5 Simple Ways to Find Private Money

David:
This is the BiggerPockets Podcast Show 637.

Amy:
So there are a lot of that investors out there who may be thinking, “Why do I need to learn how to raise capital? I don’t want to flip. I don’t want to wholesale. I don’t want to even implement the Burst strategy. I want to go by turnkey rental properties. I want to go invest in a commercial syndication. I want to go start a fund.” Okay, fine. You still need to know how to raise capital to do all those things, right? So we’ve all heard cash is king. It is endless opportunities when you know how to raise capital. You’re going to start getting approached like I did from people out there who want you to be their capital partner and compensate you very well to raise money for their business.

David:
What’s going on everyone? This is David Greene, your host of the BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast here today with my amazing co-host Rob, Roberto, Abasolo. Rob, how are you today?

Rob:
Good, man. I am still recovering from our two-hour conversation on the phone the other night where I biked the entire time. My legs have been like jello ever since.

David:
Bro, I got to compliment you. You were on a bike the whole time and I didn’t know it, meaning you never actually got out of breath, which would lead me to believe you might not be a human being, which would actually explain your amazing hair all at the same time, like if we were on the phone for two hours, which is quite the feat as it is. But you were on a bike the entire time and I didn’t know.

Rob:
Well, it helps that you were just doing one, two hour metaphor the whole time. I don’t know if you remember this. I never actually said anything on that call so that’s probably why.

David:
It was a two-hour monologue where you were just forced to listen, just like the Seeing Greene episodes that I make you show up and listen to me and praise me without actually allowing you to speak.

Rob:
Oh, now that’s what we call a callback. And a good one, a good one at that.

David:
All right. In today’s episode, Rob and I continue our conversation with Amy Mahjoory about raising money to invest in your real estate deals. In the last episode we just did with Amy, she explained her framework and how to build a foundation with people, including an elevator pitch that you can use. I believe hers was 14 words and made a lot of sense. And today we get deeper into how to put yourself in positions to use that information. Rob, what was some of your favorite parts of today’s show?

Rob:
Yeah, I think we’re really just breaking down barriers here. Honestly, it’s very simple. Because when we started in the last episode, she talks about, it was actually 13 words, 13 very specific words with a 20 word follow up. And then today’s episode, we actually talk about how to go from follow up to actually taking action in five very tangible steps you can take today to go out and raise millions and millions of dollars if you do it correctly. This ranges everywhere from basically putting yourself out there online, to hosting local meetups. I don’t want to give too much of the good stuff away because, yeah, some of these I don’t think some of you will be expecting.

David:
Yeah. And this is a great show because we get it to tactical advice. This isn’t just the overall, “Yeah, put yourself out there. Yeah, go to a meetup.” Nope. This is exactly what type of events to look for, how you should dress when you go, what you should say and how to cater it to your individual personality. So if you’re someone who’s serious about wanting to raise money and invest in real estate, this is a must listen episode. So please listen all the way to the end because we keep it rolling all throughout.
Before we bring in Amy, I’ve got a quick tip for you today. Go to biggerpockets.com/reshow. That is the podcast page where you can find out about the other BiggerPockets Podcast, but even more importantly, there’s free stuff. So if you go to biggerpockets.com/reshow, you’ll find some free information for you, a masterclass from Brandon Turner himself about building a brand. We’re working on getting him to do one about building a beard, but for now we have the Brand class, as well as some free stuff that Amy has given that will supplement your journey into raising private money. Rob, anything you want to say before bringing Amy?

Rob:
No, I’ve got nothing to say. Let’s get into the episode. Leave me alone. Don’t laugh at me. I’ll laugh at you.

David:
All right, Rob smooth as a jagged knife, Abasolo rolling into the show.
Amy Mahjoory, welcome back to the BiggerPockets Podcast. Excited to have you here for Part 2 of your four-part frame work. Would you mind doing a little recap on what we covered on the last episode and then giving people an idea of what they can expect in today’s episode?

Amy:
Yeah, absolutely. It is great to be back with you guys today. And really, we’re just going to continue the conversation around private money. In the last episode, we talked about what is private money, what isn’t it, who are we going to target, what are those initial conversations going to look like. We ended it with an overview of our FACT framework, specifically building your foundation. And there are a lot of moving parts that go into building your foundation which is step one of my FACT framework, such as really knowing your role, being confident in who you are and what you’re doing, making sure you’ve got the right mindset, making sure you’ve got your goals in place, your business plan, your target market identified. It really ends with us starting to plant seeds and really announce to the world who we are and what we do. And the way we did that under building our foundation was through our four second power pitch. So here we are today and I’m excited to get into step two of my FACT framework, which has taking action.

Rob:
Right. So just to recap, let’s see if I’ve got this correctly. I was paying very close attention when we did this the first time. So F is for foundation, A is for action, C is for Chipotle or credibility, whichever one you want, and then T is for transaction. Is that right?

Amy:
Yes. Thank you. And then we also touched on some common fears and objections that hold investors like us back from taking action.

Rob:
So let’s jump into action. Yeah, let’s get into that because I know we started touching on that a little bit towards the end of the last episode.

Amy:
Yeah. So now that we’ve built a solid foundation, we’re confident in who we are and what we’re doing and 24/7 we’re dropping that four second power pitch on anyone and everyone above and beyond our friends and family members, we want to focus on continuing to build our list of prospective private money lenders. Because a friendly reminder, I’m going to be one of the very few people who will tell you raising money is easy when you have step systems and strategies, but you don’t need to depend on your friends and family members, right? So how do we take the 70 trust and rapport building strategies that I’ve created and start implementing them so we can start to convert some of these individuals. So what I want to share with you guys today are five very specific strategies that you can start to implement right now in order to build your list of real private money lenders.
And the very first one, it sounds easier said than done, you guys. And ask yourselves, how often have you done this once I share it with you. Step one of taking action is getting referrals from everyone you talk to. So you’re going to see that everything is very closely linked to one another. So the end of building our foundation is the four second power pitch. We end that four second power pitch with a request for a referral, which is step one of taking action. So everyone we talk to in person or over the phone, we want to make sure we ask for anywhere from one to three referrals of somebody else who may be interested in knowing how to earn double digit returns backed by real estate.
And this is very powerful, you guys, because earlier I mentioned that I didn’t start prioritizing raising capital until my second deal. When I actually implemented the strategies I’m sharing with you today on my very first deal using private money from a complete stranger because I asked for referrals of a referral of a referral of a referral, in just three weeks, you guys, in 21 days, I was able to raise $390,000 in private money. And for me, that was huge because we all have different goals, right? One of my goals was I wanted to be on TV. I wanted to work with HGTV. And had I not been able to raise that money, that was the very first property that was showcased on HGTV, and I would’ve missed out on that opportunity. In addition to, a great profit as well. So word of mouth goes a very long way. Don’t shy back from asking anyone and everyone you talk to for that.

Rob:
So a tangible example of this would be you say, “Hey, I teach people how to make a double digit return in real estate.” “Oh, tell me more about that.” And then you say, “Oh, I’m a real estate developer in Chicago,” insert city here. They might say, “Oh, you know what? I actually have an uncle that does that.” And so if you find out that the person that you’re talking to doesn’t necessarily want to invest or they show no interest, then at that moment you would then kind of push a little bit further and say, “Well, hey, actually sounds like him and I would have a lot of things to connect over. Would you mind putting us in touch?” Would that be an example of a referral or do you like it to even feel a little bit more organic than that?

Amy:
No, that was actually perfect. I also like to incentivize my audience and the people we’re talking to. Now, there is a way we want to go about this so that we are not violating any SEC regulations. But you can still tell people at a very high level, “Hey, I also pay marketing fees or consulting fees for any referral that you send to me who ends up investing.” So whether maybe it’s, pick a number, a $500 thank you fee for your referrals that they end up investing, but just make it a flat rate instead of a percentage of the loan amount.

Rob:
So a bit of, yeah, like an incentive, “Hey, I’ll pay you $500 if I end up closing a deal with X or X person that you mentioned or you set me up with.”

Amy:
Absolutely. Regardless if the deal makes money or loses money. We’re not going to base the referral fee on that, because that is a violation of SEC. So just a flat fee to thank you for the intro if they end up investing with me.

Rob:
Okay. Okay. And have you raised a lot of money through the actual… I mean, I know you did on your first one. You talked about the $390,000. But is this a pretty common place where you’re usually finding success?

Amy:
It’s very common and that’s also a great segue into the second strategy. And I’m going to share that with you guys right now because it just makes sense to do so. In the last episode, I talked about consistency and how I consistently implemented these strategies for 18 months. After a year and a half, I no longer had to do what we’re talking about today. I could pick up the phone and have whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. Now, do referrals really work? Did that result in a big chunk of the private money I have invested? Absolutely.
So a second strategy I will share with you as it pertains to getting out there and taking action, specifically getting creative and thinking outside the box. So how do we network and raise money with non real estate related individuals? Because it’s very common for us to think, “Oh, I’m going to raise money. In addition to asking my friends and family members, I’ll go to my local RIA or I’ll go ask another investor or I’ll ask someone at my local meetup.” So let’s go above and beyond that.
So I’ve got a LinkedIn strategy. This LinkedIn strategy, everyone that I connected with on LinkedIn, the sole purpose of this strategy which I will share with you in just a minute, is to get referrals. So here’s what I would do. Actually, let me ask you guys this. So to Rob and David, put yourselves in the shoes of a brand new investor. If I were to ask you, “Hey, you guys, we need some private money. Go on to LinkedIn and see if you can find private money lenders on LinkedIn.” If we’re looking for private money, what are some key terms you would search for on LinkedIn?

Rob:
Real estate.

Amy:
Perfect.

Rob:
Real estate investor?

Amy:
Perfect.

Rob:
I don’t know. I guess real estate… Do people say they’re flippers on LinkedIn? Like a house flipper?

Amy:
You’re absolutely right. And that’s what a lot of people do. I love it. They may even search for private money, but the three that you mentioned are perfect. Now, this is such a good example of what we don’t want to do because we want to start to think about who has money, who is someone of influence, who is someone of success and power for example, above and beyond real estate investors. So instead of searching for those traditional words that you just shared, Rob, go into LinkedIn and do a key term search on investment banker, financial advisor, stock broker, right? They don’t necessarily work in real estate, but they know people with money, right?
My whole purpose of getting in front of them is to ask for a referral, “Hey, I’m not here to dilly daily. I’m not here to waste your time.” Now, I don’t do this in my first message. What I’ll do is I’ll connect with someone on LinkedIn. And I do not outsource this, you guys. I don’t set up bots. I don’t set up automations. I do this myself. Still today if I were to do this and I do for some of my students, I’m typing these messages up myself because people can tell. When I get those automated messages on LinkedIn, I don’t know about you, but I delete or I do not open the majority of them.
What’s cool about this strategy that I’m sharing with you is as of late, the response rate is a 50, 50% response rate. When I implemented this 10 years ago, it was only a 20% response rate. So what I do is I put in a request to connect, and it’s two sentences. “Hey, Rob, I’m reaching out due to common connections. There may be a way for us to work together and leverage off of one another’s network.” I just put that out there. “Do you have five minutes” I’m very specific, “for an exploratory conversation on how we may be able to help each other out?” Copy paste, copy paste, copy paste. All I’m changing is the name. Set a goal to do that 10 people a day.

David:
What I like about that is most people are on LinkedIn, at least this is my impression, specifically because they’re trying to make money out of their network. I think there’s a handful of really successful business people that have it dialed in and they have a LinkedIn profile to showcase what they’re already doing. But I think the majority of people are trying to get to that point and they’re like, “Well, Facebook is for my high school friends and my family. Instagram is when I want attention. And LinkedIn is when I want to try to make money.” So by saying, leverage each other’s networks, you’re dangling the very fruit in front of their nose that they went on LinkedIn to find.

Amy:
Totally. I love it. The results are insane, you guys. I just had somebody fly out to shadow me for a full day. He’s actually one of my active students. He couldn’t believe the results that he was getting real time. It was insane. So once the person you’re addressing responds, and again it’s going to be about a 50% respond rate. And no, those who do not respond, I do not follow up. This is just my style. I don’t have time for that. If they don’t see the value in responding, I’m moving on to the other 50% that do. So when they respond, we hop on a call. And what I say to them is, “Hey, thank you so much for your time. I’m not here to waste your time. Just so you know, I’m a real estate investor.” Basically your 22nd power pitch, right? Your follow up.
“All of our deals are funded through investors, which is what allows us to grow and scale. So I know you may not be a real estate investor, I wanted to reach out to you in case you have a client that wants to diversify their portfolio and invest in real estate. You have a client who wants to do that? Use me as your go-to real estate investor. Anytime your client invests with me, I will compensate you in the form of a marketing or consulting service.” Because they may have a license that may be an ethical violation. You can work that out with him or her, but there are still ways to compensate them. “And hey, by the way, I promise never to go to your client directly without going through you first.”
No one’s going to say no to that. No one has ever said no to that in the last 10 years. Now has every single person delivered? No, but enough of them have. And then it’s the same thing, referral, referral, referral. What do you say to these people? It’s the four second power pitch. What do you do once they’re interested? You take them through your private money presentation, right? We touched on this briefly in the last segment.

David:
And not to derail you Amy, but I just want to clarify for those that are not in the professional arena of real estate sales, many licensed professions have laws against receiving referral fees. So for instance, if you are a licensed realtor, you can receive a referral fee from another realtor who sends you business. But if you’re not licensed, it’s actually legal for you to receive compensation from a realtor. That’s one of the reasons realtors can’t pay you when you say, “Hey, my aunt wants to sell her house.” Same is true in lending. Lenders can’t receive referral fees from other lenders. There’s a lot of different rules about when you can and when you can’t. The Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act covers a lot of that. But it’s good that you’re highlighting this because if you call it a marketing fee, that often doesn’t fall underneath the umbrella of referral, which could get them or you in trouble if you’re receiving funds and you’re not a licensed person.

Amy:
Exactly. And David, thank you for highlighting that because this still happens to me. I am not a licensed realtor. And you better believe because of the network I’ve built and the blood, sweat, and tears I’ve put into my business the last 10 years, yeah, I’m taking a “referral fee” from a realtor. And many realtors don’t know. When you tell them, “Hey, no, no problem. I’m not a licensed realtor. I’ll take my referral fee in the form of a marketing or consulting service,” a lot of them don’t even know that that’s okay. And so they always say, “Let me go talk to my managing broker and I’ll get back to you.” And I say, “No problem.” And no, I don’t put contracts in place for that. This is the honor system. If they don’t pay out on it, word of mouth goes a long way. I just won’t do business with them again.

David:
But it’s good to note that because if you’re a person on LinkedIn and you get a message from someone that’s like, “Hey, this is what I can pay you for whatever,” they may be thinking, “Oh, this is a trap,” right? “This is somebody coming after me to see if I’m going to take the bait and then I’m going to get in trouble.” So by spelling it out clearly in the beginning, you can kind of lower those defenses. The verbiage matters, I guess, is what I’m getting into here.

Amy:
Absolutely. And again, I am not a real estate attorney. I am not a real estate professional. If you guys have any questions on this, talk to your real estate attorney.

Rob:
Okay. So we’ve talked about word of mouth, meetup, and LinkedIn. One of the things I was curious when you were talking about meetups, because I think a lot of people will get in their head on this specific point and they say, “Well, what if I decide to host a meetup and nobody shows up?” Do you have any tips for someone that’s kind of nervous to do this on how they might be able to get people to that meetup?

Amy:
Great question. Meetups are amazing. Whether you’re new or experienced, the minute you start hosting your own meetup, you are instantly looked at as a subject matter expert in your market. You don’t have to have necessarily all the answers or all the experience. Create and host a meetup and invite a guest speaker. Invite a realtor, a designer, an architect, right? A hard money lender. And yeah, guess what, you guys? You can actually start to generate referral fees from all these guest speakers, because now you’re putting them into an environment where they have the ability to generate more business.
So meetups are great. I love it. Which leads me to strategy number three of today’s conversation. I actually have a meetup strategy. And here’s what we do. It’s again another creative way of thinking outside the box and building trust and rapport with people who have nothing to do with real estate. So go into meet up and do a key term search on entrepreneurs. Any event in your market. I’d even say get crazy. Go within a one hour radius. Any event in your market that has to do with entrepreneurs, go to it. I don’t care if it’s the food and beverage industry, the gaming industry, the tech industry. Because every entrepreneur has had to build a team or raise money, right? So if they can’t help you or they may not want to help you, they’re still going to know somebody who can. So again, it’s referrals, referrals, referrals. Putting yourself into unique environments where there are people who know people with money or people who have money.
And in addition to searching for entrepreneurs, also search for venture capital. Venture capital, venture capitalist. It’s a bunch of investors sitting in a room waiting to deploy their money, right? Go make them deploy it into your real estate business. What do you guys think?

Rob:
Yeah, that makes sense. I’m always a little timid to go to venture capitalist because I always hear that the terms aren’t quite so beautiful. What are your thoughts there?

Amy:
Oh, see, I love that because I don’t care what their terms are, right? So I always respond with, “That’s awesome. Thank you so much. My standard process is everyone receives the same rate of return, which is a 12% annualized return backed by real estate. If this is something you’d like to discuss more, I’d love to work with you. Let me know when we can chat about it.”

Rob:
Yeah. Yeah. Actually one thing we didn’t really cover earlier, just so I understand even your structure a little bit more and that might give a little bit clarity here moving forward, you give a 12% annualized return. So if someone invests $100,000 into one of your things, they should expect in one year, $112,000 back?

Amy:
Perfect. Yep. It’s 1% a month.

Rob:
Okay. And then do you, on top of that… Okay. So do you pay the 1% a month or do you give it to them at the very end?

Amy:
I always pay at the end in one lump sum. My private monies, the majority of them are just listed on the HUD statement as their payoff balance is listed, and I just let the title companies.

Rob:
And then lastly, when you are raising money, are you trying to get the investor to, like let’s say you’re doing the flip, to buy the entire house outright and then fund the renovation? Or are you trying to get them to give you 20% of the flips that you can go and get a hard money loan and renovate it with effectively another lender?

Amy:
God, I’m just filled with great questions today. That’s very, very good because that comes up often. So that’s your choice. If you live in a market where average price points for distressed property are $500,000, $600,000 and you’ve never raised money before, go put a hard money lender in first lien position. There’s nothing wrong with that. I love my hard money lenders. They were good to me. I still take care of them. I still send them business. That way all you have to raise is the gap funding, that 30%, 20%, plus all your caring cost. And then as you become an expert at raising capital, as much as you love your hard money lenders, you can phase them out. You can positively impact your bottom line and put more money in your pocket. No guarantees though, right? But then we still take care of our hard money lenders through referrals in our network.

Rob:
Okay. So ideally it’s a… I mean, you effectively start with both, but as you get really good at raising the private equity or the private money, you sort of phase out the hard money loan people, you take care of everyone with referrals. But you phase them out simply because you don’t necessarily want to keep paying points and origination fees and all that kind of stuff. Does that sound right?

Amy:
Yeah, because you don’t need to. That’s absolutely right. And you don’t need to because, you guys, if you think about it, if you borrow $100,000 which is nothing, I’m being uber conservative right now.

Rob:
Right.

Amy:
For some of the newbies, the cost of that capital is going to be, let’s say 13% annualized if you’re brand new with no assets and let’s say three points, the cost of that capital is $16,000. Now at the end of the day, I don’t care about the cost of the money. It’s about the availability of the funds. We can all have hard money tomorrow. I don’t care. I bake it into the deal. Whereas, the cost of that same $100,000 is only $12,000 when you’re working with private money. So the difference is $4,000. But is $4,000 going to make or break the bank? No, but that’s $4,000 on just $100,000 deal, right? So what if you’re raising a half a million dollars, which most of us do on one deal anyways? That’s 20 Gs, right? Or a million dollars? Or we do five deals a year? 10 deals a year? So the points really start to add up.

Rob:
Yeah, definitely. I mean, when David and I would close on our Scottsdale property, I think a point for us was like $30,000 or something like that.

Amy:
[inaudible 00:25:31].

Rob:
Yeah. On the luxury stuff, it can get pretty up there. And I didn’t mean to derail this, but I know that a lot of people are super interested in this topic. I don’t know if this goes into the T of FACT. Is that a little bit more on the transaction side?

Amy:
I could talk about this for hours, you guys, so it’s all good with me. No, this actually comes in under step three, the credibility piece, which I think we’re going to into later.

Rob:
Okay, cool. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, cool, just making sure. So a little preview I guess. Sorry, I get a little excited here when you talk about raising money because this is something that I think it’s very important for me right now. It comes at a pivotal time in my career where I move out of buying single family acquisitions and I move into scaling rapidly. For example, I mean by the time this comes out, I should have closed on a 20 unit, a motel in New York. And so we were able to acquire that property via raising money. I think a lot of people… This is kind of the difference between slowly building your portfolio, but there comes a time where if you don’t want to just buy your home after home after home, raising money is super important if you want to scale in a big way. Now, obviously your mileage may vary. It’s not the case for everybody, but for me it is right now. So I always get very curious about the actual nuances here.

Amy:
Yeah. And that’s interesting because you’ve talked about the Burst strategy. A lot of the examples I’ve shared revolved around fix and flips. So there are a lot of that investors out there who may be thinking, “Why do I need to learn how to raise capital? I don’t want to flip, I don’t want to wholesale. I don’t want to even implement the Burst strategy. I want to go by turnkey rental properties. I want to go invest in a commercial syndication. I want to go start a fund.” Okay, fine. You still need to know how to raise capital to do all those things, right? So we’ve all heard cash is king. It is endless opportunities when you know how to raise capital. You’re going to start getting approached like I did from people out there who want you to be their capital partner and compensate you very well to raise money for their business. So there’s so many ways that you guys can get creative and really just from this one skill set, start to generate so many multiple streams of income.

Rob:
Yeah. Yeah, totally. So I guess that kind of goes into the meetup side of things, which is kind of where we left off. When you said that you were going to these different events, you’re going to meetups that aren’t particularly, I guess they may be adjacent to what you do, but not necessarily. You go and you network with those people. You give your four second power pitch, maybe even the 22nd follow up. And then from there, you invite them back to your meetup that you’ll be hosting pretty soon. Is that right?

Amy:
Sometimes I will if they’ve expressed an interest. My main strategy is to place myself into environments where there’s money. And so going to other entrepreneurial events means I’m aligning myself and surrounding myself with other business owners who have been challenged with the same task as me, and as a result they know people with money or they have money of their own they may want to invest. And sure, if that conversation leads to it, I have absolutely invited them to my meetup. Maybe they’ll be a guest speaker. But it’s cool, it’s another great segue into the four strategy that I wanted to share, which is coming off meetups and [inaudible 00:28:59] that into attending high end fundraising events.
An example I often share is we talked about this earlier. How do we start to integrate these creative trust and rapport building strategies into our day to day lifestyle? Is it just something that we do without being as calculated the more we practice and the better we get? Yes, absolutely. So for example, when I started my real estate business, I was living in this high rise condo in Downtown Chicago. I was single at the time and I was maybe eating out a little more than I should have. I would always frequent this dive establishment that I loved. Once I started prioritizing the power of raising capital, I said to myself, “Amy, what are you willing to sacrifice? Is it really a sacrifice if you can’t go to Snickers your all time favorite dive bar three days a week, and instead one day a week, you go to a fancy restaurant,” right? During happy hour in a non creepy way and you start to talk to the locals, to the business owners.
Or every year I would invest in a VIP ticket and I’d go to the Chicago Auto Show. I could care less about cars. I don’t even know anything about cars. I don’t care. But when I spend, I don’t know if it was $200 or $400 to a black tie event and I go to the Chicago Auto Show by myself, which was very nervous as extroverted as I am for me, I’m placing myself into environments where there are people with money. And I would work the room, again in a non creepy way. 15 minutes, that’s it. I would try to shake as many hands as I could every 15 minutes. What am I saying to these people? I’m going to sound like a broken record, you guys. It’s the four second power pitch, right? I’m just planting seeds.
So going to fundraising events is a great strategy. I would challenge you to ask yourself, if you really believe that you’re sacrificing activity A with activity B when you maybe skip out on a family lunch or even a family dinner or a coffee talk with a girlfriend or guy friend, is it really a sacrifice? Because what does it mean if you’re working towards crushing that goal, right? There’s so much that you can tie to this. But fundraising events have been very fruitful for me as well. What about you guys?

Rob:
Yeah. I mean, when you say fundraising event, it’s not necessarily just quite like a literal charitable drive or anything like that. In your mind, the way you’re defining a fundraising event is just maybe like a high ticket event or something that’s a paid entry where there are wealthier individuals that might be more investment-focused. Is that correct?

Amy:
Yeah, you’re absolutely right. Yeah, high ticket events. I mean, depending on your market, there are a lot of high ticket fundraising events as well. But I would really focus it on high end because that’s where the other business owners and entrepreneurs are going as well. And if it’s not within your budget, again, what are you willing to sacrifice?

Rob:
Right.

Amy:
Don’t get [inaudible 00:32:22].

Rob:
Lunch for a month or go to this event and raise money, right?

Amy:
Thank you. Exactly.

Rob:
So I’m kind of curious on this. What are your thoughts on “looking the part”? If you’re going to an investor, is it okay to be like a casual dressed? Or do you really take on the philosophy of like, “Hey, look the part, be the part,” especially with these fundraising events?

Amy:
Oh man, I don’t know if you want to ask me that question. So here’s my response, because I told you I’m very direct. I’m going to give you the good, the bad, the in between.

Rob:
Okay.

Amy:
Now, I’m always going to dressed respectful. And at a black tie event, I’m going to dress up. But once I quit my job at Dell, I mean even still today, I’m wearing a white t-shirt and black leggings. I mean, I don’t have fancy clothes. Maybe three dresses I use when I hop on a stage and do a keynote. But no, I’m casual. I’m respectful, but casual. Because what I have found is people want to know you. They’re investing in you. And as a result of investing in you, they’re investing in your business. I’m not going to show up in a dress or a suit. Or I may get crazy and wear heels with a pair of jeans, but that’s it.

Rob:
Okay. So really what you’re comfortable with, you know?

Amy:
Yeah. Just be you. Do you, I mean, there have been times where I’d literally be wrapping up a meeting with a general contractor in my gym clothes and I’d go straight into a private money meeting and I crack a joke about it. I mean, at the end of the day, we are all just normal people, right? And everyone can relate to our day to day lifestyles. So I crack jokes often, and I do that with my private money lenders as well.

Rob:
Yeah, that’s good. That’s good. So David, you don’t have to wear a tuxedo every day, man. Just be yourself. I think that’s the tip here.

David:
Okay. So my thoughts on this question is really good. First off, I do think certain people do need to dress differently than others. I guess I’m just saying it’s not a blanket statement for everybody. So Amy can get away with wearing the top and the leggings that she described, because Amy, you’re very articulate. You are clearly confident and professional, and you’ve done this before. Your personality, the way that you come across, is very strong and confident. So that makes me feel safe if I’m going to let you borrow money.
There’s other people that have naturally withdrawn personalities. Maybe haven’t done this as much that are going to be a little more timid or pensive. They’re looking at their shoes when they’re talking. They have a harder time holding eye contact. What I tell those people is, “You need to be wearing a nice suit and you need to come across very strong” because that will add strength to the impression that you’re giving to somebody. Someone like me that just kind of like steamrolls everyone, I know that’s a thing that I tend to do, it’s almost better if I’m not wearing really nice clothes because it’s too much. It’s like looking directly at the sun. You’re like, “Oh, I can’t even listen to you because you’re just like pounding me.” So I noticed I could get away with wearing way dressed down from everyone else, right? But I do think that it’s custom fit for every personality. And this is the same thing I tell real estate agents that are on my team.
Amy, you’re amazing me with how many of the strategies that you’re using to raise money are the same things that other businesses do when they’re just trying to find leads. What you’re really talking about is a lead for your business when it comes to money. These strategies are so similar. What I tell them is if you are a sort of not as confident person, maybe a little more shy and introverted, having a nice car will really help you because it’ll make people say, “Well, what is it about that gal? She’s driving a really nice car, even though she doesn’t talk much. Maybe she’s just a genius and she doesn’t communicate well.” Or if you’re someone who is very bold, I actually dial it back. I drive a Camry. I don’t want to show up somewhere in a Ferrari where now people think that I’m this pretentious a-hole and I have to do a lot of work to overcome the objections that you got when you just saw me walk in the door. I want to make it as easy as myself as possible to get my point across.

Rob:
I mean, it really seems like it boils down to authenticity though, right? I mean, I’m in the midst of getting my real estate license and I have kind of an apprentice that I’m training who’s going to be doing a lot of the transactional work by my side. I was talking about creating content and how I plan on starting a YouTube channel that focuses on the Houston market. And she was like, “You’re going to wear that?” And I’m like, “Yeah, I’m going to wear a graphic tees, tees with funny things on it, tees with skulls on it, my black pocket tee. It doesn’t matter.” Because I was like, “I don’t want to be the realtor that wears the suit. I want to be the millennial realtor that’s super casual.” And I think she was like, “Okay, if you’re sure.” And I’m like, “Yeah, I’m sure. I do it every day.” People don’t really consider what I wear because I think it’s all about the conversation and the authenticity that drives that conversation.

Amy:
Yeah. Both of you just gave really great pieces of advice. It ultimately does come down really to your personality and things you need to strengthen. So for those of you out there who are newer or maybe you’re an expert real estate investor but you’re new at raising private money, if you’re not sure what approach to take, you’re a part of an amazing community. Turn to your BiggerPockets community or other communities that you’re a part of and ask for support, ask for advice. Ask for help and let them help you if you would like some support in that area.

Rob:
So have we covered off every strategy? I know we talked about word of mouth, meetup, LinkedIn, fundraising. Was there one that we were missing there?

Amy:
Yeah. I wanted to really wrap it with something you touched on earlier, Rob, which was pretty cool. Remember, I joked about you stealing my thunder?

Rob:
Oh, right, right. In Episode 1.

Amy:
Which is your online presence, because I come across so many real estate investors of across all ages who will shy away from social media. Social media is so powerful. There are such respectful and tactful ways that we can share what we are doing as individuals, as business owners on social media. And really when it comes to your online presence, this is the fifth strategy I wanted to highlight with you today, there are two things I would invite you to consider. Number one is making sure you have a credible website. It does not have to be a fancy website. It does not have to be a complex, big investment website. I don’t even care for newbies if it’s just a landing page. Because whether we like it or not, one of the very first things every private money lender is going to do when we speak to them whether it’s in person or over the phone is Google us and check out our website. So we want to make sure we have some sort of a landing page, a core website for them.
And then number two is we do want to make sure that we are active on social media. Specifically, and this can be debated or discussed, I have found success and I continue to find success on Instagram and LinkedIn. 10 years ago, Facebook was one of my strategies. I’m not converting anything on Facebook anymore, considered a weakness of mine. But with private money and other parts of my business, Instagram and LinkedIn have been amazing. I just had a conversation with my videographer yesterday. She’s trying to get me on TikTok and I’m like, “Girl, I don’t have time for that.” But your online presence is huge. And if you need help figuring out what to share or what to post, share other people’s content. Take a BiggerPockets post or podcast, share it. “Hey, you guys, check out this great read from BiggerPockets on the interest rates or the economic downturn or the trendiest paint colors for spring,” whatever, HGTV.
Take projects that somebody else in your network is working on. Share them. We’re all looking at properties, right? David touched on deal flow, lead flow, marketing for deals earlier. The next time you walk a property, take your phone and take a selfie photo or video, “Hey, you guys, about to walk this distress property. Stay tuned for updates.” People love watching that. Put it on social media. You’re not saying you bought it. You’re not saying it’s yours. You’re not saying you’re going to buy it. You’re just saying, “Hey, check out this property.”
The next time you go to a meetup or a networking event or even when you’re on a podcast or a virtual event, take a screenshot, take a picture. Share it, right? You don’t have to say you’re talking to a coach for example. You can just say, “Collaborating with other like-minded investors. Excited about what the future has in store.” So there’s a lot we can do when it comes to building your online presence. The two key takeaways is having a core website, and then number two, having a social media presence. What do you guys think about that?

Rob:
Oh, 100%. So I always talk about putting yourself out there, letting people know what you did. I think I talked about this in Episode 1. And a lot of people are like, “Well, Rob, it’s easy. You got a YouTube channel and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,” right? And I’m like, “Well, I mean, I’ve got that channel because I put myself out there,” A, just to dismiss that, but B, most of the partnerships that I have, have not come from my platform. They’ve actually come from the interpersonal communications in my life because I was always posting photos of my tiny houses and of my glamping things and people are like, “Whoa, tell me more about that.”
So just right off the bat, posting on your social channels and letting people know, that’s going to be huge for you. But secondly, you do have to work for posting to social and creating a social presence. So I don’t want to necessarily simplify that, but I do think that it’s also not incredibly difficult to build that brand out. You can absolutely do reels in TikTok. And I know a lot of people that make seven figures from the marketing they do just off of reels in TikTok, right? Reels, that’s what Instagram is pushing right now. And so if you make a lot of reels, there’s a very high likelihood that Instagram is going to be pushing your content out to new audiences. It’s the same thing with TikTok. Most of the time when I post a TikTok, it’s going out to people that aren’t in my audience. And if it goes viral, it’s going viral from people that have never seen my content before. And then it gets served up to my audience.
And so a lot of people think you have to have a really big platform to do this kind of stuff, but it’s just not true. You can post something on TikTok and be an overnight sensation if you really hit the points right, if you’ve got a good hook, if you’ve got a good video overall. So I just think a lot of people tend to hold themselves back on the premise of comparing themselves to other real estate content creators and they say, “Oh, I’m not going to be really great when I get started.” And the reality is, you’re not going to be great when you get started doing this. You got to work towards it. You got to work at enhancing your brand and posting daily and consistently. And if you do that, you will see results.

Amy:
But you know what’s so crazy, Rob, is I just had this conversation yesterday. I mentioned earlier I was talking to my videographer and I said to her, “Should I start a YouTube channel? Because I have one, but I do nothing with it. And oh my God, my coaches and mentors are telling me I need to do this.” So it doesn’t matter how experienced or successful we are, you guys. We all have fear, right? And things that hold us back from taking action. It may sound silly to other people, but one of mine is, I don’t know how to start a YouTube channel. Am I going to get criticized by people? I can’t deal with the negative comments. What do I do? But I know I have all of this content that I want to share and raise awareness on. So even you just sharing your story and your experiences has motivated and inspired me.

Rob:
Well, and we actually just talked about this recently on Episode 629 with Brandon Turner. We talked about growing your personal brand and your social presence online. I mean, it was effectively a 45 minute masterclass on everything you need to know to really develop your personal, your ecosystem, whether it’s TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, or everything. So if you’re interested in learning more about that, be sure and go download that and give it a listen after this episode.

Amy:
Yeah. Again, thank you for that. I selfishly appreciate that. At the end of the day, you guys, it’s all about our mindset, right? And remembering that we are providing others with an opportunity to invest. If they don’t see it that way, then we genuinely have to believe that’s their loss and we’re going to go respond to the other 15 people knocking on our door, ready to invest with us. Even if we don’t have 15 people knocking on our door.
And here’s the best part. Once these transactions start to come in, which is step four of the FACT framework, which I know we’ll get into later, then it’s going to have a snowball effect on everything you’re doing. And yes, you’re actually going to have more money coming into your business than you even want or need. And so there are going to be ways where you are respectfully going to work with private money lenders, and then also turn away private money lenders whose ethics and morale do not align with yours. Because remember, we don’t need them. We don’t need their money, right? Because we have the right mindset. They need us. We are the ones providing them with double digit returns, with a protected, secured, and insured asset. They’re not getting that in the stock market. They’re not getting it in the bank. So as long as you have the right mindset going into this and you remind yourself of who you are, what your ethics and what your morale consists of, you guys are going to have no problem getting out there and confidently raising money.

Rob:
Yeah. Well, this was awesome. I’m really excited to get to the C, the credibility step here in the next episode. But to quickly recap here, I just wanted to make sure I got the five action strategies correct, and in no particular order. I know you have a lot more of these, so we’ll definitely need to cover these at a later point.
But starting with number one, word of mouth. Referrals. Getting yourself out there, meeting people, asking if those people know people that might want to invest with you. Number two, having a meetup. And if you want to market that meetup, go to several different meetups around the world. Oh sorry, around the city within a one hour radius, I think is what you said. I mean, you could do around the world if you want, it’s just going to be a lot more expensive. But go and network with people outside of your network and see if you can get them to come to your meetup. And by doing so, you’ll prove that you’re a subject matter expert and people will more than likely build a little bit of trust and rapport with you because they see you as somewhat of a local leader in that space.
Three would be getting onto LinkedIn and making connections with a lot of people. Make sure that you’re not building any kind of bots or any VAs doing this. Try to have a personal message that you send to a lot of people. Let’s not say be on the nose here and hit up real estate investors or real estate flippers, but people that might actually have wealth in a different arena that are looking to diversify. So physicians, maybe even like you said, a venture capitalists, doctor, all that kind of stuff. Then we move into number four, which is fundraising events. Go to some high ticket events, high ticket events that you might have to go and buy a ticket. Maybe it’s a conference. Maybe it’s another event that’s a $500 car show in your city and try to network with as many people as you can.
And then lastly, online. Put yourself out there online, whether it’s posting to your personal pages or really just kind of digging in to the Instagram side of things or digging into TikTok or whatever that might mean. But really being consistent and intentional about your social posting. Does that sound right? Did I miss anything there?

Amy:
It was perfect. Thank you, sir.

Rob:
Thank you. Well, we appreciate it. I mean, this is really a master class. It’s going to be an amazing four part series. We’re super, super excited. Before we wrap up today, was there anything else that you wanted to just leave us with as we kind of get ready for the next episode?

Amy:
I don’t think so, you guys. Just really remember I guess what’s your why, right? We’ve all heard about that, right? What’s your why? What’s your driving force? Because you guys got this, whether it’s raising capital or other parts of your real estate business, you can do it. Tap into your why when you feel like you may be lacking motivation. And just turn to your community for support. And we got you and we’ll see you in the next episode.

Rob:
Awesome. Well, before we head out, can you tell us a little bit more about where people can learn about you online?

Amy:
Yeah, absolutely. I’m trying to, as much as possible, share as many tips and strategies on Instagram primarily. So I’m always sharing videos or pointers or graphics. So if you just check out my Instagram handle, which is just my first and last name, @amymahjoory, you can connect with me there. I don’t outsource any of that, so it’s a direct line to me. If you have any questions that went unanswered on this series, feel free to hit me up via Instagram and I’ll respond within 24 hours.

Rob:
Awesome. David, what about you, man?

David:
Find me, @davidgreene24. Check out my YouTube at youtube.com/davidgreenerealestate. And you can message me on the BiggerPockets’ platform. It was weird. I took a second there to try to remember what my YouTube thing was, even though it is the most boring name anyone could ever think of.

Rob:
Hey, you can find me at YouTube at youtube.com.

David:
That’s exactly what I did. I was trying to buy myself time to remember what the name was there. Doesn’t happen too often. All right, Amy, this has been a blast. I’m excited. We have more going on.
Personally, this is just my opinion, we’re probably entering into a market that’s going to be the best buyer’s market we’ve seen in at least eight or nine years. And if you are looking to ramp up, right now is a great time to be borrowing money. And for those that have money that don’t know how to invest in real estate, they have to earn a return on it because inflation’s eating it up. So on the people who need to lend money, they have pressure on the people who want to be buying houses. Like us, we have pressure because the market’s good. This is a very good time to be getting into the industry.
So if you guys like this content, stay tuned because we’re going to have Amy back for some more shows to complete her four step process. So my advice would be to go practice some of what you’ve learned right now on some of the people that are in your life. See if your elevator pitch can be improved. See if you can set yourself up to start attending some meetups, and maybe you can even start posting online. Getting some of the bugs worked out on your own game. And then the next time we have Amy on, you’ll have even more information to put into play.
All right, I’m going to get us out of here. This is David Greene for Rob Be Yourself, because everyone else has taken Abasolo, signing off.