can, they can have connections but if they themselves cannot make a decision, boom, decide now, boom, decide now, that will take you down. It will hold you back. I’m a nutjob guys, you all know that. I’m a little goofy, I’m a little crazy and most of you know I have twin girls. I’ll tell you what, when they were like two years old and they’re walking up to our bookshelf full of all their kid books and all that stuff, I had one of ’em that would sit up there way too long before she would decide which book to choose. And I was like, “Oh my gosh, I’ve got to correct that now.” I mean, I’m nutty, yes I am. But teaching kids to be decision makers when they’re young …
Julie Clark: Honestly, she was born not a decision maker. Right now we go out to dinner the other night and I say, “What do you want for dinner?” And she says, “I don’t know, why don’t you choose.” And I’m like, “What?” That about shoot me through the roof. No way. You’ve got to be able to make decisions quickly. This is different guys than analysis paralysis. It’s a little bit different and I think it’s almost worse. And every day at the end of the day, maybe there’s a test that you can take for yourself. What is it that you actually needed to make some decisions on that day, and did you make them or not? How many days have you been thinking about something before you actually made a decision one way or another? There’s a practice round for you, you’ve got to be decision makers or you will get left in the dust. Major skillset for survival, not only in real estate, but in life.
Joe Bauer: Holy-
Julie Clark: [crosstalk 00:46:52]
Joe Bauer: Holy crap, that was so good and I completely agree with you. People make decisions.
Julie Clark: Please.
Joe Bauer: Make decisions. How do they say this? Successful people make decisions quickly and they change their minds slowly. Is that how it goes?
Julie Clark: I don’t know, that’s one I haven’t heard. I don’t know, I’d have to think about that one. I’d have to analysis paralysis that one.
Joe Bauer: Think about that one. Let us know later Julie.
Julie Clark: Yeah. But at this point, my decision is that I’m going to keep pushing forward right now because I’m running out of time. Is that okay with you Joe?
Joe Bauer: Do it.
Julie Clark: Okay, you pipe in ’cause you know I like to talk so whatever you want to drop, drop it. But my next one on my list is survival skillset for real estate investors, 100% for sure. Once you’ve got these first ones on the list cooking and jamming and running like a machine, a skillset you need to have is a delegator. Boom, do you like that one? I know Joe likes that one.
Joe Bauer: Yeah.
Julie Clark: Delegator. You got to be able to delegate. I mean, that’s been a problem for us, something that we constantly have to work on. And I know for me personally, it’s always an ongoing thing that I work on. Because once you get going and you actually have some success, you can’t handle everything by yourself, you absolutely have to delegate. And that could mean that you delegate a bunch of stuff in your personal life so you have more time to spend on work or more time to spend with your kids or whatever it might be. But survival skill for real estate investors is 100% …
Julie Clark: There’s a lot of details in real estate, lot of details. And if you don’t delegate … Actually, side note for topic Joe, delegation and stuff that should get delegated. That’s a good topic. Kind of-
Joe Bauer: That’s a really good one. I like that one.
Julie Clark: There you go. We use this podcast sort of as a conference call between the two of us guys, if you haven’t figured that out a little bit. It’s what turns into sometimes here but … So delegation, think in your life about what you can delegate to allow yourself to do the top three, four, five most important things in your whole life which includes probably some of your business stuff.
Julie Clark: Next up for me, I have two more, one is ability to pivot and willingness to pivot and to adjust and make change. That’s a big one because you have to do it all the time as a real estate investor. Wouldn’t you say Joe?
Joe Bauer: All the time, constantly.
Julie Clark: Constantly. Ability to pivot. You guys know what that means. No brain surgery here. Maybe another topic for another day is things we’ve pivoted on. I mean, we guys could give you a list of these are the different topics that we’ve had to pivot on over the years. That’s kind of a fun one.
Joe Bauer: That is a good one. Yeah.
Julie Clark: Good one. Or that’s a good topic for speed networking maybe. What have you had to pivot on in the last year? Hey, note to self again, good topic for speed networking maybe. But last on my list is I think as a real estate investor and as real estate agent, a major skillset where you could get screwed up if you don’t have it, is you got to know how much things cost. You got to know what the cost of repairs are. Obviously if you’re rehabbing, that’s super important and staying on top of that because labor costs go up and down, material costs. And being part of a group where that information is shared like Seattle investors club or [inaudible 00:50:44], our friend [Juan’s 00:50:46] group or Fixated On Real Estate, our friend Tarl’s group would be good sources for that.
Julie Clark: But just knowing what things cost. As a real estate agent, sometimes I’m offering to pay for stuff or I have a crew that will come in and do stuff and I got to tell sellers how much I think they’re going to have to spend on little repairs here and there. But obviously as real estate investors, knowing and staying on top of what things cost. And as wholesalers, if you don’t know those numbers, you’re kind of spinning your wheels or you could hurt yourself or you could go nowhere. So that would be last on my list. And how do you find out what things cost? Like I said, I think since it’s such a changing target all the time, you just got to stay involved with a group of like-minded investors and whatever your tribe is or whatever the lane that you’re in and you guys just need to communicate.
Julie Clark: I don’t think you need to go down the Home Depot or look online and do all that stuff. I mean, you do. I mean, you’re going to have sculpts of work and as you do deals, you’re obviously going to know what those are but keeping in touch with other people doing the same thing as you is a good way to do it as well.
Joe Bauer: Totally. And that would be good where people we talk about partnering on deals. Some of it you could follow to Home Depot.
Julie Clark: Exactly. No doubt about that. Okay, so cherry on top here today guys, the very last one which I always save the best for last, is I think the number one survival skill for real estate investors, right? Drum roll.
Joe Bauer: I’m trying. I’m hitting the table.
Julie Clark: Drum roll. Get your real estate license. Boom. Come on, if you’re in the real estate business you should have a real estate license. It allows you to wear all kinds of hats, it’s like an insurance policy if values on stuff goes down and you can buy stuff and get paid commissions and put back into your deals, it’s like a way to get access to more inventory. I could talk up and down until I’m purple on the face as I do on a regular basis on why you should get your real estate license. And if you’re a wholesaler and you’re listening to this and you’re a cowboy out there or cowgirl and you think that you don’t need one because sellers don’t want to talk to agents and I say that’s all BS and a myth. And if there’s anybody that’s going to get in trouble with the state licensing commission or anything else, it’s going to be wholesalers without a real estate license that act like brokers.
Julie Clark: Every state across this grand country of ours has different varying levels of massive penalties even considering felonies in some states for doing that. And that is a very, very serious business. About a thousand times more serious than getting a hand slap from your local MLS. You guys want to know more about that and how to be both an agent and investor, you come talk to yours truly. I’ve made that my business to be an expert in. And if I can get my act together, put out a coaching program related to that for you guys. If you are interested, I need to know …
Joe Bauer: Yo, all right. We lost you for a second but we’re back.
Julie Clark: Did you guys lose me? Oh my God, I was on my best rant. I don’t know where you guys lost me. But I basically told everybody to get their real estate license and that if they would like to know how to operate seamlessly as a agent and investor to stay out of trouble … Did you guys hear me say anything about wholesalers who don’t have a license?
Joe Bauer: Just a little bit.
Julie Clark: That is bad news guys because I know all of you guys who are wholesalers without a license, are most likely breaking state licensing laws in a big way which could get you in big, big, big trouble, major fines. Forget about little MLS slaps on the hands and those warnings are nothing compared to acting like a broker, whether you think you are or not doesn’t matter ’cause most likely you are. If you quack like a duck and walk like a duck, you’re a duck. So I’m telling everybody the number one survival skill for investors and for agents, for everybody, is to get a real estate license if you’re in the real estate business. And I basically said that I have a coaching program that I’m working on to teach you guys how to seamlessly operate as such. ‘Cause very difficult and confusing for people to get those answers in one place but that I need some encouragement. Can you guys hear me?
Joe Bauer: Go Julie, go.
Julie Clark: I need some encouragement from you guys. If you guys want that information in a little box with a bow on top, it doesn’t cost that much money, and you want to know all the disclosures and what to do and how to operate, when you switch hats and all that stuff, at the bottom of this podcast, I need you please to give me some encouragement ’cause I’m dragging my feet and I need you to say just do it Julie and I will stop procrastinating. I need to hear it from you guys. So help us out, we’re trying to always help you guys out, now I need something from you. If you want it, drop me a just do it Julie at the bottom of this podcast.
Joe Bauer: Just do it Julie. All you got to do is go to seattleinvestorsclub.com/44 and then got to the bottom and you have to write just do it. I might even send you something special if you do that because I want Julie to just do it as well.
Julie Clark: Yes. You know what guys, I know how bad Joe wants me to do this and I can almost guarantee you he’s going to send you something special. Don’t know what that is but I promise you he will so let’s get on it. And with that said, I’m going to pivot and delegate this over to Joe. I’m using all our words, get it? From the podcast. Kind of-
Joe Bauer: Nice.
Julie Clark: And I’m going to get these two girls off to camp this beautiful summer day here in Seattle. So shut out from me and from my cohost Joe Bauer and my sidekick buddy Clark who just turned two. Our wonderful, lovable sidekick buddy Clark. If you guys don’t know who buddy is, at the bottom of this podcast go, “Who the heck’s buddy?” And we will let you know who that wonderful member of our team is. But other than that, I’m signing out. Over and out guys, and I’ll see you soon.
Joe Bauer: Yeah. And remember if you love this podcast or even if you like us a little bit, give us a review on iTunes at seattleinvestorsclub.com/itunes. We’d love to hear from you there ’cause it helps us to get our podcast out to more people. All right guys, we’ll see you later.
Julie Clark: Chao.
Just DO IT!
JUST DO IT JULIE CLARK !!!
Just do it! I’m in!