Jonathan Cronin hired a $5/hour virtual assistant in the Philippines to cold-call apartment owners for a year and landed a 16-unit building for $40,000 down. The seller financed 95% at 4.25%, creating $3,600 monthly cash flow on a $2,692 payment. He outlines a five-step system: hire a VA, build an owner list, use a script, follow up every 60-90 days, and let it run.
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What if I told you getting into multifamily real estate isn't actually about having big connections or having millions in the bank for a down payment? It's actually about building a system that finds deals and capital for you, even if nobody in this industry knows your name, right? And to prove this, we hired a $5 an hour virtual assistant to find and cold call leads. He found us a 16-unit apartment building and we closed it with just $40,000 out of pocket. All right, stay until the end so you can see how we find off-market deals using virtual assistants and how we structured this deal and how much cash flow for retirement you can create with just $40,000. If you're just getting into multifamily or you've been trying to get in for a while but can't find good deals, the problem is that most people don't have a system for finding deals. And the first is they rely on what's publicly listed. They go on LoopNet, Craxee, they call a broker and unknowingly Everything they find is already picked over. Brokers have already sent it to their list and everybody turned it down. So it's horrible deals. Because of that, they do nothing, they find nothing, and then they blame it on the market. The second problem is they don't know how to talk to sellers directly or negotiate. Cold calling feels awkward, right? They don't know what to say or they don't have the time to call. And so they avoid it. And because of that, they do nothing. And the third is they tell themselves they'll figure it out later. They're waiting for the right market, the right moment, the right connection. And that gets them stuck in analysis paralysis in the same spot they're stuck in for years. That is why you need a system that finds deals for you, even when you don't have the time, the connections, or the confidence to do it yourself. Let me show you what I mean. Okay, so here's the system that we use to predictably attract the best deals in our buy box and what we have seen work for savvy investors and even first-time investors. OK, so first we had virtual assistant. We hired a virtual assistant out of the Philippines, $4 or $5 an hour, part-time, so $100 a week, one job, call apartment owners, find people who might want to sell. All right, no fancy software, no expensive broker relationships, just a script, a list of names and numbers, and a phone, right? Most days nothing came back. Some owners even hung up. Some said, call me in 6 months. And we did every single time. And for 12 months, we followed up with one particular owner. We didn't chase him down. We didn't pressure him. We just stayed in relationship, checking in every once in a while until he was ready to sell. Then one day he called us up. A 16-unit building right in our backyard. Owner had been sitting on it for years and finally decided it was time. Purchase price, $800,000. Now here's where it gets interesting. This is the part I usually tell investors to avoid, right? We don't buy small buildings. Our portfolio is over $550 million. We typically deal in properties 10 times that size, but 2 things made us break our own rule. Number 1, it was right in our backyard. Okay, it gives us a strong market advantage and with market knowledge and proximity. Number 2, we negotiated a major win on both sides, making this just a killer deal. So the seller was willing to finance the deal himself. He wanted to avoid capital gains. 95% seller finance, 4.25% interest rate. And interest only for 5 years. We came to the table with $40,000 to close on $800,000 building. Now let me show you why this deal actually made a lot of sense, because the numbers are what made the big difference. 4.25% interest rate, interest only. Our monthly debt payment on $760,000 building is $2,692 a month. The building generates $11,600 in gross rents every single month. After expenses, debt service, we're cash flowing about $3,600 a month. Now, do that math with me. $3,600 a month on $40,000 invested. That is 108% cash-on-cash return. If you raise that $40,000 from investors, which is exactly what we teach in our accelerator, your money that is in is zero. I would consider that a home run, right? You can't expect that to happen every day. But if you have solid systems in place, it is just a numbers game of how many leads you are generating, how much you are following up with the offers that you're making. And that's what a good system does. It doesn't just find deals, it finds deals where the numbers works even when you break your own rules, right? And the best part is that this is just one deal. If you are consistently following up and sourcing using this method, you can do multiple of these every single year. So let me show you exactly how to build this. Okay, step number 1, write this down. Find a VA. We use platforms like onlinejobs.ph. Okay, you're looking for someone one with cold calling experience. A good English-speaking virtual assistant out of the Philippines has hunger, work ethic, and you want to budget $4 to $6 an hour. Start with part-time, 20 hours a week, $100 a week. Step 2, build a list. You want to skip trace list of apartment owners in your target market. If you want an easy way to do it, we have a simple software called DealFire.ai. You can get a 14-day free trial if you want. It's our software. Owners who have held the properties for 10 years plus, no mortgage, low mortgage, That's your best seller profile. Okay. Step number 3, give them a script. Give the VA a script. Keep it simple. Hi, my name is Sally. I work for a real estate investment team. We're looking to buy apartments in this area. Is this something that you would even consider, right? Selling your property, is that something you'd consider getting an offer? Step number 4, build the follow-up sequence. This is huge. The money is made in the follow-up. It's not just on the first or even the fifth touchpoint, right? Follow up every 60, 90 days. The money is in the follow-up, guys. And then step number 5, Let it run. Your VA works when you're not. While you're at your job, your family, living your life, deals are being found with your VA. That's the system. Now, here's what I want you to understand. This deal didn't happen just because we were lucky. You know what they say about luck? Luck is when preparation meets opportunity. It didn't happen because we knew the right people. It happened because we built a system and we let it run for 12 months. Okay. When most people would have stopped at month 2, the difference between investors who close deals And investors who stay stuck isn't talent. It isn't capital. It isn't connections. It's having a repeatable system and the discipline to trust it. That's exactly what we implement for investors in REI Accelerator. To give you perspective, Josh did the same thing, went from 0 to 250 units in just 15 months. Now granted, that was a full-time effort. But if you have limited time, Steven, another example, closed 51 units his first 51-unit deal in little over 4 months with 5 hours per week, no access to capital. Orlando, another guy, raised $4.5 million in just 4 months. Frank bought a 48-unit deal in 6 months while running a lawn care business. And look, none of them were connected. None of them have millions sitting in the bank. They had a system. I keep saying that word. If you want to see exactly how we help build systems, the VA setup, the seller finance framework, the capital raising strategy, I dropped a link because I want everyone to see this. Book a call with our team. One $5 an hour phone call could change the trajectory of your portfolio. Okay. The question is, what's one conversation with us worth to you? Right. I'd love to walk you through. Book a call. I'm dropping a link in the description. Love to connect with you. Look forward to seeing you then. All right. God bless. Thanks for watching.
