David: Hey guys, this is David Dodge at the Discount Property Investor podcast. Sitting here with my co-host Mike Slane, hey Mike!

Mike: Hey Mike, how are you doing today?

David: I'm doing great, man. I'm doing good, got a work out in, bought a house this morning.

Mike: Nice, nice.

David: A rental for our portfolio, it's going to be awesome.

Mike: Yes sir.

David: Today guys, we are joined by a special guest Mike Banks. Mike Banks is with Fund and Grow, he is here to tell us some really interesting techniques on how we can use leverage in our business to acquire real estate in terms of rentals, maybe do some wholesaling, some fix and flips. It's very interesting, so I am really happy to have Mike on the show today. Mike, tell us a little bit about Fund and Grow, and also tell us a little bit about how long you have been doing this and how you helped some people, this is a really neat service you guys have.

Mike Banks: Definitely, thank you guys for having me. Fund and Grow has been around for over ten years. Essentially what we do is set up business credit lines for real estate investors, wholesalers, flippers, landlords. You can use those business credit lines to either purchase properties as a cash buyer, or you can use them to just cover expenses, rehab costs, direct mail marketing. I know for me-- I got into wholesaling about two years ago and things really started to stick for me when I had that confidence to spend a little bit more money on the business, spend a little bit more money on direct mail and all that. Fund and Grow like I said is a provider, we set up the credit lines for you, so when you go to our link in the description to pre-qualify, we are going to go over all that with you on the phone, and we are going to let you guys know exactly what you pre-qualify for in the next two weeks. Most people get between $40-80'000 in the first two weeks, then over the 12-month membership, we actually will apply three times for our clients. Like I said, we do all the work, we are a done-for-you service. Like I said, in the first two weeks people get funding in their hands, and we also set up an entity if you don't have an entity yet. That is included in our program. But really just the idea of using business credit, that is something we talk a lot about-- we do all the work for you guys, but using business credit is smart because-- the balances that you are carrying will not count against your personal scores. So everything on the business credit side, it doesn't show up on your personal report. Even if you have millions of dollars in private money it still makes sense to use business credit because for one, most are using credit cards, to begin with, and for two, you are going to earn rewards points, free travel, free cashback. So even if you have private money available, having access to business credit is nice because for one you can do deals out of your own pocket, and you are earning reward points as you are spending money on business.

David: I love it. Mike, do me a favor, back up and slow down for some of the people that don't understand what and why, okay? First, why would someone want to use a business line of credit in this sense-- and then why?

Mike Banks: For one like I said, it doesn't show up, business credit lines if you apply the right way it doesn't show up on your personal report. So that's a really attractive thing. The balances that you're carrying on these business credit lines, it's not going to bring your personal scores down. I'm sure a lot of people have seen that before if you have a high balance it brings your score down. With business credit that is not going to happen. So that is a big why to use business credit. Also we need funding. A lot of people are not going to take those leaps to either start a business or grow their business to spend that money on marketing if you feel like you have to come out of pocket for everything, if you feel like you have to use your personal credit. That's another reason business credit is an attractive thing to someone who is starting or growing a business, it's funding. It is money you can either use to buy properties, fix them up, or pay for marketing. Whatever it is you need in your business. I'm sure most people watching can agree that is a pretty important thing.

David: That's awesome. That's a great explanation.

Mike: What some of the challenges I think some of our newer students have is that they don't have enough money to put out as much marketing as they want. They will get started, they form an LLC, maybe not. I hear you even say you will help them form an LLC if they don't have one already.

David: Which is awesome, very cool.

Mike Banks: Again, that is one thing taken care of off their figure out list. Then having the money to maybe sink into marketing to get that first wholesale deal, pretty neat.

Mike: So you said Mike as little as two to four weeks you can get them 20 to 40'000?

Mike Banks: 40-80'000.

Mike: That's unbelievable.

Mike Banks: Some people get more than that. Some people have received 150'000 in that first round of funding.

David: Wow. So what would be the requirement? So let's say I'm interested, I have a lot of [00:06:00.05 - inaudible] in place already, but even if I personally wanted to and sign up for this-- what would you guys need from me? How does it look? What would I have to hook them up with in terms of paperwork and what I need to provide?

Mike Banks: Really it's just about credit. Everything we apply for is credit based. So it's not something we are going to need a bunch of financials, tax returns, we don't need that, we don't need collateral, there is not asset tied to the loan, it's unsecured. It's all credit based. As long as you are about a 680 and up,  680 score-- you are pretty much good to go. Ideally 730 and up, but there are a lot of people in that 680 range who have really strong credit, but let's say their balances are high this month, so their score drops below 700. So that's pretty much what we are looking for; good credit history, not a bunch of negatives, and we don't want you to be maxed out, ideally 35% of your credit cards to your limits should be utilized, so 35% debt to credit. Basic things like that, we don't want a bunch of brand new credit cards on your report right now, because if we go and apply for more business credit cards it is going to look like you're over extending yourself. So decent credit, that's all we need.

David: Okay, very cool.

Mike: So decent credit and-- I want to reiterate though, you said that we are working with our personal credit score, right? But these are not necessarily using or going to be held against our personal credit?

Mike Banks: So basically the bank looks at your personal credit, but the business credit that they approve you with will not show up on your personal credit. So yeah they do look at it. I have to be honest, pretty much every loan, any credit line you go after that is the case, they are going to look at your personal credit. So technically that is personal guaranteed. But with a hard money loan it's not really going so much off your personal credit, right? It's more about the deal. But they still a lot of times look at your personal credit. So with these, with business credit lines, it's credit based personally guaranteed technically, but doesn't show up on your personal report, and there is no asset tied to it, it's unsecured.

Mike: Yeah that's great. So if there was an issue, again we are hoping people use the credit responsibly, you have people with credit scores rather that are getting started. Does that get reported back to your personal credit though if there was ever an issue with the business lines? Like a late payment or something. How does that work?

David: Yeah a personal guarantee essentially?

Mike: Yeah, that's what I'm asking though because it's in the business name.

David: Right.

Mike: You know?

Mike Banks: You're 100% right, that's the catch. If you screw up and don't pay them back, just like any other credit card, we all know what happens; it turns into a late payment, then it will be charged off account. So that's the route. But with business credit, you have a 90 day grace period, so it doesn't automatically go against your personal credit. They will contact you and be like, hey what's going on? Are you going to make your payment? But then if that continues after three months then-- it will come back as a negative on your personal credit.

David: Pay your bills, guys. There is always going to be a repercussion.

Mike: I'm just saying, I'm just curious, and it's good to know there is more of a grace period with the business line, or the business side as well.

Mike Banks: That's a totally good question. People need to know that kind of stuff, like don't do this kind of thing unless you have some kind of sound return coming down the line, or you know what you're doing, you are going to spend 2, 3, 10 grand on marketing because you know you are going to get leads that are going to lead to a call and convert.

Mike: Don't be applying for the business credit with expectations that it's free money.

David: Would you mind telling us some examples of how some of your current clients and customers are utilizing this, and maybe tell us a little bit about how some people have used it to be successful? I am sure in the eight years that you have been in business you have had people do the wrong thing with this money. So maybe tell us what not to do as well. I think that would be really helpful.

Mike: A great idea.

Mike Banks: I've got a lot of clients sending in reviews. If you Google Fund and Grow on Google you will see 744 reviews right now, with a 4.9-star rating. So we have tons of clients that go and post about what happened if they went through our program. We have got a review that just came in the other day, they started an Air B&B rental business, I've got tons of video reviews of clients who are using the money for fix and flips, got a guy standing in front of one of his properties that he has renovated and listed. I've got another client who is a college student that bought his first two rental properties using business credit lines through one of our affiliates who sells [00:11:06.24] rentals, and he has already rehabbed them, placed a tenant, it's cash flowing now and he is refinancing out of the credit line that he initially purchased with a cash buyer. You can send wire transfers from the credit line to the closing company, I don't know if I mentioned that yet. But you can literally do that. You can become a cash buyer. We are not talking like $300'000 deals. Ideally around $100'000 or less, close on those deals pretty easily and you don't have to go and chase down a hard money lender, which if you're new in some cases it is hard to get a hard money lender, because they want to see a track record and some reputation and other deals that you have done. In this case, you can do some deals that a hard money lender wouldn't have even taken because there is not enough meat on the bone.

David: What about this? This is a perfect example. What about a buddy of mine who has a deal with a hard money lender already. He is not getting along with that lender, and that lender is not releasing funds, and he needs about 50 grand to finish the project. This would be a great--.

Mike Banks: 100%, sometimes you don't want to ask the private lender for the full amount.

David: Or you just want to pay them off-- get a project complete, and just pay them off.

Mike Banks: So you don't have to keep paying interest, because you are going to get zero interest on everything we apply for comes with zero interest for an average of 12 months.

David: Nice. What-- I get it, these are credit cards, what do those rates settle out at after a year or two and year three? Is like 12-18%?

Mike Banks: Exactly right, 12-18% is usually where we see people landing.

David: It's all about speed. I've learned that I will happily pay 10-12% on money for a long term. If I need to borrow some money real quick for a week or two, there has been times I've paid 20-25% just because-- it doesn't matter I'm going to be making 15 times that. I just need to cash now. This is a great tool, guys. If you're listening to this podcast, or watching on YouTube, this is definitely a really good tool that I don't want you to discount. This is very, very cool. So you got an offer for all of our listeners and viewers. Mike, I am going to let you explain that. Guys, if you want to check out more about this go to DiscountPropertyInvestor.com/FundAndGrow. There will be all types of information on there, as well as how you can reach Mike. Mike, tell us a little bit about how somebody would be able to get signed up and work with you and so on and so forth.

Mike Banks: Definitely, if you go to that link you will be able to register right there and we will have somebody give you a call and go over everything with you. We will ask you a couple of questions about your credit. That way we can pre-qualify you and say, look here is what you're qualifying for now in the next two weeks. You qualify for $40-50'000. Then at that point, the clients will make their decision whether they want to move forward or not. There is a $500 discount that we have got set up for everybody that goes through the link in the description.

David: Sorry to interrupt, if you're listening in or watching this, Mike is going to give you a $500 discount. So this is awesome. Mike and I are benefiting from this, you're going to benefit from this, so check this out. One more time Mike, DiscountPropertyInvestor.com/FundAndGrow. All spelled out. Mike go right away, sorry to interrupt.

Mike Banks: No you're good. So you're going to pre-qualify basically one you go to the link and get some more info, we will give you a call, we will go over everything with you, and also we will give you an action plan after the call. You will know what to do in order to qualify, or you will know that you qualify for 50'000, just a matter of moving forward and getting my $500 discount, then once that happens we move you forward, we get you signed up as a client. We do have payment plans, but you will see more of that once you go to the link. From there we will move you forward and you could have funding in your hand within the first two weeks of signing up with us. Over the 12 month membership you are going to get up to $250'000, in some cases more than that because we apply multiple times over the 12 month membership.

David: That's awesome, they create an entity for you, they manage the application process, they help you get money, they help you get money at 0% interest, which can vary of course by each individual card, but Mike is saying it averages it averages about 12 months. Then, you can also wire money from these individual accounts or cards to title companies, so you don't necessarily need to get appraisals or inspections, or deal with all the contractual BS that you would with your typical lender or private money lender.

Mike: One thing I wanted to point out that Mike does, he says if you go through the process and it doesn't shape out perfectly, he says he is going to help you, he says they are going to tell you what you need to do-- to get to the point where you are going to be able to improve your credit. That is something we really harp on too with people that are getting into the real estate business is to keep your credit up. It's a very important tool to have in your tool belt. So Mike being able to help with that as well is very cool.

David: Awesome, hey Mike, thank you so much for coming on the show. Again, guys, check out more about Mike with Fund and Grow at DiscountPropertyInvestor/FundAndGrow. Very cool way for you to get $40-80'000 in just the first few weeks. They are going to help you set up and entity like I said, and this is a business line of credit, so it's not going to be directly tied to your personal line of credit. It's not going to show up on that report, correct, Mike?

Mike Banks: Right, it's not going to show up but they are going to pull it.

David: That's great, I love that. Don't forget, guys; there is a couple of awesome perks here that Mike briefly mentioned, but I want to reiterate; you can get free travel from these cards, you can make cash back. It is interest free for up to one year. Essentially if you use these responsibly, you could get yourself multiple vacations, or multiple tens of thousands of dollars even in terms of cash back, which is really awesome.

Mike: Not to mention the ability to get into real estate which is hopefully what our listeners are trying to do--.

David: Exactly, Mike. I love it.

Mike: Bust down one of those barriers of entry sometime which is some of that marketing capital, or down payment--.

David: How can I make an offer without a proof of funds letter?

Mike Banks: Happened for me personally. I wholesaled my first five deals because I had that extra confidence--.

David: Yeah you got proof of funds, that's awesome.

Mike Banks: Then I ended up buying the last deal, I haven't wholesaled a deal in a few months.

David: Sure. Mike that's awesome. Hey, Mike, thanks again for coming on the show, we really appreciate having you. Guys once again, DiscountPropertyInvestor/FundAndGrow. I am going to finish out by saying if you haven't checked out the free wholesale course yet check it out, we are going to harp on it in every episode because it is so powerful, it's free, and everything you need to know to learn how to wholesale is in the course. The companion book, 'The ultimate guide to wholesaling real estate' available on Amazon. We have been getting tons of positive feedback about it, it is everything you need to know about wholesaling real estate. Alright, guys, we will see you next time, thanks for watching.