In this group coaching session hosted by Chris Prefontaine, real‑estate investor Rick shares his deal‑tracking spreadsheet, revealing that he has closed ten creative‑deal transactions totaling over $800,000 in gross profit, with an average deal size of $821,291. The conversation walks through the spreadsheet’s layout—payday 1 (immediate cash), payday 2 (mid‑term cash flow), and payday 3 (long‑term profit)—and highlights how early cash‑outs and assignment fees boost overall earnings. Chris uses Rick’s numbers to illustrate the difference between traditional salaried income and the “quality” of income generated by creative‑deal structures such as Assignment of Contracts (AOs), lease‑purchases, sub‑to, owner‑finance, and sandwich leases. Participants discuss how much capital is needed to generate a passive $2,500‑$4,000 monthly income from payday 2 deals, estimating roughly $600k in the bank as a conservative benchmark. Tim asks about deal velocity, prompting Chris to explain the importance of tracking metrics (lead‑to‑appointment, appointment‑to‑taken, taken‑to‑sold) and using virtual assistants (VAs) to improve conversion ratios (30‑47% live‑to‑lead). The group also touches on mindset, pipeline building, and the role of periodic “hardcore strategy sessions” to align goals, hours, and expected deal flow. Jeremiah probes Rick’s early‑stage deal types, revealing that Rick began with lease‑purchases before moving to sub‑to and owner‑finance, using AOs only as a last resort. Chris emphasizes that an AO is simply a payday 1 component of any creative structure and encourages members to broaden their deal toolbox. Overall, the session underscores the value of systematic deal tracking, metric‑driven goal setting, and diversified creative‑deal strategies to achieve scalable, passive real‑estate income.
Chapters
Rick obviously has been accountable nightly with me for I don't know how long, Rick, now since you became High 6. I get the whole story plus, but last night what I got was you hit your 10th deal and you're over $800 grand approaching a million. Do you have— I know you have a spreadsheet, so if you have it, let's share it. If you don't, let's summarize it. Please guys, you don't have to have this, but this is a nice master deal sheet for him. That's really cool.
Um, yeah, I have out of that— I've got 2 right now where the purchase and sales agreements are out there, but both of them look good. Uh, one of them in Putney, Vermont, the, the seller isn't concerned what the attorney thinks. He just wants to know we have to do a contract for deed, so it's just the mechanics of it.
Side note, did you get a hold of my attorney that I gave you?
He called me today and he said he's got an attorney who can do it, so Great. Um, I expect that one to come through pretty quick. So the 2 highlighted in yellow are the 2 that are pending right now. I have one that didn't sell. It was an AO. Um, the seller just wanted too much for the property, and he had fired his previous realtors. Um, so he was just very impatient. But other than that, um, I have the ones in blue are closed out, paid A3s on it. Or the one AO, um, is, uh, was an AO. And, uh, this— that's just one payday.
This is sweet. So, okay, I see it. Payday 1s, 2s, and 3s, and then total. Got it.
Yeah, average $821,291 for the 10.
And the average was higher, but you had early cashouts actually, which is a good problem to have.
Yeah, and actually the ones that brought the payday ones down were— there were a couple that were, uh, $15,000 assignment fees that otherwise I would have lost the deals. Yeah, save them.
Nobody's, nobody's crying for you to get a $15,000, $20,000 check. Nobody on here is crying for you.
No, the AO that I've got right now, the seller was going to pull it for health reasons and security reasons. And I just happened to have a buyer that went through and said she wanted it. So I called her and she said, well, I can pay cash for it. So it's just going to be a straight cash deal, but I'm facilitating everything. So I'll get an assignment fee out of it.
That's a really cool mix here. I would hope there's some questions here. I just have a couple comments. First of all, it reminds me of 2013 when I started, because I did a similar spreadsheet when it started getting towards a million. It's an eye-opener, right, Rick? I mean, it's really cool to see this portfolio, and you get a nice mix here of AO, short-term, long-term. So my only comment on this is, and this was my aha when I had my first run, and that is it's a different type and quality of income, period.
Yeah.
I mean, Rick, you were used to a nice, strong 6-figure job for 30 years. This is a different quality income. So I don't know if you have any comments or people have questions on this. There's also quite a range of seller types— FSBO, search engine optimization.
Oh yeah.
Fired, canceled— like, you've got everything in there too. Yeah, I didn't notice.
Hey, the income, um, you know, getting that every 2 weeks, getting a paycheck— this here, it's just, I know because the deals come and there's no question they're gonna come. It's just a matter of me working it. So it's It's just stacking the deals, and honestly, they manifest themselves.
That's a different Rick than 2022, I'll tell you that statement that he just made. Seriously, that's good growth. Uh, it's awesome. You expect it now. It's just, can I go do the numbers? What I'm noticing too is penny ones, uh, total 302, right?
Yep.
Yep. Uh, I mean, that to me, and you've been since $822,000. So that's $100,000 over a year just on ones. Good point. Um, here's another interesting fact. $3,500, is that your net on Payday 2?
Uh, $3,500, um, monthly.
Uh, no, average. Yeah, is that total average right now on the board?
Um, I don't see the, the $15,832.
No, line 13Q.
$3,500.
$3,590.
$3,590. Yeah, that, that was, uh, right now because 3 of them have cashed out, I don't have those any longer.
But okay, but let's do this before your other 2. Let's just call it, uh, $2,500, $4,000 then, just for the heck of it, at one time. You'll get way over that. I remember I was getting up to 20-something grand. Um, for you math wizards, type in your calculator what you need conservatively, not at risk, conservative like in a bank account. What do you need in a bank account to kick out $2,500 a month passively just on his 2s? I would think that's 30, so 300, probably $600 grand-ish. So here's the question, guys. This is a good comparison of quality of income. I'm only talking about payday 2s. Could, could we all go out in the next year or 2 and save $600 grand? I don't know the answers. Some of you might say, yep, I can do that. If you can't, can you learn how to do what Rick did and put the exact same equivalent of deals on the board to kick you out that without putting $600 grand in the bank? And oh, by the way, there's over $600 grand in payday 1s and 2s. So, I mean, 1s and 3s. So pretty cool, Rick. That's, uh, I appreciate you sharing. Any questions while he has this up, guys? Well, now it's down, but any questions for him?
Yeah, I had a question.
Sure, sure.
Yeah, I was looking at a spreadsheet, and I apologize if you mentioned it and I didn't hear, but I didn't see any activity for the entire year of 2023. Was that like you just were just living off of the Previous year's success. So you took a year off.
Oh, he got it sold.
He got it sold.
Mine. Yeah.
Mine.
And 2023. That's kind of odd.
Were those in line H? That's an appointment. Now that Tim asked that, I'm kind of following. So column H is an appointment date.
Yep.
Okay. Contract sent. Sold. You had one sold in '23. When did you leave your job?
In '23. April of '23.
Okay. You had a sold right there. How much was that?
Anyone?
$40 grand? $35 grand?
$35 grand.
Okay, cool. So $35 grand, which kicked in $600 a month. Okay.
Yeah, so I was wondering if, if, if there was like a, um, if you took a year off or if you just were trying for a whole year and didn't get many deals, because it seems like you got maybe 5 in 2022.
Yeah, some of them are for 2024, so they— it's the results of efforts during 2023.
Yeah.
Yep.
And I was spending more time coaching than doing my own deals until we spanked him and said, you're supposed to do both.
Then '24, look what happened.
Yeah. Okay, I'm still— I'm trying to get some data as far as, uh, you know, what's, what's the average amount of time, you know, how many deals can you get a year, or how many deals can you get in 6 months? Just trying to see You know, how— what's the— what's a good average of how many you can get if you set your, your goals to a certain number? So this is—
Everybody's going to be different on this, Tim. Um, and I'm going to give a bunch of— no logically or no logical order. Let me give you a bunch of comments on this. Good, very good question. So the reason the average days per, uh, taken— time to first taken, we call it— and we obsess over these metrics for you guys The reason it's about 147 or 157 now— I'm close within that range— it used to be 180, is because we factor in everyone. And you might say, hey guys, I want to get to 1 a month or 2 a month, can I go fast? Okay. Others might say, hey, given the nature of these streak paydays, if I do 3 a year, I'm happy. And that's— and they're, they're active and they're engaged with their goals, right? So then the, then the other factor comes in And you and I haven't spent a lot of time yet, so I don't— this is a good example. So I don't know how quick you can go, and I don't think the coaches necessarily can either. When we get to dive in deeper with some calls and then get you in a boot camp and, you know, get to know you better— this is for everybody, just because Tim asked this doesn't mean it's not for everybody— then we can start to say, here's the holes I see, Tim, or whoever. Here's the skill sets I see you need to improve. Everybody's different with that. Like I had baggage coming out of the crash that was mental. Chad from Colorado who has a payday 3 of $60 grand coming up in January and he's not, not even in the community here. He has a payday 3 coming up from years ago before his, right after his wife passed. Well, that's different baggage. He lost his wife, right? So everybody's pace is different. Can you do 1, 2, 3, whatever a month? Sure. We were up to 10 a month. But, but your skillset and your mindset and all these other variables are going to play into it. And when we get to know you better, then we can fine-tune you. But everybody's different. So sorry I can't pinpoint it, but that's— I hope that helps a little bit, Tim.
It helps a little bit. I was just trying to, you know, see what's possible given how much time you invest in the business. So for sure, I appreciate it.
Yeah.
Have you done— and again, I'm talking to everybody, but Tim happens to be giving good examples. Have you done a Hardcore strategy session yet and done all the metrics, Tim? I just don't know what stage you're at with a coach.
I don't think so. I've done that yet. No.
Okay. So when you do your metrics, they'll help you equate your goal to how fast or slow to how many, how many hours you have and make sure those three things are lined up because sometimes they're out of sync and you wouldn't know it. And then we'll we'll get you going on that track, and then six months later we'll look and say. Did we hit it? Why or why not? Where are the holes? So this is a kind of a process. It's like you regroup every 3 to 6 months and check it.
Yeah, Tim, the one thing I'll throw in there is, uh, it took me 15 months to get my first deal, and then over a matter of just a few months, I had like 4 more deals. I had 4 deals. So it's building your pipeline. There's a lot of things that come into play, like mindset.
Pipeline and mindset.
Yeah, you're right about that.
Uh, looks like we do have some questions. Is that related to Rick Hitta and Jeremiah?
Yes. Yeah, I'm just curious what his metrics look like, if they're close to your generic matrix, or like kind of how it looks like for Rick.
I guarantee he knows them with his spreadsheet. What do you got, Rick, for metrics?
For metrics?
Yeah, leads to taken or whatever you have, however you track it.
Yeah, my, uh, VAs do most of— almost all of my initial calls now, um, because I got 2 VAs at 15 hours each a week, and they do— their live-to-leads ratio is between 30% and 47%.
Wow.
They have a really good conversion ratio.
And then lead to appointment and lead to taken. You know that?
Uh, the— no, I don't off the top of my head. I have to pull up the spreadsheet. Okay.
It'd be cool to see because the stage you're at, lead to— yeah, lead to taken, lead to sold. I'd love to see that and hear that after the holiday. If you could yank that. No, no, no pressure, but do some homework over the holiday. Will you? No slacking.
Yeah, no problem.
Okay, good deal. Thank you. Good question.
I'll do it after turkey dinner.
Uh, okay. Uh, Jeremiah?
Yeah, uh, I was just curious, Rick, um, the type of deals that seem to come first for you. And I think it was just some appointments came first and then you actually got the takings later, so it's hard to see which ones came first. But like, uh, I know for Chris, one of his kind of parts of his story was a lot of AOs initially. But I was just curious for you, which type of deals made the most sense, especially when your skillset or maybe your mindset wasn't as mature as it is now?
My first one, I went with a lease purchase, not knowing any better because I'd rather own the property. So then I pivoted from lease purchase to if there's a mortgage, it's going to be a sub-to, and if there's equity, it'll be a hybrid sub-to owner finance. or a straight owner finance. I'll only go with an AO as a last resort, and I've got a couple of those.
Okay. So you didn't start out doing AOs, you jumped right in with a lease purchase or some of the other ones? Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay. Thanks.
Yeah. Here's the interesting thing, guys, and I have someone sitting here waiting for me. That's what I did because that's what I knew. My knowledge wasn't broad enough. So in hindsight, When someone says to me in this community, "Hey, I'm going to do what you do. I'm going to start with AOs." I remind them all an AO is is payday one of a sandwich lease or any other deal, right? It's all it is. So you might as well get your one and keep going. But that was just my comfort zone, and it was how what I knew how to do quickly. But second, I learned. I did my first sandwich in it was August of September or October of thirteen, and that house on the market right now we still own it. Uh, because you convert it to a sub 2 later on. So yeah, try to, try to own, uh, if you can.
