September 2016

4 Tips for Finding World-Class Tenants for Your Rental

I once bought a rental house that came with an existing tenant. Things were fine for a few months — but then she started paying her rent late.

Then she stopped paying entirely.

She decided illegal drug use was more fun than paying rent!

Soon after, she was evicted — and she left me thousands of little cockroaches, a death threat note, and the worst smell you can imagine.

Sometimes being a landlord is such a joy.

On the other hand, I’ve had dozens of incredible tenants who pay rent on time, take great care of the property, and are helping me build wealth and financial freedom in a spectacular way.

So, how does someone find more of the great tenants and fewer of the bad ones?

If you want to succeed as a landlord, you must do just that. You must learn how to discern which are world-class tenants to avoid renting to scumbags.

How?

Well, today I want to share four tips for attracting word-class tenants.

4 Tips for Finding World-Class Tenants for Your Properties

1. Think like a funnel.

In business, a sales funnel is the idea that you want to get a lot of leads coming in, knowing that only a few will ever buy from you. For example, 1,000 people might see an ad for a pair of socks in the newspaper, but only a few dozen of those will go to the store, and maybe just a couple will buy a pair of socks. That’s a sales funnel, and it’s found in almost every industry — including landlording.

Your job as a landlord is to use this exact funnel to attract tenants — a lot of them.

Think of it this way — if you get just one person to call about your vacant property, what’s the chance they are going to be a great tenant? It’s kind of a gamble. But what if 1,000 people called about your property. Could you find one that is going to be perfect? I would hope so — or else you probably need to move towns.

The point is, the more people you can put in the top of your funnel, the more picky you can be to get the one ideal tenant at the bottom.

So how do you do this? You need to have an advertising system that’s going to bring you qualified leads. This could be Craigslist, Zillow, Postlets, the newspaper, a sign in the yard, a post on Facebook — or, if you are like us, you could do ALL of these. The more marketing we do for tenants, the greater chance we have of finding that needle in a haystack.

(Click to read on BiggerPockets…)

P.S. looking for hard money loans in California? Be sure to check out my friends over at northcoastfinancialinc.com. They have very competitive rates, can fund within a week and specialize in fix and flip loans and other hard money loans.

How to Become a Millionaire

So you want to learn how to become a millionaire.

Great. Good for you.

I want six pack abs.

I want an Oreo cookie right now.

I want my feet massaged each night by a female body builder. (What? They get sore!)

But it’s not enough to want something. As Michael Jordan says, “Some want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.”

Wanting is never enough. Especially when you want to know how to become a millionaire.

A lot of people want to become millionaires. It’s the epitome of the American Dream. It’s a solid, tangible number that most people believe will classify them as “rich.”

Yet so few ever make it to that point in life. In fact, of the 7 billion people on earth, less than 20 million are millionaires. That’s far less than 1%.

This is absurd given one simple truth: Becoming a millionaire is simple. This article will prove that.

Becoming a Millionaire is… Simple?

Simple? Really?

Yes.

BUT… not easy.

There is a difference.

  • Running 50 miles is simple — but not easy.
  • Staying up for 60 hours is simple — but not easy.
  • Avoiding that chocolate cake is simple — but not easy.

Simple means there are not a lot of steps; it can be understood.

So becoming a millionaire is simple, not easy.

  • You don’t need an MBA.
  • You don’t need to go to Harvard.
  • You don’t need to come from a rich family.
  • You don’t have to be exceptionally smart.
  • You don’t have to know the right people.

So are you ready to learn how to become a millionaire?

Good — because I have one goal with this article:

I want you to read this and become a millionaire.

I want a million people to read this and have their lives rocked to the core.

I want a million people to share this post on Facebook with their family and friends — because this stuff changes lives.

This is about to change YOUR life, if you’ll allow it.

Becoming a Millionaire

The One Thing That Qualifies Me to Write This Post About Becoming a Millionaire

Now you might be wondering, “Why is this kid telling me how to become a millionaire? He looks like a bearded Justin Bieber.”

So besides my beard — why am I qualified to talk about this?

One reason:

Because I did it.

I don’t talk about my net worth very often, but I crossed the $1,000,000 net worth level about the same time I turned 30 years old.

Related: 4 Powerful Ways Real Estate Can Make You a Millionaire

I didn’t start out with a rich family. I never went to an Ivy League school. I didn’t win the lottery.

I simply (and correctly) used The Wealth Tripod.

If you want to learn how to become a millionaire — you, too, must correctly set up The Wealth Tripod.

The Wealth Tripod: 3 Things Needed From You to Become a Millionaire

In order to fully understand how to become a millionaire, you need to know what’s stopping you from achieving that status.

I know you are thinking, “Duh, Brandon! My lack of money is stopping me!”

False.

Your lack of money has NOTHING to do with you becoming a millionaire.

Sure, over the long run, if you never begin collecting money, you’ll never become a millionaire, but that’s not stopping you today.

It’s not the balance of your checking account that’s stopping you. Or the balance of your investment accounts. It’s not your heritage, your skin color, your location, your intelligence, your lack of innovative ideas, or your bad luck.

Want to know what’s really stopping you?

It’s you.

In order to become a millionaire, you must change who you are. As Les Brown said, “To achieve something you have never achieved before, you must become someone you have never been.”

Specifically, there are three things about you that you must change if you want to become a millionaire. I call this “The Wealth Tripod” because without all three, you’ll never become wealthy. All three steps are required if you want to build and maintain wealth. Like a camera tripod — if one of the legs is broken, the entire tripod will fall down.

So, what are the three legs of The Wealth Tripod?

  1. You must believe wealth is actually possible for you.
  2. You must learn how wealth is built.
  3. You must live out the steps needed to make it happen.

Let’s spend a few minutes and talk about each of these to make sure you fully understand the importance of mastering each.

1. You must believe wealth is possible for you.

A friend of mine recently remarked, “God must have known I would be bad with wealth, which is why He never saw fit to give me any.”

While I don’t believe every person should become a millionaire (money often causes more problems than it fixes), I do believe every person has the ability to become a millionaire. This is especially true if you live in a capitalist society where the government doesn’t dictate how high you can rise.

As I said earlier, it has nothing to do with your skin color, intelligence, location, or any other excuse you might have for not building wealth.

Like my friend’s comment suggested, many people believe that because they do not currently have wealth, they do not have the ability to gain wealth.

The fault in this thinking, however, is made clear in this simple quote:

Who you are today is the sum of all the choices you have made up until this moment. 

Think about that for a second. Reread it a couple times. Everything you have, everything you believe, and everything you are is a result of the decisions and actions you’ve made previously.

  • If you are overweight, it’s because you made poor food or exercise choices.
  • If you are too busy, it’s because you took on too many commitments
  • If you are broke, it’s because you spent more money than you earned.

While that might sound depressing, that’s actually some of the best news in the world! Because although this principle reveals the source of all negative aspects of our life, it also reveals the positive changes that can happen if we only change our choices going forward.

Think about it:

  • If you are overweight because of poor food choices, you can choose RIGHT NOW to change your diet and exercise.
  • If you are too busy, you can choose RIGHT NOW to say no to things that monopolize your time.
  • If you are broke, you can choose RIGHT NOW to change your earning and spending habits.

A total life transformation won’t happen overnight, but it will start to slowly take shape with each choice.

Think of a rocket blasting off into space. A course correction of a single degree can mean the difference between landing at the International Space Station and colliding with the sun. In the same way, a course correction in your life, starting today, can result in a massively different future than before.

Therefore, understand that just because you aren’t a millionaire yet doesn’t not mean you can never become one.

Because…

(Click to read on BiggerPockets…)

P.S. looking for hard money loans in California? Be sure to check out my friends over at northcoastfinancialinc.com. They have very competitive rates, can fund within a week and specialize in fix and flip loans and other hard money loans.