How to get INSTANT credibility as a new investor

What I want to talk about today are 10 ways to increase your credibility as a new investor. This is something that I had to address within myself. So it's something that I can relate to you guys on very well. And it's also something that I worked really hard at and I feel like I've become really, really good at. So I'm excited to share and to dive into that a little bit deeper. But let's talk about it. 10 Ways to Increase your credibility as a new investor. Number one, to increase your credibility, which is obviously going to be really derived in your confidence, right? Any of you heard of the saying competence equals competence? Well, if you haven't, you heard it today. Competence equals confidence, right? So one thing for sure, you are going to be more confident. The more you invest in your competence, the more you understand, invest in your learning and understanding, right? So, so make sure you are investing and you are vigilant about your competence, because that's going to be the first place that you're going to drive a lot of confidence. Immerse yourself in the multifamily community at large and in multifamily conversation. This is going to be huge. If you guys have been in any of my calls, you know that I reach networking and for so many different reasons. Networking for lead flow, networking for connections, people who are going to connect you to the right people, but also for immersing your yourself in multifamily conversations. In commercial conversations, you need to know what the lingo is, right? You need to know what people are talking about. You need to know your market. So immerse yourselves in the community. And when I say immersion, I mean immersion in the beginning. You need to eat, breathe and sleep multifamily. Eat, breathe and sleep. Wake up in the morning, listen to some training, connect with people in your community. Here, listen to a podcast. You know, even here, even though there are different strategies and we want you to focus in on value add, we want to focus on in on minor repositioning. But even hearing how other people do deals helps you to understand the lingo and helps you to understand your strategy better, right? So immerse yourselves super huge. Investing in your relationships. You guys know I talk about this all the time. Here's something that I want to say this super key, and I hope you guys hear me here. You need to know who to know in the room when you're in a networking event. You need to know who to know when in your market. And you'll find this out from going to those networking events. You need to know who. You need to know in the market who is dominating the market. Who is everybody's favorite guy or gal, right? You need to know who is really making an impact on your market and in, in that community. Connect, connect, connect. It's going to be so huge because I'm going to tell you why that's so important later and why that ties back to credibility. But know who to know in your communities and in your market now, when you know who to know, then you need to go connect with them. You need to connect with the people around them. You need to create a genuine connection with them. Create a genuine connection with them and actually caring about them as people, caring about what they got going on in their life and in their business before we could ever expect them to care about us and ours. Right? So make sure that when you know who to know in the room, you're then connecting with them, connecting with the people around them, serve them and, and see how you can add value to their lives as well. Because those are the people you're going to learn a lot from because they're doing things in your market or else why does everybody want to know them? Right? Why are they so important to everyone? They obviously are making an impact. Number four, I'm going to brush through these and then we're going to have our dialogue. I'm going to be, I'm going to give you all a little tough love right now. And I say this quite a bit and I'm going to say it again. Get over yourself. Okay? Sometimes you gotta get over yourself. And what do I mean by that? It's not about you. When we're talking to a seller or we're talking to a broker, we are giving them an opportunity to make money or we're getting them, giving them an opportunity to alleviate some of their pain because this property has been a headache to them or whatever. You are bringing value. Don't think about. When you focus less on how you're being perceived, you're going to come across more confidently. When you know the value that you bring, you're going to come across more confidently and you're going to be perceived as more credible. Perfect your pitch is another way you're going to increase your credibility. Perfect your pitch. There are several different pitches that you're. That you may or may not be a part of in the process of getting a deal done. So one of the very first one that you can be mastering today is your elevator pitch. Hey, I'm Melania and I invest in apartments. I Also partner with people who want to own and benefit from investing in real estate, but don't want to deal with any of the hassles. Have you ever invested in real estate? That's a very, very simple elevator pitch. People invest in two things, people and outcomes. And when they invest in people, they invest in people they like and people they believe in. We. We dived into that last night, right? You don't have to say, oh, yes, I have this many units and this many assets under management. And no, I'm an apartment investor, and I invest with people who want to own and benefit from investing in real estate or having real estate, but don't want to deal with the hassle of it and just communicating clearly and confidently. You see that my elevator pitch wasn't anything grandiose. I didn't go into how many units I have. I didn't go into any of that. I invest in apartments. Stop trying to become an investor. You are not an aspiring investor. I don't want to hear nobody say that ever again. That. Don't even let that come out of your mouth. You are an investor. If you have an intention on providing an offer to a seller with the intention of purchasing, you are an investor. Your, your plan and intention is to get the deal done. No more. I'm an aspiring investor. I'm trying to become an investor. I'm. I'm working on becoming. No, you are an investor. And when you acknowledge that within yourself and when you walk into rooms with that level of confidence and when you walk into conversations with that level, I am an investor. I'm an apartment investor. When people ask me what I do, I'm an apartment investor. So when I talked about my elevator pitch, that's what I am. I look at deals all day. That's what I am. I raise capital for deals all day. Right? I underwrite deals. I'm an investor. Number seven, practice being a better communicator. Different ways that we could do that. Networking is going to be huge. The more we're having the conversations, the more confident we're going to feel, be committed to keep going and keep having the conversations. The more you have the conversations, the better off you're going to be. Also, how you start the conversation matters. So get really good at that. Get really good at being confident in your start. Because when you're confident in the start of your conversation, that comes back to the elevator pitch, then you're less likely to have the eyebrow raised or the nose quenched of the broker. Like, does this person know what they're doing. If you come out the gate confident and you control the conversation, then that's going to really help you to go a long way. Another thing, if you feel like you're not the best communicator, something that could be super helpful is your local Toastmasters. I've heard nothing but amazing things from my friends and I've had friends who didn't like talking to anyone and then they went to Toastmasters. Now they just like had the best conversations and all that kind of stuff. So it could be really good to practice that way. But something that's going to be huge. Networking should be a daily activity and should be non negotiable whether it's in person or whether it's virtually. But networking should be a daily activity that is non negotiable, especially when getting started, especially in the market that we're in. It's going to be a little bit more challenging, guys. But if you do the daily work, you can get a deal done, but it has to be those daily actions and the networking component is going to be huge. Number eight do away with uncertainty. How are you going to do that? By prioritizing clarity. Stop being uncertain. Commit to not being uncertain. Commit to whenever there is uncertainty. You are going to go get the answer. This made all the difference of the world in my journey. Anytime I had a question, I'm messaging one of my mentors. If one didn't answer, I had made connections with other coaches in my group. I'm asking them, I'm getting on the phone with this person, I'm going to blow y' all up. But y' all gonna see me get to success because I was committed to not having any uncertainty. Every day if I had a question I wanted, I compiled my questions and I didn't want to end my day unless I had my questions answered. So huge. Do away with uncertainty, which means prioritizing clarity. What do we need to have clarity on your buy box and your criteria? When you're absolutely clear this is what I'm going for. These are the only type of properties that I will look at. This is my market. I'm absolutely clear. No questions, no if, ands, buts about it. And I feel great about it because I've connected with my coaches and made sure that this makes sense. It's a done deal. This is my market, this is my buy box criteria and this is my value add strategy. I plan to add value to this property by increasing rents. How will I validate increasing rents by these renovations of these this many unit of optimizing our laundromat facility, adding pet rent. This is my value add strategy. So absolute clarity, that has to be a non negotiable to you, to yourself. Absolute clarity. And then after clarity then once you're clear on those things, then get certain, make your mind up and that kind of leads into the next thing which is be consistent and show up for yourself as well as be prepared. Okay. The more consistent you are with yourself if you're doing your three next best steps every single day. These are my three tasks that I will commit to every single day. And they're not just busyness tasks, these are getting down to business tasks, these are income producing tasks. For some of us, getting through the training is going to be the income producing task. Because if I don't know what's going on, how am I going to be the most impactful? But doing your tasks every day, showing up for yourself, I promise you will increase your confidence, lean on your team and community, AKA borrow credibility, borrow their credibility. What that means is that if we're talking about getting a loan, depending on the unit size, we are more than likely going to need a loan sponsor. For someone to qualify as our loan sponsor, they are going to have to come with some extensive experience and a great portfolio. So a guaranteed part of your team to get the deal done is going to be a very experienced commercial, multifamily investor. If deal works for our buy box and criteria, then someone on the team would be more than happy to sponsor your deal. We will sponsor deals that make sense in terms of the numbers that match our criteria that meet our buy box. So you have a lead sponsor lead here already. Okay. A part of your team is going to be an experienced loan sponsor because they are going to be a general partner. That's how they sponsor your loan. Right. So that's a part of the experience of your team. Right. So you off the bat coming in and saying like we are an experienced team of investors and I want to gather some numbers so I can send it to my in house underwriting team. So it's up to you to just be confident and communicate that confidently. Doesn't that increase your credibility off the gate, off the bat? So these are things to think about. Also it should increase your confidence knowing that you have incredible underwriters to look at your deal and give you the thumbs up or thumbs down and also give you action steps and give you guidance on that. Right. So now you can come back with your offer and confidently.