Think slow, work fast.

A thread on entrepreneurship and what folks don't understand about opportunity.

We've used "seller financing" on two self storage deals in the past year.

And it raised our cash on cash return by 20%+.

And lowered the amount of capital we needed by $500k.

Here's a THREAD about a deal of mine and how this magical debt structure can work.

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My method is simple. In the late stages of negotiation I submit two offers:

One at a lower price.

And one at the exact price the seller wants but with him holding back 10-20% of the purchase price in the form of a 2nd mortgage (with a second position to your bank loan).

Contrary to popular belief seller financing rarely includes the seller holding back 70-80% and acting as your bank.

Two reasons:

#1 most have some debt on the property.

#2 most want most of their money now.

Have you heard the saying:

"you name the price and i'll name the terms?"

This is a case of that situation exactly.

Lets paint a picture here:

Last week I was negotiating with a seller on a property in a small western PA town.

Not many interested buyers so I knew I had some leverage.

His asking price was $4.5MM. I wanted to pay $4.2M.

After a week or two and a lot of back and forth I found his lowest number.

Want to know how to get brokers to bring you deals first?

Want to build a machine that can buy real estate while you play golf?

Have a very professional and organized METHOD for closing on a property.

It's a system. And here's how we do it.

A thread 👇👇👇

The thing is most sellers (that I deal with) have never sold a property before.

They don't know what to expect. They don't know how it works.

So they naturally have unreasonable expectations and there is a lot that can get lost in the shuffle.

And it creates stress.

And most brokers are working several deals at a time. And they aren't at liberty to tell a buyer how to do business.

So their hands are tied.

And for that reason a lot of closings are shit show. They are delayed. They end up with lawyers huddled up on Thursday night at 10pm.

And for that reason its YOUR JOB as the buyer to take charge.

Set the expectations.

Set the timeline.

And be a professional.

Step one:

Get a signed letter of intent that lays out the terms for your attorney to draft a contract with.

Step two (5 minutes after signed LOI)

Send out an email linking all of the parties and outline their role and a timeline.

Too many folks set the bar way too high with entrepreneurship. The next million dollar company. The next sexy startup.

Forget all that.

Why isn’t the goal to build something that pays you good $ every year and requires only a few hours of your time per week to make it happen?

When you start a business your goal shouldn't be to get an article in TechCrunch or raise VC $.

It should be to make $1,000 as quickly as possible with as little risk as possible.

Trade your time for money to test an idea.

Speaking of ideas.....

Business ideas are OVERRATED.

The only thing a brand new, world-changing idea will get you is an interesting Twitter bio and very shitty odds of success.

We only hear about the unicorns like Jobs and Musk.

The successful entrepreneurs in your town all have something in common...

They did common things uncommonly well.

They did something that someone else was already doing and they just did it a little bit better.

Young entrepreneurs hear the same advice over and over again...

Change the world. Do something you're passionate about. Thing BIGGER.

That advice is BULLSHIT.

Shoot for the stars and the odds you'll end up with a JOB.

Entrepreneurship culture in America is all messed up and it’s a shame.

TechCrunch. Product Hunt. Shark Tank.

It’s all about new ideas. Changing the world. Innovation. 0 to 1. Blue ocean. Venture capital and exits and scalability.

And ITS ALL A LIE.

You ask the average american who a real entrepreneur is they’ll say Jobs, Musk or Zuck.

We read their books and idolize them and hang on their every word.

So the brightest among us think they need a moat. A new idea. Something revolutionary.

Were setting them up for FAILURE.

I took an entrepreneurship course at Cornell in 2011. 24 kids with new ideas. Big plans. Pitch decks looking for series As.

I was #25 with a regular old-fashioned business.

When professors asked me what my differentiator was I didn’t have an answer.

I saw a company out there doing sweaty, non scalable work. They were terrible at it.

I started by trading my time for money. Bought a $1500 cargo van. Used the things I had in my life to make some profit.

I wasn’t trying to educate a customer base.

I wasn’t following my passion.

I didn’t need funding or a network.

I wasn’t competing against brilliant folks from Stanford.

I want trying to prove a concept.

I wasn’t emotionally attached to anything except adding value.