Real Estate Strategies That Make The Most Sense

Hey, it's Mark Podolski, the land geek for your favorite niche real estate website, www.thelandgeek.com and I am super excited for today's guest. He's been real estate investing for a long time. He's done a lot of stuff. He basically has like the attention span of a ferret and a double cappuccino. It seems like when it comes to like real estate investing, mean just a, just a deal junkie. But before we talk to our guests, I'd be remiss if I didn't properly introduce my co host, Six Sigma. You know him, you love him. Scott Todd from Scott todd.net landmodo.com and most importantly, if you're not automating your Craigslist and your Facebook postings, posting domination.com TheLangique Scott Todd, are you as excited as I am?

I can't wait, Mark. I can't flip and wait.

I can't flip it away either. My heart's beating fast. But I will say that today's podcast is sponsored by landmodo.com the best and actually the most affordable platform to list your land. People are selling their land on landmodo.com like hotcakes. It's not about how many listings are are on the platform. It's about how many sales you get from listing your property on that platform. And when it comes to sell sales, there's Nothing better than landmodo.com and it's, it's pretty expensive. It's free to list. So reach deep into your wallet and pick out some lint and give it to Scott when you see him. All right, let's do this.

Why am I flipping? Okay, go ahead.

All right, let's talk to Jason Lucchese from jasonlucchese.com Jason founded his real estate investing company Global Fortune Solutions in the year 2008. Good timing, Jason. And Jason has been joining a successful career in the real estate industry since 2002 where he started as a loan officer for an Illinois brokerage bank group mortgage. In 2004, Jason joined the management team at Country Ride Home Loans. Yikes. And in 2008 it was forced him to become a full time entrepreneur. He is a real estate coach and mentor. He works directly with hedge funds. He does pre foreclosures, foreclosures, short sales reos, non performing notes and performing notes, bulk packages, wholesaling, residential commercial properties, rehabs, apartment buildings, income housing properties, lease options, self storage facilities. He has no flipping excuses by the way, podcast as well. So. And he Has a book called Right Flipping now, Create the life you want. Flipping real estate. Jason Lucchese. How are you, man?

I am doing good. That was probably one of the best introductions I've had to date.

Yeah. Tell your wife, by the way, because anytime, like, you guys get an argument, like, you know what? Listen to this, honey. I'm a big flipping deal.

That is true. That is true. I'm gonna have to do that.

Yeah, you know, put on. Put on your anchorman voice and, like, I have lots of mahogany and all that. So. Jason, let's just rewind the tape. You, unfortunately, were working at Countrywide. How on earth did you make the transition from being a employee to entrepreneur?

Well, I had to do it out of desperation. I had a son on the way, and I wasn't getting hired anywhere after the good old Countrywide days. I don't have a college degree, so getting hired anywhere was going to be extremely tough in that type of economic market. So I started watching all those flipping shows on HGTV and A& E, and I was like, you know what? That does not look that hard. And it actually was much harder than I anticipated, and I just started making it happen. It took a little bit because I went down a few wrong paths, but I did end up really hitting a stride with short sales. When I got involved, I felt like that was the best path at that point in time.

So you're like a deal junkie. Is there any aspect of real estate that you won't do?

You know, as long as it makes financial sense, I'll get involved with it. I know when we had you on our show not that long ago, you were talking about the land aspect, and I haven't really gotten involved with land, and you blew my mind away. And I was just completely like, wow, this is incredible. I'm surprised I have not done this sooner. I've done maybe, like, one or two transactions, but the way you guys do it over there at Land Geek, it's just. It's awesome.

Thank you. Thank you, Scott. Todd, do you. Do you have any problem with Jason's sort of real estate add?

I will tell you, that is one that will help all of our listeners grow in their ability to, like, here's Jason. Like, we know Jason's gonna do a land deal.

Wait, Jason, are you getting, like, every other word from Scott? Yeah, Scott, your audio's not good, but it sounded like.

I see him smiling. It looked like he was saying something really cool.

I think it was something nice.

That's not good. You still getting Every other word.

No, now we're getting it.

Okay, okay. Sorry about that.

I was saying is that now it's not working great. Okay, that's all right, Jason. We'll come back to that Scott Todd question. All right, so you've been investing for a decade now. What advice would you give your younger self from 10 years ago?

I would just. If I. If I was able to do that, it would obviously be some pointers in there about just staying focused on one strategy right off the bat, because I got myself into quite a bit of debt right off the bat by investing in training programs that, you know, where I was going, shiny object after shiny object, and I. I wanted to make something happen, but I wasn't able to really make it happen the way I wanted to because I was focusing on several different aspects, and it wasn't really helping me out. So when I got laser focused on one strategy and I started seeing results, that's when things really started taking a really nice turn for myself and the business.

So if I'm listening to this podcast and I want to be Jason Lucchese, and I want to start, you know, making a dent in the universe with real estate, in what niche would you start with and why?

You know, that's a great question. You know, wholesaling is always going to be a strategy that I always recommend. Either be in probates, vacant houses, it be with any type of property to where somebody's wanting to give you a discount on their property. Wholesaling is one of the easiest routes, but it's also going to give you a ton of experience, a ton of knowledge to go. After you've done a few wholesale properties, you can gain the knowledge that's needed to get private money involved, and you can start doing a bunch of other things. With wholesaling, I do really like your land strategy. It wasn't something that I started doing right off the bat, but wish I would have because it's a great way to create that passive cash flow.

Yeah, I mean, you know, the real advantage, I think, to raw land investing compared to all the other niches is that you don't need a lot of money, you don't have to use private money, and you're not dealing with anything physical. That being said, if you go to a party and. And you say, hey, I invest in raw land, their eyes will glaze over. Right. But if you say, hey, look, I'm a home wholesaler, like, now they're buying you a drink. Tell me about it. Like, you've got a New friend. And like, you guys start discussing HGTV type scenarios. So, you know, it's like the least sexy, geeky niche. But the barrier entry is, I think, a little easier than conventional real estate. But I do like the wholesaling model for those people that, you know, have. Have the wherewithal to do it. I mean, so I don't think there's. I think it's really good advice, which. Which leads me to the next question. What's some of the worst advice you hear given in your area of expertise?

I hear about having to set up an LLC in Nevada. You know, I got caught up in that game when I first got started because I didn't know anybody. And I've talked about it quite a bit on our show. And, you know, I'm glad you asked that question because a lot of individuals, they think they need to, you know, buy a Nevada state, you know, LLC when they don't live in LLC, 51% out of the year. So piece of advice is those companies are a dime a dozen. They'll get you, you know, to buy their LLC and, you know, their business credit building program. And I'm saying that because that's what I did, and $4,000 later of money I didn't have, you know, I wasn't really. I didn't get anything special out of it. I don't get the. I don't get the benefits of having a Nevada llc. They want you to think it is, but you're not getting those benefits at all. So I would stay away from that. I would get your LLC in the business that you're doing business, and just make sure you consult with an attorney about that.

All right, Scott, Todd, you're back.

Hopefully you can hear me now. Can you hear me?

Yes.

You sound like a songbird.

Okay, great. That's the way I want to sound, just for you guys. But what I was saying is that, you know, like, the shiny object syndrome that Jason has, like, he'll just do anything. It does freak me out in a way because two reasons. One, because, like, I don't know how you get. Keep focus to, like, even getting things done, because there's always. There can always be better opportunities with something else, right? Like, you know, there can always be better opportunities. But, Mark, this. This is the type of podcast right here, this type of episode that back in the day, before I had more of an abundance mentality would have freaked me out because I would have sat there and listened to all these deals that Jason's doing and, like, how successful he is. And to think that our little secret of land is like, Jason's gonna destroy us. But you know what, Mark, man, I've seen this community grow. I've seen the number of land investors grow, and I think we're all better because of it. It's really amazing.

Yeah, no, it's true. Because you would think somebody with a machine that Jason has built, you wouldn't want him to go into your little land investing niche. But luckily, the math really dictates that the market is so big that even Jason Lucchese is going to run out of money before he runs out of deal flow. But if you don't do that math, I'm sure there's some local areas, Jason, where the math may not work out. Could see a saturated market where you would then have to pivot. Is that possible for you?

You know, I think that would be for us. I'll just take it back real fast. A lot of the strategies that are about me are deals that we've done. But most of my business now is 70% wholesaling, 5% rehabbing, and then 25% is buy and holds. I like to try and keep things as simple as possible. So from a wholesaling perspective, it may be like two or three ways from a marketing standpoint to get deals that we can wholesale. So it's not like, you know, 10, 12 different strategies that would make me go nuts. So hopefully that makes sense. On that. I've just. We've done stuff that's fallen into our lap, and I've had to figure them out on the fly. And I'm fine with that because it made financial sense. But I agree. I used to have that scarcity mindset, too, like Scott was talking about just a second ago, where I was doing a ton of short sales. I didn't want people to know that the secret sauce behind that. And like you were saying, Mark.

Even.

When it was a saturated market with tons of short sales going on, there wasn't. There was so much to go around. Everybody and their mother could have gotten involved. Still would have been short sales for people to do. So when it comes to, like, a highly competitive market, you know, like some of your Phoenix areas, Las Vegas, San Diego, San Francisco, Tampa, all those areas. The great thing about this business is you can do it remotely. You could do it virtually from anywhere in the world. So it doesn't matter if you're living in Phoenix, Arizona, you could do deals anywhere you want across the country. You just have to know what you're doing and you have to have a strong Internet connection, a laptop, and I've even done deals just by using, you know, just my iPhone. So it's. It's really. The 2018 technology has caught up quite a bit, and you could literally do anything that you want as far as technique and strategy.

All right, Jason, I'm going to take your iPhone. Okay. I'm going to delete all the apps except for one. Which app would you like? No way. This will affect my business so severely. You could have the rest of them, but not this one.

That's a great question, man. I really. To be honest with you, I really, really like LinkedIn because I have a lot of my connections on there. So as soon as you delete everything, I could. I could go on there and start communicating with a lot of the. The connections I already have on LinkedIn. That's where we find a lot of our hedge funds, our bankers. We find a lot of our folks on LinkedIn that we're able to work with. So I would definitely want to keep LinkedIn if that was my one choice.

Scott. Todd, I'm surprised, but I'm not that surprised because the cliche, your net worth is equal to your network, I think, really is what Jason is saying here is that. Is that what you're kind of deciphering as well?

Yeah. In fact, I was. When you asked that question, I was trying to think what mine would be. And I like Jason's better, but mine would be my email, because everything is in email, right? Like, I can pick up. I can, like, send. Send tasks for people to do. Like, I could do it all through email. I could delegate everything. But LinkedIn is pretty dang good because that's where all your people are, too.

I was gonna say LG Pass for me.

LG Pass.

I mean, like, you know, if Land Moto had a. An app, I'd say that. But email. LG Pass is a good second LinkedIn.

Yeah, but you can have your. You can have your assistant go in and do your email right through.

True that.

Like, sat.

I could. I could mail offers from an LGPAT, but LGPass doesn't have an app. Like, you know, we could do it through the browser. The Internet browser. Does that count, Mark?

The Internet browser? Yeah, that counts.

Yeah. Jason, I think I just beat your system, though. Like, you're saying LinkedIn. I'm thinking the Internet browser, because then I can get to LinkedIn. Yeah, that's it.

I got the best one.

Mark.

The Internet browser, honestly, like, it's not a competition.

Guys, it's really.

I think they're both good answers, you know, so the irascible Scott Todd.

You see how three heads working together, like, we came up with the ultimate. That is the ultimate answer to your question.

Mark.

I think that's the. I don't think there's a better answer. The Internet browser.

There is. Internet browser is a really good answer. Yeah, that's a great one.

And Jason's network.

Can you still do it on the browser? Yeah. Oh, he could still do it in the browser. All right. Find the browser.

Look at what we did, though. I think this goes to what Jason was saying, though. Jason said he likes things that are simple. The browser is a simple example.

Yeah, okay, but which browser? I just downloaded Firefox for iOS.

I like Google Chrome.

Chrome, Scott.

I'm not the old Chrome.

All right, So I guess I'm the only one who really values privacy. That's okay. Look, I'm not judging. Not judging at all. Let's get back to talking to Jason, though, because, Jason, this is a really interesting question. I'm. I'd be really excited to hear what your answer is going to be. What do you believe is normal or cool or wise that other people think is just absolutely crazy?

Hmm. I would say sleep. A lot of people think, you know, hey, I need to be up three hours or I need to have three hours of sleep every night, and I'm going to be a. Okay. I love when Gary Vee talks about, oh, I'm always grinding, I'm always doing this, I'm always doing that. And he, you know, he's like on three, four hours of sleep, and you can tell that the guy just doesn't get enough sleep. And I'm a big believer in seven, eight hours every night. That's going to get the job done. And if you aren't seeing it get done sooner, then sleep a little faster. But it's just so funny when I see these posts on Facebook from these people that I know aren't successful, and they're like, yeah, I'm up every night at 4, and, you know, I sleep four hours a day. I'm crushing it. And I'm like, okay, Gary Vee, calm down. And it's just not a lot of people. I'm a big believer in that. It's not like, hey, I'm sleeping like I was when I was 19, like 12 hour days. But, man, so many people would call me crazy for that one. And, Mark, you're kind of giving me the crazy eyes now. So I think it may have, may have worked.

It's just the caffeine. Jason, I honestly believe that answer. You know, it's interesting that. And Scott, tell me if you think I'm wrong. I think the people listening to this podcast don't think that's crazy. I think the Grant Cardone, Gary Vee crowd are drinking sort of that juice. Like you got to burn both ends of the candle. You got to go, go, go work seven days a week, 80, you know, 80 hours a day. Don't ever stop if you talk to your children, why talk to them when, you know, you're tired and, and sort of, you know, you know, the culture of achievement trumps sort of everything else. I don't think, I don't think our group, I think our group's more about enough. So, Scott, what do you think?

Well, I do think that our group is about enough. And I think that, you know, like, it's, it's about, like. I think the people that are listening to this podcast are probably the people that are thinking about like, time, free, freedom, and not necessarily like dollars are great, but, you know, like, I mean, you know, like at our last boot camp, Mark, I mean, we had two people there that were like, you know, part of the ambitiously lazy group. You know, like they're proud of it, right? Like that's who we're attracting.

No, I mean, I'm so ambitiously lazy. I put that in my subtitle of Dirt Rich. I mean, because you can always make more money, you can't get more time. I think that it's one of those concepts that people either kind of go all in on or they completely reject. And they're sort of in that other camp, which is like, let's just say the shark, right? I've got to constantly be swimming, swimming, swimming. If I stop, I'll die. And I don't think that really has. It's not a long term strategy unless, you know, you're Gary Vee or Grant Cardone. I'm not sure how those guys necessarily do it, but they seem to promote it really, really well.

I think that wouldn't, wouldn't it be based on to like, you know, the. How they're keeping score, right? Like they're keeping score with dollars. They're not keeping score with time. I think that people really do fall into two buckets, though. They're either keeping score with the dollars that they're earning or the dollars in their bank account or their net worth. And then you've got the people that are just really about the time. I mean like, you know, it's about the people that want the time to spend with their family. They want the time to go do the stuff that they want to do. They want to live now. Like, you know, it's almost like the Tim Ferriss crowd, you know, Tim Ferriss crowd is not to me, I think is not necessarily about the dollars. It's more about the time too.

No, it's absolutely true. And the whole time thing is so valuable. It's a commodity that you can't buy more of. And it's also seeing those guys and having them come out with their live videos all the time, it gets people motivated, it gets them excited. But what they don't understand is not everybody's built that way. And for me, could I do that now like I used to when I was at country, I work in 16, 17 hour days. I wouldn't want to do that because I've got a 10, an almost 8 year old and a 3 year old. I would literally have no time to spend with them. And you know what's funny is I didn't know until recently that Gary V. Had a wife. He never talks about her. And he may have kids too. He just doesn't talk about maybe he wants to keep them private or whatnot. And that's cool. But you know, you see Grant, he's got kids but he never makes videos like, you know, showing them like with family time. It's just I really value that the most in my business. That's why I did my business is because I wanted that freedom.

No, absolutely, absolutely. Well, we're at that point now in the podcast, Jason, where we're going to put you on the spot, ask you for your tip of the week, a website or resource, a book, something actionable where the art of passive income listeners can go improve their businesses, improve their lives. What have you got?

Sure, so I've got the landgeek.com Jason. This is Jason.

That's my tip. You're taking my.

That's your tip. Okay, yeah, I will give another tip away then. If individuals are looking for cash buyers, investors, even potential private money lenders down the road, there is a free site called section8.com and it's section and then the number 8. So section8.com and you could go on there and look at current available listings anywhere you want across the country. And you know it's going to pop up on there mark is the individual's phone number. So it's either going to be the landlord or, or it's going to be the property manager and 60, 65% of the time it's the actual landlord themselves. So you could either buy properties from those landlords that maybe they don't want to do the landlord thing anymore, or they could be your potential cash buyers and eventually turn into private money lenders like we've been able to turn some into. So it's a great website, it's free, it doesn't cost you anything.

You know what I'm thinking, Scott Todd, we could web scrape that bad boy.

Yeah, we got tools we can use.

Yeah. All right. That's a great tip. We're going to do it the lazy way, totally lazy way. We're ambitiously lazy. We're not going to manually go in there and click on things.

We'll leave that for the like of Jason. We're going to do it the smart way.

Exactly. Scott Todd, what's your tip of the week?

Mark? I love getting like email newsletters, you know, like, you know, like all the sales and what people are selling everything. And I, I like them not because I want to buy things, like I like them because I like to look at what other people are doing and offering and all this other stuff. But you know what I hate is getting the emails because they clutter up your email and of course you can do filters and all this other stuff. But wait until you see this website. Check out emailtuna.com email tuna, like the fish email tuna.com and what this does is it basically takes all those pesky email like newsletters and even ones that I've never even heard of before. And basically they store them here for you so that you can go and search and look at design, look at offers, look at, I don't know, maybe you want to look at something to buy. It's kind of cool. But you know, like there's thousands of emails up there. You can do competitive research, see what's trending, pictures in the ads, all this other stuff. I think it's a great little ninja marketing tool. Check it out.

Is no flipping excuses on there, 20% off. No.

I've tried to like figure out how to put them on there, but I can't do it.

This is really, this is a really cool way of sort of letting you peacefully or, you know, less anxiously opt out of all those email newsletters and just go here and just search for what you know you like. As far as getting a discount.

Yep, you won't miss it.

Man, I hate when you give a good tip. This is so Good.

All right.

Well, my tip of the week is probably the best tip of the week because it's learned more about Jason and he's gonna give us some free education@thelandgeek.com Jason. So I have a link in there, and you can go in there and, Jason, what are the listeners going to learn?

Well, the cool thing about it is it's going to be a free infograph showing people a step by step process of how to find and flip probate properties. So it's going to. It's a resource right now that's really, really good. And once they get that, it's. It goes right to their email box. They could download it and put it up. It's a really, really great infograph for showing them how to go out and about today to get those properties.

Okay, and just in case the listeners don't know what probate properties are, would you mind defining it? Oh, Jason is frozen. I'll define it for him. So probate property is when somebody dies, then they have to go through probate. And oftentimes the heirs of that property don't want the property anymore. And it's more of a headache for them to have to deal with that property than anything else. And so oftentimes, the probate attorney will look for investors to quickly sell that property. I want to thank all the listeners. Scott, are we good? Yeah. Good.

Yeah, Mark, we're good.

All right. I want to thank all the listeners. I want to thank Jason Lucchese that had to drop off. And I want to remind everybody, you know, please do us a favor. Please support the podcast. And the way to do that is you've got to subscribe, you got to rate, you got to review the podcast. Send us a screenshot of that review to support@the lang.com we are going to send you for free the $97 passive income launch kit course for free. So please do that. And we're gonna see everybody next time. Let freedom ring. Thanks, everybody.