Katelyn: Welcome David to the podcast. Thank you so much for joining us. Do you want to take a second and introduce yourself to our audience?

David: Thank you so much for having me today, guys. So my name is David Dodge, I am real estate investor and real estate coach. I am 35 years old. I was born and raise in St Louis Missouri and that's what I live today. Not necessarily my favorite city by any means. Don't rush to get on a plane to come here, but all things considered it is a great place to live. Friendly people, Mid West vibe, right in the middle of the Mid West here. We have a really good market in St Louis for buying rental properties, doing wholesale deals and flips. That's what I do. Wholesale deals and rentals, and flips. I have been investing for 15 years. The first ten years was really passive. Buying a house a year. Didn't know about motivated sellers. Is this a real estate specific show or no?

Male host: We were going to jump into real estate, entrepreneurs, sales. So whatever--.

David: Okay cool. First ten years I didn't know much about motivated sellers right?

Male host: Yeah.

David: Basically buying houses retail, paying full price for them off the MLS via an agent. Going and getting a loan from a bank for typically 80% of the appraisal. Putting down 20% so I was either saving money and parking it in these rentals in the beginning, or I was borrowing money to put own as my 20% and then paying that back, right? First ten years-- I started when I was twenty in college and I did a simple strategy referred to as house hacking. I bought a house, rented out the bedrooms. I had a four bedroom for my first one. I rented out three of those rooms, lived for free.

Male host: Nice.

David: Put down 20%, payed that back over a course of a couple of years. Just speed through that. Ten years, I didn't know much about investing other than the fact I was doing it, right? Five or six years ago I went full time. I learned about motivated sellers, what, what! There are people out there that are motivated to sell their house at 60 or 70, 80 cents on the dollar. Get out of town! Since then I have done like 450 transactions in the last five or six years, probably closer to 500 to be honest. Wholesaling is my favorite thing ever. It is marketing to motivated sellers. Getting those properties under contract is the simplest way to describe it, and selling the contract. Not even selling the property, selling the contract. So I love it. Now I do want to preference, I think that's the right word. Wholesaling is awesome but it is a job. It causes-- not causes, it is very time consuming, but it is very profitable. Just wanted to preference, to me-- wholesaling is a means to an end. It is just generating leads and selling the deals that I don't want to personally buy, right? Kind of live by a motto here at my office. A motto, a model, however you want to say it. Keep the best and sell the rest, right? So depending on what's coming in. The best doesn't necessarily mean high profits.

Male host: Okay.

David: It could mean a high equity, right? Or when I say the best, I keep the best and sell the rest. Really what I mean is that we have goals. Everybody should have goals in their business. We do too. We have a plan. Depending on the day and the time of the week, the plan may change to meet those goals, right? If we have three or four properties in the queue to be rehabbed. The best thing that could come in maybe won't be a rental, right? It may be a different type of deal. So keep the best, sell the rest is really-- the reason I'm even diving into this is because some asked me today, how do you define that? Some deals you could wholesale and get payed in a week or two and make ten, or you could fix and flip those and make 30. Well, how many do I have in my fix and flip queue? I have zero? Well I need to get a couple in there, right? That would be the best in today's terms. However, if today's terms were-- I have six of them and only three of them are even being worked on. Three of them are sitting, then it doesn't make sense to meet my goals by having a plan of putting another one in that queue, right? So keep the best, sell the rest. It depends on your own business, but I think everyone should have that same kind of mindset, right?

Male host: Yeah I think mindset is really important. i think it can be applicable to any business really. I mean obviously for real estate like you mentioned, those things are going to be different for each business, they are going to be different from month to month, year to year, it's going to change and you are responsible for keeping track of that. I appreciated-- I'm excited to talk to you because I know how passionate you are about what you do.

David: I'm very passionate about it. Yes, sir.

Male host: Just dove right in which is awesome. I mean-- teaching us about wholesaling already, which is awesome.

David: Cool.

Male host: So what was life like prior to getting into real estate. I did a little bit of digging and it looks like it was something you were always interested in, but when you were growing up as a kid, was it something your parents did? Was it something you always studied and got into? What did that look like?

David: Great question. Typically if I'm looking back on this, I always liked real estate because I knew I wanted to be in real estate when I was real young. I didn't know how or what that looked like until five years ago. So I was basically like thirty years old. I had bought rentals, I had bought ten of them when I went full time. I didn't go in like completely green I guess would be the good term there, right? But I just-- I kind of looked at the market, looked at the people I knew in real estate, and I didn't know that many agents that were like crushing it,  like had wealth. They may have made a lot of money, but not many of them. I am not saying that there isn't any out there, I know several. But, most were like, working real hard, but they were not doing that great. However, a lot of the real estate investors that I knew, that had been in the game for 10 or 20 plus years were wealthy, didn't worry that much, didn't work that hard, and lived a really awesome lifestyle. I knew from the get go this was a game of patience. This is not a get rich quick game. Maybe not on the wholesaling of the fix and flip side, but on the landlording side. However, I am terrible at saving money. So why not put it on auto pilot, right? Why not buy a property and let somebody else pay it down. So like every-- I don't have my piggy bank here because I am not in my office today. But I have a piggy bank on my desk at home. I look at every rental property like a piggy bank, guys. Literally, it's a piggy bank. When I buy it, it only has a couple of hundred bucks in it. Unless I rehab it, refinance it, I used BRRRR strategy which is a whole different topic of conversation. We typically try and get 20 grand minimum in those. Otherwise we have zero dollars in that piggy bank. Every month somebody else is putting into that piggy bank for me, right? Over the course of 15-20 years, that piggy bank will grow to the size of an SUV. It will be filled with hundred dollar bills, literally. Property that is worth 150 grand, that is a big piggy bank, right? Somebody else filled it up for you. If you have the patience, rental property is where it's at. It's really where my passion is.

Male host: Yeah.

David: But we really have to take a step back. How do you buy a rental property if you don't have money? Well, you learn how to buy at a discount, and you flip a couple of them, you wholesale them, and you save up money, you get a loan and you buy it. That is one of the coolest things about real estate is that you can use leverage. You can't do that really with stocks or bonds, right? You can't take $5 and buy $30 worth of something. But, in real estate you can. That's-- it's super appealing to me. Wholesaling is where I think everybody should start and learn, because all of the other things you can do in real estate-- are irrelevant if you don't have a deal.

Male host: Interesting.

David: I think it's really foolish of people to try and go learn all these crazy strategies without-- having a deal lined up. Yeah it's good to educate, I'm all about that. I've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on education, masterminds and courses and coaching and all that. It's all great, right? But at the end of the day, this a lead gen business. You have to figure out where that motivation is, those sellers, get in front of them and offer them a level of convenience that is above and beyond, or they are going to find it elsewhere. In exchange, or in return for you offering them a high level of convenience, you demand, you do not ask, you demand that you get a discount on that property. That's it, that's all there is to it.

Male host: I love that. 

David: Wholesaling is a great thing. It's a means to an end for me just to buy rentals and flips, keep the best, sell the rest. But, it's very lucrative too.

Male host: Yeah.

David: I love it. I try to teach people to start there, at least learn a little bit about it. If you don't want to be wholesaling that's fine, but at least understand the concept of it and the principles. If you are interested in getting into real estate, it is 100% the best place to start. You can start flipping houses, AKA contracts, make 5, 10, 30, 50-- I mean not bloating or bragging, but we have done deals 60. 80, 90 and 100k.

Male host: Nice.

David: Just off the top of my head, right? So we have done big big deals too. The coolest thing about it is wholesaling specifically, you don't need money to buy the house. You can leverage 100% of it.

Male host: Yeah.

David: You know what I'm saying?

Male host: So talk about that for a second for people out there. I've done a little digging in the past on wholesaling side. I'm familiar with at least the concept of it. I've never done a deal or anything like that. But for someone that is totally unfamiliar with the leveraging portion of that. What does that look like when you say leveraging 100% of it? What does that look like to the layman?

David: Okay so that's a great question. Let me put on my teacher hat for a second. Spin this puppy around. So we are just going to run through a simple example, I think it would be the simplest way to explain what wholesaling real estate is, and I think a lot of people that don't know this, their minds are going to be blown, and my mind was blown.

Male host: Yeah.

David: Let's say that Katelyn has a house that she needs to sell. Key word is need not want, needs to sell. Doesn't matter what the reason is. Let's talk about this just for a second. There could be a lot of reasons why she needs to sell the house. She's moving for work, children maybe coming in or out of her life, she may need to upgrade, up size of downsize. Could be death, divorce, not necessarily her, but someone near her. There are a lot of reasons why somebody would need to sell, right? We go to work and we do marketing, and we try to locate these people that need to sell. So in this scenario, Katelyn was that person, she needed to sell. I come along and I say, hey I'm and investor. I don't pay retail. I start with that every time, guys. I think I would be shooting myself in the foot, but it's not. It adds a level of transparency that will help you a hundred times down the road. Start with that, I'm an investor, I don't pay retail. However, I am a cash buyer and I have a lot of cash buyer partners. So if we can come to an agreement on me buying your house, and you can give me a discount. In exchange for that discount, I am going to offer you a super high level of convenience. This is what that looks like. Three things, guys. It's so simple. One, I'm going to pay cash, doesn't have to be your cash, right? A loan essentially when it clears the bank it's cash to them. So you are just going to buy it, but you say pay cash, okay? Next is that I am going to buy it as is. You, Katelyn don't need to paint, you don't need to clean, you don't need to landscape. You don't even need to move all that stuff in the basement and all those crates that are your great aunts, as you inherited this property, right? You can leave it. That's number two, as is. Number three, we are going to do it relatively quick, cash, as is and quick. That's it. When I say quick, as in two to three weeks, maybe four weeks. Typically that is super quick for real estate when most transactions take two to five months, right? We are going to do this in two to five weeks, right? That's it. Me and you, we say, hey this is great. You just want to sell, you need to sell. You are willing to give me a deal on it. Let me have a bit of a spread, but in exchange I'm going to make this really easy for you.

That's how it starts, that's how it all starts. Every single transaction that I have ever done started just like that. Now, I have done a lot of different things and different strategies to get that. Find Katelyn, find that motivated seller, but that's how all of it looks all the time, right? So then, this is what wholesaling is, this is the definition of wholesaling. I then say, Katelyn, I will offer you-- this number is arbitrary and doesn't matter, but I am going to offer you $85'000 for this property. You say, shit I thought you were going to offer me $75'000, I'll take it. But, the property fixed up is worth 150, and it only needs 20 or 30 grand worth of work. But you don't care because you don't want it anyway, right? So I send you a contract, you sign it, I sign it. I have a contract to purchase Katelyn's property for $85'000. I then take that contract and I send a text message, an e-mail to all of my partners and cash buyers and I say, I have this great deal, you can buy it for $95'000.

Male host: Wow.

David: Somebody calls me up, sends me an e-mail or text or whatever and says, David I have been looking for a house in that neighborhood. I will pay you 95 grand for it. I say, great. Send me a check for $10'000, and I will give you a contract, then you can then go spend that $85'000 and buy Katelyn's house. That is what wholesaling is.

Male host: Okay.

Katelyn: Wow that's like light bulb moment. I didn't even know that was a thing. That's crazy.

David: That is a thing. We do that, and make $60, 80, 100'000 sometimes, not always, sometimes. Selling somebody a contract that they pay us for, but they are then obligated to pay somebody else too. We are just a middle man. We are providing in the most simplest form, sorry I didn't mean to cut you off.

Katelyn: No you're fine.

David: In the most simplest form, we provide liquidity to the real estate market. That's it, that's all we do. That is the most simplest form. Now, we do that several ways, and we are always solving problems, we are offering convenience in exchange for a discount. But, at the end of the day, all we are really doing is just providing liquidity. We are giving them a higher level of convenience.

Katelyn: So to do that, do you have to have a certain license?

David: Nope.

Katelyn: Do you have to have a real estate license? Anything-- no? Wow. I never knew that, that's so crazy.

David: Nope. I'm not a licensed agent, I don't have a license. I have bought and sold 500 houses. I don't have a license. You don't need it, right? So I mean-- will it help? Yeah, probably. Get you access to the MLS if you don't already have it, or can't get it through a friend or something like that. And just having that tool in your belt is helpful if you do come across a lead and they don't like your $85'000 offer, they need 100. You say, well shit, somebody might pay 100 for it, I will list it for you, make a commission.

Male host: Yeah.

David: I mean there are a lot of reasons why it's good to have. I just don't want to be bogged down in that side of the business. So I decided, hey I'm and investor, I don't want to spread thin. I just want to invest.

Male host: Yeah.

David: I just decided that I don't need it, I don't want it. My two business partners are both brokers, so they can do it for me if needed, right?

Male host: Yeah. 

David: But that's me. If you are new, I highly suggest and recommend you get it, because you're just going to educate yourself and learn a lot of the things I already know, right? It can't hurt. There's really no downside to it. But, I digress; you don't need it.

Male host: Yeah.

David: That's the main thing, you don't need it right.

Male host: Yeah definitely.

Katelyn: So if someone maybe wants to get into wholesaling, do you think it is something they could do on the side? Or do you think if someone is interested, they need to really jump in full time? It's a full time thing?

David: You can 100% do this on the side. I know people that do maybe two or three deals a year. Some people I know do one deal a year. They maybe have two jobs or they are a stay at home mom, or-- so yes, I mean-- the more time and effort you put into anything the better you're gonna get at, and the quicker you're gonna get good at it of course. But, this can be done by anybody in any country in the world, from any country in the world by the way, which is very cool. I mean this is complete virtual. You don't have to go to the property necessarily. We do, but it doesn't mean that I can't hire someone in Phoenix if I am going to start marketing in Phoenix to go look at those houses and take pictures. I don't need to be there, right? There are a lot of advantages of the business, in the fact that it is very virtual. I forget, what was your exact question? I digress again here.

Katelyn: It was just that if you could do it on the side?

David: Oh yeah absolutely. Absolutely you can do it on the side. We have a lot of students in our coaching program that do it on the side. You know, typically it is going to take them a little bit longer to pick up on it and do their first deal, but that's to be expected. Absolutely to answer your question, you can do it on the side. It doesn't require a whole lot of work. If you have a budget for your marketing, if you don't have a budget for your marketing, then you have to allocate time. It's one or the other, guys. One or the other. Either you spend money to make your phone ring, or you ring other people's phones. Again, I try and make it very simple for people. So if you have some money and you're lazy like me, hey, and your phone will just start ringing off the hook, right? Otherwise, pick it up, start dialing. You need to be making those calls. We do both. We have cold callers and texters, people that answer the phones and all type of stuff here. Our business-- but we also have-- direct mail campaigns, I'm on the radio, I have a small radio ad, nothing crazy, but we are on the radio. We do a lot of other types of marketing to get our phone to ring.

Male host: Awesome. So when you go to talk with a motivated seller, I am curious; what are some of the things that you do differently than other people in your industry that are making you stand out? Give you the ability to close more deals than your competitors?

David: I think it just comes down to one or two things, guys. One or two things. A confidence I think is the main thing, right? When I go and I make an offer on a property. I don't know if I can buy it at that price. But, I am leading with my best foot forward, right? I am very transparent. I tell people; hey I think that this will work, and I think we can close it on this time, right? However, I have partners and they are going to have to agree. I'm going to work for you to get this deal done, and convince them. You don't even have to do it, I will do it for you. But, things could change, right? I try to lead with transparency. Again, what was the question?

Male host: What makes you stand out when--.

David: You know I lead with transparency, and-- I just make it very clear to the seller that I do want to buy their house. I think a lot of people that are new, they go look at a bunch of properties, and they are all gungho, but they don't make any offers.

Male host: Yeah.

David: I would rather make a bunch of offers and not see any houses. Come on, guys. I don't want to lay in a hammock and drink--.

Male host: Right.

David: So it's like I lead with confidence, if somebody calls and they are interested in selling I say, great! What's the address? I'm going to come over and look at it right now, or when can I come? Or, this is basically what I will be interested in paying in this price range in this neighborhood type of thing, right? I lead with the offer. I have the best intentions of buying it right then and there. But, I don't have a buyer lined up. I don't have money to buy it, but I'm confident that if I'm transparent with them and tell them that I have to do these other things that will give me the amount of time needed to go do those things.

Male host: Yeah.

David: I think a lot of people-- I guess your question is what is my competitive advantage, right?

Male host: Yeah.

David: What's-- what is that? I just-- when people call I say, hey I buy a ton of houses, 90 plus last year. I would love to buy yours. You don't even need to call anybody else. If you want to, that's cool. But I will buy it if I can come to a good price. I don't have a buyer for it, I tell them that. I'm not lying though.

Male host: Right.

David: I have those intentions in mind; I'm going to find somebody that's going to buy it. I am going to make 5, 10, 15 grand in the middle. At the end of the day, you're not going to care, because I am providing you with a crazy level of convenience. Cash in your hand in a couple of weeks? Come on.

Male host: Yeah, it doesn't get better than that.

David: It ain't my cash. But I am going to find somebody who does have cash. Let's take a brief second and pause and talk about that side of it.

Female speaker: I was actually just going to ask.

David: It's a big piece. Hey Dave, you're doing this marketing. You find these motivated sellers. We talked about what that looks like. Death, divorce, disease, relocation. A lot of reasons, right? Children in and out. But the buyers side of it; you have to be able to sell it. Where do you find those people? What do they look like? Who are they? Well you're talking to one of them. Anyone that is a landlord is probably looking to buy more at some point. Anybody that is an investor that does fix and flips, those are my buyers. Other wholesalers that might have a buyer, I will partner with them to sell a deal, split it with them just to help the seller sell the house, right? At the end of the day, the goal isn't to get payed, it is to solve their problem and you are going to get payed handsomely for doing so. Money comes, don't make that the goal, right? Where do you find these people? They are people like me, they are people that are looking for deals. Places like Craig's list, Facebook market place, Facebook groups. Go into your local Facebook and type in your city, space, real estate investing or real estate investor, or real estate agent. There is going to be a group, maybe 10, maybe 20 that has anywhere from between 500 and 1500 people in it. Those are people just like me and you that are interested in seeing what's happening in the market place or if anybody has a deal they want to shop, right? So there are so many cash buyers, they are everywhere. But they are essentially just individuals like me and you that are looking to invest. When I say cash buyer, again, it is cash when it closes. They may have to get a loan from a hard money lender or a bank. So what?

Male host: Yeah.

David: It will close, then the seller gets cash. Doesn't matter if that money came in via a wire, literally cash cash, money orders. It's the same, right? So that's where they're at, they're everywhere; Facebook market place, Facebook groups, Craig's list. There is this little thing called REIA's. Real Estate Investment Associations. You can find these on Meetup.com. Along with a lot of other crazy ass shit on there, pardon my language. But, go on Meetup.com, guys. Type in 'Real estate', or 'REIA'. You will find 30 of them probably if you live in a decent sized city you will find 30 of these groups.

Male host: Yeah.

David: Some of them will meet weekly, some of them will meet monthly, some of them will do coffee, some of them will just randomly meet online. It doesn't matter, just join them. People like me that are trying to sell my deals go to these events. People like me that are looking for my next rehab or rental go to these events to find those. I mean-- go to where they are at.

Male host: Yeah.

David: Real estate investment clubs, Facebook, Craig's list too. That's where you find these people. You can also buy lists of people that have done cash transactions in your county in the last 6, 12, 18 months. Then, you can call those people, e-mail them, send them a letter as well to see if they want to join your buyer's list and get on your e-mails. Or, you can even solicit those same exact people for lending you money. So many ways to work this business. But a lot of people want to over analyze and say, I need to learn how to do this and this. None of that matters without a motivated seller. Katelyn, we have to find Katelyn's.

Male host: Yeah absolutely.

Katelyn: I was just going to say, if somebody wants to get started, you said they can make cold calls, but they can also start with marketing. What do you think is the first-- say they only have a chunk of money and they can't spend a bunch of money on different marketing channels. Which one do you think is the most effective? If someone is going to start.

David: It's a great question. So when I started I did direct mail via postcards. I did bandit signs and I had tremendous success and I still have tremendous success with those two things. We do other things as well. We do cold calling, we do cold texting. We did ad words for a really long time but I stopped doing that because it's super expensive.

Male host: Yep.

David: I'm on the radio, we do a lot of skip tracing which leads to the cold calling and texting. We have a lot of things that we do. I think the simplest way to answer that question is that it doesn't matter. Here's why. They all work, that's why I do all of them. So, to answer your question I'm going to put it like this. Do not do all of them because you will be terrible at it. Pick one, do that, get really good at it, then do the next thing, or outsource that to somebody else, or hire somebody to do it for you and move on. So there are a couple of options, guys. Pick one and go with it. You can do some direct mail. You can cold call for 'sale by owner's on Zillow or Craig's list. You can cold call people that have properties for rent on Craig's list or Zillow and say, hey I see that you have this for rent, would you have an interest in selling it. A lot of tired landlords out there that would rather sell, but they just keep renting it because it's a pain in the ass. You can Drive for Dollars. I mean there are so many different things that you can do. You can put bandit signs out. All of them work. So find one of them that you would enjoy doing, learn it, get good at it and start doing that. That is like the best answer to that question. People over complicate it. They think they need to learn how to do them all before they start doing any of them. That's the wrong answer.

Male host: Right.

David: It doesn't matter if you know how to do five of them. Just do one. That's where you start, one, then you go to two. Great question.

Male host: What I love about everything you're saying, correct me if I'm wrong; but it sounds like a lot of opportunity for hustle. So for someone that wants to change their state in life, or change their, income on a yearly basis, or they don't like their job or whatever. You can literally get into this, no license, you have to learn one thing like you just said, do it really well. Then just get out there and start making the connections, meeting the people, making the calls and doing what you have to do to generate business. Is that an accurate way to say that?

David: Absolutely. There's no reason to word it any other way than the way you just did.

Male host: Awesome. I love that. I think you touched on another really important thing is that-- in real estate, in marketing, in whatever industry it is when it comes to entrepreneurship, people they get so heavy in the analysis, then they never take the first step, they never start their business. They have got this long plan. They have told their dreams to everybody and then they never start. It's such an issue in the field--.

David: What they have is these huge goals. What they don't have is a plan. The first part of any plan is to act.

Male host: Sure.

David: What is step number one? Let's do that. They have a lot of goals. They have a lack of a plan. That's really where it's at. I'm going to give you guys a plan right now. If you want to learn how to start wholesaling real estate, I will teach you for free. I am gonna back up. I'm not giving you my cell phone number, but I have created a free course online. It is basically an entire 300 page book that I wrote that is for sale on Amazon. You can buy it if you want, but you don't have to. I am not even asking you to. What I would like you to do is go take my free course. It is absolutely 100% free. It is going to show you what wholesaling is step by step, how it works. It has the easiest domain to remember, I don't even need to say it thirty times. Once or twice, FreeWholesaleCourse.com.

Male host: Easy.

David: Simple, guys. Go there-- take the course. You are going to learn basically what I do and how I do it. If you want more, reach out to me of course, I am here to help. I have-- the course, I think we've had 9 or 10'000 people take it. I have had 30-50 people probably reach out to me and say, hey I've got my first deal from your free course. They didn't pay me to coach them. People-- you can learn how to do it from that course. It is possible, it has been proven 30-50 ish times over the last three and a half to four years.

Male host: Yeah.

David: I love it. I think wholesaling is amazing. You don't need any money to do it, guys. Literally, you can buy a house and put down $10 in earnest money. That's what we do sometimes. We bought a house one time that was $700'000. We sold it for like $770'000, and we put down $10.

Katelyn: Oh my God.

Male host: That's so awesome.

David: And you can do it too, alright? It's awesome so check that out. That's it, guys. Go check that out. You can learn about how we do it and how it's done.

Male host: Definitely. For anybody out there listening, I'm going to go check it out for sure. So anybody else listening, if you're interested in real estate, that's the spot to go right there. You put up a post on your Instagram, and I have seen you talk about this before. You have referenced it a few times with saying, you are transparent from the very beginning when saying I don't pay retail. Talk about negotiation and how you have gotten better at it as you have gone on, on your career. Some of the things people are not as good as negotiating can start to do when they get into those situations?

David: That's a great question too. I am not a super great negotiator. I don't think of myself as being a sales expert. I have confidence. I know what I want.

Male host: Yeah.

David: I know that I offer a high level of convenience.

Male host: Okay.

David: I am very aware of what value I'm providing to people, right? I don't have to buy that house. But I am willing to, to help you out, right?

Male host: Right.

David: When it comes to negotiating and talking to sellers, my number one goal is to make a friend.

Male host: There ya go.

David: Number one, make a friend. Listen, try to listen more than you talk to these people, at least in the beginning. You are not there because they want to hear about you or your story. You're there because they want to sell a house. Make that the goal, right?

Male host: Yeah definitely.

David: Make a friend. Let them know that you're there to help them. You mentioned transparency. I am very transparent. I tell a lot of sellers, listen I bought 90 ish houses last year. Not saying that to brag, but I do that much volume and help that many people because I have so many partners. So I make you an offer to buy this house, I am assuming we're going to make it work. I'm assuming the time frame is going to be what we are going to agree on. But, it might not be. I just want you to do that. I have done 90 in the last year and 500 in the last five.

Male host: Yep.

David: But, this is the reality, right? By doing that, I don't ever have to worry about getting a phone call last minute from one of these cash buyer people on the other side of it calling and backing out. Katelyn says, Dave you told me you're going to give me 85 grand, what in the hell? 

Male host: Yep.

David: I used to get those calls all the time where the hair on the back of your neck stands up and you're like, fuck! Pardon my language. Man, I totally told this person I'm doing to do that and I didn't do that. I am done with those days, guys. No more. I would rather just be transparent in the beginning. Let them know there is that risk. But also let them know that I don't get payed unless we buy the deal. When we buy the deal we're going to buy it, fix it up, rent it or we're going to sell it. But that's what we do. This is my business, how I feed my family you know?

Male host: Yep.

David: So I just go with that approach. It helps in multiple ways. One, it makes you feel better, because you are not telling them something that is not necessarily true. You are telling them the full truth actually. Number two, if the buyer does back out, you told them. So you don't have to loose sleep about it. Listen I'm sorry, I told ya. I'm not going away, guys. I want to help you sell it. I have a bunch of other partners. Give me a week or two and we will get it done.

Male host: Yeah.

David: 99 times out of a 100 they are going to say, alright cool you told me. They get it, right? Number three is when you are overly transparent about it. One of the ways I do that is whenever I'm on a call or my team is on a call. We kind of preference that we are investors and that we don't pay retail. That is one of the first things I say. If I get a call from a lead or calling a lead back, they answer the phone, Katelyn says-- let's role play.

Katelyn: Oh, hello.

David: Hi, my name is Dave, I am calling from House Sold Easy. I was calling about your house over at 322 Maple Drive. You had filled out a form on my website or called up from a radio ad or whatever. I just wanted to reach out and let you know that we are very interested in buying that house. This is Katelyn, right?

Katelyn: Yes, yes, that's great.

David: Awesome, do I have the address right? 322 Maple Drive, is that the right place.

Katelyn: Yes, that is correct.

David: Awesome, well Katelyn I just want to say one thing before we begin. I bought a ton of houses in that area recently and I would love to buy this one. I hope in fact that I can buy this one. But, before we begin I want to let you know that I am an investor, and I do not pay retail, because I can't make money in a business if that's how I perform. If you are willing to sell me this property at a slight discount, I am willing to make it as easy as humanly possible for you to work with me. Can we agree that is kind of my intentions here?

Katelyn: Yeah that makes perfect sense.

David: Boom! Love it. Tell me a little bit about the property. That's it. That's the role play, right? So I just tell them my intentions. But I tell them that I can provide a crazy amount of value, which aka, or what is that value? That is ease of use for them, it's convenience, you know? If they say, no I don't want to sell at a slight discount, or even some cases a big discount, well when would I want to give you this crazy amount of convenience? I don't.

Male host: Yeah.

David: So I say, okay no problem, Katelyn. It was so nice to talk to you. Do you have an agent? Do you need one? I have people on my team that do, we can help you this way. But I don't want to waste a bunch of your time, more importantly mine if you're not willing to work with me. I don't have to buy your house. I don't say this but I am talking to you guys about it.

Katelyn: Yeah.

David: Of the 90 ish houses we bought last year, I didn't need to buy any of them. Not one.

Male host: Yeah.

David: Zero. But we bought 90 because we were able to offer a crazy high level of convenience, and in return we demanded, we didn't ask, we demanded for a discount. That's kind of where my brand comes in, guys. I have the Discount Property Investor podcast. It all starts at buying at a discount. That's wholesaling, that's kind of how it works. That's the negotiation side of it. Just made a friend, choose transparency. Somebody that's listening to this call I could maybe not even need more than take my free course and start just off that information right there, you know?

Male host: I was going to say, you gave the intro phone call already, so I know anybody out there listening, you can even get on a cold call now, you're equipped, you're ready to go.

David: Exactly. Just tell them what's up. If you don't have a lot of experience, tell them that too. Say, hey listen, I'm kind of new to real estate investing, but I have a couple of partners, and-- say it like this, because you're not lying, you're telling them the truth. You say,  I have a couple of real estate partners, and they got me on the hunt to find a rehab or a rental. So I would love to take a look at yours, because maybe it will fit their criteria. Then you find the person that has the criteria later.

Katelyn: Yeah.

Male host: Love it.

David: You don't even have to be like, oh I'm this big shot. Don't even-- fake it till you make it, great. I love that strategy, but don't over commit, don't lie. Just tell them that you have the ability to help solve their problem. Selling the property isn't the problem, Katelyn. It's that you inherited that property. Or, all the other things we talked about earlier. That's the problem.

Male host: Yeah, what I love about everything you're saying is that-- so I know you said you're not a sales expert and stuff like that. But, one thing you do and a lot of sales people don't do, is recognise their own value. They can tell if you if they sat back and thought about it, but it's ingrained in you, you can tell. Your value is that you provide this level of convenience. You're going to get this property off their hands, right? You are going to provide this massive level of ease for them. The fact you go into every conversation with that in mind, you know that your value is worth the money that you're making.

David: Absolutely. I think the best sales people in the world, they don't convince you that you need it, instead-- I don't know, it's hard to explain. Yeah, I would never want someone to be on the fence about selling me their house, right? Either you like this deal, or this is a pain in my ass and I'm not going to chase you. I don't want to chase you. This is the level of convenience and this is the number. I will make it so incredibly convenient that you don't even have to leave your house if you don't want to, we can hire a mobile notary to come to you with the documents.

Male host: Nice.

David: Anything that they want. I buy houses from people sometimes that live there. There is no money in it, I'm basically paying off their mortgage and they need $300 for a moving truck to go where ever they're going. I will give them the 300 bucks, right? I'm just solving a problem for these people and that's it really it, absolutely.

Male host: Yeah, that's what it comes down to; just solving the problem. If you know you're really good at solving that problem, you're worth all the money that you're making, so--.

David: You don't have to try and sell somebody when you have a product that has value. Here's the thing about my product though, alright? If Katelyn just wanted to sell, I can't do anything for her, other than offer to help and-- I can't be the buyer.

Male host: Right.

David: It's when you need to sell. You said this right, I don't look at it that way very often. I don't-- I shouldn't be offering that high level of convenience if you're not willing to trade me for a big discount.

Male host: Yeah.

David: If you're only trying to sell me the property at 90-95 cents on the dollar, there's no deal there. I think that's great. You don't have to really learn anything necessarily, or have any tricks up your sleeve about sales. Just know that. Boom, you want help solving this other underlying problem? Let's solve that.

Male host: Yep.

David: I don't ever have any of that-- issues with that. One thing we do have though-- sometimes we have to call and negotiate with people. So one of the best negotiating tactics with people after the fact is silence. It's 100% silence. Tell them what the situation is, be frank with them. Also let them know that you warned them this could happen. Again, these calls are never fun to make. Sometimes the biggest spreads are made on the back end. Sometimes we will have a big deal, we will call and negotiate with the seller and double the deal. Just to get it done. Whenever we are doing that though we are not just taking, we are giving them more convenience. Maybe our close was set up for two and a half to three weeks out. But if they will take ten grand less we will close it Friday.

Male host: Okay.

David: How bad do you need this money? Otherwise I have to pay this and it's going to be on that time. So we are just solving the underlying problem. I can't just go give people money. I have to have something in exchange, right?

Male host: Absolutely. That's awesome. Kind of a selfish question for you. I'm sure you've heard people in your industry talk about it. I heard Grant Cardone talk about before-- not-- how it's better to rent then buy a house before you have money or something like that. I can't remember exactly how he phrases it. I wanted to hear your opinion and logic on it. Coming into this with no education or reasoning, I am curious what an expert would have to say about it.

David: Great question. There are two schools of thought. He is not right or wrong. He plays it because it's controversial. I will give him that. I like Grant, I read all his books and all that stuff, you know? So here's the deal. In a lot of markets in the United States and world wide it doesn't make sense, right? In most markets it does make sense. Now, one thing that isn't mentioned in that is that-- owning a home is one of the best ways to build your credit, lot's of [00:44:48.22 - inaudible] benefits that come off of ownership. Also-- the tax benefits of owning real estate are often overlooked when you are talking about that. But, if you are paying 400 grand for a property, and that property rents for 2000 a month, or that's what you could rent it out for that, and your mortgage is more than that, it doesn't make sense as an investment, doesn't make sense to buy it. Look at it as an investment, right? You could rent it, you didn't live there, but wouldn't you get more for it than what you pay the mortgage? Well then it's probably a good thing, right? To me, I just don't like having a landlord either.

Male host: Right.

David: Also overlooked. Yeah if you live in a high rise and you have a door guy, your landlord is probably pretty easy to work with. But if you don't, like most people, right? Your landlord might be a dick. I don't know, I'm just saying. To me answering to the bank is easier, it is just done through the mail than answering to a human. I don't know, I always prefer to buy, but I live in St Louis Missouri. If I lived in the middle of New York, Chicago, Miami or LA or wherever, it wouldn't probably make sense. I would probably rent and put my money into an investment. Last thing about that, because I can talk for days, a lot of people that are listening to him say that don't have any investments.

Male host: Right.

David: So he's basically indirectly encouraging them to continue to have no investments. If you have no investments, buying a house is as least a start to investing and also overlooked. The majority-- I don't know, I would go as far as saying 98% of people that are hearing that message, that don't already own a house, right? Don't have any other investments. Start somewhere. So I think I kind of disagree more with what he's saying. However, there are truths in there.

Male host: Sure. You're the first person I ever heard-- usually people take a hard stance on either side that I have heard of.

David: You can't do that on anything in life, guys. You have to see both sides of the situation always. I am never absolute about anything. I am always 99%, because I know that I'm probably wrong half the time, right?

Male host: Yep.

David: Or could be. But I am only seeing out of these two eyes. Put yourself in other people's shoes and do it as much as you possibly can. When you start doing that, you will see your value and your worth as you mentioned earlier. More importantly you will see how you can help them, how you can work with them, or maybe you can't. If you can't, move on, right? I love that.

Katelyn: Yeah.

Male host: I love that you say that, because when I was younger, I was so hard one way, hard the other way. I realized like you said, how wrong I was on so many things. I'm like, man I am just going to start playing in the middle, looking at it from both sides. That way I don't look stupid anymore.

David: Yeah, you have to see both sides. You have to position yourself to at least take a minute to understand somebody else's motives and their means. 

Male host: Sure.

David: And their feelings too, you know? This is really-- at the end of the day, we're in the people business, no matter what business you're in, so emotions come into it too. So all those things are factors. Yeah absolutely.

Katelyn: Okay so we always end the podcast with the same question. The question is, if you could do one thing for others, money and logistics aside, what would you do?

David: I would offer them free education on how to learn how to wholesale real estate, and I have done it already, so boom!

Male host: Keep doing it.

David: Success. So if you guys want to learn I am going to drop it one more time, I am not trying to spam you guys with my links, but I will teach you how to wholesale real estate for free at FreeWholesaleCourse.com.

Male host: Nice.

Katelyn: My other question is just to provide your Facebook, your Instagram, your website, anything you want to plug that you want people to--.

David: Yeah absolutely. If you guys want to learn about real estate investing, and you want podcasts, we have one of those; 'Property Discount Investor' is the name of that. Facebook, just David Dodge. I have an Instagram which is my full name, David Allan Dodge. The podcast is of course Discount Property Investor podcast. The website for that is DPIPodcast.com. Check that out as well. We transcribe all of our episodes and put them on YouTube too. If you want to listen, if you want to watch, if you want to read; all of it is available. We do the podcasts to help people. We talk about the lessons that we learn every day by screwing up.

Male host: There ya go.

David: Not all the episodes are cheerful, some are like, dammit. But, you can learn from that. I'm just really passionate about teaching people. I also have a book, 'The ultimate guide to wholesaling real estate'. It's on Amazon, Audible and Kindle. Again, I try to get it out so whatever means works for you-- and I would love for you guys to reach out to me. If you hear me on this podcast, go on social media and sent me a message. I love chatting with people online all the time.

Male host: Fair play.

Katelyn: Great. I will link all that in the show notes so people can just click it and get a hold of you.

David: Thank you.

Male host: Thank you so much for coming on.

David: Hey, no problem, guys. I appreciate you guys having me, I am grateful for your time, and we will have to do it again soon.

Male host: Absolutely. Alright, awesome, thanks man.