Ep 108 – How to Get Your 10K Payday | with Jerry Norton - Rent To Retirement

The limiting factor for all investors is capital, which is why it can sometimes take a while to achieve your long term goals. One way that a lot of people get started is by wholesaling. This is a way to control and sell real estate without having to buy it yourself, but it does require having an end buyer for the property.

But what if you had a guaranteed end buyer as long as certain criteria were met?

Adam Schroeder and Zach Lemaster talk with Jerry Norton about his program that can help speed up the start of your real estate business, as well as how to be successful in the wholesale/flipping industry, why the long game is important, and more, as they tap into his wealth of knowledge from over 25 years in the real estate industry.

Learn how to get your 10K Payday by CLICKING HERE

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Transcript:

Zach
Hey, Rent To Retirement community this is Zach Lemaster here with my c- host, Adam Schroeder. We are very excited to have someone in the space that is doing exceptional things and has been in the industry for a couple of decades now. We’ve been trying to get Mr. Jerry Norton on our show for an immense amount of time. And he’s too busy just doing too many cool things out in the real estate world. But it’s, it’s a pleasure to have you here. We’re super excited. Jerry is someone that is really been in the educational space, specifically around flipping and wholesaling and as a leader in the industry, and is someone that gives away so much free excellent content out there that has just allowed people to take their business to the next level. As many of you know, I started out in wholesaling, just as kind of a side hustle my entry point into real estate to learn how to evaluate deals. And that has been paramount for my success throughout my investing career. And some of the content that Jerry has put out just on his free channel and through his resources, is just some of the top notch in the educational space. We all know that there’s many different gurus and education in the flipping and wholesaling business. But Jerry is someone who doesn’t write offers tremendous amount of value, and really has a lot of cool things to bring to the table here. So Jerry, thank you so much for joining us.

Jerry
Thank you. It’s great to be here, Zach and Adam. Thank you for having me.

Zach
So we’d love to start out with just a little bit about your story. And, you know, kind of at the at the beginning, I know it’s thinking back quite a ways at this point. But tell us tell us, you know, where did Jerry start?

Jerry
Yeah, so I was about 27 years old, had a small family, a couple of kids at the time, and really going nowhere. I was, you know, working a dead end job. It was construction, it was minimum wage, I had wanted to do something with my life, I just didn’t quite know what or how to find it really lacked a lot of, you know, leadership and mentorship in my life, found real estate and heard about this thing called wholesaling. It was a low barrier to entry. So I thought, hey, this is something maybe I can figure out how to do. While working that job. I kind of started part time in it, you know, before work at lunch after work weekends. And it took about a year a kind of part time in it in Metro Detroit. So this is Metro Detroit, I targeted pretty much the bottom of the market like the the cheapest homes, you could imagine, you know, five and $10,000 houses is kind of where I started, and really not very good neighborhoods. But it was a place to start. And so I started there. And after about a year, part time in it, I had kind of done a few deals and I’d saved up enough to quit that job, which wasn’t paying very much. And then went full time into wholesaling. And what was exciting was my first month full time, I did five wholesale deals and made $52,000 Because you know, I’m not in full time and I’m putting all my attention into it. And that was all the money I’d seen in the world. And from that moment on, you know, I just haven’t looked back and it’s been about a almost 20 year journey since then to today. So I’ve I’ve transitioned from wholesaling has always been my roots, I think learning how to source and find deals is such a phenomenal strategy to learn how to do whatever you end up doing long term. And so I still wholesale quite a bit but I transitioned into into fix and flip. I really like luxury so I’ve kind of progressed up into some high end stuff, a little bit of development and and here I am today you know, I do I do some multimillion dollar deals, I also do the business virtually all over the US. So you know i i Find and flip houses, you know, anywhere. I’m really good at underwriting the deals really good at putting a team together that can manage them and sell them and I’ve got the capital figured out. So it’s been a great journey over the years to kind of start in in low end Detroit and kind of move into these other areas. That’s it’s been really fun, a great journey.

Zach
Man. I love that so much. And you hit a couple key points that I just want to make sure the audience didn’t miss. Wholesaling is a way and we’ll probably probably should define that for people. I mean, essentially, you’re out there finding the value, right? You’re out there finding the deal, and you’re putting it under contract. So you’re controlling the deal. And then you’re either assigning it doing a double close, we won’t get into the intricate details, but you’re out there finding and acquiring the deal, and then deciding what to do with it. And I always like to explain to people that wholesaling is just another tool in the tool belt, right but it’s a super easy place to start. Because it probably the best place to start in A lot of cases because it allows you to find and analyze deals, which is really the I guess the main point of all of this right. I mean, that’s that’s the crux and a lot of people get stopped on their their business endeavors. Would you agree with that, that that’s probably a good entry point.

Jerry
Yeah, the way you want to think about Wholesaling is in real estate, you have your end buyers that are investors, and whether they’re fixing flippers or buying hold investors, they’re always looking for their next deal. Well, part of the problem with a flipper or a buy and hold investor is they just want to do their thing they want to rehab and sell houses or they want to, they want to do the landlord thing. They realize that the part about finding that good deal, that good opportunity, that’s a big part of the whole business model. And a wholesaler, that’s what they do, they source and find those good deals, they bring those to the to the landlord, the buy and hold, or they bring those to the flipper. And it eliminates that entire department of acquisitions for those investors. So it’s it’s tremendous value is really needed. I’ll tell you something interesting. Zach, I talked to the private investor, the National private lender Association, okay, so they represent a 1000s of, of money lenders in America. And I did a I did a podcast with them. And they said, they went back to all of their customers, all of their everyone in their association. And they said, What percentage of your loans were originally sourced from a wholesaler, and it was something like 77% or something like that. So I mean, that incredible. So so many deals end up coming from wholesalers, who are really just people who are going to are willing to go out there and talk to sellers track down these leads, get a good deal under contract, and then bring that deal forward to that end buyer.

Zach
I love it. And again, it allows you to really learn the nitty gritty of evaluating deals, which is the baseline of being able to be a successful investor, you know, regardless of what path you end up taking, you know, in our business model, we don’t we don’t do a lot of wholesaling at this point. But we buy a lot from wholesalers. Yeah. You know, and there’s, there’s a lot of and now we’ve created those relationships. And, you know, it’s just a great place to start. And your story resonated with me so well, because that’s exactly the place that I started when I was a captain in the Air Force. You know, I was in lunch during lunch drive, and I lived an hour this is in North Dakota in Grand Forks, I lived an hour from the base, because the base is out in the middle of nowhere. And mornings I would be calling calling sellers. I had my Google Voice you know, in wholesaling, I’m sure it’s evolved over the years, right. I mean, back in the day when we had bandit signs. And you know, we’re just I did newspaper ads, and I would call people on the way to the on the way to work I would I want to do I want to go and join the, you know, my flight in for lunch, I was in my office with the door shut, everyone thought I was a recluse. But I was I was calling sellers, right and then driving home, same, same thing. And so it’s a super easy way to really create a side hustle and learn real estate from the ground up. Do you think that that’s, you know, that pretty much is the same process that you kind of followed initially? Do you remember that first wholesale deal? I always want to ask?

Jerry
Yeah, I do. In fact, you know, your first deal is your proof of concept. So it’s very iconic, it’s a special moment. And I tell people, it doesn’t care if it’s, you know, $1,500 or $15,000, or $150,000, it doesn’t matter. Because it’s it’s just going through the process from you know, that the initial lead to a contract to assigning it to a cash buyer. And when you go through that process, what most people have, what happens is, you sit back and you say, Wow, now what if I did that five times a month? What would my life look like? Or what would this business be like if I could now create a model around this concept, right? And so it’s, it’s very important to to create that first deal. So many people quit before they get that first deal. And the people that can get to that first deal, the success rate to go on and do multiple deals and build a business and transition into other things really goes up quite a bit. So you’re right, and mine was $6,000. And I remembered I wish they would have like framed a picture holding the check. I tell people to do that. Because it’s a special moment when that happens.

Adam
Now, would you buy that deal as as yourself now? Would you have bought that from yourself?

Jerry
Well, 20 years later, yeah, I mean, everything then was worth more today. Yeah, I mean, you can’t rearview mirror the business right? It’s easy to look in the rearview mirror and say, Man, I wish I would have kept more deals. But you know, it allowed me to really create a lot of cash that allowed me to reinvest into the business grow the business into into where it is today. So this is really interesting. I kind of have a unique philosophy Zach and I’d love to hear maybe your opinion about this and Adam but I kind of think people that are really new into the business, if they don’t have a really good service, like what you guys provide with the turnkey rental model, our rentals can actually be detrimental to your progress in the business. Because you really need to learn how to find deals, you really need to learn how to make some cash. That’s what wholesaling does, or fix, and flip can do that as well. And I feel like, at least the rentals I’ve been involved in, you know, I really want to have a long term perspective about what those rentals are supposed to do. And and maybe not depend so much on the cash flow early on in the beginning, learn how to learn how to produce and create income, maybe wholesaling, or flipping short term income, that can then be reinvested into maybe more long term passive income strategies. So and that’s what wholesaling can do, it can either supplement that model of buying, buy and hold, or it can create its own engine that produces a lot of income, as well. So just some interesting ideas there.

Zach
I agree with you. 100%. I think, you know, and I don’t want to shoot ourselves in the foot here, because our business is turnkey, right? I mean, it’s an easy way for people to buy rentals. Now that is one, one pillar of being you know, a real estate investor. And while you still learn how to invest, how to invest out of state, you know, the benefits and the tax benefits and how leverage works with with real estate, what has allowed us to be very successful and leave our previous career path is being an active investor, right? That’s truly the case. Now, some people don’t want to be. But I think there’s just the education aspect of being an active investor taking that money, putting it into passive real estate, and growing your portfolio and using all these different avenues, the tax benefits associated with it. I mean, because nothing else comes close to, you know, tax benefits of real estate. I mean, that’s really how you create financial independence through real estate, you can buy a bunch of turnkey rentals, don’t get me wrong. And that can be you know, if you’re just looking to diversify and build that as your as your portfolio, that’s a fantastic method. And it’s an easy entry point. And we’ll walk you through the whole process, you know, and give you a game plan. But if you truly want to leave your career path in a shorter period of time, and be an active investor, you need to be an active investor, and you need to learn, you know, the steps that go alongside that. I mean, wholesaling, it’s the way that I view it. And just to be clear, we’re focusing on wholesaling, but you know, your business model, and the value you provide an educational content is about not just wholesaling, right? You get wholesaling, flipping, and all sorts of these other avenues that can your business can develop into. But wholesaling is a really good entry point where, you know, you can really hyper focus on that, finding and acquiring the deals. And then ultimately, maybe that transitions into that, like that part of the business probably doesn’t change for you. But as your business grows, you can determine, Okay, maybe I want to, you know, keep this property as a rental, maybe I want to actually take it on and rehab it and flip it or then rehab it and turn it into a rental, or maybe this one is better as a wholesale deal. And it just but but everything starts with that initial funnel of finding and acquiring the deals. Yeah. Yeah, I think I want to talk about Jerry’s the evolution because wholesaling today and real estate in general, it’s a dynamic industry. I mean, it’s not the same as it was 10 or 20 years ago. You’re what what are some of the things that you really need to stay up on legislation and markets, and there’s now there’s been a lot of educators out there that are providing different courses, you know, and educational content about different ways to do things. But you are a person that we view as being a leader in the industry, that’s always stayed up on, you know, just staying current on how to still be successful today, in the wholesaling, flipping business. Can we talk a little bit about that and your perspective?

Jerry
This is actually something I’m very passionate about, because I’m like an old dog in the industry. And I see the concerns that the regulatory boards have the real estate commission has, and there are some real concerns out there about wholesaling the practice of wholesaling. And so I talked quite a bit about the regulation that’s coming down in several states, I think it’s going to come to all states eventually, I talked quite a quite a bit about disclosure, proper disclosure, really just doing things the right way. I want to be someone known, that does right by everybody that I come in contact with sellers, my buyers, my contractors, my lenders, my students, whoever I’m dealing with, I want to be known as the person that has integrity does the right thing. And that comes first before profits, right. And mostly in the educational space. I want to preserve our industry I want to I want to leave a legacy and really help the community real estate community and beyond. See the value in what wholesaling can do the value in what flipping can do to improve neighborhoods to revitalize to to help sellers, distressed sellers out of bad situations to be bringing opportunities to cash buyer investors, like, there’s so much good that we can do in the industry, even turnkey, you know, like providing affordable housing for people providing investment opportunities for people, I just want to really enhance that idea of bringing value to the communities that were involved in. And how important that is, I kind of look at things and say, you know, I’m going to be dead a whole lot longer than I’m alive. And what do I want to be remembered for? What do I want to be known for? And what kind of impact do I want to have, and I think God put me on earth to have, you know, a big impact, not a small impact, and influence a lot of lives, not a few lives. And so I try to I’m trying to live that out. I’m trying to decide how I best do that, you know, every day. But I think that’s really important. I think best practices, really doing right to people is should be a priority for everybody in this industry.

Zach
I mean, that’s what makes it rewarding at the end of the day, right? I mean, okay, in the beginning, we’re all here to make money, right? And you can make, you can make a bigger impact, you know, the more successful you are, that’s just the reality of it, right for your family, for community, you know, that for the our industry as a whole. And I get it, everyone needs to you know, you’re you’re very money focused in the beginning, and because you want to make this work, and it needs to work. But I love that that’s your mindset, because in like any business, not everyone shares that same, you know, mindset.

Jerry
I didn’t always I mean, I remember where it was always about the bank account. And that was the driving factor in a lot of the decisions I made. And it wasn’t until I transitioned into more about value and solving problems, that everything changed for me, because when I put when I put really providing tremendous value, and really trying to figure out how to solve more problems and bigger problems. That’s when my income exploded when it wasn’t the focus anymore, when you know, doing right became the focus. It’s interesting how money kind of follows in that in that interesting. At least that’s how it’s been for me. And it’s so it’s been good that way.

Zach
I love it. Love it.

Adam
Yeah, I mean, if you’re not, I mean, that’s the whole point of things is if you’re not solving problems for people, they’re gonna say, why on earth? Would I do business with you? Right, you know, it’s, you got to find out what’s the what are the pain points? And how can you? How can you solve those pain points for them? And if the answer is, you’re not the one to solve the pain points for him, then I would hope that people would have the integrity to say, well, then maybe I’m not the right fit for you.

Zach
Real estate can be a win/win/win scenario. And often, that’s where the best the best deals come. I mean, some people think like, you’re not taking advantage of people here, right, you’re solving to your point, you’re, you’re solving a problem for him, if someone’s going into pre foreclosure, and you’re gonna help them get out of that. So they don’t ruin their credit, and they can go on and, you know, buy another house or not have that impact for four or five years. I mean, that’s a huge thing, right, you’re solving problems. That’s, and that goes along with really kind of, in a lot of business ventures, I mean, whatever the case that you’re, if you’re solving a problem, you’re going to be successful. Jerry, let’s transition to talk a little bit more about like you specifically, and where you’re at today, and kind of the the program that you guys offer. One thing that we love about you, which is completely different from a lot of people out there that offer 50 $100,000, you know, coaching and things like this, before you even get any type of deal done. Like your business is the opposite of that. And you you provide so much value and free content out there, that I mean people, ourselves included, are just learning from you. Just just following you, you know, which and of course, you’d have a lot of different programs for people to follow based on what their, what they you know, what their interests are and their goals. But I’d love to hear your philosophy about like, why go against the grain and just offer that content out there when there’s so many people doing the opposite?

Jerry
Yeah, well, I think we live in a day and age now where thanks to social media, to gain a customer to gain a loyal fan, I guess. You have to really put yourself out there in a way that is different than any other time in history different than when I started. And it’s going to it’s going to continue to evolve in that way. So what I’ve done and this has been, you know, thanks to YouTube, it’s allowed me to really do this in a huge way is I document my journey on my YouTube channel, I show the deals I’m doing I even show the failures I have. I even break down exactly how I analyze the deal. I talk about how I pivot and change my business, wholesaling and flipping. And I give away everything that I’m using to run my business from my scripts to tools I use to contracts to step by step guides. And so my my approach to education is, if I can give everything I possibly can In my content and in free resources and tools, and someone can go have success, and they can start doing deals without paying me a dime. And they want to really now go to a new level. And maybe they want to talk to me about coaching, or maybe they want to join my finder program and start finding deals for me and get paid for that. Or maybe they want to use my software, which is going to help them do the business better and faster than then maybe they’re, then they’re going to be in a place where they’re like, this guy has helped me so much that and I’ve been able to do it without paying him a dime, maybe I should look at some of these things he’s doing, maybe I’m open to how he can help me in another capacity. And so that’s what’s allowed me to really grow my education business to a level that I’ve never been able to, you know, prior to doing that model of really doing value content, lots of free resources, I grew my training business through paid advertising, and we still do paid advertising, you’ll see my ads. But um, but to me, paid advertising is kind of like trying to shortcut your way to a customer. Whereas the long game is really helped that person be successful, without asking for a dime. And that’s how you’ll really grow a loyal following. And so I’ve kind of taken that approach when it comes to, you know, my education company and our software and our finder programs and some of the other things that we do. And the final program is I hope we get a chance to talk about that that’s a phenomenal way for anyone to start making money quickly in real estate without having to invest very much more than your time, just some time.

Zach
But let me let me preface this. Before we get into that. And I just want to commend you on on explaining that, because what you’ve done is you’ve built a complete community, right? I mean, you have a lot of people that are using the resources that are now they’re like, Man, this guy rocks, he’s out there, you know, just doing it in like actually in the weeds, showing us what he’s doing, revealing the, you know, the curtain, he’s not hiding anything. And people are learning from that. And so people naturally migrate towards that, and you’re building this community. And then of course, you know, your business thrives just because of your following. I mean, you got millions of people out there, it’s crazy. You’re probably the most famous person we’ve been able to interview. So..

Jerry
[laughs] I don’t feel that way. I just feel like a dude on the internet who’s kind of showing what he’s doing to be, you know, in my own business, right?

Zach
Well, you’re, you’re a pretty cool dude. On the internet, dairy, so and you’ve been in the industry for a long time. But specifically, I think one problem that people have, and this is how I started to with with wholesaling, it’s like, it’s a little daunting, right? Coming into real estate, and it’s like, Okay, gotta find the deal. You also gotta find the buyer. And it’s like, you know, it’s like, there’s a lot, there’s concern, and everyone will tell, you just find the deal. And the money comes. And that’s not always the case. And you know, we really, like, there’s a lot of pieces to engineer that I think hold some people back just from fear, like the unknown. But what’s really cool is about your fighter program are you are giving people like a criteria. And first of all, that’s criteria that they should be adhering to anyways to find value. But then you have the option to just sell them right to you and pay him a large assignment fee. I think it’s a $10,000 assignment fee, which is a hell of a lot more than I made on all my first wholesale. Right. Can you explain that program?

Jerry
Yeah, so one of my challenges I have is, you know, getting enough deals, right? Because, as we know, wholesaling is you’ve got to, you’ve got to get a lot of leads, you got to source and you’ve got to, you know, analyze and all of that. So what I’ve done is I’ve said, hey, I can only have my own fingers in a handful of markets with me or my team. And we do that right, we still wholesale and flip and we source our own deals. But there’s this goldmine of opportunity all over the country. And so let me share with you my resources, my contracts, my scripts, my tools, let me share this with you and train you on how to go find these deals in your backyard. And then if you find that great deal that meets the criteria of what I would flip it for, like I would need to buy it, fix it, flip it make a profit, I’ll show you what that criteria looks like. But if you go find that deal that fits that and bring it to me, then I’ll pay you a $10,000 fee, you know, finder fee or wholesale fee for for bringing me that deal. And what’s great about it is they’re they’re learning the mechanics of acquisitions, which you really have to learn, but I removed the entire barrier of the second half of wholesaling, which is your cash buyer, it’s dispositions, it’s working that and you shouldn’t do that too. If you’re doing that too great. You know, don’t don’t make sure your only buyer in fact, we have a lot of people that come through that program and they don’t bring their deal to me because maybe they find someone that will pay them more than 10,000 and I get it that’s totally fine. But if you don’t have any cash buyers and you want me to be the buyer and you want to have a specific criteria for exactly what you need to look for and bring that removes a lot of pressure and stress from you know someone that’s looking to make money in real estate because I’d like, here it is, here’s my criteria, I’ll be your buyer, I’ll make this process fast and easy. And once you get the deal, I approve it, I step in, I handle the closing, I handle everything. I reimburse your earnest money. You know, I make it really easy for someone to go find deals and bring them to me. So it’s, it’s been amazing. It’s allowed me to really do deals all over the country that I wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise; probably.

Zach
So any market, right?

Jerry
Yeah. Yeah, it’s not the market. It’s the deal, right. So, you know, I don’t want to do low income, because there’s no margin there, you know, in the program, maybe not bring me multi multi million dollar deals, because that’s very unique to the market, that’s going to be hard for me to figure out. So I like the middle range. You know, like, my favorite is really between where the resale value the ARV after repair value is like, you know, perfect in the perfect world. 300 to 600 is my favorite favorite. So that’s what it’ll sell for fixed up. I’ll go down to 200. And I try to stay in the program, I try to stay around that 600 on the on the on the resale value. Right. So, so that allows people then to stay out of kind of the lower income for that, and I don’t have the luxury stuff in that program. But it’s been amazing. We close what’s the day tomorrow, we close on the St. Louis deal. It’ll be I think, maybe my second or third deal in St. Louis, the finder that brought me that deal. They just started in real estate brand new 30 days ago. So they’re getting a $10,000 Check 30 days from starting, you know, in real estate. So, you know, see, and that’s really exciting, because it’s, it’s game changer. I sat down and interviewed one of my students who brought a who brought me a deal in New Orleans. And it was his his first deal. And I actually gave him a $10,000 check. And, and I didn’t realize this, but I was talking to him. And I said, I said, so what were you doing? What have you been doing, you know, prior to this, and he said, I work at Dairy Queen. And he’s a young guy in his 20s. And it just, it hit me like a ton of bricks. I don’t know why it was so emotional, to be giving somebody a $10,000 check working at Dairy Queen. And I said to him, I said, what’s next? And he says, Oh, I’m done with Dairy Queen. This is it. This is my thing.

Adam
[laughs] So 1000.. 1000 hours at Dairy Queen.

Jerry
Oh, yeah, Right? [laughs] I mean, this is six months at Dairy Queen right here with this check. And so I’ve stayed in touch and he’s doing great, you know, he’s doing the business. And so that’s that’s also very rewarding to see that happen.

Adam
You mentioned that he’s been doing it for 30 days, do you have like kind of a idea of how long it generally takes people to find their first deal, assuming they’re taking it moderately serious, at least like kind of what’s the time range that you’ve seen people get their deals in.

Jerry
30 days is about as fast as you can go. Because let’s say you start today, and the first person you call says yes, I’d like a 30 day closing. Because it gives us time to review the deal, it gives us time to get a rehab plan in place gives us time to get funding together, right. So a 30 day closing is very typical. If we’re pressed under that we can try to work with that. But but as a as a finder, you really want to be signing a contract with a 30 day closing. So that’s like fastest, you could probably get to your a $10,000 check. But realistically, you know, let’s be real, you know, you’re gonna have to talk to a lot of people, you’re gonna have to make some offers, you’re gonna have to put in some time and effort. So you know, it can’t happen super fast. But it could also take a few months, it could take three months, it could take some time, you know, what I try to do is shorten that that learning curve as fast as possible.

Zach
Yeah, it’s, you know, time to first deal is so important, because in a lot of cases that can. I mean, I don’t know how long it took took us to get our first wholesale deal. But it was a long time. It was months. And there was times where you’re doubting yourself, you’re losing motivation, or you’re spending marketing dollars, you know, but yeah, to your point, once you get that first one, it’s like, the, the investor mentality is like this works. This is positive reinforcement, I can do this. It’s you’re off to the races. But that first one is so central. So we always same thing with people buying the first rental property. There’s people that sit around and think about it for years and never do anything. And it’s you know, it’s whatever fear, you know, motivation. They, they aren’t serious about it, whatever the case is, as soon as you can get them into that first deal. That changes their mindset, and it changes the trajectory of their life.

Jerry
Yeah, as soon as you do one, you start thinking about 10. But you really can’t get past one until you like get the one you know. And what I tell people to is your 10th deal and you probably it’s probably no different with turnkey, your 10th deals 10 times easier than your first and your 100 is 100 times easier than your 10th like because you build momentum. As you build momentum. Everything gets faster and easier. And you can move through that process so much better.

Zach
Let’s take a step back Jerry and talk about a little bit of the actual mechanics of wholesaling, you know, with someone who I think most people have heard this, you know, like, they kind of get the idea of of wholesaling if they’re interested in real estate. And and just to be clear, like we’re focusing on wholesaling. But, you know, you have also similar programs for people that want to be active flippers, you know, and things like this, but really, for the wholesale deal, can you break down the mechanics of it? And like, you know, and obviously, you you offer all this in great detail on on your content that you put out for free, but, I mean, what’s the mechanics of a wholesale deal? And how we’re, you know, how are you setting people up for success to really go out and get that first deal in 30 days?

Jerry
Yeah, great question. So to simplify it as much as I can, what we’re looking for is we’re looking for a distressed seller who’s in a desperate situation. And that makes up in my opinion, about 5% of the market. So as you go out there, you’re looking for that 5% That, that really needs to sell, not wants to sell wants to sell, is gonna go retail, they’re gonna do things they need to do, they’re willing to wait, they’re willing to hire a real estate agent, they’re willing to do inspections and other things to get the highest price, but a desperate seller who’s in some kind of hardship, they’re in a place where they really need to sell that property quickly to solve a big problem. And we look at a seller, we call it a motivated seller, there’s really four things that we look for. First, is that distress issue. So pre foreclosure, maybe they inherited the property, and they don’t want to take care of it. Maybe they’re behind on taxes, maybe they’re going through a bankruptcy or divorce, some kind of hardship. So first is hardship. Second is a timeframe. There’s a pressing timeline, where they need to get rid of this property, and they’re willing to trade equity for peace of mind. So they get it there’s equity in this property. That’s unrealized, right? Because it’s not there. It’s unrealized, because it’s a distressed property. And they’re willing to give that up to get rid of that unwanted property. So you have distressed situation, you have a timeframe, a timeframe. And it has to be in poor condition, that’s a distress, that’s going to create a motivation because it needs work, right. And then the and then the fourth one is a price and a price is often a deceiver. Because if the other three things are there, they’ll often come take a low price, because they want to solve this problem. So that’s what we’re looking for. Now, we can do that off market where we try to go direct to seller, and we try to contact people that might fit that profile, or what I like to do, too, is go on market. So a lot of these sellers will list with agents to try to sell those properties. And now we can go directly to a real estate agent who has that listing. And we can buy that distressed property that way as well. So there’s multiple avenues to find and get in front of the sellers. But the idea here is we’re going to we’re going to contact the seller, we’re going to offer them a cash offer to solve that problem. It’s convenient, it’s quick, it’s as is we pay the closing fees, we solve all these problems, we get that property, obviously, for a discount, we have to have a contract, because that contract is what gives you the right now, that contract is an asset that you can then sell. So you get that contract. It’s a written agreement with the seller, that now has value, right? We take that contract and we go to that buy and hold investor or that flipper, who is looking for that type of an opportunity. And we say, hey, I’ll let you take over my position in this contract for a fee. So in my case, with my final program, you bring me that opportunity that fits what I like, and I’ll pay you a $10,000 check for bringing me that opportunity that you found and created, and now sourcing it for me and bringing it to me. And so then there’s an assignment. It’s a really simple document, it says, I’m assigning my rights in my contract to you, Jerry Norton, I step in, I buy that property pay you a $10,000 fee. And you know, that’s the short end of it, but it’s we tend to overcomplicate it, but it’s really not that complicated. If you think about it.

Zach
I love it. Yeah, I’m just thinking like, you know, what, what if you do one of these a month, right, are two months? Yeah, it’s super easy. I’m trying to wrap my head around. I guess I got two questions for you. What are you seeing working and you mentioned finding on market deals, which is kind of new to me, because you usually think about distressed properties being off market, but you know, that’s true. There’s maybe some people that attempt in maybe they don’t have the right agent to sell the property. There’s so many people that attempt to sell their distressed property on the market, and they just can’t, where you could find those type of deals. But I guess the two questions I have for you, Jerry is what what are you seeing working in the market today? Kind of with where we’re at in market cycles and the industry as a whole what are what are some ways that you’re seeing success and finding deals and then secondly would be how does someone do this from a distance they say, oh my markets too expensive that or there’s too many people here like, you know, how do they try to tap into a new mark and do from a distance?

Jerry
Yeah, so great questions. Um, so for. So first of all, all lead types work, all marketing works, it’s really about how deep you go into those areas. So, like direct mail works really well, for some people not so well. For other people, it really comes down to how deep Are you going in that marketing method? Are you really learning it? Well? And I’ll grab that. Thanks. Yeah. And so, so you really have to kind of decide, okay, What channel do I want to do? What lead tech do I want to do and really focus on it, I say go deep. And then when you go deep, and you learn it, well maybe branch into another type of lead type or another type of marketing channel, I’ll share what I personally like. It’s again, this is just my preference, because it resonates with me and my business model quite a bit. My favorite is we call them tired landlords. And Zach, maybe you can relate to some of these effects you guys probably buy from them. But it’s usually a mom and pop, they get in over their head, they have a bad tenant situation, and they’re just burned out, and they don’t want that property anymore. And maybe the tenant did some damage to it. And they’re just kind of ready to get rid of that rental property. I love that lead type for one primary reason, when I’m talking to the seller, it’s an investor. And so we get to skip all of the emotional side of it, because they’re an investor. So there’s no crying on my shoulder about how, you know, they’re going through this hardship and lost their job. And, you know, I don’t have to have empathy, which I struggle with empathy. I’m working on it all the time. But you take away that homeowner emotional side of it, and you’re just dealing with another investor. So it’s like, here’s my number doesn’t work for you. Great, let’s do a deal. I love that.

Zach
I think Adam would fall into that category. And now the tired landlord. He’ll pay a $10,000 fee.

[all laugh]

Jerry
Yeah, they’re, they’re a great lead type. Because, you know, if they’re, if they’re not doing things, right, then they’re having a bad experience, they’re gonna want out of that property. So I love that lead type. And then my second favorite is real estate agents. And the reason why I love agents is because it’s referral business. So if I can create a relationship with a listing agent who gets distressed properties, and they have a smooth process with me, and I’m cash, their next distressed property listing, they’re going to call me. So I have agents that just continually bring me deals, and I let them represent me. So they get both sides of the commission. So now they’re really motivated. And so anytime you can create a referral type of business or repeat model, I’m all I’m all into that. So that’s why agents are my top number one source of leads and my favorite type of lead type, to get distressed properties. So those work really well, for me, as far as virtual, everyone has a tendency to think that the grass is greener, somewhere else, right. So most of the time, your backyard is fine. It’s amazing. There’s deals, you don’t need to go anywhere else. And there’s a lot of advantages about your backyard, because you understand the market, you know, the school district, you know, the parts of town that are better than other parts of town, if you go virtual, you have to learn all of that. And that’s tricky that takes that takes some time to really learn another market, you better dedicate the right amount of energy to learn that new market and where the major Crossroads are, where things change, and all of those types of things. So there’s a there’s a learning curve to go virtual, the pros of virtual and the reason why I love virtual is you, it forces you to learn how to do your entire business without being there, which then facilitates lifestyle. So I live in Puerto Rico, and I do deals all over. And I never actually see those properties. That’s been a challenge and on some regard, but it’s been really amazing. On the other hand, because I can be at the beach here in Puerto Rico and do deals in St. Louis or wherever. So I love that part of virtual. So I do virtual not because my backyard market sucks, but just because it really facilitates that lifestyle business. Having said that, a lot of my California students do virtual because it’s just so expensive. And you know, earnest money is a really high and it’s really competitive. And so there are certain places where it does kind of make a little more sense to you know, to pick another virtual market.

Adam
300 to 600 isn’t going to do much in California, that’s for sure.

Jerry
Oh, you can buy a doghouse for that. Yeah.. right?

Adam
Absolutely. So do you have How are you building out? Your your teams? I mean, you’re talking about living in Puerto Rico, doing deals in St. Louis and other markets. They’re just from a logistical side. How are you managing that?

Jerry
I have a couple of different strategies I do. Sometimes i i find I’m the top selling agent in that market. And I hire that agent to basically GC, my project switch, some agents will do, and they have contractors, they have people, they’ll go buy the property every day, there’ll be my eyes and ears. That’s one method. Another method I do is I’ll partner with my general contractor. So I’ll bring him in on equity. Now he’s very interested, very motivated to create a nice product, keep the cost down, and have a vested interest in the project. Sometimes we’ll GC projects long distance, but that’s my least favorite. Because you know, you’re not there. You don’t have eyes on it. It’s challenging. I have a narc system where I set up a third party independent person who who tattletales on my contractors got to keep them accountable. You know, yeah, holding people accountable. Yeah. Because if they know you’re not there, then they’re gonna tell you what you want to hear sometimes, right? So it’s not easy. I’ll tell you that it’s not easy to renovate long distance, but we have some different strategies that we’re doing. So for example, on my St. Louis deal, I decided on this one, I’m buying the project for 90 Paying my finder 10. So I’m in at 100 on my by my rehab budget is 75. So all in a 275, selling at 375. So after closing fees, and commissions and things like that I you know, it shouldn’t get 50 grand. Well, I went to my, I went to my I found a general contractor, not a general contractor, I found another flipper in that market. And I said, Hey, let’s partner all front all the money on the buy you front the money on the rehab and manage it. And let’s flip profits. And so I found a fantastic guy who’s doing really awesome flips. I looked at his work really liked him. And we’re going to do that on this deal. So, you know, everybody eats, right, I’m getting a deal that I don’t really have to manage much. I’ve got some capital involved, but he’s taken on some of the risks by fronting capital, he’s managing the project, he’s getting equity now, because he’s gonna get a piece of the action when it sells highly motivated to win my finder gets $10,000 for finding the deal. You know, it’s kind of a cool model.

Zach
I love it. Yeah. And everyone, as you mentioned, everyone has has their piece and their role, and it’s a relationship type business. Right. So I want to talk a little bit about someone that, let’s say they’ve done some wholesaling, they want to be a little bit even more engaged, maybe they have a little bit more experience. They want to flip the maybe flip the property, Jerry. So I want to talk about the software that you have. Because that is just like world class stuff that you you spent two decades developing and refining. You know, so let’s talk a little bit about your software and you know, how someone can participate with you that wants to be a little bit more engaged on the flipping side.

Jerry
Yeah, in fact, if it’s alright with you, Zack and Adam, we can put a link below where someone can do a seven day free trial and actually check it out. But it’s called Flipster. It’s, it’s my baby, it’s been my, you know, I launched it in 2014, and have a full time team and we work on it constantly. It’s specifically for a wholesaler. So you can use it as a wholesaler as well, Anna, fix and flipper. And basically, it’s your CRM, and it’s also an entire workflow, what it’s meant to do is be your entire business in one platform, where you can manage all of your deals in one place. So we have, we have just as much data as all of the big players like the prop streams in the batches, we have 150 million records, we’ve invested heavily in data, and we have deal analyzers, and we have digital contracts. And we have all of the things from step by step that you need to, to do deals, we even have funding solutions for people. So it’s meant to help somebody really take the business serious, it’s for someone who really wants to make it a real thing, and quit their job and either wholesale or fix and flip full time and do the 510 deals a month and really build a business around it. That’s what it’s meant to do. And so it’s it’s really phenomenal, but it is very specific for flipping, wholesaling, and flipping.

Zach
I love it. Yeah, no, that’s, I mean, the the data that you’ve put into that, and the tools that are available. I mean, it’s almost like, you know, to take your business to the next level. I mean, it just makes it that much easier. And it’s like how could you you know, because you can get you can get data from so many different places, but to have all that kind of in one place and an easy to use tool across the country.

Jerry
That’s what’s great about it. Like you can get a lead, you can bring it into your workflow, you can then get the contract with the with the seller, you can get the contract with the buyer. You can get Scott budget tracking for your fix and flips. So yeah, that’s what’s really unique about it. And you know what I mean, the game has changed. You have to be really in tune with technology. ology today and the technology is changing every day. And so it’s a different game from when Zack you started and when I started 20 years ago where it was bandit signs and, and you know driving for dollars and knocking on doors, you know, it’s a totally different animal. So there’s good and bad about it the good is that you can I can sit in Puerto Rico and run my business with software, you know, like, that’s amazing to be able to do that. What it’s also done is it’s opened up the door to competition. So now now there’s people that can spend more money than you, right. So you have to create a competitive advantage. And you still have to roll up your sleeves and do the work. There’s no way around it. But we’ve we’ve been able to really take this business to a whole new level. And maybe you see that as well with with rentals. But it’s it’s just a different game now. And you need to constantly be evolving.

Zach
100%, especially on finding the deals like to your point, I mean, it’s just, yeah, the industry has changed. I mean, we’re not, we’re not talking about the real estate market changing, we’re talking about just the the technology behind it, and the ability to find the deals.

Jerry
And that’s what’s really unique about like my YouTube channel, because what I’m doing today, and sharing is actually different. Because I’m progressing, I’m learning I’m advancing as I go. So some of my content from two years ago is is irrelevant, I take it down, because now I’m doing a different because you have to markets change, technology changes. In fact, if you I think if you really want to be successful in real estate, you have to embrace that it has to be something that you actually thrive in, you have to love change. Because emerging markets and emerging technology means you can be first to market first to implement first to see opportunities. And everybody first, the market is the one that makes the most money. So like I’m always looking for, what’s the next change? What’s the next thing that’s happening so that I can adapt quickly?

Zach
Well, Jerry, it’s it’s been hard to stay relevant for someone that has been in the business for two decades, you know, you have to stay relevant. And, you know, you’ve seen the evolution firsthand. So with just kind of as we go into closing here, and first of all, thank you so much for providing that value, we’ll put a link in the show notes here. And we will for anyone that wants to learn more, you know, we probably should have thrown this out earlier, but just go to rent to retirement.com Ford slash flip. And that will give you access to Jerry’s program, kind of the incentives that he had mentioned. And, you know, if you want to learn more about how to start your wholesaling business flipping business, I mean, just follow Jerry, he’s got so much cool content out there. But Jerry, and in closing, if there was one piece of advice that you would offer, for somebody that is just they’re thinking about getting started in real estate, maybe they’ve taken some wholesaling courses, they haven’t really been successful. They’ve tried a few things, but they really want to make this happen. Like what what is one piece of advice you would offer to that person?

Jerry
Yeah, great question. So the way I look at the business is, I want to take as much of the art out of it and make it a science. So like treat it like widgets, or an assembly line or the law of averages, like I my mathematical mind says, if you do these certain things, you will get this certain result, input this you’ll get this output. And so for me when it comes to deals and acquisitions, finding the deals, it’s all about making offers. So the promise I tell people is if you make five offers a day. Now this is putting a number in front of a seller or real estate agent doesn’t have to be written written is better, but an offer a legit bonafide offer, I will buy your house for x five times a day, five days a week, that’s 25 in a week, that’s 100 in a month, you will get a deal that you can wholesale for 10 or $15,000, you will get a deal in 30 days, if you make five offers a day, consistently, five days a week, you will get a good deal. And and I know that’s true, because I’ve tested it, my students have tested it, just do the work, do whatever you’ve got to do to get those leads, make five offers a day and you will get a deal. And I love that because it kind of dumbs it down like I just got to do it. I just got to go through the process. It doesn’t matter how ridiculously low those offers are. Somebody is going to say yes. Right?

Zach
It’s all a numbers game, right?

Jerry
It’s just a numbers game. So take the tip, just turn your brain off that says this is hard rejection sucks. Put all that away and just say I’m going to get my 100 Jerry said 100 I’m going to get 100 and and then you’ll get that deal.

Zach
I love it so much. Well Jerry, thank you so much for joining us today. Again anyone that wants to learn more about Jerry and his programs that are rent retirement.com forward slash flip got a lot of excellent content out there. He’s it’s we really look up to him and just creating the lifestyle and Adam I think he’s The only person we know that has more kids than us. So he’s, he’s doing it right you guys, Adam, sign us off here.

Adam
All right. Well, thank you so much, Jerry. Again, the website is rent to retirement.com/flip. You can find out all about his programs. And if you take off the flip, you can see the properties that we have. So when you get those $10,000 checks, you know where to spend the money. So that’s it renttoretirement.com. Really appreciate you all, watching or listening. Don’t forget to leave us a review on whatever podcast platform you utilize. If you have any questions about this or anything else, email them to podcasts@renttoretirement.com. That’s podcasts@renttoretirement.com and we’ll talk to you on the next episode.