[Music]
Hello everyone and Welcome to another
episode of Selling Greenville your
favorite real estate podcast here in
lovely upstate South Carolina I'm your
host as always Stan McCune realtor right here
in Greenville South Carolina and you can
find all of my contact information in
the show notes if you need to reach out
to me for any reason but particularly
for your real estate needs here in the
Greenville area of South Carolina I'm
your guy contact information is in the
show notes so please let me know if
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I even do my best to help people that
are looking to renteven though
that's you know I don't operate as a
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estate needs even connecting them with
with sources for hard money
different things like that I try to help
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future episodes today I want to talk
about and and this is a little bit of a
variation of another podcast I did a
while agobut this is something I
I've just been thinking about again that
I feel like I want to bring up and it's
real ones versus non-real ones in real
estate investing using you know the
the lingo that the kids use today real
onesand you know I know that that
makes me sound old but that's kind of
the point right I'm trying to trying to
sound old I had to grow but while I'm on
that topic I had to basically grow a
beardto be in real estate because
people thought I was like a kid they
didn't take me seriously enough so I had
to grow facial hairso anyway I
don't want to use too much kid lingo in
this podcast otherwise people will think
that I'm just a kidbut real ones
versus non-real ones in real estate
investing and I want to to preface
this real quick okayI might insult
some people with this episode and I
really am not trying to insult people
I I use that term real ones versus
non-real ones not to say that those that
fit in the non-real ones category are
doing anything wrong there's a gazillion
ways to make money in real estate and
it's totally fine for you to do any of
those things as long as of course they
are legal and ethical and all of that
but I personally take odds when I see
someone that is claiming to be a big
real estate investor but I can tell I
know from for a variety of reasons and
from a variety of things that I've seen
that they're not a real one they're just
posingand I was just prefer that
people just be honest and and I I know I
get it as a realtor sometimes you have
to fake it till you make it right when I
first started in real estate almost
seven years ago I had to kind of fake it
till I made it but I did have the real
estate investing experience leading into
that so it wasn't like I had to fake
that but there were things about
contract law and there were things about
you know negotiating for another party
and understanding you know what that
looks like I had to learn a lot in those
early years and I appreciate the people
that were willing to risk it with me
that saw that I offered something
that was you know from my past
experience they saw my work ethic they
saw my ability to do real estate
Investments and and to negotiate good
deals and whatnot that they were willing
to take those risks but I did have to
take my lumps early on on like multiple
different thingsand so I totally get
it for those in real estate investing
that are trying to fake it till they
make it I'm not trying to trash on
anyone like that but I do think it's
helpful because some people out there
are trying to make money in alternate
things it they're trying to let me
say it a different way they're trying to
take money from new investors people
that are trying to learn about real
estate investing they're trying to take
their money to educate them or to assist
them in some way but these people
themselves that are claiming to be the
experts
are not
experts and I think that it's it's
important for any of
my clients or any of my potential future
clients or just listeners that are just
listening in that I've never met before
that I never will meetI think it's
helpful to think about this from the
standpoint of who are the real ones who
are not the real ones so that you don't
get ripped off because I can assure you
there are a lot of people out there
looking to rip you off and this is not
necessarily A Greenville specific
podcast almost always I preface my
podcast that hey these things are
Greenville specific no this is actually
a rare instance of a podcast where I
think that this can probably apply to
pretty much anywhere in the US because I
see this
happening in in more areas than just
Greenvilleand so I just want to make
sure that if if you're a new or
prospective real estate investor that
you don't get ripped off by some of
these non-real ones and if you're a
person that after you listen to this
you're like hey he called me out he's
saying that I'm not a real
one my advice to you would be to just
reassess and just think hey am I not
being completely forthright is what I'm
doing truly ethical should I change some
of what I'm doinghow I'm presenting
myself etc etc it is totally fine to be
a smalltime investor like when I tell
people that I am a real estate investor
I am more than happy to let them know
that I am a smalltime real estate
investor I don't have 200 Doors but you
know what what I have and what I have
done over the years I've either done by
s or with a very small group of people
I'm not doing real estate investing
deals with large groups of people and I
think that that's an important caveat is
that a lot of people that are that say
you know well I have 200 Doors very few
of them actually have 200 Doors just
themselves usually they have 10 15 20 25
30 other investorsthat are owning
those doors with them so when you take
the actual like when you divide the
number of doors by the number of of
investors like the actual Equity the
actual stake that that they end up
having per door you know it might come
out to five to 10 doors that that they
really have on a percentage basis or on
an equity basisif you want to look
at it that waythere is nothing wrong
again there's nothing wrong with any of
this I just want to make sure that we
are all on the same page and that we're
able to identify who these different
people are so that we're not confused as
to you know when we see someone out
there that's like okay you know hey I
this person he's really you know shaking
things up he's really you know taking
names getting out there going crazy
doing all kinds of crazy stuff a lot of
the times they're not a lot of the times
the people that you've heard of that are
doing a lot of crazy stuff really
they're just doing very basic things
but they want you to believe that
they're doing crazy things they want you
to believe that they're that they're
going crazy you know what on my social
media I intentionally do not post a
lot about what I'm doing in real estate
investing there's a reason for that it's
because my primary job is to be a
realtor the real estate investing that
comes on the side again does that mean
I'm not a real estate investor no but
I'm doing that stuff on the side so I'm
not going to advertise that type of
thing that would then pull away from my
brand as a realtor I know a realtor in
the Greenville area that has really
started focusing her her brand and
started focusing like all of her social
media on her real estate investing to
me when I see that I think okay are you
actually a realtor anymore or are you
just an investorI want to make sure
that you guys know and that anyone that
follows me on social media at Stan mun
pretty much any platform that you're
usingand if you go on Twitter you'll
find
that it's primarily Sports and
politics that I'm dealing with on
Twitter so I I don't necessarily
recommend that unless you're into those
thingsbut at Stan mun on the other
platforms you can feel free to to
connect with me thereI don't know
where I was going with thatoh yeah
I want to make sure that that anyone
that's following me that you guys know
that me as a realtor that comes first
that is first and foremost and I'm not
just saying that it is first and
foremost with my time it is first and
foremost with my resources I do not have
a real estate investing marketing budget
and and I think that that is you
know a a major dividing lineand this
isn't on my list but I'm just going to
mention thisthere is a big
difference between a real estate
investor that has a marketing budget and
a real estate investor that doesn't Okay
a real estate investor that doesn't is
going to be a more small-time investor
that is just the way it is now again I'm
this is a separate conversation from the
real ones versus non-real ones so I want
to make sure just because you're a
small-time real estate investor doesn't
mean that you're not a real one it just
means it just means you're small time
again that's how I would classify
myselfbut the all the big-time Real
Estate Investors they have a marketing
budget why because they're not getting
they're not sourcing their deals on
Market they're pretty much sourcing
everything off Market they're finding
motivated Sellers and they're purchasing
directly from those motivated sellers
with minimal due diligence periodand
you know with a oftentimes a large
team that's helping them Source these
dealsso there are all sorts of of
different categories and I I don't want
to make anyone feel like they are a
lesser real estate investor at the end
of the day but I do take odds with
people and and particularly people that
are trying to take money from others
that in my opinion are not a real one in
the investing world or that are
pretending to be a large investor a
BigTime you know high volume investor
let's say thatwhen really they're
just a small time investor so let's jump
into it with all of that I apologize for
going through all of that but I truly
think I might insult some people even
with that caveatso and I really
don't want to insult people but we need
to identify a few things here and so
let's just jump into itI only have a
few things here so I don't think that
this is going to take very long probably
that caveat will take just as long as
the actual episode itself real ones
versus non-real ones in real estate
investinghow do I identify a unreal
one one of the primary indicators that
someone is not a quote and quote real
one in real estate investing and I guess
I should like clearly Define that I I've
kind of skirted around it but my clear
definition is this is someone who is
pretending to be something that they are
not in order to get something out of
someone else okay that is what makes
them not averel one are pretending to be
more of a real estate investor than they
really are because they're trying to get
something out of someone else okay at
the end of the day all right one of the
key indicators is that that they are not
a real one is that they focus on their
brand let me tell you something the big
movers and shakers in
Greenville do not focus on their brand
with one very key exception okay the one
very key exception
is that if they have a marketing
budget again as we discussed before the
the large the the full-time investors
the large investors they do have a
marketing budget they may have a
brand for whatever that company is that
is doing that marketing that's that's a
separate thing if they have a personal
brand about
themselves I would say most of a time I
would deem them to not be a real one I'm
sorry if that's a offensive to someone
listeningbut I I'm not again I'm not
coming to that conclusion on the basis
of so much the people that I see that
have personal brands for themselves
I'm coming to that conclusion more on
the basis that when I meet people that
are doing high volume investing they
never have Brands they never ever have
Brands the ones that do have brands are
mostly doing wholesaling the ones that
are doing wholesaling
generally don't have the capital to
purchase properties themselves I talked
to someone recently that just keeps he
this person's a wholesaler he keeps
sending me the same deal he's been
sending it to me for like two or three
months now and I just asked him you know
I I happen to see him in person it was
just like so how are you doing you know
moving that deal you keep sending me
and he was just likeyeah I've got
I've got a lot of interestbut hasn't
hasn't sold yet I'll probably just buy
it myself and I was just like I just
looked at him and just kind of nodded my
head but I was like I already knew this
dude he he's not going to buy it himself
and that's that's the definition of
someone that's not a real one like he
just told me I'm going to buy it myself
listen that was a month ago no that was
two months ago he's still sending me
this deal he like he why hasn't he
bought it himself yet right if it's such
a good deal if he was told me two months
ago he was going to buy bu itso
that's a problem but anyway when you see
people that are focusing on their
personal brand and they are the brand
their face is the brand often times that
should be a big big red flag for you
they are trying to get something they're
trying to build trust with you now again
as a realtor it's a little bit of a
different story right because as a
realtor I am my brand so I get that I
get there a lot of there's a one
realtor out herein the Greenville
area that he has a you know a whole
graphic design that's all about his
beard hey more props to you my beard
that I've already referenced once in in
this episode so I don't know why we're
coming back to beards but it's just
happeningmy Beard's not very good
I've got a patchy beardI'm not proud
of that and I don't know maybe I'll do
something else with it at some point but
hey if you're a realtor and you can
identify yourself buy your beard and
put up Billboards that just have like
the silhouette of your beard more more
power to you but if you're a real estate
investor that and that is what you're
focusing onthat is a red flag for me
because why do you need to focus on
yourself if you're real estate investing
like literally the primary thing you're
doing is flipping Properties or buying
rental properties like it doesn't matter
what you look like people that are if
anything PE I feel like people that you
would be marketing to that arethat
are motivated sellers that are people
that you're trying to reach out to to
try to get them to sell you their their
real estate on the cheap I think most of
those would be more concernedand it
would be a red flag for them if you have
a big brand because then they would be
like you know okay this guy has tons of
money he's got his billboard is face up
everywhere so that's a big red flag for
me if you focus on your personal brand
you as a personI am starting to
wonder and starting to truly lean
towards this person not a real one in
real estate investing th those that
depend all right here's my next one
those that depend 100% on creative
financing not real onesand by
creative financing I mean subject to
which if you don't know what that is
look it up subject to the mortgage
seller financing things like that
obviously there's hard money hard money
has its place there's private money
private money has its place I'm not
really talking about those things I'm
talking about trying to essentially get
a dealwith extremely rare types of
creative financing like what I've just
mentionedand there's a reason why
the people that are focusing on that
why I'm putting them in that not real
ones category what that reveals is that
they eitherdon't have sources in the
private money world that can get them
money they either don't have Bank
contacts that can get them money you
know they don't have a an established
banking relationship that that can get
them money or they just don't have money
in the bankand
so essentially that reveals to me that
either they are just cash poor or
they're just new at it and again neither
of those things are are wrong if you're
able to get a deal with creative
financing you have no money in the bank
that is awesome more power to you I
support I have clients that that have
done thatI have done plenty of
creative financing over the years myself
there is nothing wrong with thatbut
if you're depending 100% on that and
again then you're going out and then
broadcasting to people what type of a
real estate investor you arethat's a
red flag for me you are you're
probably more likely more you're closer
to a rookie than you are to an
experienced real estate investor because
an experienced real estate investor they
have places that they can get money from
they're not having to depend on getting
buying a property subject to the
mortgage now they might not decline
getting a property subject to the
mortgage if that's if an opportunity
arises and and that's something that
they can do but they're not going to do
every single deal with some kind of
wonky creative financing they don't need
to do thatmy next one posting
before and after photos and
specifically on social media
now I need to preface this again I'm not
saying that every single person that has
ever posted before and after photos that
they are not a real one there are
times when it's like okay it makes sense
to post before and after I would say the
the times when that makes the most sense
is when you're renovating a rental
property that you intend to keep for
yourselfand listen have I posted
before and after photos probably it's
been a very very long timeand and so
I'm not saying that like that's not
something that you should never do
and that instantly as soon as I see that
I'm like okay these These people aren't
real onesbut those that continually
post before and after
photos again to me that is a red flag
and there's a very simple reason for it
people if the potential buyer of that
property again if this this isn't a
rental property this is a flip and and I
feel differently about this if it's a
rental propertyalthough not too much
differently for for various reasons but
if we're talking about a flip and you're
posting photos of like a property that
has tons of termite damage all this
moisture damage all sorts of things
going on and you have a potential buyer
that comes across that after the
property's been renovated and they see
all these things that were wrong oh man
you've just and you know again all of
these things are are in theory behind
sheetrock nowyou've just exposed
yourself to a lot of in my opinion this
isn't legal advice but potential issues
where they might what if they decide you
know what man there was a lot of termite
damage in there I'm going to take down
the sheetrock off this wall and see what
type of repairs they actually did and
then they do that and they find that the
repairs you did were not up to code
because you didn't get the work
permitted and and then they find oh
there's more termite damage in here than
we could even see in the photos it just
it doesn't make sense if you're why are
you posting before and after photos that
potentially could get into the wrong
hands potentially a realtor could see
that that is representing a buyer and
that could cause red flags in their mind
do not post before and after photos it
does not make sense unless you're unless
you are just so so excited because
you're a newbieand you know you just
want people to see like wow this was
awesomebut if you're doing it for
any other reasons and you're claiming to
be an experienced real estate investor
to me you're you're not an experienced
real estate investor you're not an
experienced flipper again it's a little
bit different if you're renting because
you don't have the risk of the buyer
coming back to you and and getting
you in trouble for not doing something
correctly but
a potential tenant could go on could
could find that information as well and
so maybe a relative of the tenant and so
you there is just so much risk and so
little reward from it what outside of
just that Fu good that Rush of like
posting that and getting that
affirmation from people what are you
actually benefiting from it from a real
estate standpoint unless you are trying
to get people to use you for
something so I see a lot of contractors
do this you know what if I had a
contractor post before and after photos
on a property that they were working on
for me I would not be happy about that I
do not want to see that I want nothing
to do with that now if it's just minor
if we're talking about just you know a
cosmetic cleanup okay I don't have a
problem with with thatbut if we're
talking about again a property that had
serious issu issues and we're posting
before and after photos no absolutely
not that's a sign of somebody in my
opinion that is is just not a real one
they and and again people that are doing
High volumes of of real estate deals
they have so many of these that they're
doing they don't have time to like pick
and choose okay I'm gonna I'm going to
post before and after photos I don't
have time to to even do thatand if I
don't have time to do that then I know
that someone that's doing high volume of
Real Estate investing that they don't
have time to do it
eitheranother big red flag in this
in this world whether someone is a
real one is if they become Educators oh
and this one I mean listen this is I
think true well beyond real estate if
you become an educator in your field you
are no longer really doing that thing
that you're educating other people on
let's just be let's just be real about
thismaybe you're doing a few flips
per year but if you're focusing on
educating people on flips you're not
doing a high volume of flips if you're
focusing on educating people on real
estate investing you're not doing a lot
of real estate investing yourself
because you you can't be focused on
you you can't be doing a ton of this
investing yourself it takes a lot of
time that's why most people don't do
real estate investing besides just not
having the capital or not having the
risk tolerance a lot of people just
don't have the time for it it's very
timec consumingand educating is very
timec consuming as well and so if you're
if you're an educator in my opinion
you're not doing a a real high volume
of the thing that you're educating
people on maybe you have a team and that
team is doing a high a high volume
that's possible but again are you
actually doing the thing that you're
educating people on probably not now do
I have respect for people that are
Educators in the world of real estate
investing or really in any world 100%
there is nothing harder than to be able
to make money in my opinion there's
nothing harder than to be able to make
money by educating people on how to do
something you have to to build your
brand and you have to Garner so much
respect and you have to get you know
clients through so many different
Avenues in order to do something like
that fulltime and again it's timec
consuming you have to produce new fresh
content constantly that's insanely hard
I have tons and tons of respect if you
have been able to get to the point or
for whoever has gotten to the point of
being an educator in their field to me
that's like retiring from it like if I
ever be became a real estate investing
educator to me then I basically retired
from real estate investing and that's
awesome right like to be able to like
that's the the American dream in a lot
of ways to be able to kind of retire
from what you're doingit's kind of
like for those of you that have read Tim
Ferris like the 4H hour work week this
is kind of those are kind of some of the
concepts that he talks about and one of
the primary ways that people have
actually taken the 4-Hour Work week
and and actually acted on it that those
that have actually gotten to that point
have gotten to that point in the world
of educating and so I have full respect
for that but if you're a real estate
investment educator you're probably not
a true high volume real estate investor
I'm going to assume that you're
probably not a real one sorryand and
this is my last point I actually got to
be somewhere I'm I'm causing this
podcast is going long and causing me
to potentially run late to a meeting
but if you're focusing on organizing
networking events then odds are that
you're not a real one listen the people
that are like major Real Estate
Investors they might attend networking
events but they don't have the time to
organize networking events maybe once a
year like they might there might be an
out of-state investor that comes into
Greenville and is like you know every
now and then when they come in they're
like hey I want to have a networking
event to see my team or or to see you
know some of the people that I've been
working with that's that's a different
that's a completely different thing okay
but the people that are like on a
monthly basis organizing networking
events and like that's a big part of
their sticklisten the the
full-time big big money high volume Real
Estate Investors they don't have time
for that they're going to other people's
networking eventsand so if you see
someone that that's a big part of their
focus to me that's that's a red flag
that to me indicates that they're
probably not real one and that's
something just to just to keep in
mindhere's a freebie I didn't write
this one down but if they're super
active on Bigger Pockets if you see
someone that is super active and I've
posted a few things on Bigger Pockets
real estate investing website blog
Community social network whatever you
want to call itI posted a few things
on there but I don't have time to to be
constantly posting stuff on there that's
that is a website for new investors if
you see someone posting a ton of stuff
on there they're posting that either
because they are a new investor or
because they're trying to attract new
investors to their content think ask
yourself the question why why are they
doing that why are they trying to
reach out to new rookie types of
investors and you can apply that to
again any of people's contents think
about who are they trying to reach with
this content they're posting before and
after photos why why are they posting
that who are they trying to reach with
that they have a personal brand why why
do they have a personal brand how do
they benefit as a real estate investor
from having a personal brand think about
this and again kudos to those that are
that are building a personal brand that
are building a a business educating
people on real estate investing that are
making a lot of money through networking
that are doing a small volume of deal
through creative financingall of
these different things that we've
discussed none of them are wrong I don't
have a problem with any of them in and
of themselves but if you are taking
money from new Real Estate Investors or
mis portraying yourself to people that
don't know any better that's where I
have a problemI don't think I'm
going to have too many of my listeners
that are going to fall into that
category I don't think I'm going to have
a ton that are going to be offended by
this because I think most most of the
people that are listening areeither
the the legit Real Estate Investors that
don't fit any of these categories or
they're more of the the newer investor
types of course we I've got a lot of
non-investors that listen to the show as
wellbut those that are doing real
estate investing I think the vast
majority listening to the show will not
be offended because you'll just be like
yeah none of that is me anywayand
that's greatso for you just be on
the lookout for this stuff because this
stuff can it can be tricky there's a lot
of there's a lot of Glitz and glamour
in the real estate investing world and
let me tell you not Everything That
Glitters Is Gold when it comes to real
estate investing so be on the lookout
for these types of people make sure that
you don't give them money unless you've
done a lot of investigating into what
they're actually doing all right guys I
appreciate you listening I hope you
enjoyed it I hope you weren't offended
if you were let me know I'm happy to
have a discussion with you about that or
any of your real estate needs all my
contact information is in the show notes
see that nice little transition there
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