Tax Sale Business By Design

Transcript:
Welcome to the Tax Sale Podcast, where tax sale investing is made easy.

I’m Casey Denman, a tax sale veteran, the author of the tax sale playbook, founder of the tax sale academy, the leading tax sale expert and trainer and your host right here on the tax sale podcast.

Thanks for joining me on today’s podcast. This podcast is provided completely free to help teach you about tax sale investing and is made possible through The Tax Sale Academy. If you’re looking to learn about tax defaulted real estate, in a comprehensive, step by step basis then head to TaxSaleAacdemy.com and click on join. Again, taxsaleacademy.com and click join.

Today I want to go over the concept of designing your business. And this is something that many people don’t think about, they fail to implement or they don’t even realize it can be done. The truth is that technology has changed the way we operate and it allows us incredible flexibility. So in today’s episode I want to really open your eyes a little bit to help provide some ideas on how to design your business and subsequently the lifestyle you desire.

Investing in tax defaulted real estate is an absolutely incredible business. It’s lucrative, rewarding, you’re helping the county or city out, you’re helping your buyers out, there’s just so many positive aspects to it. BUT, if you don’t design it properly, it can be absolutely miserable. And this is what most fail to understand.

Most new investors get into tax defaulted properties in order to make money. Eventually, unless they are very conscious in the early stages of their business, they will usually get stuck back on the hamster wheel. Doing the same thing over and over and over. Eventually they’ll be working 80 hours a week losing traction, making the same thing they could in a corporate gig.

I want you to avoid doing that. The world is much different than it was 20 years ago or even 5 years ago, and I’m a firm believer in using this to our advantage. Even if you’re a full time tax sale investor, your job doesn’t mean you must put on a shirt and tie and sit in a cubicle from 8-5 every day researching tax sale properties.

I have no doubt had the best times of my life in this business. Whether it’s attending auctions, the flexible work schedule, meeting new people, seeing new areas, traveling to auctions, eating at countless local diners, learning new things. This is an incredible business if you allow it to be. The fact is that this business can and should be designed to fit your lifestyle desires. And the sooner you start it, the better.

I want to discuss three factors that can help you to create your tax sale business the way you desire.

The first one is the process. I’ve discussed this before, but this is really the engine that keeps your business running. To be successful, you must buy and sell, rent or otherwise benefit from tax defaulted real estate. That’s pretty obvious. I strongly advise against the approach of only reviewing tax sales lists every now and then when you think about it and performing random research. Instead, develop a system. I will check lists on this day. I will research those lists on this day. I’ll establish bid amounts on this day. And that could be a day of the week, of the month, or a day at a specific interval prior to the auction or sale. Whatever it is, schedule it and stick to it.

Along with that part of the process, you should have a process about what specifically you’ll be doing. You should have checklists developed to make sure you don’t miss anything on the research side, this is something we teach in the academy in depth. You should also have a predetermined ratio that will insure you are able to quickly and effortlessly determine your max bid amount. You should have thresholds that decide whether you will or won’t go to an auction. Your selling system should be a well oiled machine. Your business should be one big system, one big process that you follow nonstop.

Now, this might not sound like the most enjoyable part. But we do this to insure our business is stable and profitable, but most importantly to keep us on track. If we have a system for every part of our business, once it’s setup it actually makes everything incredibly easy and efficient for us. So instead of dreading the process, we simply work our way through the system and everything is simple and easy. And with a good system and process, guess what? We can do it from anywhere and it will take much less time than if we were just winging it, which goes back to the lifestyle you desire.

The second part of designing your business is choosing who you want to work with. I’ve got an episode coming out later on this, but it’s crazy how much this will change your life for the better. It’s not always possible in the beginning, but I can promise you that if you work towards the goal of YOU choosing your customers and team members, you’ll be so thankful later. I remember when I first got into real estate and I was an agent. I drove this family around for like 6 hours one Saturday basically giving them a tour of the area. When they were leaving, they offered me $20 for gas and said they weren’t really even sure they wanted to move into that area, but they appreciated the tour. I declined the $20 and deleted his number.

At this point is when I decided that I would choose my clients moving forward – I’m obviously not very active as a broker anymore, but I use this same exact approach in my tax sale business. I choose the Realtors I work with. I choose the attorneys I work with, the title companies, the home inspectors, I choose the large majority of who I work with. I even choose the buyers I work with! And this is the exact opposite of the conventional approach. Most people want everyone to come to them to get as much business as possible. When you’re selling properties, you want hundreds of people clamoring to get a property. And of course, I do too. BUT, if I have a property that I can sell to someone I have an easy going working relationship with and I know the process will be smooth OR if I can sell it to someone who I just met off the street, the answer is obvious.

There are plenty of ways that you can advertise your properties and build your buyer’s list that will allow you to perhaps not get the specific person you want, but it will produce the type of person you want. It’ll produce the eager, do anything type buyer that will work within YOUR parameters and will be happy to comply with anything you ask. Want an example? How about something I do for many of my properties – as-is, two week closing, 10% deposit, cash transactions only/no financing, buyer pays closing costs . . . the answer….yes, sure, I’d love that. I’d be happy to do all of that. Of course, my price and marketing methods are what created that type of buyer for me.

Your life should not be controlled by other people trying to call the shots. YOU call the shots in your own life. Most people understand this in their personal lives, but when money is involved all bets are off. Well, don’t let it be that way. Design your business from day one so you work with specific people or types of people that you WANT to work with. I can’t even begin to tell you the number of private coaching clients I’ve turned down through The Tax Sale Academy because I didn’t feel they’d be a good fit to work with me.

If you do this from day one, you’ll be so thankful in a few years, you’ll have much less stress and you’ll be happier overall. Remember, it’s your business. YOU call the shots.

The last topic I want to touch on is success and goals. Success, of course, should be something that you always strive for. You’ll undoubtedly reach some level of success and it’s important to keep setting goals to meet new levels of success. But before you really start, what is success for you? Truthfully, for most people, it isn’t making $10,000,000 a year. And while money might be an initial motivator, if you dig deeper, that probably isn’t the reason for the type of success you desire. Let’s say you make $100,000 off your first deal. Now what? What do you do with that? And why do you do it?

For some people they want to make money so they can have margin in their lives. So they can stress less and not have to worry about the next car payment or telephone bill. For others, maybe it’s so they can buy that classic car, get a family boat, take a vacation, start or pad their retirement account or something else. And for many, it’s to give them back some time. I know of tax sale invstors who invest in tax defaulted real estate solely to keep it as rental real estate, so they can earn passive income to allow them to reach the ultimate goal of having more time – maybe that’s time spent with family or children, enjoying a new hobby or whatever it is.

The point of this last topic is that you must have something you’re actively working towards. So many people get stuck into the cycle of make money, pay bills, make money, pay bills. It’s a never ending cycle. And what often happen is they make more money and somehow find more bills to pay. This leads to you putting in more work for essentially the same situation.

Find something that’s rewarding. Find something that’s fulfilling. Find something that will impact you long term. Time, cash flow, vacations, even material possessions can provide entertainment and memories.

I have no judgement what you do with your money. But my strong suggestion is that when you get into this tax sale business, you do so not for the money specifically but what the money represents for you. By doing this you’ll avoid premature burnout and you’ll always keep your focus in the right place.

I really hope you’ve found these three factors in designing your business to be helpful. This is a topic that has changed so much. When I started in this business 17 years ago, the status quo was to sit in an office chair 40 hours a week, take two vacations a year, be professional in every sense of the word, dress like you’re going to church on a daily basis, and follow the guidelines set by other professionals or you’d be perceived as a failure. Nobody would want to work with you and you’d be out of business in no time. And this is still commonplace or common thinking for many in real estate.

But, I really want you to look at it differently. Maybe you need that structure or want it and that’s great. But, maybe you’re the type of person that hates that approach. I certainly do. Maybe you want to sit poolside placing bids. Or you want to be able to travel around the world investing. Or maybe you just want to sit in your home office wearing a tshirt and shorts while you work. I’ve done all of that. I’ve got students all around the world, and hear success stories from place like Brazil and Hong Kong. Anything is possible thanks for technology if you design your business properly and IF you’re aware of how you’re designing your business from day one.

The point is that it doesn’t matter. It’s your business. I’m not here to judge you. What I am here to do however, is to open you up to the possibilities. I want you to be aware that no one chooses how your business is designed to operate except for YOU. YOU are the one in control. You are the one who makes the decisions. YOU are the one that designs the most efficient systems for YOU. You are the one who chooses who YOU work with. YOU are the one who controls what success and goals mean to you.

Put yourself in control of your business from day one and you’ll not only find it more rewarding and more fulfilling, but it’ll also be much more enjoyable and profitable.

That’s it for today’s episode.

I really hope you’ve found this episode helpful and that you are enjoying my podcast. If you are, please consider taking just a few minutes out of your day to leave some positive feedback on whatever platform you’re listening to us on. It really gives us the motivation and desire to continue to expand our business on both the free and premium sides and we hope we’re able to have a small impact on your tax sale business.

Thanks so much for joining me on this episode.