Don’t Be An Evangelist
What are the earliest and most overwhelming questions people have are how do I find investors? How do I find the right investor, right? The most important thing, don’t be an evangelist. Don’t think you’re going to convert people that are putting money in their 401ks stuff and money under their mattress. Only invest in, invest in a savings account. Don’t do it because they’re not in the mindset to give you money to invest in an apartment complex or real estate of any kind for that matter. You don’t have a receptive audience. You trying to evangelize in convert those people is such a huge waste of your time and usually what’s going to end up happening, you’re going to alienate people, they’re going to be tired of dealing with you. I don’t want to go to the barbecue that Bruce’s throwing cause he just want to talk to me about freaking real estate.
Native Environment (00:51)
Again, don’t do that. So what you have to do, you have to go find people in their native environment, if you will, right? Talk about the wild here. Go to meetups that are multifamily or single-family or whatever you’re trying to do in real estate. Find a meetup geared that way. Here we talk about apartment complexes. So find meetups locally that are year-round apartment complexes. Go to the different national real estate conferences, the expos maybe even joined one of the national educational platforms. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s a great way to learn some stuff. And you’re gonna meet a lot of people. So go to where the people are that already understand and believe the virtues of real estate. You’re gonna save yourself a lot of time, a lot of headaches, and again, a lot of chances to irritate or alienate your friends and family.
The Right One For You (1:42)
So I wouldn’t do that. Now, the second part of the right investor, who is the right investor for me, people ask me all the time, I would really like to be part of one of your deals. What do you need from me to be a good investor? For you to be sure I get accepted into your deal. If you know, the funny thing is that I always say is be able to write a check to me for the investment that doesn’t bounce and that always gets a chuckle, right? But also don’t be a jerk. That’s it. Don’t be a jerk. So the right investor is somebody that I think we’re going to click because I want to have a relationship with these people. Not only do I need to have a relationship with these people to make sure that I’m doing the best job for them, I can personally, I want to know these people.
Like Them (2:23)
I want to like them. I want to make sure they like me if I like and trust them, but I don’t feel it’s reciprocal. They don’t like and trust me, it’s not going to work. So I will very politely, very diplomatically say, look, mr and Mrs. Johnson, I don’t think this is the right deal for you. I wish you the best of luck. There’s tons of deals out there that I think will be a better fit for you. So I’m looking for somebody again, that I click with somebody that I think understands what we’re doing. Of course, cause I got to make sure they’re a sophisticated investor. They understand exactly what they’re getting into, but also remember, don’t try to convert people that aren’t already converted. That’s kind of it. It’s not real difficult. But those are really the two things that we’re looking for.
