In this Deal Structure Sunday episode, Chris Prefontaine argues that real‑estate investors don’t have to be traditional long‑term landlords, especially in the COVID era. He explains that the rent‑to‑own/owner‑finance model (his trademarked “3 paydays” system) lets investors acquire distressed but habitable properties without fixing them up, then sell them to tenant‑buyers who are motivated to stay and pay. Prefontaine shares anecdotes—students dealing with trashed units, a podcast guest who owns 600 properties, and typical payoff ranges of $45k‑$250k (often around $75k). He introduces the concept of “wealth stacking,” converting portions of a buy‑and‑hold portfolio from standard leases to rent‑to‑own or sub‑2 deals, which reduces maintenance costs and boosts cash flow. The episode concludes with a call to schedule a free strategy call to learn how to implement these structures.
Chapters
Hey, it's Chris Prefontaine with another Deal Structure Sunday. As you probably know now, if you're following the channel at all, and if you're new, I'll tell you that on occasion we'll switch up instead of doing a deal with the 3 paydays, which we've trademarked. If you're new to this system, we've trademarked the 3 paydays in the US. On occasion, we want to flip it and talk a little bit about concept or some stuff that's going on. I want to talk to you today very specifically About you not needing to be a landlord, especially during COVID and all the chaos. And I don't care if it's just COVID and this video you're watching when it's passed, I'm still going to say there's plenty of reasons for you not to be a long-term landlord. Now let me qualify some of this so we understand what my logic is here and how it can help you. We have many associates, many students come to us with existing portfolios. They might have one property, they might have 2 properties. So let's talk like nothing to do with COVID just pre-COVID. They come to us, they say— I had one student in particular had 3 properties actually. They were all being redone. Why were they all being redone? Because the tenants trashed them. And he was totally bummed out. He got it new into our community. He's like, can you help me over here in these 3 properties? I know your mission is to help us find new deals. I'm gonna— we're gonna do that, but can you help me here? Now, we don't fix up when we buy properties on terms. Even if they're trash, we don't fix them up. What we do alternatively is we apply our rent-to-own model on the same exact properties. There's plenty of examples on live deals showing you the math here on the Deal Structure Sunday releases where us or our students bought a property in disrepair. As long as it's habitable, they can go ahead and turn that around and get a handy person in there. There's so many contractors pre-COVID and now more with COVID who can't get a conventional loan. They love these properties. You don't have to spend a dime on them. That's number one as far as trying to be a landlord and fix up and turn these properties over again. Secondly, never ever ever ever again worrying about trying to fill, trying to fix up a trash building, trying to maintain the building. It's just not necessary. And then during COVID Yeah, you had to deal with a bunch of tenants who probably took advantage of what was going on. I'm not saying all did, but some did because we experienced it on some of our other portfolios. What is the deal? What is the difference between you being a landlord and you being an owner of a property where you have a tenant buyer in there? Even during COVID because we only had 2 examples out of 50 or 60 properties that had to use the evictions being extended, they had to literally use that to their advantage because they were in a tough position. All the rest of them stayed paying. Why is that? Because they're not tenants, they're buyers. Yes, the tenancy law and the states protected them if they were just tenants, but the ones that were true buyers, 98% of ours, said, you know what, I got to keep paying this because regardless of COVID when I come out of this, I have to show the bank that I paid, and I had to show the bank that I put my right deposits down, and I got to get financing. They don't want to lose their option on it because to get into the property, they all put a down payment down. So again, there's zero reason for you to be out there being a landlord and dealing with those headaches. And I know coming screaming through every time we do a video like this is going to be those of you who are long-term buy and hold. That's great. We had a gentleman on our podcast last week that had 600 properties. He was a buy and hold investor. He's starting to convert a lot of them to rent to own. Let me explain this to you. There is— there are many ways If you were to take a portfolio, we call it wealth stacking, to take your portfolio after you've built it up, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 600 in this guy's case properties, and then start to handpick some of those properties that you convert from, say, a sandwich lease to a sub-2. Why do you do that? Because now you can take a tenant buyer and convert them to a long-term buyer. Now you have a buy-and-hold property with a buyer in it. Not a buy-and-hold property with a tenant in it. Trust me, if you're new to this, it's night and day. And if you're a landlord and you suffered through some of this stuff now or in the past or with COVID you will never again have to deal with that with a tenant buyer in that property or a buyer who you want to finance. It's night and day. Not to mention, we can create 3 paydays, guys. 3 paydays that for us ranges around $75,000. For our students all around North America, between $45,000 low And $250,000 and up high. Okay, now how many of those properties do you need? Let me, let me put some math here. The gentleman who had 600 said, yeah, I had a goal once to get out of my job, and I knew I could figure out the small passive income I had, and I had to put aside a little buffer for vacancy, and I had to put aside a little buffer for maintenance. And he said, as soon as I converted it— call wealth stacking, I call it— as soon as he started converting it like I'm suggesting you do He started to see his expenses drop because they're not his expenses anymore. They're the buyer who's in the home. Renter, buyer— 2 different mentalities, 2 different behaviors. So how many of those properties do you need at $75,000 to $250,000 per property? How many of those do you need? Now those numbers are not counting if you go ahead and turn around and owner finance it. The numbers go through the roof on your paydays. So you can change so many of these deals to longer-term deals. It's not, oh, I did a terms deal and I got to get out. It is incredibly powerful to be working your portfolio. If you don't do that, number one, you're leaving money on the table. Number two, you're going to forever invite headaches. And the simple way to do this is to go ahead and ask us how it's done. Schedule a free strategy call. Myself, my son-in-law Zach, or our strategy expert Brian O'Neill will jump on the phone with you. Just go to smartrealestatecoach.com/action. And if your knee-jerk reaction is I can't do that, or that won't work for me, or that's not accurate, then you need a strategy call. samantharealestatecoach.com/action.
