4 Steps To Help You Get Started In Multifamily Business

"If you’re not going to sell yourself, nobody is going to gas you up and sell you."

That's what one of my podcast guests Matthew Baltzell told me not long ago. He said that you have to be able to sell yourself to get your foot in the door. He recommends thinking about it like you’re trying to go to the grocery store, first, if you can’t even get in, you can’t even buy any food. But once you're in there, you’re like, “I came in here for chicken, but these Doritos are looking good." So your appetite is adapting. Maybe you say that you can't create a thought leadership platform. Take some courses, there are no excuses, you could take online courses, you can go to your community college, you could take several of these courses, syndicators have. 

So that’s what you’re going to want to do initially and you’re also going to want to identify what your weaknesses are. If you approach somebody and they say, 

“Hey, you know, I am looking for somebody to underwrite.” 

You don’t want to lie, right? You want to be honest and it’s not having weaknesses, it’s okay to be bad at something at first, but you must progress and learn from it. You must be honest if they say, 

"I know a little bit about underwriting like let me figure it out, come back to you."

, progress from there, know your weaknesses. The second thing you’re going to want to do is to find someone you want to be like. Go to meetups, listen to podcasts, read books, journals, go to Facebook forums, listen to great podcasts. Listen to the people that are on the podcast, go to their blogs, see what they’re writing about, see what podcast they’ve been on, educate yourself and you can really start learning a lot from these people. You say, 

“Okay, I want to emulate myself.”

A lot of the syndication models it’s almost like a simple plug, you’re going in, you’re adding value, you want to increase the NOI, you want to reduce your operating expenses. We’re going to sell this in five years, on to the next one. Go in and create the NOI, drop the expenses, get a good management team in, sell in 3-5 years. So, rinse and repeat. That’s what you are learning from these people if they’ve been successful, as long as you are listing and following, the odds are, you're more than likely to be successful. 

Listen to the episode on: https://lifebridgecapital.com/2019/08/ws305-leveraging-your-value-to-find-the-perfect-mentor-with-matthew-baltzell/

Write down the observations that you find within, on blogs, what are people talking about? What are people saying? Learn the lingo, learn the jargon and you’ll really be able to start picking out, kind of like a niche of where you see that you could fit in. Even on finding someone that you want to be like, most likely, this person has posted numerous times on social media or BiggerPockets. You can learn a little more about them and what they’re focusing on and even some track record and even see what other people are commenting on their posts, so you learn more about that individual. And so, when you’re seeing all this stuff, you should be starting to develop a clear picture of where you see yourself fitting in within the industry. "

You’re going to have to develop your own style of speaking, you’ll develop your own style of investing and you won’t know until you really put yourself out there, so you must start." 

The third thing is, you must have clarity. What are your goals? Are your goals to become a future sponsor? Do you want to raise capital, do you want to own 10 units a year or acquire 10 units a year? Do you want to own a thousand units in six years? Matthew thinks that’s important to really know and clarify your goal going in. And that can always change, there are all kinds of things that can change – your goals can constantly change, but Matthew thinks it’s important to have a goal going in. Why do you want a mentor? A mentor might ask you, 

“Why do you want a mentor?” 

“I want to get rich and I want to do this.”

Everybody’s busy, you know? All the sponsors, capital raisers, time is limited and if you can’t sell yourself and you can‘t explain to somebody why you want a mentor, then you’re out of luck. And also, what are your expectations? This is why Matthew thinks that going for a free mentor is the best way to go about it. Because when you put money down, it definitely changes things. It’s a give and takes like, 

“I gave you a thousand, now you should be having 25 units by now, you’re my problem.”

And I don’t know, that’s just a different avenue, this is for finding a free mentor. What are your expectations? What are you looking for in a mentor? Are you looking for somebody to hold your hand, are you looking for weekly calls? Are you looking to have access to a sponsor on a monthly basis? On a quarterly basis? These are all things to be considered. And then the fourth thing is, you’re going to want to reach out and add value. So add value first and go back to listening to the podcasts, blogs, journals, the Facebook forums, success always leaves its clues.

Listen to the episode on: https://lifebridgecapital.com/2019/08/ws305-leveraging-your-value-to-find-the-perfect-mentor-with-matthew-baltzell/