Buy Real Estate WITHOUT Traditional Bank Financing?

Are you tired of being held back by traditional bank financing when buying real estate? What if you could break free from the shackles of credit scores, income verification, and endless paperwork? In this video, we'll explore alternative financing options to help you achieve your real estate goals without relying on traditional banks. From private money lenders to creative financing strategies, we'll dive into the pros and cons of each approach and provide you with the knowledge you need to start building your real estate empire. Whether you're a seasoned investor or just starting, this video is a must-watch for anyone looking to think outside the box and achieve financial freedom through real estate. With over two decades of experience, Joe and Jenn, The Duo Behind the Creative Finance Playbook, is the #1 resource for learning how to buy real estate without traditional bank financing, relying on credit, or needing large cash reserves—all from the comfort of your home. As hosts of the Creative Finance Playbook Podcast, which ranks in the top 10% of global podcasts, Jenn and Joe have established themselves as experts in the real estate community. They have been featured on influential platforms like the BiggerPockets Podcast and Real Estate Rookie Podcast. Through their innovative approach and by re-engineering their business model to operate remotely, they have empowered their students to secure both financial and time freedom from the comfort of their homes.

Creators & Guests

Host

Justin Stoddart

What is Think Bigger Real Estate?

The road to success for real estate agents is well-marked. The road to significance is not. Here, we help you to Think Bigger than just your business. We inspire you to seek success AND significance, income AND impact. We do that by interviewing the biggest thinkers and highest achievers in the real estate industry, extracting the secrets to having it all.

Have you ever wanted for yourself more freedom? Have you ever looked around at maybe the lives of other people who are able to spend more time with their kids, or maybe able to live in places where you'd love to live and you've thought to yourself, I'd love to do that, but I don't know how I can't I don't have the passive recurring income that others do. That would give you that kind of freedom. If you've asked that question, and today's episode is for you, today we're going to talk to a very dynamic couple who have developed a strategy to engage really creative financing around real estate, allowing you to build a real estate portfolio that would allow you to have that freedom that you desire. This episode is going to be a great one. I encourage you to stay tuned and pay attention, because today you're going to learn some things that could give you the freedom that you've always desired. Welcome back to the Think bigger real estate podcast, where big thinking, high achieving real estate agents come to build successful businesses and All right, welcome back, everybody. I'm excited to introduce Jen and Joe del Fave out of Florida. You guys, thank you for coming on the show today. I know you've been on some of the biggest podcasts in the world, and I'm honored to have you here on the Think bigger real estate podcast today.

Well, thank you so much for having us.

Thank you so much for having us on. Well,

I immediately knew I liked you guys when I heard the reason behind why you're doing all this, which is direct alignment with the Think bigger real estate podcast mission, which is to build successful businesses and significant lives. And you guys have really designed your life so that you could spend more time with your kids, so you could have the kind of freedom to live where you want to live, and really be the kind of impactful leaders, both in the home as well as in the community that you are now. And so thank you for that, and I feel like I've got kindred spirits here with me today, and I'm thrilled to spend some time with you. So let's go ahead and dive in. Tell us quickly your story, as far as how you got into realizing that there was maybe a breakdown in the way that people were going about trying to build passive income, right? People realize that, hey, I want that, but these, these financing barriers are in place, are keeping me from that. At what point did you guys start to have some breakthroughs and tell us your story, how you came to this kind of realization that, hey, we can break through some of these, these common limitations with some creative financing well.

And I think that's really dials back into how we even first got started. Because I was, I met Jen in 2008 she was a teacher. I worked at a car dealership, and in, oh, wait, many of you remember the market was starting to crash, deals were starting to pop up right on the MLS. And this is when we started doing a strategy called Burr. I didn't know it was called that back then, but we were buying these Junkers in really nice neighborhoods. We would remodel and make them really nice, rent them out, go to the bank, take our money back out, and then find another deal. And our goal after I met Jen, she was like, you know, the girl my dreams. I'm like, Oh my gosh, we're gonna get married, we're gonna have kids. We were dating for 30 days, and we took a trip to Florida. We're originally from Rochester, New York, so a month dating, we're in Florida together. And as we were cruising, I'm like, this is like a fantasy, like, this won't really come true until I'm like, you know, 70 years old, but now I'm 30. It sounded really great. And this was back then, so, but we started doing these burr projects, got married, had kids, and after doing one of them in 2016 is when we realized that there was something more than just doing this strategy, because it was slow. There's a lot of things involved. I'm working a job where there's, we're hiring contractors, you're going to the houses. Yeah,

it was just a lot more maintenance, the calls from being landlords. And although I had stepped away from teaching, I was now a stay at home mom, and he worked crazy hours the dealership, I was trying to man all of that. And it was just wasn't like we couldn't see the big picture of how could we actually work together full time and have this freedom? Because there wasn't a ton of cash flow, the maintenance and repairs were eating into that. And so that's when we stumbled into creative financing. So in 2017 we took our five rentals and switched them to rent to own, which ended up helping us tremendously. And the tenants became homeowners, eventually, some of them, and so it was really cool opportunity to switch gears there. And then we also learned that we didn't need to go to the banks and Burr, um, you could really just help people with off market properties or, you know, with seller or with realtors, and be able to buy properties without banks.

Now you guys are using this term Bert, like walk us through for anybody that doesn't know what you're talking about.

So a bird is, is a strategy that they've labeled that. But really what it is is we're finding a fixer upper. But in a nice neighborhood, what we usually did was we found some suburbs, like the neighborhoods I grew up in, actually is where we first started, because I knew it well, right? I'd find a fixer upper that I got at a really big discount. I found it online, through the MLS, and Agent helped me buy it. But I bought it right because there wasn't an oh eight, there was as many buyers. Then I hired contractors to go renovate it. Now, right? Because it had to be livable and nice, so we put roof and siding and windows and kitchen and bathroom and flooring paint. We. Landscaping, like all the thing, we had to fix the garage because all jagged up, but so we did that. And then after that, we put in a renter, and then we went to the bank and said, I own this property, free and clear, because we had to raise the cash to do it, which was hard. And then when we refinanced it, the bank says, Well, if you don't owe anything on it, we'll give you 75% back of the value. So I had to sign through an LLC that I'm going to personally guarantee this debt, and then our renters are going to be paying on the house. But the challenge with that is, you take out a 25 year mortgage, or a 20 year mortgage, you add in the taxes, you add in the insurance. Some places in parts of the country have HOAs, right? You start adding in even management, and you've realized there's really not much money left over for you at the end of that. And one small repair, like the hot water tank or the shower faucet, like this one still gets me, because the shower was redone, and the faucet, which was like $700 to get it replaced while we were on vacation, um, years later, and it's 700 like, 50 bucks and, like, isn't this under warranty? They said, Yeah, but we have to mail in the parts to mowing, and it could be months before you get it back. And I'm like, I can't be people without a shower, so what am I supposed to do? Right? I was, oh, well, it's not passive. It wasn't passive, and it wasn't really as cash flowing. So on paper, it looked great. I mean, Joe and Jen on own, all these properties, you guys. It looked good on paper, but in the realistic thing, it was a little bit more trickier than that. But like what Jen kind of piggyback off of. When we learned creative finance, which meant I didn't have to go to a bank, we actually started reaching out to sellers who had beautiful turnkey houses that didn't they didn't owe any money on them, some of them. And the first one we ran into. His name was Steve, and Steve inherited his grandfather's home, rented it to some friends, a co worker, actually, but he lived, like an hour away, so he it was a kind of time consuming for him to go over there and fix the smallest little thing. So when we connected, I said, I could buy your house. I was interested in buying it. He wanted to sell it to sell it to us. And when we talked about he's like, this is not going to be some lowball offer. And I'm like, I think what you're asking is fair. I'm still getting a good deal on it. Would you be open to being seller financing where I'll buy it? I'll close on it? It's all recorded in the county, but instead of me taking loan out through Bank of America, if I pay your price, I'll just pay you monthly bank of Steve, because that's was and he said, Yeah, that'd be fine. He doesn't really mind that, long as he gets his price. So how we did the deal is I paid his price. I paid even all of the closing costs. But we bought it with $100 down. No credit check needed, no bank approval needed attorney. Closed it within usually about 30 days. This is in Rochester, New York, and we had a 0% mortgage with a $500 payment going to him every month. So after I added the taxes and insurance, we could cash flow like $500 a month, which is nice. And when our renters moved in, they gave us $10,000 to move into that house. So we bought it with $100 down in some closing costs. And this was the first house that we bought was turnkey. Like, I didn't have to hire a contractor to put a new roof on it. We didn't do anything to the kitchen. Like we didn't have to do anything. It was like, rent ready to go. So after we kind of did that, was like, that was the easiest. And when the most profitable deals we did paying like, top dollar for his house, I was like, okay, holy cow. No signing, no chasing the contractors and doing all of these things like this is what we want to do for now on. So that's exactly what we did. And when we started doing more of those deals, that's where I realized, like, I don't have to do this till I'm 70. I did walk away from my job a lot sooner.

Changed everything. Because you guys realize, okay, if that worked once, then we can do it again, right? So is that the model? I mean, that's one example of the creating financing option you guys have employed. Has that been your favorite? Has that been the primary one that you've just said, okay, that worked. Let's duplicate that model over and over again. Or have you got other other, other ones that are just as sweet as that one we do?

So the free and clear properties, which are great, I didn't realize like, 40% of the country has a free and clear property, so once I realized that, like, wow, there's a lot of these opportunities out there. But what about the other 60% what about the people who have a really nice house in a nice neighborhood, and I have got one right now, they've reached out to us in Cape, Coral, Florida. It's a beautiful house. It's turnkey. He put it on the market with an agent. It's not selling. He started at $1.2 million for the house. He's down to 800,000 he's getting divorced. He's moving back up north. It's a 3000 square foot house with an in ground pool on the water, boat, lift, the whole nine. It's really nice. If I lived in Cape Coral, Florida, to be the house to be living in. But his challenges, and it's even 15 feet above sea level. So even with all the hurricanes, he's like his house didn't have an issue with any of it. So nice property. But his big thing was he needs to get $40,000 to pay his ex wife part of the court. And so. What we've negotiated, we could buy it for 800,000 $40,000 down. But see the difference is, Audi. Is his name. He's got a he's got a mortgage on it, and he owes about 500,000 on that mortgage at a 2.875 interest rate, so it's under 2.9% and I didn't realize the strategy. The other one was how to buy the house, and it's like assuming the nor mortgage, but without having to do any of that. So you're definitely not assuming it. Want to make sure, I'm Crystal Clear there, but you're able to buy the house, and the mortgage will stay in the seller's name, and you're able to make those payments on their behalf, and there's title companies and attorneys. It's a completely legal way to do it. I just didn't even know that was a strategy. And this is not something. Disclaimer. I am not that cool to where, like Joe and Jen invented this. This strategy has been going on for decades and decades and decades. It took me 15 years that I even knew this was a real thing. And then when I did, I realized that it doesn't matter if the market rate. Now, interest rates are high because they are but if rates were able to still be bought at 2.875 the market would be on fire. Well, if I could still find those deals on turnkey houses where the Seller is motivated they've tried putting on the market doesn't work. A low cash offer doesn't work because it's not a fixer upper. What else is he going to do? And so when we talk about that deal, he's thrilled, and, my gosh, it's a really nice house. So that's just one example, and this is where we've found where, if you're able to just, you know, get in touch with sellers, especially we love social media, because a lot of times they could find us, but then we have these conversations. And it obviously doesn't work for everybody, but it does work for a bunch of people, and you'd be pleasantly surprised, many times they want to hit the easy button on a nice house too, and sometimes, always listening it isn't working for them. Now, what right

when you say find them on social media? I mean, how do you initially understand that people are in these situations that are unique, where they need the cash out of the house, but they don't want to sell the property, right? What is, how do you what's your prospecting? Your best prospecting method, social media. But tell us more detail, like, what do you do on social media to find these opportunities? Oh,

we've got some gold for you right now. We've got some legit gold if you're listening, get ready to take some notes, because this is going to be the game changer when I realized, no matter whatever business you have, if you're going to you need leads, right? You're going to need if you own a tire shop, you need to find people who need tires for their cars. Well, I want to buy houses, so I need to get in touch with sellers. And you could pay 1000s of dollars for marketing. If you're an agent or whatever an investor you you do you spend a lot of money on marketing, right? Say who you are, but when we realize you can get leads for free anywhere around the country by using Facebook groups, this is what changed everything. So I'm going to give you exactly what we do. If you're listening and you have a Facebook page, great. If you don't, you should get one. They're free. It doesn't cost you anything, but get one personal page or Facebook profile. Profile, it's just you. It's not some fancy business. It's like, Hi, I am Joe delafe, and if I want to buy houses in Orlando, Florida, I'm just using it as example. I will go to Facebook search bar. I'm going to type in Orlando, Florida. I'm going to hit groups, because it asks you, Are you looking for pages people post or groups? I'm going to click groups, and then it shows you this really super long list, because there's probably 1000s of in the Orlando area, if not hundreds tons of them, of all the different Facebook groups. And it could be yard sale groups, it could be, I love Orlando groups, it could be, I'm moving to Orlando groups, it could be garage sale groups. It could be love looking for love in Orlando, which works because maybe if they did find love, there's an extra house there, right? The mom groups, the dad groups, the all the different groups that have a lot of people in them. You join them, all of them. There's not one that I don't join usually. And then what I do inside of those groups, this is where the magic happens. So I make a post inside of that. So I'm now in the group, I'm going to make a post, and I'm just going to put this in a post. Just normal thing, right? So I go to the to make my post, and it says, Does anyone have a house for sale that's not market ready? Does anyone have a house for sale that's not market ready. I'm looking to buy one in the next two to three weeks. Or I could put two to three months. Now, what I do is, before I make that as a post, you can make the background like different colors, like purple or pink or blue. Like, pick one. Don't pick the poop emoji. One that one doesn't get as much, but like, pink

one really works well. The Blue want to get a real piece of junk house, is what you're saying. If

you do, hey, you never know, though, right? So what happens is, then, when you put that post, some of these groups have 2030, 50,000 people in them. So you do five or six of those a day, five or six days a week, and by the end of the week, you've got in front of, usually, you know, hundreds of 1000s of people for free. Now with Facebook, they don't. Shows it to about 7% of the people inside of the group, but that's still you're talking 10s of 1000s of people for free. Now people will see your post. They're going to reach out to you. You're going to be people comment. There's going to be people who message you privately. And now this is where the magic goes in, and you start those conversations right through messenger. So I'm not even having to call them. I'll ask them a few questions through Messenger, and if it sounds like we need to get on a call, we do. If they're just like, Are you're just an investor trying to buy up the house, it's like, I'm not going to talk to them on the phone. But many times we find somebody who is moving, or they've already relocated, or the house needs no work, and it's beautiful. Sometimes it's a fixer upper, all types of stuff. And this works in Orlando, Florida. It works in Dallas, Texas. It works in North Pole Alaska because we did a deal up there in North Pole Alaska on a purpose. The lady saw our advertising in North Carolina by my house in North Pole Alaska. So we did so these deals are out there everywhere, and you'd be surprised how many people need help? And when I first got started, we were only looking for Junkers, so if it wasn't a fixer upper, there was nothing I could do with it. And then I realized all these really nice houses sometimes they're in a situation too, and just see it out, yeah. And we always ask, like, why wouldn't you want to list it with an agent? And you know, usually they give you some reason why they don't want to and that's okay.

What's the common response? I'd be interested to hear, um,

holy cow. So

there's the number one is that they don't want a lot of people through their house. So

privacy thing than it is paying a commission. Yeah,

it really isn't about the commission. Most times it's, I think, uh, embarrassment. If they have a lot of stuff they don't, maybe have the money to get it market ready. Hence the way we were that post. And so it's more of a an emotional, mental thing than a commission.

I think some they've already moved. We have the one today. They actually husband and wife both, both work the third shift, so they sleep during the day. And they said, the only time you're gonna be able to show the house, we're gonna be sleeping, and we don't want to deal with it. That was like, literally, the people who said it today. The people who said it today. So there's, like, a huge list of reasons why,

in a timely sale, like they know that if we're buying it, we're gonna buy it on this day, or, you know, hopefully close around it, like we're the true buyers, and they have to wait and see what the market told them. And they were already off to Texas from Florida,

yeah, because, like, you just kind of touched on it. We just did a deal in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. The house is two years old. It's a new house, pretty much they. Husband had his job transferred to Texas. He's already gone. Wife's here, packing up. They reached out and said, We need to sell it. We don't really have much equity. We agreed on if we could buy it with $12,000 down. We took over their existing mortgage at a 4% rate, so the payments low, we could actually cash flow on that, because at 7% it doesn't cash flow. Or 8% it definitely doesn't, but at 4% it does. And so now I'm buying a turnkey house in Florida with like 20,000 21,000 out of pocket total that was including the closing costs for 20 grand. I own a two year old house in Florida at a 4% rate with no credit

check. So it's seller financed. You don't have to qualify for a loan, and you're not assuming the mortgage right. And walk us through as you think about obviously there's tons of opportunities out there, way more than people thought. You've given us a great avenue. And would you say that that's your best avenue is through Facebook groups, just being in conversation with people. You

know, I love it because, you know, when so many people either pull lists or they're paying for this, and I just feel like when you just are able to connect people where they're at. So many people are on Facebook. It's like 72% of the of the population is on Facebook. So there's a lot of people there. I could get in front of 10s of 1000s of people for free, and I could target anywhere, just by joining groups in that area. So I've I've spent money on Google ads, I've spent money on direct mail. I've driven for dollars. I've knocked on doors. All of it works. But when I could do it for free, and I could go to Italy next summer and spend a month there and still post into groups from Italy, I could still be messaging sellers through messenger in Italy. And then, you know, find a real good one and say, okay, out of the 10 leads I got, here's the two real good ones I want to talk to. The others. Kind of weed themselves out. So therefore now I'm able to get to the conversations a lot quicker, too, and I like that better. How

much money would somebody need to have, let's say on hand. Would you say? And I know it varies based on what part of the country you're purchasing in, but if you said for somebody to really get started right, in most cases, would you say that somebody you've got to come in with some money down in order to get people what they want, to facilitate that deal. And if so, what is that number? Is it 25,000 is 100,000 what? What would you say would be ideal for somebody? I mean, ideal would be the more the better, right? But for somebody really, like realistically, to get started and not have a false start, what kind of situation would they need

to be in? So. For me, I would think to target certain areas of the country. You guys would be surprised. There's houses still out there for under $100,000 Ohio, Pennsylvania, some places in upstate New York, just to name a few places in Indiana. And so many of these places you can get into where if in many of the properties we buy, I mean, that one was an exception where we gave them 12,000 because it was like a new house, right? But most of the times we buy with 100 bucks down, and we tell the seller, we typically buy with no money down, okay? And that's like, verbatim what I say to them. And many times they're like, Yeah, that's fine. Or they might say, No, I need a down payment to help me move. And we find out they need $3,000 so the reason why I, like some of those inexpensive states, the property is cash flow, three, $4,000 which is, you know, 1000 bucks down and covering some closing costs. And I could be into a deal. And the one thing I would say, if you do don't have the money in the beginning, you know, find somebody to borrow it from. But the reason why I say it this way, because if you offer that property now rent to own, we typically collect, you know, 10% of the purchase price. So if we buy it at 75 it might be offered at Rent to own for 100 110 depending on what it's actually worth, somebody will give us a 10 grand to move in. And now I've paid all my money back, and I've just got a free house, because the 10,000 they gave me is a non refundable option deposit. And when we found out, like we can do this way, without having to really come up with 20% down and then just put a renter in there anymore, oh my gosh, like this is how we can scale and just continue to grow our portfolio. And it's great.

You know, my this audience, right? Successful real estate agents. My guess is some are thinking what I'm thinking, which is, I've always wanted to get my kids more involved in the business, and I don't necessarily want to fund it for them. I want to, I want them to have the experience of creative financing, right? So my wheels have been turning. I have a daughter who turns 18 this this month, and a son who turns 17 in April. I'm thinking of myself like, this would be a really interesting strategy for them to start to learn right to where you could start to help them. Because if I could go back in time, right, I'm 45 now, if I were to go back in time and I would their age, I would start buying real estate and holding it right, like, like, there's just so much wisdom in in that concept yet, right? I don't have to go back in time, but I do be I am able to go back and guide them to do what I wish I would have done, right? Yeah, so talk to us a little bit about how you guys have gotten your kids involved. Right? Obviously, you homeschool your kids, which is beautiful. You're better than we are. We couldn't we tried that during COVID, and we're not successful. So I commend you tremendously. But how cool to have so much time with them, right? And talk us through how you've gotten them involved in the business. Because I think that's that's beautiful, is to not just spend more time with them, but to actually teach them how to build wealth through real estate.

Yeah, well, I think it started at, you know, they were in my tummy, so we were taking them, you know, they were always were with us, whether they're in the carrier, they were running around like mulch down. So just always involving them every step of the way. So now that the time that they're nine and 11, they're really starting to understand what it means to build wealth. You know, my nine year old, or in the car, is asking me, like, what was it about the entities that you were talking about, like an LLC, right? So, like, you start having real adult, like conversations, but at their level, where you can kind of break it down and have them understand it. And you know what asset protection means, and you know, why do we buy these properties, and why? Why we're really helping these sellers out? And then what it does for us as a family, you know, using the Italy thing, like we would love to go to Italy for a month, and to be able to do that. If mommy was a teacher, she wouldn't be able to, to be able to go, you know, for a month long. If we chose to go in April or even yesterday, I took my daughter to piano lesson at three o'clock and, you know, to stop and realize I wouldn't be able to do that if I were, you know, in a school, teaching everyone else's kids, but because we built our lifestyle like that. So I think that it's just involving them every step of the way, setting boundaries, right, like telling them, okay, we're, you know, going to do a call right now, so please be quiet, and then, you know, explain why. You know, it's not, don't close the door and don't discuss it. I think that that generation has long gone, and we're very much, you know, communicating at the dinner table about what business is. It's not like business happens while mom and dad are at work, and then you don't talk about it. It kind of ebbs and flows, and it's just a family discussion. And we also put them to work, like in our CRM, they absolutely love going in doing follow up with any sellers in there. My daughter had Zillow pulled up because she said one of the sellers sold their house, and she wanted to confirm it, so she was able to take them out of the CRM. So it's really cool to see them grow and evolve and do things that I didn't even know they knew how to know how she knew how to do that.

Yeah, she's super smart. The both are my son. I mean, he gets on stage when we have a meet up because we host. Meetups. Here we go to a lot of them. We love connecting with other investors and agents, but it's, I think it's just getting the kids involved. There's no too soon age and you know, the thing is, they're both of our kids. They've got great taste, yeah. And I'm like, if you guys want to fund this lifestyle that you want, like, you better start doing this stuff now. So when you're older, you can do all of these things. Taylor Swift, tickets aren't cheap, right? My daughter loves Taylor. So it's like all of those things that you just want to give them that education. Because I feel like that's the thing in school they taught us all of the you know, school things. I'm 47 but I really believe that when you're teaching them real world situations at this age, it's a whole other level, and the conversations really show from it. Yeah,

I'm fascinated by this concept. I'm excited to get my I'm gonna assignment from dad is gonna be to watch this episode of my podcast and take notes and tell me what Ahaz you had talk to me, and for Malia and Corbin that are listening to this, I want Joe and Jen to describe what life could look like. You've kind of hinted at some things, right? But what does life either look like for you guys and or what are you aspiring to create with this strategy that ought to open their eyes, to say, You know what? I think I do want to learn this and for the entire audience, this is going to be an aha moment for you as well to say, You know what all the barriers that have been put upon me, or the path that I thought I had to follow to build wealth have just been removed, and I'm much closer to what I had wanted than I ever thought possible. So talk us through what life can look like pursuing this kind of strategy

it could be anything that you want it to be, which is almost kind of scary for most people. So I think allowing yourself to dream and figure out what are your goals and what are your aspirations, and if you do want to go travel and eat at fine dining and all of that stuff that cost me Taylor Swift, I guess, right. So all of that's going to cost a lot of money. And you know, working a nine to five that's not going to build that wealth, and so being able to create somewhat passive income to create that long term effect like that's why we love rent to own. You get the big non refundable option, you get the cash flow, and then when the tenant buys you out, you get that big back end check that you can then take most of that money, ideally, and put it right back into your business, or take some of that money and go enjoy some of it. And, you know, having that big picture, you know, I went into college thinking I was going to be go to college, get my masters, go to school, and I was literally just over broke, like doing all the right things, and literally had no money to show for it. But I here, I was showing up to work like a good little American, you know, and then I meet Joe, who's like, hey, there's a whole world out there that if we start buying these real estate properties, we could do this. And I think having those honest conversations with people who've been there, who've already who go after the people that are doing it and see how they got there, and just emulate it and do it quicker by hiring mentors and coaches and being around them and to really absorb and learn what they did maybe wrong, so you don't repeat those mistakes.

Yeah, because I think that was key. Because, I mean, 40 I was 42 and I got to walk away from my dealership job, and now, you know, the kind of income that we make just based on the properties that we've been buying for years. And we really cranked up five years ago to buy it quite a bit more once we learned these strategies. So it got to the point where, when COVID happened and they laid everybody off at the dealership, I didn't have to go back to work, and when I had that kind of aha moment, like here does that now we move from upstate New York, we traveled. We came down to Florida to get out snow, and we fell in love with the weather and the climate in the area, so we made the decision, we're just going to move so we went back to New York on a whim, sold our house. We still have all of our properties up there, and we brought all of our stuff and moved to Florida. Have a beautiful house here, and and I could get together Starbucks in the morning. I was just going

to say, sometimes real wealth too. You can't put $1 on it, but like, you know, being able to go to Starbucks or make breakfast with your kids, or have a leisure morning where and you're not rushing out the door, and the stress of, you know, a boss gonna yell at you when you get there, like those things, if you've experienced it, you know, it's really nice. I

used to, well, that's what I talked to Brookie about our daughter this morning. I was like, you know, I worked on Saturdays. My days off were Friday and Sunday from a dealership. I had to work Saturdays, and when my daughter's in school, she went to school five days a week, so I didn't get to see her very much on Saturday until six o'clock when I got home. So the only day that we spent, the four of us as a family, was Sunday. And you know, Sunday I'm trying to, you know, my side hustle of real estate and this and that. So now the fact that I get to spend every day with the kids, and we get to do things together as a family, it's been the best thing that you can imagine, because I know a lot of successful people from the dealership world, and they've made a lot of money, some of these guys, and even the owners are, you know, really wealthy from it. And the one common thing that all of these. Successful men said was, I miss seeing my kids grow up. I made a lot of money, accomplished a lot of things, but I wasn't there for my kids to grow up, and I can't get that back, and I could continue to make money after they're gone. I'm like, Well, geez, if I could just do both, right? If I could be there for my kids and have this life, because it's a lot of work. It doesn't it's not just palm trees and sunshine, although there's a lot of that going on down here, it's a lot of work, though, too. So there are times where, like, we sacrifice and we do miss things and things like that, but and we

have a lot of help, I think, too. Like, once you get you grow a team, you have people working with you, maybe a house assistant or a nanny or, you know, just filling in the gaps because you are one person or two people, in our case, but you still are running multiple things. So don't be afraid to hire help. I think delegation is huge. Buy back your time.

Episode I put up on the screen, creative finance playbook.com is that where you would want to send people to learn more about this? Yeah,

that's a great spot. And you know, I know we talked about that post that we share in Facebook groups. It's on there. And if you want to use the same 10 questions that we ask every seller, it's on there too. It's free for your audience, just go get it. You can't miss it. But these are the exact questions that we ask every seller where they make us the offer. So if you guys want that it's on there, go get it. Yeah,

I love it. And keep in mind, guys, I'm not paid to promote these guys. This is not a paid episode. It might sound an infomercial. It's not. I do this because I seek out who has great ideas that allow people to have both a successful business and a significant life. I serve the real estate industry. I know many of you see these properties come in front of you and you're like, boy, I just wish I could take down more of them. And I brought this to you today, because when this came across my desk, I was like, I've got to learn more about this, because I see so many who are not able to ever retire. My friend Matt Plummer says, I've never been to a real estate agent's retirement party, right? And maybe you're feeling that way, and or you're just looking at the next generation saying, Boy, if I were 18 again or fire in my early 20s this I would start buying real estate, and I wouldn't wait until I got all the way to where I was later in life, right? And my I had kids, or I made it through that phase, right? I would start doing it now, and most can't see a way to do that. They just can't see that there's actually a path for them. So super excited to promote you guys, grateful for all of the wisdom and nuggets that you've shared with me and with this audience. I appreciate you both and my any final, any final words or bits of advice before we wrap up.

I just love that like you know, like you said, as an agent, you're really trying to help your seller out, and this is just one extra tool in the toolbox, especially right now, where, if they have a low interest rate and someone else, even you yourself, could take it down and build your portfolio, you know, do it for you and your family. Because, yes, you know, making the money right now is great, but, you know, to build it long term, it really does change the game. Yeah?

And I think I'm all of our friends who are agents, because we have a ton of them that are, and they're like, you know, I always help all of my investor friends, you know, buy their properties. And I'm helping all of these sellers sell their properties, but I'm not buying anything for myself. And he's like, yeah, I get a commission check, and that's great. And so after having these conversations, you know, there's lots of agents who are very successful investors too, and it kind of gives you that, I think, double edged sword, absolutely. So for an example, if you need to generate leads, use that Facebook method. It doesn't cost you any money. And the one thing, if you're an agent, maybe you could buy that as an investment property. If not, I know many of the agents who use that post, but then they actually get as a listing. And so this is a way to get you more listings. And if you want to start investing, by buying it with seller financing, so you don't have to pay seven or 8% rate and credit checks and 20% down. And you know, it's really find an attorney in your area or a title company who really understands how to do this. We have a huge list. If you need any help, reach out. We can connect you with one, usually. But, you know, find a title company or attorney who knows how to do this, because you don't have to be the Pro. Find a good one that knows how to cross the T's, dot the i's, and you could buy all of the real estate you want. Amazing. It's a game changer

for sure. And the wealthiest people in the world own a lot of real estate, and the freest people in the world own a lot of real estate. So you guys, I'm so grateful for you to the audience. When you look up above me, you see the Think bigger sign up there, TB, that stands for think bigger. And my final request of everybody listening here today are these three simple words and they are go, think bigger. Joe and Jen, it's been such a pleasure. Grateful to have had you on the show today. And I look forward to sending as many people as possible to creative finance playbook.com so that they too can enjoy the freedom that you guys enjoy. Appreciate you both. So much. Thanks so much. Now before you go, remember big thinkers and high achievers, take action. Here's one way to do this. Find me on social media and send me in a direct message. One Aha, that you're gonna take action upon from today's episode. I can't wait to be connected to another big thinker. You.