Capitalize & Grow: Unleashing Real Estate Success with Brenda Rose Jones
10 Mar 2025 · 61 min
In this live episode of the New and Experienced Investor Podcast, hosts Alex Barnett (the new host) and Joe Homs (the experienced host) welcome back fund manager and capital raiser Brenda Rose Jones of LeapFrog Funds. The conversation opens with a brief reminder about an upcoming meetup and a quick tip on posting your investment journey online to build trust before asking for capital. Brenda then provides a high‑level recap of the past year: LeapFrog shifted from underwriting multifamily apartments to purchasing a 24‑acre RV park near Eastland, Texas, using a hybrid sub‑2 and seller‑financing structure that eliminates bank debt. She describes the park’s current assets (54 pads, plans to add 25 more, a 5,000‑sq‑ft barndominium to be turned into an Airbnb, a 250,000‑gallon spring‑fed pool, river‑front fishing/kayaking, a camp store, and potential future amenities such as tiny homes or yurts. The hosts discuss operational plans – in‑house management, hiring a park manager, and grooming regional operators for future acquisitions. Capital‑raising tactics are explored in depth: documenting the deal pipeline on social media, hosting Zoom pitch sessions (≈100 registrants, 50% attendance), leveraging personal networks, using a CRM (Trello) for follow‑up, sending newsletters, and targeting accredited investors (single $200K+ income, married $300K+). They explain why accredited status matters, how fund‑of‑funds can lower the $100K minimum, and why they avoid “grandma‑type” investors. The conversation moves to myths about fundraising (the idea you shouldn’t ask for money) and the importance of framing the pitch as an opportunity. Brenda shares networking advice – attend non‑real‑estate events (women’s beauty meetups, tech conferences, Whiskey Wednesdays), build relationships before asking for money, and use social media to stay top‑of‑mind. They compare syndication (single‑deal investment) versus a fund structure (multiple assets) and note that LeapFrog is currently operating as a syndication but plans to evolve into a fund as the portfolio grows. Throughout, the hosts emphasize persistence, handling rejection, and the people‑centric nature of capital raising, noting that the skill set is akin to sales and unlikely to be automated away.
Chapters
Hey, what's up you guys? Welcome back to the podcast, the New and Experienced Investor Podcast. Today we're talking about raising capital and why it's so important for scaling your real estate business. And it's a show you definitely don't wanna miss. I'm Alex Barnett. I'm one of your hosts. I'm the new guy.
And I'm Joe Homs, the experienced guy. I was gonna say old guy again.
I was waiting to know.
It's like the experienced guy. And I also have my headphones on and you don't.
Well—
But that's because I can hear better this way because I am the old guy.
I forgot mine again.
She forgot mine again. Oh, so you've taken his.
Let's see how that works.
That's 2 weeks in a row.
See how that works.
I'm not counting or anything. That's all right. That's 2 weeks in a row.
Just fire me already.
Okay.
No. Yeah.
Never.
That's all right.
Yeah.
No, it's never gonna happen. Um, today we have an amazing guest. Uh, it's her second time on the podcast. We are now into the life of the podcast where we're having guests back. We're doing a full review of what she's learned in the past year, talk about all the amazing projects that she, that she has going on and, uh, how she raised the money for it. So, um, it's definitely one of the main parts of real estate. You're not gonna wanna miss this. Um, before we bring her on, And I just want to remind everybody about our upcoming meetup.
March 24th. And the guest is going to be Burton from PropStream. And please don't miss it. It's always exciting to have him there and show us PropStream and how he can find deals. He always comes up with some, some new deal flow way to find properties. Oh yeah. On a side note, I was on my way home yesterday evening in my Cybertruck. get a call on my phone and it's Burton. And he says, hey, Joe, is that you in your Cybertruck? I just scanned your QR code and then I saw it was you. I go, yeah, it's me.
There you go.
It turns out he's like literally my neighbor.
Oh, nice.
Yeah, I did not know that. So shout out to Burton.
There we go.
Yeah, you owe me lunch. Okay, that's how that works.
I always like to remind you guys, you get the most out of this podcast by joining in, uh, jumping in the chat, asking questions, because we are live right now. So make sure to share this with all the new and experienced investors in your world. Um, to launch into the topic of raising capital, let's jump into our 2 tips. I would say, um, start, start posting about your journey. If you're looking to raise money, start posting about your journey. People wanna see what you're doing. People wanna see that you're actually out there. doing these projects. And don't wait until you have a flip or whatever it is to just start randomly posting in Facebook groups like, hey, will you give me $100,000? Why would anybody trust you unless they see exactly what you're doing?
I don't know if I trust you, but I do trust the producer.
Or yeah, be married to someone trustworthy. That's what I do.
We were talking a little bit offline about accredited investors, and I hope you'll touch on that maybe just a little bit. Absolutely. And the reason I asked that is because I I can remember a day when there was no such thing as accredited investors. And people were losing a lot of money back then because exactly like you said, give me $100,000 and we'll put it into this investment. Off, off topic, I invested in racehorses at one point in time.
Yeah.
Nice.
Yes.
You are Tony Soprano.
I invested in racehorses. They were thoroughbreds. Got to go see them, you know, do their thing. It was a big company. It was Prudential. I don't even know if they're still around at the time.
Did you make money?
I did end up making some money, but it was like, wasn't for like 7 or 8 years till I got my money back. So it was not like a profitable venture, but the wife and I had a good time at the racetrack.
Nice.
Okay.
Yeah. Love that.
Learn something new about Joe every episode.
Joe's tip is invest.
Thoroughbreds.
Yeah.
All right. Let's go ahead and bring our guest in today. We have Brenda Jones with us. Brenda, how's it going?
I'm fabulous. I'm so excited to be here. My one-year anniversary.
Yes.
That I told you I want to be on your podcast for.
I know. No, I was so happy to see that because I never know like where you're going to be. I'm following you. You know, you're like out here in North Carolina. You're out here, over here, over here. So the fact that you were one in town and then we were lining it up perfectly, you know, with the one-year anniversary is absolutely amazing. Yeah, I would say maybe do like a quick bio. If you guys want the full breakdown, go back to the other episode. We'll link it in the description. You can get caught up on her, you know, full story. But maybe just do just a quick little bio and then jump into kind of like what you're doing now.
Sure. So I am the fund manager and capital raiser for LeapFrog Funds, and we are currently purchasing RV parks in the Sunbelt and landlord-friendly states. We are closing on our first park on Monday. It's— thank you, very excited. One year in the making, you guys. Uh, this stuff does not happen overnight. Takes a lot of hard work, a lot of, you know, grind. But, um, yeah, it's really exciting. It's 2 hours west of Dallas in Eastland, Texas. And, um, we're already, you know, doing construction right now. We're adding more pads so we can get into details of the park, but That's what we're doing. And I am still working my W-2. I work at Apple, and I'm still, you know, busy as a mom and a wife and doing all the things.
So, so you can do it all.
I can do it all. You can do it all.
Eat your cake too.
That's right.
You didn't bring us any iPad gifts or anything like that?
Yeah, you know, that stuff's expensive, and I don't really get that good of a discount.
Oh man.
I know.
Yeah, well, last week we had, uh, somebody who brought us books. Yeah, he wrote books. Yeah, I like that.
Yeah, that's nice.
Joe, you're an Android guy anyways.
Oh, that's right. We don't like the green bubbles.
Yeah.
Nope, nope.
Yeah, yeah. Well, let's, let's go ahead and like kind of maybe give us a high overview of like the last year, what that process was like to finding the deal and underwriting it and moving forward with it.
Yeah. So when I was on your podcast last year, LeapFrog was focusing on multifamily apartment complexes. And we as a team, I am not the underwriter, but our team underwrote almost 300 deals and nothing penciled out. And the main reason was because of interest rates, right? Bank debt is very expensive and the sellers are still delusional that they want 2, 3x the price of what the property's worth. And so if we're going to raise money as a fund, you know, we're not going to be able to, to provide exciting returns to our investors. if we got to pay the bank 8% plus or whatnot, right? So around, I want to say, is it October, November last year, we JV'd with another group who had been focusing on RV parks the whole year as well. And we're like, okay, you know, like, why is this asset class exciting? Well, number one, we can get it creatively. Our deal that we have right now is a hybrid sub-to and seller finance. So zero bank debt.
Nice.
So that gives us the opportunity to have very, very what we were calling unicorn returns. So per SEC, I can't say what the returns are. I can talk about what the average is. But, you know, for simplicity, it's a 2.85x multiple, you know, and for credit investors, we're looking for like a minimum $100K investment and looking to sell in 5 years. So I don't know what stock out there besides Apple, of course, is performing that well, right? Maybe Nvidia sometimes.
Is the 5-year timeframe locked into the sub-2 loan or the seller financing?
So the sub-2 is actually on the barndominium, which is part of, or it was the seller's primary home on the RV park.
Okay.
So that's the sub-2. And then the rest of the purchase price was seller financed.
Okay, but is there a timeframe on those too? Like, does it expire in 5 years? Is that that way?
Oh, so 5 years is our target to sell, right?
Yeah.
So I mean, if—
but it's like, if it doesn't happen, it's like the mortgage is not due on the 5th year.
No, the mortgage is not due. No, no, no.
Yeah.
Okay. So we're targeting to sell in 5 years.
Yeah.
Yeah.
See, these are questions that I would ask you if I'm in the fund.
Of course.
Okay.
Yeah, because we'll, we'll, we get like some sub-2 stuff and then there's like a balloon that the seller wants.
Yeah.
So at that point, if it hopefully appreciates You can refinance, but if not, then your other exit is to just sell.
Right.
But I think the 5-year target is great.
Yeah, it's always 5 to 7 years. That's what we're, you know, claiming.
Yeah. And so, and your idea with this was to, it was already like cash flowing and already working. And then you guys, I saw videos of you guys already doing construction, adding more pads.
Yeah. So it's on 24 acres. There's 54 pads right now. We're going to add another 25 pads. And so that more pads means more RVs, so that increases the income. We're going to turn the barndominium into an Airbnb. So again, remember it was his home, so they weren't making money off of it. So now we're going to turn it into an Airbnb. It's 5,000 square feet, so it's huge.
Wow.
Yeah, it's really, really nice. Like when you, you know, I'll post some pictures soon.
Yeah.
And then the highlight also is there's a 250,000-gallon spring-fed pool.
Oh.
That is like one of the target amenities because it's in Texas and it's hot and there's no beach nearby.
Yeah, no, that's awesome.
And it borders the Leon River. So we're gonna do fishing and kayaking and, you know, we're gonna start a camp store. We're probably gonna get an ice machine. I think we're looking into, you know, washer and dryers.
Wow.
So there's all these things you can do with an RV park that With an apartment complex, all you do is upgrade the kitchen and the floors and then what? You know, like the, the possibilities are endless and that's what makes it really exciting.
Wow.
Okay. So how did you guys decide that and not like mobile home park or, you know, some other asset class?
Yeah. So we wanted to stay away from having tenants. So this park is a transient park. So people are coming for the weekends, maybe for a week. We will have some small sections probably in the back for people who want to stay monthly. But we wanted, like, we're trying to make an experiential park, right?
Right.
Especially with, with COVID and everything is like, everything's about the experience now. Like, that's why like Airbnb's getting played out.
Mm-hmm.
Right. Like you can't have just a regular Airbnb. It's gotta have pickleball and a theme and a, you know, bachelorette or bachelor type of thing, you know?
Right.
So yeah, we're, we're gonna make an experience.
Okay. Where, where's your break-even? How many pads do you have to have rented for a particular month to break even? And then where do you start getting a profit?
Good question. I am not the math person. Um, it's cash flowing now.
Okay.
So that's what I know. Um, and you know, we're adding more pads because we obviously want to make more money, right?
Yeah.
Um, but it is already cash flowing. So, but the biggest thing is that there's no real marketing for this park. Uh, they've got a Facebook group. They've got, I mean, the Facebook group, I think, has about like 15,000 followers, which is decent, but like Instagram only has like a couple thousand, maybe less than that. But we're going to do like targeted ads, you know, localized for like Dallas and like kind of play it like a Palm Springs, like, hey, come to the staycation. It's not too far away. So we're going to do a lot of that, you know, upgrade the website, right? The website's very from the '70s or earlier, who knows? And then we're going to do dynamic pricing, right? That's like a whole kind of like Airbnb type of thing.
Yeah.
And then it is a seasonal park. So summertime is the prime time. So to hedge that, like we want to do like family reunions or like, you know, Christmas thing or, you know, gatherings for the Barnuminium, like during the cold season.
So.
Awesome.
There's lots of plans for this park. It's really exciting.
Yeah.
I mean, how do you get into the operational side? Like who's in charge of that on the team? That, that's gonna add all these extra features. Now you're actually running a business, everything out of the ground.
Yeah.
So our JV partners are there onsite right now.
Okay.
While we are, um, you know, interviewing for a park manager.
Gotcha.
So, but we're gonna, we're not gonna do third-party management. We're gonna have in-house management.
Nice.
And then the plan is to groom this person to become a regional.
Mm-hmm.
Because we wanna buy several parks this year.
Right.
And so then they will eventually oversee all the parks in the portfolio.
Do you have to have somebody there pretty much 24/7 or no?
I think we want someone there at least Monday through Friday.
Okay.
And then on the weekends, maybe like part-time or whatnot. But I know we definitely want someone there Monday through Friday.
So, somebody comes in, you know, with their mobile home and parks there.
RV park.
RV park, trailer, whatever you call it. RV.
Yes.
And parks there. How do you like Charge them.
Yes. So, so we're gonna have, you know, some type of online platform, but they still have to come into the office to get, uh, so we're gonna sell, um, wristbands for the pool. So we still want them coming into the office so we can greet them. Right. You still wanna have this great customer, you know, experience, customer relations experience with them. So it's gonna be a hybrid of like online check-in and in-person.
Okay.
Yeah.
And then we're gonna have a camp store, right? So we're like for incidentals.
Yeah.
Sunscreen.
Oh yeah.
Whatever. All the stuff, snacks, water.
So it doesn't have that right now?
No.
Oh my God.
Yeah.
You're missing out on some cash right there.
You know, during the California Gold Rush and all these people came out for gold, do you know who actually made all the money?
No.
It was the people who owned the stores selling them the equipment.
Makes sense.
Yes.
You got to sell the inner tubes.
Yes.
That's what you do floating on the river.
Yeah.
That is so cool. Okay, nice. Let's get into the raising capital part of it. So last time you were here, you were, like you said, looking for multifamily partners and then you just, you guys pivoted. Now you're looking for RVs. Did you reach back out to all those people that were interested in the multifamily and then just present them that idea? Or how does that work?
Yeah, so exactly like you said, it's like, You know, that whole year last year, I was documenting my journey, telling people what I was doing, showing them that like, hey, I'm putting the work into trying to build this business. And once we finally got the park under contract, it was all about like, hey, we've got this deal. And everyone always thinks, you even said to yourself, ew, mobile home parks, trailer parks. And it's like, no, no, no, no, no. This is luxury RV parks. Like these RVs are like $1 million, you know?
Like those things are expensive.
Some of them are like bigger than some people's apartments, right? Yeah, no. Full bathrooms and kitchens and all the, you know, all the bells whistles. So, um, some people we had to like walk them through that, right? Because it was just initial reaction of like, ew, mobile home park. Like, no, no, no, show them pictures. Obviously we went through, we have, we had our pitch deck, right?
Right.
Uh, we had a Zoom where we, um, had almost, we invited, or I'm sorry, 100 people had registered and about 50 people joined our investor pitch.
Oh, that was really cool. Yeah, that's really good.
Yeah, yeah, 50% show up.
Yeah, exactly.
That's normal.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, we were just hoping more than Like 5 or 10 people.
Yeah, that's really good.
So that was a big success for us. But, um, but yeah, I mean, you just have to— it's so that raising capital is sales, right? And the reason why, like, I wanted to become a capital raiser is because I've been in sales and recruiting my whole life. So I already have the skill set. So it's outreach and follow-up and, you know, overcoming their objections and just showing them, like, the bigger picture. And, you know, sometimes people don't want to and some people do. Sometimes a lot of people weren't liquid, you know, ready to be liquid. And so I'm going to follow up with them in the next couple of months for our next deal. Right. So you just have to keep that pipeline going. And I just track them right now in Trello.
Mm-hmm.
Super simple for me. And then we've got, you know, all the investors in our CRM, which we're doing, you know, weekly and monthly newsletters, giving them updates. On, you know, the progress of the park and whatnot. So yeah.
Nice. Okay. What are some of the biggest objections that you were getting to the RV park?
Yeah. One objection that I received was, you know, they said that you guys didn't have a track record. And it's true. None of us own an RV park, but my partners are multifamily owners and operators in Long Beach. And my other partners have had several RV parks under contract that fell through. But like, they, they know a lot about it, right? Like they had been doing the work to understand it. So it's like, you need to surround yourself with people that you can lean on their, you know, expertise.
Yeah.
And, you know, and there's only so much you can say, right?
Right, right, right.
You know, then wait until we succeed on this one.
Yeah.
Like, and then it's a timing thing, right?
Yeah.
But the people that did invest with us, were people who knew us. It's always the know, like, and trust, right? So a lot of people, like I had some ex-coworkers invest with us. I had people from OCJB invest with us. My business partner had some of his, you know, ex-business partners and colleagues invest. So it's all people that like knew us, trusted us, that knew we weren't criminals.
Right.
You know, knew that we were ex-W-2, or ex-W-2, yeah, employees. I'm still working, but my partner is not in his job anymore, you know, but it's like we're family people, you know? So.
Yeah, I mean, that's all you can go off of in the beginning. And then you get your shot and, you know, you succeed. Now you have the experience.
Right.
You know, and on Monday we will be official RV park owners.
That's right.
And yeah.
Are you allowed to take IRA, 401 money as well?
Yes. Yes.
Okay. So what, I mean, out of everybody that's investing, what's the majority of people, you know, is this some cash that's laying around? I'm going to invest with my IRA.
I think it was a combination, but I think most of it was cash sitting around.
Okay.
Yeah. But we can— yeah. And then we do also have a couple of people who invested with us via fund of funds.
Oh, nice.
Okay.
So because our— since our minimum investment is $100K, you know, we were saying no to a few people because they couldn't invest that much. So the beauty of fund of funds is that you can come in at a lower you know, price point. And then that fund invests with us at least $100K, if that makes sense. Yeah, you know, so yeah, but everyone still has to be accredited, which if you want me to explain—
Please.
Yes.
Yeah, so accredited investor is if you are single, you've been making at least $200K the last couple years and going forward, and if you're married, $300K the last couple years and going forward. So the assumption is, is that you are financially savvy enough to understand the risks Of investing, right? Like everything's a risk. The stock market is a risk. Crossing the street is a risk. Investing in real estate is a risk, you know? Yeah. So that's why, like you know, you were saying is like you don't want to be targeting grandma who's on her last breath and giving her her last fifty k. Like you don't want to be doing that, right? You want people to like fully understand what they're getting into. Due diligence. Like do your research.
Yeah, but she can't take it with her like we mentioned. So.
Well, if you're talking about your own grandma, but not someone else's grandma, how about that?
Grandmas love me is all I'm saying. And if they want to give me $50K, who am I to deny them of that?
Yeah, well, there you go.
Besides the pool and the store, do you have any other things you're thinking of? And, you know, I was talking earlier about racehorses, but obviously not racehorses, but, you know, a riding stable or—
Well, so there's enough space for us to possibly do like tiny homes, yurts, Or just regular camping. Okay. So yeah, I mean, I mean, we're open, right? Like whatever the people want, I think we're open to do.
And you're not in a hurricane path, which would be okay because you could just drive away, I guess.
Yeah, you can get out of there.
Yeah.
You've seen twisters.
I mean, you're going to be hooked up to electrical and sewers.
Yeah, these trailer parks are like, woo!
They're gone.
Yeah.
Start over. Get the pickup truck.
Might get a little messy and scary. I don't know.
Where in Texas?
Eastland, Texas. So 2 hours west of Dallas, and it's on a major highway. I think it's the I-20. Okay. I'm not good with geography, but it's in a prime location. Like, it's great.
Awesome.
Yeah, I'm really excited.
How do you— how were you getting your leads originally when you were underwriting all the RV parks?
Brokers, wholesalers.
Okay.
Bird dog. That's how we got this deal.
Oh, nice.
Yeah.
Okay.
So people out there listening that want to get paid a fee.
Yeah.
You know, our buy box is it's got to at least have 50 pads. It's not a new development, right? Like everything is value-add. I think we're looking for a price point, a price, purchase price between $2 to $10 million. And then, you know, Sunbelt landlord-friendly states, right? We don't want to have any government issues. And the biggest thing is, I think sewer or city sewer.
Oh yeah.
Because you don't want to have—
Yeah, like a cesspool or whatever.
Yeah, whatever it's called. Yeah, nasty.
Septic. Septic, yes, thank you.
Well, they use cesspools in Hawaii, I found out.
What about electricity? Is there like solar in the area or anything like that?
I think we're looking into solar.
Okay.
Yeah, we're looking into solar. So I mean, Texas, right? Yeah, there's lots of sun there.
Yeah, there is lots of sun there.
I think we're looking into it, yeah. You know, the pros and cons and cost benefit.
Yeah. When it comes to—
I'm sorry, the pads, do they have like covers on them or no?
No, these are actual gravel pads. And I think they have like a little grassy area.
Okay. Because I know all the schools around here, they've covered their parking with solar.
Yeah.
You know, and that would kind of be a great idea if you could do that. But I understand, like, if it's a million-dollar RV that, yeah, you don't know how tall it's going to be. So it might not work.
You don't want to eliminate people that can't fit.
Well, I've seen some where you pull your RV in and then there's like a casita that you can like live in as well. And it's like attached. Yeah, it's pretty, you can get pretty fancy.
You can do whatever you want. Honestly, you really can do whatever you want.
Not the acreage.
Yeah. Yeah.
That's great. Um, I was gonna ask now when it comes to the money raising, yeah, you put it under contract.
Yes.
And you still have the same like contingencies or inspection period. Is it like, all right, we got it under contract now, frigging scramble and try to raise the money? Or is, are people waiting in the sidelines ready for the next project that you guys bring? How does, how does that work?
So since this was our first one, we were just raising and Creating the awareness. And once the EMD went hard and all like the accounts were open, then we started taking wires. So going forward, um, we're already in talks with a lot of investors, some family offices that want to give us like larger checks. Um, but since we're new, right, like we don't want to be taking money and have it just sitting.
Right.
Right. So the first few deals essentially are going to work as a syndication. And then once we have a large portfolio, it will work as a fund, essentially. But—
Oh, what's the difference? Sorry, I don't—
So a syndication is you're investing in the deal only, right?
Okay.
But we have a fund. We just, we just kind of skipped syndication, went straight to fund, right? So if we were like a full-fledged fund and already had like a bunch of stuff going on, you would put money into the fund and then It's invested across the assets, right? But we only have one.
Yeah.
So it's only invested in that, right?
Gotcha.
So I think for the first few, it's going to be invested in each and then we'll spread it out.
Yeah.
And again, I'm not the math person, so don't hold that against me.
Sounds legit to me. This is what I understand. Sounds legit.
Do you guys have a website?
We do.
leapfrogfunds.com.
Okay.
Let's go.
And all that description of what you just said is on there someplace?
Like, The pitch deck stuff? No, but no, there, yeah. All the, all the, most of the information's on there.
Okay. Okay. Like returns, anything like that or no, you're not allowed to touch that.
That's all in our pitch deck. So it's like you'd have to reach out to us. We'll set up a phone call, you know, get your email. Right. We always want your email.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you want to know about what's coming up.
Yeah.
Um, absolutely. What's the biggest myth about, um, securing funds? that people need to stop believing?
Stop believing? What's this double negative thing? I'm getting confused here.
Um, basically, like, what's a myth that people think, like, when they're gonna raise capital? What's like— what do you hear all the time and you're like, you don't need— that's not true, you know?
And then it's not true. Yeah. Um, I don't know. I mean, raising money is you shouldn't be asking for money, right? You're always presenting an opportunity and you're giving these people an opportunity to make more money than they normally would in any other investment, right? And I always target like through my social media more than the stock market, more than your 401, right? Like, yeah, I mean, I think that's the biggest myth.
I mean, yeah, no, absolutely.
But we have found that like specifically for us, right? Because like we're in Orange County, high net worth area, right? We found that it's actually easier to, to raise higher or like larger amounts of money. And our deal wasn't big enough for them to invest in. Like you were just talking about that with me earlier, right? Like we have a family office that wants to give us $5 million, but our deal was only $2.2 and we were only raising $1.7.
Right.
So they're not going to put their money in there, right?
Yeah.
So that makes us want to start looking for larger deals, which we are.
So they said they're interested if you can, but we have to deploy this much capital.
Yeah.
That's a good problem to have.
Yeah, absolutely.
Absolutely.
It is a good problem.
Yeah.
OK.
Yeah.
That's great. So I mean, I guess I would have to assume as part of the capital raising process, you have to be willing to hear no a lot.
Yes, always.
OK. How can people get used to that? If it's like your first time and you're going out there, What, what advice can you give somebody?
Um, again, it's like you're not— if you frame it in your mind that you're not asking for money, you're not desperate for money, it's, it's a, it's a— I, I take it as a FOMO, like, oh, what's your loss? Because, right, this guy's gonna be making 3x in 5 years and you're gonna be left in the dust. But that's cool. Yeah, let's stay in touch, right?
Yeah.
I mean, if, if you have been building your network Continuously and long enough, you'll find enough people, right? And again, I've been in sales my whole life, so hearing no doesn't faze me.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
It just, you, and, and you know, you just have to get over that. You know, you just do. But I think the frame is like, you're not asking for money, you're not desperate. You're just like, hey, I've got this opportunity.
No?
Okay, cool.
Hey you.
Yeah.
Hey you.
Right.
Someone's gonna be interested.
It's like you cold calling. You can call, you know, hundreds and hundreds of people and And then you talk to the one guy for an hour and a half. But anyway, that's a different story.
You also hear a whole lot worse than no.
Exactly.
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
True. You know, and always ask for referrals, right?
Okay.
If you don't want to, who do you know in your network? Right?
Yeah.
Um, but even for the people who said no to me this time, I'm gonna call them again.
Yeah.
For the next deal.
Mm-hmm.
Right? Because it's always about timing.
Yeah.
And again, if, if I haven't developed enough trust with them, Then keep on watching me. Like, talk to me, take me out to lunch, watch my social media, see what I'm doing. And eventually they will, right? Eventually. Or some might not ever.
Yeah. I mean, that's fine too.
I'm not gonna cry about it.
Yeah.
Right.
Like, you know, where can you go to meet more high net worth individuals? I mean, the real estate meetups around here, you know, there's a lot of new people, a lot of people looking for money themselves.
Don't go to real estate meetups.
Right. Okay. So what am I going to, a plastic surgeon convention?
Wherever you can, straight, you should.
I just thought of that right now.
Wherever you can go, right? So, for example, I went to a women's beauty meetup, right?
Okay.
And I just like to go into ladies' stuff, right? Because real estate's all filled with dudes. So, you know, I want to try to make more girlfriends.
Right.
And I was the only person in this room that was in some type of real estate. And there was a few doctors there that were retiring. And it's like I'm telling them about like investing in real estate and this and that. And they're like, oh, well, that's interesting. So, you actually want to be in rooms where people are not talking about real estate, right? So for me, like, I work at Apple, you know, I've got this tech background, I can go to tech events. So like LA has Tech Weeks, you know, San Diego, I think Orange County has a Tech Week. Like, I plan on going to those events. I can talk intelligently about Apple and engineers and engineering and whatnot. Oh, but I also do this too, you know?
Okay.
But, um, you should go— like, you should be going to like Business conferences, local sales conferences.
Okay.
I mean, if you're Tesla Cybertruck meetups.
Oh yeah.
Which remember the last time I was here, we were talking about shooting up your car. Remember? Yeah. Did you try that yet?
No.
Okay.
No, the furthest we got was the Cybertruck meetup.
Yeah, see?
Cybertruck meetup. Those guys have money.
Yeah.
Right?
I would think so.
Yeah, I would hope so.
I mean, this is getting repoed. Yeah. Okay, that's a good idea. I was gonna say all I knew was musicians. I was like, they don't got money.
No, they got— that's true, that's true.
The ones that do, I can't get it.
This is true.
We do not know Taylor Swift.
But yeah, yeah, but you're right, like business conventions or just general—
well, and people talk about like going to the Chamber of Commerce, you know, meetings They're probably boring, but you might meet someone. Better Business Bureau meetings and stuff like that. So you only need to meet one person.
Yeah. No, there was a guy at my barber who he had left and I got in the seat and the barber was like, you know who that guy is? His mom owns all this farmland in the Midwest and all these apartment buildings and he just inherited it all. And he's like a surf bum dude living in Dana Point. And I was like, I need to get that guy's information because apparently he doesn't care about any of it. He's taken care of for the rest of his life.
Yeah.
You may need to visit your barber again.
I do.
I do.
No, I do.
I do.
So hopefully I'll run into him. Yeah.
So there is this one event that I got invited to through my business partner. It's called Whiskey Wednesdays, and it's all family offices, entrepreneurs who have exited, mostly tech professionals. And it's invite only, right? But like, these are all people who have like houses in Emerald Bay and like—
Yeah.
Next to Balboa Bay and whatnot. So it's like, you wanna be in those rooms, right? And that's something that thankfully my partner, because he's Used to be a CEO and run with these high-level people. He was able to get me into that room. But if you can find your way to meeting those type of people, I mean, that's that's where it is, right? Like we live in Orange County. We're yeah right by Newport Beach, right? I've even taken it where it's like I'm gonna go sit at a coffee shop and just take investor calls and hopefully someone overhears me and like just wants to oh what are you talking about right?
That's a good idea. Have you tried that yet?
No, but I'm planning to.
That's good.
I'm waiting for it to not stop raining.
Exactly.
When it's like summertime and it's, you know, nice and everyone's sitting on the patio type of thing.
Right.
Yeah. Where were you meeting people when you were like having people fund your flips?
I've never had anybody fund my flips. You haven't?
I thought you and Ryan were like, you came up with a whole like business plan.
No, just hard money.
Oh, it's just hard money.
Yeah. Okay.
Nice.
Yeah.
There you go.
When him and I started, it was my money.
Yeah. No, I know that, but I thought you guys came to the family office. Yeah. The old family bank.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's right.
And then after that, it was just literally hard money, which is what it is now as well.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. I know.
Yeah. It's like, it's hard to beat, you know? Um, I mean, they'll, they'll Leverage up to like 95%, 100% of the rehab. So you don't really have to raise that much. But when it comes to these bigger deals, I mean, now you guys are going to be looking at what's the next leap from here, from the $2.2 mil, like an RV park, like how expensive do they get?
I mean, there was one we were looking at. I think it was $15 million. I mean, it had a water park on it.
Yes.
You know?
That is awesome.
So that's the thing is like, I'm excited to show people that RV parks are not what it sounds like, right?
Right, right. Yeah.
Especially now that everyone wants to travel and is like nomadic, you know? So like, it's popping up everywhere. Like, have you heard of Auto Camp? So if you look it up, it's, um, it's the Airstream, but it's, it's an RV park like that.
Okay.
And, um, it's right off like the base of Yosemite, but it's still like 20 miles from Yosemite. But they advertise as Yosemite, right? And it's just super cute, super cool, very, um, hipster.
Yeah.
You know, but it's got like, I think, um, a community place and whatnot. So like all these activities. So it's like you're going there and like hanging out with friends and family, making new friends, doing things. So yeah, it's not just parking an old truck and Rolling around in dirt.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Like, yeah, they think it's like—
That was fun.
Yeah, you know.
They picture like Christmas Vacation where the deadbeat brother comes up and he's like, you know, unloading his—
Yes, exactly.
No, but when you look at the RVs, they're insane.
Yes. When you get into the Wayback Machine, we used to, my dad had a motorhome and we used to travel and we would literally go from, have you heard of KOA campgrounds?
Yeah.
We used to go from KOA—
We've underwrote a few KOAs. KOA to KOA because they were clean, they were reliable.
Exactly.
You know, they weren't expensive.
Right.
You know, we just didn't park off the side of the road.
Exactly.
Type stuff like that.
So. Are those a franchise? Like you can buy those? It is a franchise. Oh, okay.
We've been looking at a few of them.
Yeah. And you would keep it KOA, but like beef it up?
Yeah, I think, you know, there's probably some type of term to the license name, right? So you gotta own it for a certain time or a certain period and then you probably could Rebrand, but why would you? Because everyone already knows it as that, right?
So yeah.
Yeah.
So I think you can get like a membership or something and go to all of them. Something like that.
Yeah.
I'm still learning about that.
Yeah.
You gotta get an RV now and start, you know.
Those things are expensive.
We're walking the walk here.
Yeah.
The nice ones are expensive.
They're very expensive.
You know, if you go to downtown LA and stuff, they're parked right along the side of the road.
Oh God.
Yeah.
You can just grab one and go stop in.
I was gonna say, there's quite a few.
Carly, right?
Right, yeah, yeah. She's got a whole website and she's got like RVs on there. You can buy some too. She got cars, she got houses. Like, I'm still waiting for the yachts that you can sub to.
I heard those are hard to finance anyways, so.
Yeah, and you know somebody's, they're just, they got a yacht payment that they hate. Oh my God.
And then the slip.
Right. So I'm like, let me just get it zero down. I'll take over that payment. She's a little 50-footer. But, um, so when you go to the RV, uh, park, are you— do you have to pay for anything? I mean, like, now that you put the deal together, you're part owner.
Do I have to pay?
Yeah, you just get to— do you go to the vending machine? I get to pull out as much as I want.
Oh yeah, I mean, I don't think there's like a special coin that I get free stuff from the vending machine.
I don't know, that's what I picture.
Like, anything you want. As an owner, yes, I get to stay there for free. But yeah, if I have to like wash my clothes, I'll probably have to put some coins in.
Oh, okay. That's fine.
I don't know. I mean, maybe, but I think I can afford $1.25 for a load.
Yeah, I think so. I just, it's like the principle of it.
For sure.
But that's cool.
I'll get at least a free pad.
Yeah.
Okay.
There you go.
At least.
Yeah. I mean, yeah. And when you think about it, it has 26 acres. It's like just your imagination is the last thing stopping you. How does the The, how does the team come together and come up with, you know, we're going to add this, we're going to add this, add this, like who's, who's deciding that?
Yeah.
I mean, we pretty much decide together. I mean, each person has their strength and like in which they're focusing on. It's like someone is focusing on the underwriting and someone's working on operations, but then we'll talk about decisions together. Um, we were meeting once a week up until Probably, oh, 2 weeks ago. And now we've been meeting daily because there's just so much to do before close, right? Um, and then we're constantly texting each other and whatnot. But, um, yeah, I mean, we, we make decisions together. Some people have more experience than others, right? Like when they're talking about the numbers and the math, I'm like, yeah, sure. That sounds, that sounds good to me. Like, I'm not gonna probably contest them.
Mm-hmm.
You know, but we were talking about marketing and design. I was like, no, I like this better. I know my place.
Yeah. No, I got you. Yeah.
Yeah.
Here's kind of a math logistics question.
Okay.
Property taxes. Ooh. Are they less for an RV park than like if it was a bunch of homes?
I have no idea. Whatever land tax.
Yeah.
I have no idea.
Okay.
But I mean, but taxes are higher in Texas, right? Like prices are lower, but taxes are higher.
Correct.
And California is opposite, right?
So, okay. Yeah.
Yeah, but I don't know. I have no idea.
Okay.
Sorry.
Yeah, that's—
I'll find out.
Just curious.
I'm just curious.
Yeah.
I like to look at the numbers.
Somebody drop it in the chat.
I have no idea. Drop it in the chat.
What are they? I just like to look at the whole picture.
Yeah.
Yeah, I'm not the numbers person, remember?
That's all right. How does this property get you closer to your financial freedom?
It gets one property closer. Um, I am not getting rich or retiring anytime soon. So, um, as the GPs and fund manager, you know, we're getting like small percentages for management and whatnot. But okay, I work at Apple, so I make really good money. Um, and the, the thing with like funds and flipping, right, it's like the payout is when you sell.
Right.
So if we're selling in 5 to 7 years, That's where the big check comes. So I'm not retiring at least for 5 to 7 years.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And assuming we've got, you know, let's say, I don't know, 20 parks by then.
Yeah.
So.
That's good.
Yeah. But I mean, my job, I love my job. It's really easy.
Oh yeah.
I've been doing it for 19 years. I can do it in my sleep. So there's like no reason.
No, totally.
The only reason is that I want to travel. I literally want to travel every quarter. To a new country, and just take my family, take my son, and not have to worry about a boss saying no, you can't go.
Right.
You know, that's the only reason.
Okay.
Has has Doge reached out and said tell me what you've done in the last week?
I don't work for the government.
I know. I'm just joking. I'm just joking.
There's nothing wrong with that.
Look, you just said you can do it in your sleep, but what does that mean? No, I don't want to even ask that. I don't want to.
You're trying to get him in trouble with Apple, Joe.
Oh geez!
You know, I.
You see when Elon bought X and, you know, all these people on Instagram, this is what I do in the morning, nothing. And then I have lunch and then I do nothing again. And he goes in there and he fires 80% of the people.
Oh, right.
Well, so, I mean, if we're talking about tech, a lot of tech companies overhire. Apple does not. We run very lean. So, yeah, we're one of the few companies that did not do any mass layoffs.
Right.
That's why old, what was it? Berkshire Hathaway guy?
Buffett.
Warren Buffett.
Warren Buffett.
Thanks.
He loves his Apple.
Yeah. Yeah.
That's it. Yeah. Yeah.
You're right. With the tech companies, I mean, well, and the thing is they could just shutter the doors at any point. All these startups, they hire, burn through all the money, and then just you show up and there's no jobs.
Yeah.
But Apple's different.
Apple is amazing. I'm very lucky.
Right. Yeah.
Apple's not going anywhere. Yeah.
You need to switch.
Yeah.
Or I'm not coming back on the podcast.
Yeah, exactly. So if somebody— it sounds like, you know, when it comes to raising capital, it's all about your network.
Yes.
You know, how can somebody 10x their network in the next 6 months?
They need to show up on social media. I started a brand new account when I started doing real estate investing. So you need to be telling everyone what you're doing and you need to be going to these events. Like I went to Bethany Laflamme's book launch last week and I met a lady there and I just had lunch with her today. Like you need to meet people and follow up.
Mm-hmm.
Like you need to develop relationships Not with the end goal of raising money, just to make more friends. And if they want to invest with you, that's great. Maybe they know someone else. Maybe they like— I'm actually— I might do a podcast with this chick. So like, that's a win-win for me, right? But if you're raising capital, literally your goal is to meet and make as many friends as possible.
Okay.
You could always come on the number one podcast in Laguna Hills.
That's right. I mean, there you go.
That's us.
That's why I'm here.
Yeah.
I asked to be on.
Yeah.
I was not invited, FYI. I invited myself.
Yeah, that's— I like that.
Go-getter.
She's a go-getter.
Oh yes, absolutely. Activator is my number one CliftonStrength.
Okay.
I do it.
Activate.
Don't give a shit.
Yeah, no, that's good. I mean, that's how things get done, honestly.
Exactly.
Otherwise people are gonna be sitting around twiddling their thumbs.
Right.
Uh, are you giving like an elevator pitch when you're first meeting them and they're asking like, what do you do? And then do you give them that little glimpse into That, or is it kind of like when I'm at a networking event? Yeah, you're at a networking event, and you know, like you know, people have the elevator pitch. I invest in real estate, and I give like double-digit returns backed by real estate.
No.
Okay.
I always ask the person and talk and ask about them.
Right.
I don't talk about myself.
Nice.
When they ask me, I just show through enthusiasm. We just closed on our first RV park, like super excited. Da da da da da da. And it's like if they want to hear more, I tell them. If they don't.
Yeah.
I don't, but I always get their contact information. I get them to follow me on Instagram.
Okay.
And if it's someone that I think could potentially be an investor slash business partner slash whatever, I always invite them out to like lunch or coffee.
Nice.
So I like— because sales are not closed on the first touch. Yeah.
Yeah.
We're not a grocery store.
Yeah.
Yeah.
People wanna get to know you.
Yeah.
You gotta get to know you. And we're talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars. Like, unless I meet the Sultan of Brunei, that's just his pocket change and he just throws at me to get me out of his face. But what's that chance?
Yeah.
So it's all about relationships. Yeah, it's all about relationships.
Yeah, absolutely. What if someone's more of an introvert? How do they get over that?
Find the other person standing all lonely in the corner and Kind of commiserate on being scared, being scared and, you know, crack a joke, right? Like, damn, this, this is scary. Or look at that crazy lady just yapping away and talking to everybody.
Yeah.
I think her name is Brenda. Right.
That's good. I mean, it's infectious. People want to get to know you. People want to talk to you, you know.
But I mean, if you want to be a capital raiser, you're going to have to get out of that show.
Yeah.
You have to.
Yeah.
Or choose a different job.
Right. Yeah.
Capital raising is sales. It's a people person job. It's a relationship job. It's business development. It's not gonna fall on your lap. It's, it's a lot of hard work. And that's why, like, I don't want to be doing the spreadsheets and the math. Yeah, that would make me sweat and have a headache. I could network all day, every day, and not, like, have my social tank be depleted.
Right.
The only reason why I'm tired is because I'm physically tired. I'm going to be 44 years old.
Yeah.
But if I was in my 20s doing this, oh my God.
Oh yeah.
I'd be 24/7, 7 days a week, you know?
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
So that's great.
So you have a good chance, a good prediction that your job is not going to be eliminated by AI recruiting. What you do, it's, it's, it's like being a real estate agent. It's a people business.
Yeah.
No. Yeah.
You can't.
It's not.
No. That's not something that they can put together. No.
You know, I mean, there's, uh, recruiting agencies out there that use AI to screen resumes, but you still need to interview and talk to a person. Yeah, right. You need to, um, evaluate their skills, and a computer can't do that because then it's like, okay, maybe they're saying the right answers, but then they've got a bad attitude. Yeah, they're arrogant. They don't look like they're gonna be a team player. They don't look like they're gonna be collaborative. I don't know. I mean, at least now AI can't detect that. Maybe later when we're dead. Yeah, but not anytime soon, right?
Now that brings up a question. So have you had any investors that have been interested in investing, but they're literally a pain in the neck? It's like, do we really want to be answering this person's call every day?
Oh, that— no, no, that's the beauty of it. I'm not taking money from people that I can't stand. Okay, 100%. If you're gonna be up my ass, like, yeah, bothering me, no, no.
That's fair. Good.
That is fair. Good for you.
Yeah, because I'm busy.
Yeah, right, right.
Yeah, I've got 9,000 things I do every day. Like, yeah, no, absolutely not.
Okay.
Yeah.
And again, you have the choice of saying, oh yeah, thank you, but no thank you.
Oh, 100%.
Yeah, that's good.
Yeah, but that's also the abundance mindset, like, right? I'm not desperate for money. Like I said, we got overfunded on this deal, you know, and we have people that want to give us $5, $10 million checks and we don't have anything that big. So the money's there. You just got to find the deal and make sure the numbers make sense because those guys are not just going to cut a check if it doesn't make sense, right?
Yep.
And I leave that to my very smart partners because that's their job. I find the people.
Yeah.
Do the math, you know.
There you go.
Everyone's got their—
you need a team.
Yeah, everyone's got their strengths. Exactly. Uh, this is the part of the show where I've curated a few videos and I would love to get your reaction.
Okay, I need a yes.
What are you doing over there?
What are you doing over there?
There's a cricket on the ground.
Oh, okay.
I was like wondering if something—
I didn't know if it was a cricket or a mouse or whatever.
Yeah, well, I saw it out of the corner of my eye and at first I was like like, is that—
that's a big bug. What is it?
And then it's just a little Jiminy Cricket.
Yeah, it's just a little cricket.
Yeah.
All right, what do we got, producer?
Let's see, we got up first, how to raise capital with no experience.
If I'm brand new wanting to get into this game of raising capital, like, where would you advise someone to start?
It's a very easy answer for me because I get asked this question a lot and I always give the same answer. It is a local meetup You need to practice. You need to get better at presenting to accredited investors and getting them to give you hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars. And one of the best places to practice and actually find accredited investors are local meetups. I like real estate meetups because according to my data science, the percentage of people that come to a real estate meetup that are accredited investors is higher than other meetups.
If I'm brand new—
Hmm.
I mean, didn't I just say that? Go to a meetup network.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Um, do you have to always be wearing that Bluetooth set though? I feel like that's part of the game.
I mean, the '90s are coming back. So let's, let's do it.
You know? He did mention, and I don't know, his part of his data science, that real estate meetups have a higher percentage of accredited investors. I wonder if that's just because they're looking for things to put their money in, or where, where would you say that they are?
I mean, I'm thinking about our Network, and I feel like that's not true. But if you're thinking about maybe Rias, Rias, exactly. Yes. Yeah. I think that makes more sense there. Yeah. Like real estate mentorship groups, right? Probably not.
Yeah. Gotcha.
Yeah.
A lot of noobs.
Noobs. Exactly. We love you.
Love you, noobs.
We've all been there.
I was a noob. Yes.
I am a noob, actually.
Next.
Raise money when you don't need the money.
Mm-hmm.
For people who are trying to learn how to raise capital, the biggest issue is that people are doing it in the wrong sequence. They get a little too desperate to pitch their project immediately. It is very important for us to qualify ourselves first. It is always important to build that kind of relationship, understand exactly what other people are doing, and then showcase exactly what you're doing. And then from there, start building a bit of relationship before you start pitching your project to other investors. Don't show desperation and always try to raise money when you don't need the money. For people who are trying to.
Yeah, I mean that's what I said. It's like you need to build the relationships, tell people what you're doing, tell them what your goals are, and like my biggest way I'm doing that is I tell them my story.
Right.
I'm high W two. I got into real estate investing because I wanted to offset taxes. You know, I have invested or I am invested in three funds, right? And the only reason why I'm going from passive to active is because My skill set allows me to, but most W2 people don't have the time or bandwidth to do that. You know, so what are you pointing at?
Your hand was really loud on the mic.
Oh, okay.
Okay.
Sorry.
So you know, so it's like you you have again this is all sales, right? You got to know who you're talking to and and what they're all about and uncover that. You don't just like give me give me money. I have a deal deal deal deal.
Yeah.
Nobody likes that.
Right.
Nobody likes that.
Okay.
So let's say you're, you're, you're doing what this guy's saying, you're building relationships and you're like, yeah, I'm ready to do it. And you're like, well, I gotta find the deal first.
Yeah. Let's, let's stay in contact. I mean, that's what I did all last year.
Okay.
Is that we're still looking, we're still looking, we're still looking.
And then are they, if they're asking questions like, what kind of returns can you give? You can't give anything specific, but—
You say that we're underwriting for these types of returns.
Okay.
Yeah.
Right. So they get a general idea of what your kind of your buy box is.
Exactly.
Okay.
Yeah. Like, we're going to buy deals that will give these type of returns.
So we've all dealt with difficult people. What is your easiest sale? Basically, like, we met for lunch and at the end of lunch I gave you a check for $100,000. That's easy. What, what's been your easiest one?
My easiest one was someone from my community introduced me to their father, and I didn't even talk to him on the phone until after he signed the paperwork.
That's an easy button.
Papa.
But I had developed the relationship with the individual.
Right.
Right?
So.
He's like, again, my daughter's is a friend of mine. Here you go, Brenda.
And that's why, like, you never know.
And this is dad's money.
Dad's money. It's like play money.
It's Monopoly.
Yes.
Spare, spare, spare.
Well, that's good. I'm glad you have easy ones. Because the hard ones are the ones that tax you.
But yeah, the hard ones— like, I had one that was like, again, you don't have a track record. I don't. You're right. Like, that's the biggest thing is like, if someone gives you an objection, you need to agree. Don't try to bullshit your way out of it, right? Like, you're right, but I've got partners who are experienced. Like, I am a, you know, experienced individual in work. Like, I'm not just some schmo off the street trying to do something, you know, right? I lost my train of thought, but—
No, no. Yeah, that's easy and hard one. Yeah, yeah.
Oh, hard. Yeah. It's like, you know, and then people are like, I want to see the underwriting and this and that and this and that. And it's like, you either trust me or you don't. And if you don't, that's cool. Like, I'm not offended.
Yeah, it's like, you don't even know what you're looking at.
Exactly. You just want to like dig in and overanalyze and then do nothing.
Yeah, yeah.
Analysis paralysis.
That's probably, that's probably—
Ain't got time for that.
Yeah, yeah, there's probably an engineer.
Thank you.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
All right, are you ready for the last video?
Yeah, yeah.
Okay, here we go. Mistakes to avoid when raising capital.
Here's the story real quickly. I was on a conference call, it was myself and a business partner of mine, and we were talking to an investor, a very high net worth individual, and my partner made the fatal mistake of asking this investor how much he would be willing to invest in this future deal. And mind you, we had not built rapport with the investor when my partner had asked this question. So the investor replied, he said, well, I'd probably be willing to invest $10,000. Instantly I knew it was a mistake to ask that question. Obviously $10,000 doesn't really move the needle when you're doing 7-figure transactions. And so I told my partner, hey, never ask that question until you've built rapport. Anyways, I went on to build rapport with this investor for about 4 or 5 months after the fact. And then finally, when we had a deal, I needed $50,000 to close the gap. And I went to this investor. I said, hey, we need $50,000. This is the deal. This is what it looks like. Are you in? And the investor said, yeah, I am. He wrote the check. We closed the deal. We made it happen. And the takeaway here is real simple. Never ask an investor how much they're willing to invest until, one, you know how much you need, and two, you've built that rapport. Follow for more about— here's the story real quick.
All right. So Sales 101 again, right? Building rapport and developing a relationship. Like, I'm a recruiter. When I'm interviewing a candidate and they tell me they've got a son, we spend 15 minutes talking about kids. I don't even care about his resume, right? Like, you find that connection, right? Or they talk about they like Cybertrucks. So do I. Oh my God, I can't wait to make enough money to buy one. Like, you know what I'm saying? And then it's like, you just talk. When we were talking about like networking, you ask them about them and what they do, what they like to do. You know, like when I do talk to a new investor, it's like, well, what have you invested in before?
Right?
Like what are your goals? I'm not asking. Here's my wiring instructions. Here's my routing number. Like send me money. Like you need to get to know what they want. What if they don't want to invest in RV parks?
Yeah.
Let's cut this phone call done then. You know what I'm saying? But then I introduce them to someone that they want to invest in mobile home parks. Right? Like yeah. My job is not only just to get money. It's It's to introduce them to other opportunities. And if I did that, then they're like, you know what, Brenda's a stand-up person. Joe wants to invest in RV parks. Let me introduce you to Joe, right? I wanted to invest in mobile home parks. She introduced me to Alex. You know what I'm saying? It's a relationship game. So if you just stop being greedy and me, me, me and think about them, you know, and Pace says this all the time.
Yeah.
Think about the person. Don't think about you. You're last. It's like you benefit from giving, right?
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah.
Amen to that.
There you go.
Love it.
Dropping bombs.
Do we got any questions in the chat here?
We do.
I'm going to take this off.
Okay.
So loud.
Sorry. Turned it down for you. Okay. We got Liz in the chat. She says, what's one thing about money and career success that you wish you had learned 10 years earlier?
Investing in damn real estate, you guys. House hacking. House hacking. Like, my first job in college, I should have not spent all my money on Louis Vuitton bags. And I should have saved that money and bought a 4-bedroom house and rent out the other 3 to my homies. Like, I know. And then learn that whole BRRRR strategy. And then, you know, I'd be already in Tahiti right now, just living the life.
Why was no one telling us back then?
Everyone's telling you to work hard and put your money in that 401. You can't touch it until you're dead. No, I don't want to do that. I don't want to do that.
Yeah, that's good.
We got Andy in the chat. He says, I like the new background behind the guests.
Oh, all right. Cool.
Hey, check it out. All right. We got Chad. He says, what advice can you give other young moms with a full-time job on how to jump into investing and starting their own business?
There you go. Um, you got to find the time. So usually that's a time when your child is sleeping. So like, I wake up at 6, and that's when I'm doing emails. Like, when I first started Sub2U, I was looking at videos, right, watching the modules. Um, you just have to find the time. And again, you need to find people who are doing the same thing, right? No one in my personal network was a real estate investor. They all own their primary home, which is not investing, right? They all have liabilities. But I joined a mentorship and that's how I found my partners and I found my friends. And then I took it one step further and we made our own community, you know? So you need to get around people who are doing what you want to do. That's the only way.
Love that.
Okay, excellent. Well, Brenda, thank you so much for joining us today. How can people get ahold of you if they want to invest?
Um, our website is, uh, www.leapfrogfunds.com, brenda@leapfrogfunds.com, or you can DM me on Instagram, Brenda Rose Invests, or Facebook or YouTube.
Yep, you're out there.
Or LinkedIn, Brenda Rose Jones.
It's easy to find you.
Yeah, you can Google me. I've got a presence out there.
Absolutely. And I would encourage you guys to follow her on, on Instagram or Facebook or whatever because there's always something new. And she's always going somewhere and you got opportunities flying at you.
So, well, I've got a new social media manager. So my content's gonna be pretty fire soon.
Okay.
We're gonna do a whole day of filming tomorrow.
Nice.
And it's gonna be better than the boring talking head blah, blah, blah, blah stuff.
Oh, okay.
It'll be good.
All right.
Stay tuned. I'm very excited.
I like that. Can't wait to see that. Very good. Thank you guys for joining us and jumping in the chat and sharing the podcast far and wide.
We'll be back here next week, same time.
So thanks a lot.
Thank you. Appreciate it.
Thank you.
See ya. If you want some more advice on real estate investing, reach out to us one-on-one.
