WS392: Picking Emerging Markets with Sensei Gilliland

Starting out in real estate investing can be daunting for a novice and it was no different for our guest today, Sensei Gilliland when he first set out on his investment journey. Through self-education and relentless pursuit of excellence, Sensei Gilliland and his Black Belt Investors have become a real estate force to be reckoned with. Sensei Gilliland has a knack for picking emerging markets to invest in and he shares some of the incredible strategies and processes he uses to scout for them.

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He primarily invests in distressed markets, with histories of good performance and has the rigor of a Navy SEAL when researching to ensure his investors have their expectations fulfilled when he brings them to the market. Sensei Gilliland offers some of the criteria to look at when picking these markets, such as the state of the economy and recovery from previous downturns as well as tips on timing a market exit. While it is not possible to predict the future, his thorough research techniques and forecasts are about as close to predicting as is possible to get. Sensei Gilliland’s highly proactive approach does not stop at researching which markets to enter – it extends to project management and even his approach to continued education. To learn more from this unique and exciting real estate guru, join us today!

Key Points From This Episode:

  • Why Sensei Gilliland chose to invest in real estate over other business opportunities.
  • The incredible story of Sensei Gilliland’s first fix and flip deal that he did remotely.
  • What Sensei Gilliland does to find emerging markets to invest in.
  • It is crucial to understand the basics of the real estate cycle.
  • There is not one real estate market, but rather numerous micro-markets even within a city.
  • What the ‘diamond states’ are and an example of one Sensei Gilliland has invested in.
  • The markets where Sensei Gilliand has previously invested and is currently investing in.
  • What prompted Sensei Gilliland to leave the Las Vegas market in 2014? 
  • The processes that Sensei Gilliland has in place when deciding to enter a new market.
  • Losing money is an inevitable cost of doing business.
  • The quality of contractors and property managers can make or break how a project unfolds.
  • Vetting and accountability techniques to use for finding property managers and contractors.
  • How Sensei Gilliland, as a wholesaler, uses purchase options to prepare for the downturn.
  • Utilizing owner financing investment options can shield you from negative downturn effects.
  • No matter your level of experience, coaching and consulting will always help you improve.
  • The numerous ways that Sensei Gilliland likes to give back.

[bctt tweet=”I treated that first fix and flip like I treat a can of Pringles. Once you pop, you can’t stop. — @SenseiGilliland” username=”whitney_sewell”]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Sensei Gilliland on LinkedIn

Sensei Gilliland on Twitter

Sensei Gilliland’s contact number — 951-280-1900

Black Belt Investors

Remote Rehabs

Remote Rehabs Book

CoreLogic

Blackstone

Auction.com

About Sensei Gilliland

Sensei Gilliland is the founder of real estate education, investment and consulting company, Black Belt Investors. After becoming one of the top-ranked martial artists in the country, and establishing a chain of successful martial arts schools, Sensei discovered the huge rewards of investing in real estate for himself in 1995. After making thousands of dollars on that first deal, he was hooked. He quickly scaled his investments and operations to wholesaling, rehabbing, and turnkey rentals properties, a journey you can read about in his book, Remote Rehabs: How to Make Incredible Real Estate Returns in the Best Property Markets, without Lifting a Hammer. For a free copy, visit Sensei’s website at BlackBeltInvestors.com. Sensei is also credited with founding the West Coast’s top-ranked real estate investors club. He has received the Real Estate Wealth Battalion Award, has been featured on the cover of Real Estate Wealth Magazine, and is regularly sought out for commentary on the market. Today Sensei is a national speaker, private consultant and active investor who has trained thousands of investors to find their own financial freedom through real estate.

Full Transcript

[INTRODUCTION]

[00:00:00] ANNOUNCER: Welcome to The Real Estate Syndication Show. Whether you are a seasoned investor or building a new real estate business, this is the show for you. Whitney Sewell talks to top experts in the business. Our goal is to help you master real estate syndication.

And now your host, Whitney Sewell.

[INTERVIEW]

[00:00:24] WS: This is your daily Real Estate Syndication Show. I’m your host, Whitney Sewell. Today, our guest is Sensei Gilliland. Thanks for being on the show, Sensei.

[00:00:32] SG: Hey! I appreciate you having me here.

[00:00:34] WS: Yeah. I’m happy to have you on the show. Just our conversation before recording has been very interesting, and you have a very unique background. This is awesome. But thank you so much for your time. But real quick, I want to remind the listeners to go to our Facebook group, the Real Estate Syndication Show. We can learn from experts like Sensei and about all the different parts of the business. You can ask questions. You can ask questions that you want me to ask guests on the show as well. Then also, go to Life Bridge Capital where you can connect with me personally.

So, a little about Sensei, he founded Black Belt Investors and began investing in 1995. Since then, he has created cash through wholesaling real estate, obtained wealth through rental properties, and continues to teach his methods through educational events, helping people to achieve their financial dreams. He has mastered the art of buy, sell, and hold techniques. And after attaining his first goal of making $1 million in real estate, he began teaching others using his simple yet effective methods.

That’s great to hear that you had success, and it’s like, “How can I teach others to do the same thing, and so they can have that same kind of success?” So, thank you, again, Sensei, for being on the show. Give the listeners a little more about who you are and maybe how the company got the name Black Belt Investors. Then let’s dive into it.

[00:01:51] SG: Right on. Well, you know. Guys, I’m just like you. I was a listener. Back then, I wasn’t listening to podcasts. I was listening to 8-tracks and cassettes. And so, honestly, cassette was back in the day for me. But in real estate investing, it’s been very intriguing to me, and I started my very first business of martial arts right out of high school. I graduated in ’87. ’88, I rolled around and opened up my first school, which I still own and operate today. We own several of them throughout LA County. But that is an afterschool, evening, night type of job, and I knew that it would fulfill me in what I love to do, and that’s teach. I know that I’m a natural born teacher.

And so, with that, I was able to grow that business up to 11 facilities. But I also realized that it’s not going to be enough to achieve my financial dreams. So, with that, I was looking at a lot of different businesses, and everybody’s after passive businesses. It’s got to be easy, got to make some money. And so, I was actually taking a look at coin-op carwashes. Why? Because you hire a senior citizen two hours a day. They fill up the soaps. They collect all the coins. Basically, you got a 24/7-hour business that runs water and not a whole lot to take care of.

Well, I had one thing I didn’t understand. I didn’t understand lease, build the suit, commercial, zoning, all that stuff. I didn’t understand it. I understand the process of building the business. I understand the business itself, but I didn’t understand the real estate. But you know what? Whitney, this is what I learned: Real estate controls all businesses. And when I figured that out, I’m in. So. I kind of ditched the coin-op carwash thing and just jumped right into real estate.

Now, trust me. I am a sink or swim type of guy. Not everybody is like that. But I would assume you are, because you’ve got a military background, and I find those guys are very much like me with the martial arts background. Very disciplined, show lots of respect, honor, and do your best, and to serve others before you serve yourself. And so, with that, I jumped into real estate back in 1994. I heard some guy at LAX talk about flipping houses. I wanted to get involved. Thought I can do it during the day, because I had a night job. The next thing you know, I swiped my credit card for 1,500 bucks to attend a three-day seminar. Fantastic. Got a lot of information, very basic information, but it was a new language to me. So was everything.

The next thing you know, I swiped my card for another $32,000 to buy into a bouquet of seminars. They called them boot camps back then. I wanted to flip houses, but I’m sitting there and learning about mobile home parks, creative financing, rehabbing, pre-foreclosures, asset protection. A bunch of stuff that’s important but not really what I was after. So, I had to funnel it all down and get down to fixing and flipping properties.

Well, ’95 rolled around, and it was a very big year for me. I was dating my girlfriend that became my fiancé. We got married. We bought a house. We had a baby. The house was a textbook real estate deal where it’s an out-of-state owner that was an alcoholic. Her husband had passed away. The house was in despair, and it was a short sale. I bought it, pennies on the dollar. I fixed it up. I did a cash-out refinance. I bought my very first fix and flip in Fort Myers, Florida while living here in California, all in the year of 1995.

I could tell you right now, people are probably thinking that’s a lot to do in one year, because just planning a wedding or having a baby is enough. That’s just kind of how I roll. So, we jumped right in. Bought our very first fix and flip, and I was told it’s going to take about six months to get it all fixed up, flip, and make some money. Next thing you know, seven months come round. Eight months have come around. I didn’t have the money to go back and take a look at the property. I only saw it one time when I bought it. But nine months comes. I get a FedEx envelope, ripped it open, pull out a check with a little over $9,000 in net profits.

Whitney, I did it. I did it. I did it remotely. I did it without the Internet, because we didn’t have the Internet like we do today. I didn’t get to see the property. The only time I got to see a property is when the contractor sent me a Polaroid, and that was my update. But I made a little over 9,000 bucks. So, I treated that first fix and flip like I treat a can of Pringles. Once you pop, you can’t stop. So, I went back over there and started buying more properties. Today’s date, we’re knocking on the door with 15,000 flips, providing turnkey houses in apartment complexes to investors worldwide. And with that comes along syndications as well.

[00:06:24] WS: So, it’s very interesting story. I appreciate you sharing. It doesn’t matter if you’re fixing and flipping, which 15,000 flips, that’s extremely impressive. No doubt, you have developed great systems and great processes to be able to achieve that kind of number. Where are all those flips? Is it like nationwide? Is it a couple different markets?

[00:06:44] SG: Yes. So, I’ve always been a real estate nomad. I move from market to market. I typically find a distressed market that historically has done well in the past. So, when that distressed markets appears, I go in and I start doing my research on the local economy, the state economy, figuring out, “Is this market going to blossom again or is it going to be completely dead?”

So, we’ve been able to move around in markets before they become an emerging market and have been able to buy dirt low and then turn around and resell at low prices. So, I kind of model my business like Costco, where we move quality product but at very good pricing. So, with that, we’ve been in anywhere from Florida to Hawaii, to Ohio, to Phoenix, to Texas. Slap-dab in the middle of United States, of Kansas City, Missouri. So, we’ve been quite a few markets over the years.

[00:07:37] WS: Can you maybe talk about how you’re finding that next market or what you’re looking for, because that’s what all of us want to do, right?

[00:07:44] SG: Sure.

[00:07:44] WS: It’s finding the next emerging market. Would you elaborate on that?

00:07:48] SG: Yeah. First, I think, number one, everybody has to have at least the basics of understanding of a real estate cycle. They got to understand that real estate cycles don’t happen nationwide, simultaneously. They’re all in different cycles. So, a lot of people say, “Well, California.” No. Where in California? “Well, in Los Angeles.” Where in Los Angeles?  Because there’s so many micro-markets within Los Angeles County, it’s not fair to just dump them all in one basket. So, to understand the expansion stage, the contraction stage, the recession stage, things like that is very important in my business. So, I want to see where the next market is going to fall. If they have already fallen, are they getting ready to pick it back up again?

So, let’s say for an example, we just trail back that we’re all familiar with. I ensure everybody in this podcast today is all familiar with our great recession, 2008. Well, your primary markets fell apart pretty darn big. Your Californias, Texas, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Florida, those are your diamond states. Your diamond states are Florida, Texas, Nevada, Arizona, and California. Why are they the diamond states? Because they appreciate the best historically. When they appreciate really high like they did back in 2005 and ’06, they also crash the fastest and the hardest. But they also bounce back the quickest.

So, when we are doing a lot of deals of fixing and flipping here in Southern California, Phoenix, and Las Vegas, we are working this triangle here back in 2004, ’05, and ’06. Market falls apart. Well, I jumped on North Carolina, because North Carolina at that time, specifically Charlotte, was not falling in value. They were actually rising in value, because they were set back a little bit in this real estate cycle. So, we were still able to buy at a very good price, collect depreciation in 2008 and ’09, and then it really started tapering off.

So, for us, it’s important to be able to watch and measure these different markets, and you’ve got a lot of companies out there that do put out annual reports like NAR or possibly your local realtors’ association or title companies that provide these reports. Then you can dive a little bit deeper and maybe go into CoreLogic or something where you subscribe to and start watching these trends. But to me, the media – That’s mass media, and everybody knows about it. So, with that, we got to go and start diving in and in figuring out, “Okay. Phoenix just crashed, and they crashed big time because they had over a 50% appreciation rate in 2005, which is insane.” Well, if they fell apart, do they have the ability to recover?

The housing market fell apart in Phoenix, but the business, the economy did not. In fact, it was still growing at a rapid pace and still 10 years later doing extremely well, where they’re in the top 10 growing economies. So that tells us, “Okay. We’ve got a safety net here. Sure, real estate fell apart. But if the jobs are here, people will still move here.” So, we were selling properties turnkey in Phoenix for $250,000 but now buying them at auction for $28 to $32,000 for the same house that was only two or three years old. So, we gobbled up as many as we could. Then not only did we recognize that. A few years later, who recognized this? Blackstone.

Other big hedge fund buyers came in and start gobbling everything up, which push the values up, and the demand grows as well and the inventory shrunk. So, then we got to take a look and say, “Okay. These companies that got billions to spend, they have a ceiling. They have a certain criteria of where they’re going have to cap themselves.” Once they’re capped, they’re going to have excess of money. Where are they going to move to next? So, we take a look at secondary markets at that time.

So, we’re buying a lot between 2009 to 2012 in Phoenix and Vegas. We pull out of Vegas in 2014. We’re buying properties now in Indianapolis and over in Kansas City, Missouri thinking, “Okay. These two markets historically have done very well. They’ve been solid markets. They’re going to offer a certain price point, a certain cap rate. The economy is there. The job is there. The rental market is there.

So, if these hedge fund buyers max out, where are they going to go next? My hunch is going to be these secondary markets. So, we moved over and start buying properties over there for 15, 20,000 dollars, multi-units starting about $40,000. You know what comes? Here comes the hedge fund buyers, and they start buying things up after us, pushing those values up. So, we bounce over to another market like Cleveland. Cleveland, we’ve been there since 2012, I believe, doing very well. It’s an undervalued market. Investors love the apartments there, because you could literally buy something dirt cheap and get, you know, double-digit returns. Well, hedge fund buyers now start slowly moving over in that direction and buying more properties, gobbling up inventory.

So, we’ve been very, very in tune with what’s happening in the market space so that we can basically get our boots in. I don’t want to say we’re lucky, because luck is for people that don’t know what they’re doing. But we’ve been somewhat lucky, because we’re forecasting. When you’re forecasting, we don’t really know what’s going to happen in the future, right? But we forecast it very well.

[00:13:08] WS: You’re making your best guess. Yeah. It’s a very educated guess though. I mean, that’s what everybody’s doing. Taking all the information that you’re talking about and doing the best that you can. But you were talking about – I mean, there’s so many things there that we could talk about, but you said you pulled out of Vegas in 2014. When would you know to leave a market like that?

[00:13:26] SG: Well, the reason why we pulled out of Vegas in 2014 is because auction.com came into town. Vegas only has one auction location, whereas in Phoenix we were working 12 different auction locations that were happening Monday through Friday. So, the inventory is much more constrained in the Vegas market. To me, Vegas is a linear economy. What I mean by that is that everything relies on gambling. If gambling’s down, everything else falls apart. You sure you can go there during the recession time, and hotels are still sold out. But they’re sold out at dirt cheap prices. Yeah, buffets. People like me are still going to line up, but the gambling tables are a little empty. So gambling is way down. Gambling is down. Construction is down. Everything is down. With only having one auction location with auction.com coming into place, that made a little bit hard for us to acquire the deals that we needed, because it’s a linear economy.

Vegas is surrounded by mountains, so it’s kind of like this bowl. So, they can’t really expand much more than what they already have. But when you match up the Vegas market and the Phoenix market, they have the same type of house, the same pricing. The same rents are going on, the same weather. Everything is basically the same, except for one thing: the economy. The economy over in Phoenix is basically booming where Vegas is slowly starting to recover. And so, when we are measuring those two different markets, we said, “You know what? It’s best for us just to stay in the Phoenix market, because we do have that safety net.” To me, it’s very important to know how to get out of an investment before you get into the investment. When I’m out there serving other investors, it’s very important to me that I put a hedge of protection around them. So, I like exit strategies, and Phoenix at that time offered more exit strategies than Vegas. So, it was a very simple decision.

[00:15:21] WS: Nice. So, some great information and it’s just impressive to me that you’re able to pretty much just pick the market, and you can just establish there and make it happen pretty much anywhere in the country. So, could you tell me a couple processes that you’ve put in place that have been crucial in just being able to just say, “Okay. You hadn’t bought anything in Cleveland before, but I know that’s where we need to go.” What’s the first few processes or systems you’re going to have in place to make that happen?

[00:15:47] SG: Yeah. So, if we’re scouting new neighborhoods or new cities, I basically set up camp. I work like Navy SEAL. I rope off a perimeter. I learn everything about that perimeter before I get over there, so I know what to do when I get there. So, I’m not just driving up and down the streets, hoping to stumble across something. I make about a lot of appointments, especially with the building departments in those cities. So, I can find and figure out if there’s any new construction, if there’s any new infrastructure that’s going to be rebuilt or built. What’s happening in that town? Plus is it a business-friendly atmosphere? That’s another important to me. Because it’s business- friendly, then business will start pouring in there.

So, I set up a lot of appointments, and I spend literally about a month in that area, learning everything from residential to commercial, to lending, to tax law, to infrastructure, to new businesses coming in town, learn it inside and out. I need to know it like the back of my hand.

[00:16:45] WS: So, you personally are going to go there and stay at least a month?

[00:16:47] SG: Absolutely. Absolutely. Me and a team. I don’t do it by myself. There’s no way I can do it all by myself. So, I bring a small team, and we just set up camp and we learn everything about the market. Then we test the market, because there’s a lot of things that – like, for instance, you mentioned Cleveland. There’s a lot of things in Cleveland that I’ve never experienced before in other markets. Literally, I have covered quite a bit of different states in the United States and being in these different markets.

But Cleveland has acted a little bit differently with certain things that they’ve recently put in place. So, I ended up losing about $40,000 right off the bat with single-family houses.

Well, that’s my mistake. But I’m there to make those mistakes, so I can learn. It’s a cost of doing business. No one likes to lose money. But if you’re going to be a business, expect it. I don’t care how good you are. I mean, I was freaking sitting on a panel just two weeks ago with some Australian guy, talking about he’s been in the business for 20 years, and he’s never lost a red cent. BS. You’re lying. You’re lying to these people. Don’t make yourself sound good. I’d call them out on it.

So, you’re going to lose money. So, I test the market first, try it out, learn what the kinks that we need to iron out, and then I start bringing over investors.

[00:17:58] WS: I love it. I love it that you’re personally going there. But also, the, I would call, pre-investigation work. Before you ever get there, you understand the market. You’re already making those connections. You’re setting up the meetings. You’re not just hoping that you run into something when you get there or somebody drives you around. You’re going to know those streets before you ever arrive there.

[00:18:18] SG: Yeah. Exactly. I tell everybody that hoping and wishing is not a course of action. I find that a lot of my students or a lot of my investors are people that are not my investors but listen to me and want to go try things out on their own, whether it’s Cleveland, Phoenix, Indianapolis, wherever it may be, they fly out there. They just drive around in circles like Driving Mrs. Daisy, trying to figure things out. And then they go buy something. The next thing you know, they’re being ripped off, they’re paying too much, they bought the wrong neighborhood, and they end up losing a lot of money, which is very unfortunate. But you can either take wise counsel or you can take a complete risk.

[00:18:56] WS: Alright, Sensei. A few more questions before we run out of time.

[00:19:00] SG: Shoot them at me.

[00:19:00] WS: So, what’s been the hardest part of this, the real estate business for you?

[00:19:04] SG: The hardest part is working with engineers. What I mean is as clients, because they question everything to death. “What about this? What about the –” No, I’m joking kind of. But you know what? I’m just going to be honest. I can pretty much take care of everything. But the two most difficult things in this business, whether you’re working by flipping a house or you’re doing a syndication on apartment complex, is working with contractors and property management, because they can be your best friend or worst enemy.

I’m sorry. It’s not some big story I can tell. But honestly, it boils down to who’s taking care of your property and how much leverage do you have with them? Because if the property management is not going to do their job or they’re just going to nickel and dime you to death, your investment’s going to go straight down the drain. If your contractor is doing the same or not showing up, you’re going to lose a lot of money.

So those are the two things that I have found difficulty with. Anything in regards to the process, the transaction itself, like I always tell my wife, “Don’t worry about it. It’ll work out,” and it usually does.

[00:20:14] WS: Are there any techniques you’ve learned or maybe one specifically that’s helped you in navigating that relationship with the property management or general contractor?

[00:20:22] SG: Yes. So, we do a lot of vetting with property managements. We don’t own property management, but we do screen them pretty heavily. You know as well as I do, they’re going to say what they want to say to make themselves sound good. But there’s a track record. So, if I’m going to go for property management in unfamiliar territory, I’m probably going to call up a lot of different REIAs in the area, your Real Estate Investment Associations. There’s Meetups in the area, other investors, home investors, whoever’s got base camp on the grounds. Start really researching, “Hey! Who do you guys go to for property management?”

That’ll start being an indicator of filtering down these property management companies that if you start hearing from RE/MAX and Century 21, your local REIA group, saying, “Hey! Go to ABC property management over here. We sent a lot of people there.” That’s probably a pretty good indicator that you should probably go look and vet them, because they’re being referred by other people. That is a starting point for us.

And the same thing goes with contractors as well. But we like to hold everybody accountable too. So, yeah, there’s techniques that come, along with holding your contractor accountable, making sure that things get done on time, making sure that you don’t rely on your contractor to give you the word. Yeah, walk through the property. Everything is good.

No. Maybe you hire a project manager on the ground. So, I deploy project managers out of California to set up camp in all the different markets that we’re in. Then they follow and trail behind the contractor to make sure that they’re doing their job on a timely manner and properly. So, yeah. It’s a little bit more of a detail process and a little bit more of an expense, but it’s worth it if you can take care of all your investors.

[00:21:57] WS:  How do you prepare for another downturn?

[00:22:00] SG: That’s awesome. Okay. So, listen. In Southern California, back in 2006, I had a company come out of Chicago to take a look at my company to basically figure out all the cracks of my company, so we can seal them up because we know the downturn was coming. At that time, there was 126 real estate clubs happening in Southern California. I own two of them at that time. So, I ran real estate clubs for 16 years.

So, 2008 rolls around, and out of that 126 real estate clubs, there are only 9 left, and 2 of them are mine. So, you got to ask yourself, “What happened?” In real estate, you get all tanked. What happened is, is that those real estate club leaders that were pushing turnkey investments, preconstruction, fix and flips, wholesaling, did not know how to act like a Navy SEAL when it came to real estate adapt to the situation. So, they went back to their job at Walmart or wherever they were working before. Then they jumped on the bandwagon and renamed themselves, rebranded when everything got easy and good again.

So, the question to me from you was how do I set up for these downturns? Look. It’s easy for me, because I’m a wholesaler first. Wholesaling doesn’t just mean assigning contracts. Wholesaling means acquisition at wholesale prices, whether you’re going to flip a contract, buy, fix, and flip a property, or buy and hold or even move into the property. That’s a true wholesaler. A wholesaler, if you can picture yin-yang, we know what a yin-yang is right? The little circle with a little squirrely line with the two circles there. Wholesaling is here. So, when the cycles change, it’s tough to wholesale and you can’t get these properties, it’s out of balance.

So, for me, what’s important is putting together this other component here called purchase options. Purchase options would be considered subject to financing, lease options, contract for deeds, land installment contracts, owner financing, wraparound mortgages, AITDs. This is the creative financing. Wholesaling is about equity positions, and creative financing is not so much about equity positions.

So, when this downturn came, I wasn’t able to balance myself out by acquiring properties that people can no longer afford and taking them over with financing already in place. So, it’s a great way for me to build up my portfolio, because, number one, I can’t get any more loans. I’m tapped out. My wife is now tapped out on loans. We do things separately in regards to real estate. She qualifies for 10. I qualify for 10. 20 loans, I’m done.

So, I either have to pay cash or have to use some sort of creative financing. Now, the option is do I pay cash or creative financing? Creative financing all day long. Because then I keep my cash in the bank and utilize it for other type of investments. So, I love going after apartment complexes, commercial buildings with owner financing in place. So, it’s a great strategy on the downturn in the market. If I can use a creative financing, then I keep my cash liquid. So, when the market falls apart, I can go gobble everything up with cash at the auction.

We’ve already done it. It’s not theory. It’s already been done. So, we’re just waiting for the next downturn.

[00:25:07] WS: What’s a way that you’ve recently improved your business that we can apply to ours?

[00:25:12] SG: Recently improved my business? A few things come to mind. Number one, I don’t care how good you are. Get a business coach. You need a business coach, and then you need a real estate coach, because they’re two different things. Real estate sure is a business, but it’s also a product and service, and there are strategies that go along with that that the business coach wouldn’t understand. Business coach is going to be more of your operations, so you start streamlining things.

I find a lot of people run out to YouTube and stuff to learn stuff, and that’s great. That’s the how-to place to go to. But trust me. You’re not going to get the meat and potatoes of syndication or running a business by YouTube. So, it’s important that for me that I check in with a business coach. It’s important for me to check in with a real estate coach to keep me in line. It’s also important for me to check in with a marketing coach, because I don’t care what business you’re in. You’re a marketer first. If you’re doing syndications, you got to market to get funds. You got to get investors. If you’re doing syndications, you got to market to get deals. So marketing is very, very key. Unfortunately, when it comes to a downturn in marketing, the number one thing that gets x’d out of a business is marketing. That’s where you should ramp it up and rise to the occasion.

So, I think coaching and consulting by people that have been there and done that is by far the most important structure that you should have for your business.

[00:26:37] WS: I couldn’t agree with that more when you said no matter what business you’re in, you’re in marketing first. I’ve seen this clip the other day that said, “No marketing is like a guy winking out at a lady in the dark.” The only person that knows about it was him. It’s like you have to market.

[00:26:54] SG: I love that.

[00:26:55] WS: Yeah. That’s awesome. But what’s the number one thing that’s contributed to your success?

[00:27:00] SG: Relentlessness. Just, man – Well, I wear this shirt all the time. I’m proud to wear my shirt, Black Belt Investors. But our tagline is ‘Disciplined Investing.’ You have to be disciplined. When you’re disciplined, you have to be relentless to whatever your goals are. Because if you’re not, no one else is going to be. It’s just not going to happen.  I want my dreams to turn into reality. I don’t want to be sitting on a porch, wishing and hoping that my lawn’s going to get mowed, because it’s not going to get mowed unless I get out there and start pushing the mower or I do some deals and pay someone to do it. So, relentlessness, focus, discipline, and serving others first is by far the most important in my business.

[00:27:38] WS: Well, that leads right into the last question is how do you like to give back.

[00:27:42] SG: Well, several ways. Number one, I’m an educator. I love to educate. So, there’s a lot of things that I do for free, helping people. Just recently, I promote this thing called Coffee with Sensei. That basically means three times a year, you get 45 minutes of my time. We sit down at Starbucks, and I just line people up from basically 12:00 PM until 8:00 PM at night, 45-minute sessions straight through. Giving back because I have no idea why they’re coming to see me.

Some people want to learn how to fix and flip. Some people want to wholesale. Some people want to build a rental portfolio. Some people just want to come for the social outlet. It doesn’t matter to me as long as we can walk away, shaking hands, and I got a smile on your face, we’re good to go. So, I give away that way.

Two, I tithe. A tithe means a 10th, a 10th of my gross. Everything that I tithe goes towards my church. Right now, we’re building a new church, because my church is held at a high school. So I’m contributing for that. Right now, we’re looking to actually bite and fix, make turnkey properties in Cleveland for vets and give it to them for free. So that’s something we’re working on right now. Yeah.

[00:28:51] WS: That’s awesome. I appreciate you sharing that. That’s incredible. Numerous ways there to give back. Well, great show. I really appreciate you elaborating on just how you look for markets. When you’ve gone to markets, when you’ve stopped investing in markets, and numerous other things about your processes and marketing that we’ve talked about. It’s been a great show, Sensei. Tell the listeners though how they can get in touch with you.

[00:29:13] SG: That’s simple. blackbeltinvestors.com. That’s very easy. If you want to look at our properties, go to remoterehabs.com or simply give us a call here at 951-280-1900. Again, 951-280-1900. I look forward to talking to you. I’d love to set up a 30-minute free strategy session. I offer one to everybody, one time.

[00:29:33] WS: Awesome. That’s a wrap.

[00:29:34] SG: All right. Cool.

[END OF INTERVIEW]

[00:29:35] ANNOUNCER: Don’t go yet. Thank you for listening to today’s episode. I would love it if you would go to iTunes right now and leave a rating and written review. I want to hear your feedback. It makes a big difference in getting the podcast out there. You can also go to the Real Estate Syndication Show on Facebook, so you can connect with me and we can also receive feedback and your questions there that you want me to answer on the show. Subscribe too, so you can get the latest episodes. Lastly, I want to keep you updated. So, head over to lifebridgecapital.com and sign up for the newsletter. If you’re interested in partnering with me, sign up on the contact us page, so you can talk to me directly. Have a blessed day, and I will talk to you tomorrow.

[OUTRO]

[00:30:16] ANNOUNCER: Thank you for listening to The Real Estate Syndication Show, brought to you by Life Bridge Capital. Life Bridge Capital works with investors nationwide to invest in real estate while also donating 50% of its profits to assist parents who are committing to adoption. Life Bridge Capital, making a difference one investor and one child at a time. Connect online at www.LifeBridgeCapital.com for free material and videos to further your success.

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