Forging Connections

Episode 960: Forging Connections, with Chad Heeter

Forging connections is an important step in business. Learn how Chad Heeter built his career in real estate by forging connections.

Forging connections has always been important for Chad Heeter in building his reputation in the real estate industry. It’s time to learn of its importance and how to apply it to whatever industry you are in.

With over 20 years of real estate experience, Chad Heeter is building a family-run real estate investing company based in beautiful Buena Vista, Colorado.

Chad Heeter grew up in a Kansas City real estate family. At 7 years old, he was pulling weeds and picking up trash around the 30+ rental properties that his dad owned. Soon, he was promoted to mowing lawns and painting. Years later, Chad continued on his own, purchasing and rehabbing his own rental properties. After his wife, Elizabeth, passed away in 2017 after 16 years of marriage, Chad needed to focus on raising his children on his own. He decided to get back into real estate investing, something he could manage while the kids were in school.

Not long after, Chad was introduced to Chris Prefontaine and the National Property Team. He’s proud to be forging connections with this incredible group of investors who are working to build win/win relationships by solving problems that many home sellers face, as well as helping home buyers achieve their dream of owning a home.

What you will learn in this episode about forging connections:

• How Chad is the third generation of his family to invest in real estate, and how he got bitten by the real estate bug as a kid helping his dad with his own business
• How losing his wife to cancer in 2016 caused tremendous and painful challenges for Chad and his family, and how real estate has been the ideal vehicle to help find himself
• How Chad initially connected with master real estate investor and coach Chris Prefontaine through his Smart Real Estate Coach podcast
• Chad shares a painful story of his then ten-year-old son giving his sick mother water using a syringe
• Why Chad believes there’s value in sharing his story of loss and hope with others and forging connections
• How the global pandemic and uncertain economy has impacted Chad’s investment business and the broader real estate market
• How Chad’s home sale model creates a powerful option for business owners and other self-employed professionals that may even make them more money than a traditional sale
• How buyers can build their own equity in a property while they’re getting their finances in order to buy, giving business owners a proven payment track record as well
• What Chad would say to those who may be skeptical of a real estate “terms” deal structure, especially business owners who may be looking to buy or sell
• What important lesson Chad learned from a mentor about asking questions, forging connections, failing, and keeping going despite obstacles

Resources:

• Website: http://buffalopeakpropertysolutions.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chadheeter/
• Learn more insights on forging connections by getting to know more about Chad

Additional Resources:

• Listen to this podcast with Mark Faust on forging connections and why it’s important for growth
• Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
• Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
• Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/

 

 

Forging Connections: Full Episode Transcript

 

Get ready to find your recipe for success on forging connections from America’s top business owners here at Onward Nation with your host, Stephen Woessner.

 

Good morning. I am Stephen Woessner, CEO of Predictive ROI and your host for Onward Nation, where I interview today’s top business owners so we can learn their recipe for success, how they built, and how they scaled their business. In fact, my team at Predictive ROI, while I’ve been mentioning this now for a couple of months because we are still hard at work at rebuilding and expanding our free resources section on Predictive ROI wycombe’s.

 

So which is really now turned into a resource library, you can download free practical and tactical guides for how to build your own authority sales machine. Everything from how to create your ideal client avatar, how to create a value ladder, a sales funnel, and how to make sure your content strategy aligns with what we call the ten truths to what makes someone an authority within their niche.

 

So just go to PredictiveROI.com/resources. And as always, everything is 100% free. And whatever your request, we will send it right to your inbox. So before we welcome today’s guests Onward Nation, I want to give you some context. I want to share some context with you around when why? When Chad Heeter and I first started talking about the opportunity of him being my guest today, why I was over the moon excited.

 

Because you’re going to hear things about personal journey. You’re going to hear things about planning a flag of authority and the niche that he wants to serve and is serving. And then you’re going to also hear about this depth of expertise that he has around real estate. Okay. So why is that relevant? Because right now, unlike any other time in human history, maybe you’re a homeowner.

 

You’re certainly a business owner. If you’re listening to our show, maybe you’re a homeowner and thinking of ways to reduce expenses and thinking is now the right time to sell my house. And maybe you’re feeling pressure around that, and maybe you’ve kind of frozen and not taking any action. So Chad’s here and I’m going to ask him those questions about is that the right time?

 

Is this the right time to be selling during a global pandemic? Maybe on the surface, it sounds like it isn’t real. Or let’s say that you’re a business owner and you want to buy a house. And let’s say maybe you just recently started your business, or maybe you’ve owned your business for ten years, like I have with Predictive ROI and thinking, do I really want to run that gantlet?

 

Which is what, you know, trying to go through the process of getting traditional financing, what that might feel like for somebody who is self-employed, getting that traditional 30 or mortgage. And so those are some of the questions that Chad is going to help us navigate and walk through. So whether you’re looking to potentially sell or you’re looking to potentially buy what is going on in the real estate market, that would actually make this the best time for both of those, even though that sounds like it might be a paradox.

 

So that’s exactly why I asked Chad to come here today and share those things with us, so we can learn from his expertise. He’s part of the National property team, where they have associates all across the country. So I think that this conversation is going to be helpful in a number of different ways. So with that said, and without further ado, Chad, thank you very much for joining me here.

 

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Forging Connections: Chad Heeter’s Introduction

 

Welcome to Onward Nation, my friend. Thank you, Steven, and good morning Onward Nation. Love to be here. It’s awesome to be here. Thank you. It’s awesome to have you here. And before probably the barrage or what’s probably going to feel like a barrage of questions come your way, actually, take us behind the curtain here.

 

And you and I have known each other since about April 2019, if I remember correctly, when Chris Prefontaine from Smart Real Estate Coach and host of the Smart Real Estate Coach podcast, invited me to speak at, you know, one of his events, and you and I met there and then we’ve had this chance over the last maybe year and a half or so to work together and building out what we call authority sprint, which has been awesome.

 

But take us behind the curtain and, and share more context about your story, your path, your journey. because that’ll be a great foundation for Onward Nation business owners. Sure. Now, happy to, you know, I actually am a third generation, real estate investor. My grandparents, were involved in real estate, and then both my mom and dad, my mom was a realtor.

 

My dad was a mortgage broker and also had rental properties. And that became my first, after my parents divorced, I would spend summers with my dad, and that became my first job at around eight, seven, picking up trash around, you know, around the rental properties, and then, you know, transitioning, into mowing lawns and painting all that stuff.

 

So, you know, the things that you don’t, I guess I enjoy that kind of work. I enjoyed that kind of, opportunity to have that responsibility and you know, working, at that age, it was an opportunity to spend time with my dad and, you know, you never know what kind of gets into your blood.

 

And real estate just got into my blood. But it’s funny because I didn’t really become an investor myself until many years later. I went to school, I studied, I’ve a pretty varied background, and I studied marine science and biochemistry. I went on to be, to join teach for America, which is a program that, recruits, college graduates to teach in underserved communities around the country.

 

I went to Macon, Georgia, and was a high school science teacher for two years. My one of my other dreams that I grew up in, I grew up in the Midwest, but one of my my favorite things to do as a child was, look at, we had this giant globe that had a, had a light bulb inside of it, and I would just, learn countries and kind of make a bucket list at a young age or what countries I would want to visit.

 

I started some traveling in college, and then, after teach for America, I actually went to Japan, for a couple of years and taught there, did a lot of traveling there. wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do. after that, a friend suggested, you know, I’m I’m I’m, I’ve always enjoyed film, and, he suggested have you thought about, you know, going to film school?

 

I went to film school in New York. It got interested in documentary film. I ended up going to graduate school and studying journalism. And it’s funny because, you know, I say all that stuff, about six months ago. So I was telling the story. I was telling all this background and someone said, what’s he doing all that?

 

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Forging Connections: The Challenges of Chad’s Life

 

Well, what were you running from? As if I was, you know going from place to place to escape something from my past or whatever. And I thought about it, and I didn’t give this answer at the time in the conversation, but I was clearly actually running to something. And, you know, in the next year or so, I was running to meeting my wife Elizabeth, and that was in, cheese.

 

That was in 2001. And, we were together for 16 years. We have two kids. Two kids that are now, 10 and 13. But, you know, that was also it was the best 16 years of my life, hands down. But it was also one of the most challenging because in 2014, she was, excuse me, 2016, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

 

And went through that challenge for almost two years before she succumbed to that and passed away. Passed away on Christmas Day 2017, which was also my son’s 11th birthday. So, you know, it’s been a challenging time, you know, and since then it’s been almost two and a half years now, a lot’s happened.

 

I had to figure out, you know, what the next stage was for income, how to take care of the kids, how to juggle so many questions. When you’re with someone. I know you’ve been with your wife for several years. You become so intertwined. And once you lose, you have to, you know, all of that unravels.

 

And so it’s been a struggle and it’s been a path of finding myself again, finding myself as an individual as opposed to Chad and Elizabeth. I’m back to just being chat and coming to terms with that. And, you know, it’s always a fascinating journey. Life, even the tough, difficult times, you know, that we face there’s, you know, and I know we’ve talked about it personally and from time-to-time there’s beauty even in those challenging times.

 

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Forging Connections: Onward to the Next Level

 

And I think that’s what helps us get to the next level. So about six months after she passed away, I actually was listening to podcasts and I heard you mention, I heard a podcast in which Chris Prefontaine was the guest and I just connected with him immediately. his personal story, his, you know, he’s had some challenges within his family and also, you know, got through the 2008 real estate debacle and came out on the other side of that, but not without a lot of work and struggle.

 

So I connected with him, literally listening through the podcast, I thought, well, this is the guy I’d like to meet. And then learning about his course just kind of made sense. And, I was, you know, I jumped on to the course that week, and he and I were on the phone, within, you know, a couple of weeks talking about, you know, what the next steps could be.

 

And I ended up joining the group, and I’ve been with them for almost two years now. So it’s been an amazing time and an amazing period of growth. So that’s it and in a nutshell kind of my background. And which brings me where I am today, doing real estate investing full time, which, which allows me to balance the needs of my kids when they’re at school, gives me something to do during that period, obviously.

 

And bring an income and, you know, it also also offers me structure and community within this group. The national property team. I feel privileged, Onward Nation that Chad and I have had many conversations about this family, about Elizabeth. What the relationship was like, the devastation that and what it was like to lose her so tragically.

 

And the courageous battle and fight, that both of you put forward as she battled cancer. And it’s I’m I feel privileged to have had those conversations with you, Chad. So where I want to take that if it’s okay with you is. And I’m certainly not trying to parallel that with the 2008 debacle that Chris talked about.

 

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Forging Connections: Working with Chris Prefontaine

 

What I’m curious about, though, is your story, which was certainly challenging, and hardship and work and struggle and whatever adjective else you want to use, although all of them seem insufficient to describe the pain, and then you hear Chris tell his story, what would it be? Would it be fair to say that hearing somebody share their story like that, and then you internalizing that with how you felt like, did that help build rapport for you and Chris?

 

It did actually. You know, it’s something obviously that came up in our initial conversation, but I’ve always been a fairly open person. And, I probably become, you know, even more so through, what I’ve been through. I’m happy to share my story and what was interesting, though, Stephen, is that, you know, I was looking at I wanted to build a business, and I was looking to, you know, to work with Chris as a coach.

 

And, you know, he kind of says, and I’m not sure if he still kind of puts it out this way, but he didn’t want to hear it. He’s pretty blunt. And this is what a lot of people love about Chris. You know, he’s pretty straightforward and he doesn’t want to be your therapist. And nor did I want him to be my therapist.

 

And it wasn’t what I was looking for. I was looking for, hey, this is an opportunity to work with someone who’s who’s built a system that I could replicate. And I wanted his input and direction and hand-holding in that way, but he didn’t. I had no expectations for him to have to kind of guide me through, you know, any emotional up and downs which I have had numerous times over the course of this period.

 

And knowing him, I’ve shared some things with him and obviously, you know, we know each other on a pretty, you know, deep personal level. We’re sharing things with him and with a group. And I have to say to that, you know, he’s never one of the things I’ve loved most about Chris is that he’s never held any of that against me.

 

Meaning that he’s, you know, he knows if I’m having a challenging time struggling. He’s not going to hold that against me. If I’m not, maybe, performing at the level that he’s expects or not expect. But I think he’s given me leeway and in terms of growth. And we want to coach you do I get coach should be able to read you know how his player and how his mentee is reacting to you know, to the time in which we’re performing.

 

So he’s been really great about that. And I’m not sure that answers your question, but but that’s how that’s how our relationship started and and has continued to evolve because he was open on on his podcast. So he kind of buried his story. And that was a connection. Okay. So here’s why I think it absolutely, without a doubt answers my question.

 

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Forging Connections: Building An Audience Around Your Story

 

And where I was going with that Onward Nation is we all have a story. Perhaps it’s not, and hopefully not a tragic one where you lose a family member like Chad and his family did. But we all have stories. We all have stories that if we’re courageous enough to share them, then that creates commonality. I’m certainly not suggesting I want to make sure that I’m not being, misunderstood here.

 

I’m not suggesting that you craft a story or tell your story in a way that isn’t accurate or that it starts to become hyperbole. And I’m not suggesting that you try to monetize your story. What I am saying is that you can absolutely, without a doubt, build commonality, build an audience around your story of people who care and are compassionate, and absolutely the people who you want to be working with.

 

By actually having the courage to step into the shoes that you rightfully own. And you do that and it takes time, of course, just as the progression that you’re actually hearing Chad courageously step into telling his story right now then maybe a couple of years ago. So let’s do a litmus test here. What, a couple of years ago, would you have shared your story the way that you just confidently shared your story right now?

 

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Forging Connections: Beauty And Tragedy

 

Would you have done that a couple years ago? Yes or no? I mean, the story would have been different. You know, whatever stage in life we’re in, we all have. You’re so right. We all have that story to tell because. Because, I am cinematic. I’m my film background. I tend always feel like I have a camera on my shoulder, you know, taking images of what’s around me and how that could be edited together.

 

It’s a really weird thing. And I did that from a young age, actually. Probably the one image that captures both beauty and tragedy in my story. And I share this, just because it’s an image and it’s nothing that I’ve shared publicly before, nor have I, you know. It’s not about my story that I wrote for Chris in the next book, but it was about maybe three weeks before my wife passed away.

 

And she needed water. And at that point, she was only taking in small amounts of water. And we actually would have to feed her with a syringe water. And at one point she needed water, and it was just, we were busy, I think, making a meal. And she needed water. My son was the one closest to her, to take a cup of water, extract ten milliliters in that syringe, and then take that syringe and put it to my wife’s lips.

 

And give her something to drink. And that image of my son at ten years old, doing that is just, you know, it was beautiful. Of course, you know, this little boy doing what his mother did to him ten years earlier, you know, as an infant and now feeding his mother, you know, the water she needed.

 

So beautiful and tragic at the same time because I feel like no ten-year-old, you know, son should ever have to be in a position to do that for his mother. But nevertheless, that’s how things play out in my mind cinematically. And that’s an image that’s indelible. And I’m always, you know, I’ll never forget that.

 

And it just again, I can still find the beauty in that though. And going forward, you know, how do I tell my story that the story is going to evolve? It’s going to continue to evolve right now. My kids and I, if you can see the rest of my room, I mean it’s filled with boxes when we’re actually moving in two weeks to a home just south of here.

 

And it’s the first move we done, you know, as the three of us. And, you know, we’re leaving the home where my wife passed away. She was in hospice here for six weeks. So making that transition and going through boxes that we have to move and finding notes from her, finding notes that I wrote her opening up notes.

 

She was a writer. She was a painter. She was an artist. She was a teacher signing, you know, little scribbles on the side of a journal or side of a notebook that she kept things like that. And then, if it doesn’t make, packing up very, very easily because, you know, you find something like that, notes. 

 

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Forging Connections: Making a Connection Through a Story

 

And I’m, you know, going back in time. So anyway, yeah, the story’s evolving. We all have that story to tell, and I think there is value to share that because we don’t know who we’re going to connect with in this journey and whether that’s on a personal level or your business. You know, if you’ve been in the military and you’re looking to do business with other veterans, you know, that makes sense to connect with them.

 

If you’ve had a skill set that you’re able to share with other people to connect with or commonality in where you’ve lived or where you’ve traveled to or, you know, I’m sure when what I told you right now, they’re aspects of my journey you didn’t know.

 

But every time I talk to you, I learn something new and I want to take time to get to know you better. So. When? So, yes, you’re 100% right. You just exposed several new layers of your story. And you and I have had some deeply, emotional conversations. I’ve not yet heard that what you just shared.

 

And so my point with that Onward Nation and why I’m grateful that Chad would share that with you, is so that you realize that it isn’t a one-and-done thing. Yep. I’m going to sit down on my desk and I’m going to pen out what my story is. And that’s the story that I’m going to tell for the next whatever period of time.

 

And hopefully that is of value to my clients, my prospects and my general audience, my macro-level audience. But it isn’t that simple. It is actually having the courage to, yes, sit down and write that first version of the story, and then also having that ongoing courage to be out there, as Chad is right now, with you fully exposed and sharing this emotional story and yet he is now sharing additional letters that I’ve not yet heard. I’ve heard his story multiple times.

 

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Forging Connections: Planting Your Flag of Authority

 

So my point is that that’s why we’re starting this conversation with the power of a story. Because when we talk about planting your flag of authority, it starts with there’s three essentials to planting a flag of authority. The first one is having an input that you serve, which Chad clearly does, and then also having a point of view that drives your content, that drives your decisions, that it can.

 

When you put those two things together, Onward Nation, niche and point of view is Chad has done in blending his story. And then it’s like when Chad is, let’s say, in a competitive situation, up against another real estate expert and business owners considering, do I work with Chad or do I work with Sarah. Then Chad has been courageous enough to share his story, and there’s something in his story that connects with Sarah in a deeply emotional level.

 

It makes him not actually compete against this other person. It makes him so much more attractive. It’s like it removes the competition because he has planted his flag of authority. So Chad, thank you very much for sharing that. Let’s do a pivot. Hopefully it doesn’t feel too abrupt here because I want to be able to have you share some of your expertise around real estate.

 

So just give us a, let’s go kind of high level first, whether you want to call it 30,000ft view and an aggregate level. Whatever term you want to use is you think of the broader real estate market. Like what are some of the things that stick out to you right now, like what’s going on in the the real estate industry?

 

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Forging Connections: State of the Real Estate Market

 

As of today, we’re recording this Onward Nation, at the end of June of 2020. So what is your take on what’s happening right now? I guess my take from a, so I’m based in Colorado and the national property team, you know, has investors, throughout the country. I think there’s almost 70, 75 of us now.

 

And, so, yeah, that question to where are we in the real estate market and I just want to say I’m not an expert at that top level of where we were going, our economy, in which direction our economy is going, anything like that. But there’s a lot of question marks. There’s a lot of things that I think, from my perspective, sellers have been either trying to jump in and get their home sold as soon as possible before something else happens.

 

And what somebody else is we have no idea. Or there’s some people who have been holding off on selling because we don’t know what something else might be. So dealing with the with with I think a lot of folks are just not sure. And but of course, when you need to sell a home because a job or a job change or whatever the impetus is, people are needing to sell homes and people are obviously needing to buy homes.

 

In the midst that I work in is typically, if you have a home and for whatever reason, you’re either unable to get that, get that home sold, it just hasn’t sold on the traditional market with a realtor, say, or you’re doing it for sale by owner and it hasn’t sold.

 

We provide options that you could either still get your home sold and likely net more money out of your property as well. So it’s a specific niche that we do in creative terms that we call it in my specialty area and going back to the authority work that you and I do. I tended to to fall into.

 

And maybe now that, you know, folks have heard my story, I tend to attract people. And I like working with people who are in some kind of transition. So these folks might be retirees, they might be retirees, they might be have gone through a divorce and they’re needing to unload, home, liquidate a property, they’re going into retirement, and you don’t need to liquidate a property to get some cash flow.

 

And those are the folks that I typically, typically, work with. That’s about probably 85% of my clients. And for example, if you’re in Colorado, you know, you might work, you might have a second home here in the state, you might live out of state, and now you’re needing to sell your second home.

 

You’re here in Colorado and a lot of rural homes that I work with, mountain homes that, again, don’t move as quickly as the traditional market with the realtor and that those are the homes that I kind of, tend to have my portfolio. Homes that have taken some time to sold to sell.

 

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Forging Connections: Getting Cash Flow

 

Excuse me. But we’re able to get the home in agreement. And for example, if the home is paid off, let’s just say the home is free and clear. For example, it’s a second home. Maybe it was a retirement home. And I can give a specific example, a gentleman who built a retirement home in rural Colorado.

 

He lived in South Carolina full time. But we come out here periodically and plan to retire in this home. He was single at the time that someone decided to stay full-time in South Carolina. And so he needed to sell this property. It was on the market for about 14 months before he and I came in contact with each other.

 

The home was free and clear. He was able to sell that property. We went through our company, and we purchased the home. He’s now getting principal-only payments for the home. So he’s getting cash flow, and then we’ll give him a balloon payment in 3 to 5 years. So that window of time, he’s getting cash flow.

 

And with a date actually on that home. And it’s 36 months. So he has an end date in which you’ll get this balloon payment. And then he has no more responsibility for that property. We take on all the responsibility. 

 

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Forging Connections: Locking-In Your Equity

 

Okay. So Chad, let me make sure that I’m understanding this correctly. So if I’m a business owner who’s listening to you right now and I’m thinking, okay, I have a lot of equity in my house because I’ve owned it for a long time.

 

However, I’m either transitioning out of my business or I would like to be able to reduce my monthly expenses, maybe have a higher mortgage, a substantial amount of equity. But I have, and maybe I don’t need the equity per se right now, but it would be awesome to be able to lower whatever my monthly operating expenses are for household.

 

It sounds like, you know, I’ve tried to sell it traditionally, but it just hasn’t worked. Or maybe I want to avoid paying the 5%, 6%, whatever the percentage is, realtor fees and all of the other things that go along with it because I want to try to protect my equity. It sounds like this. This is an option where my payments would be covered.

 

I could move my family and I could move into, you know, an apartment, a condo or something less expensive. And then I still get. I haven’t forgone or forgo my equity or whatever. Like, I haven’t, like, given that away, I still get it. And then potentially even more in 3 to 5 years. Am I understanding that?

 

Right? Correct. Because it depends on the structure of the agreement and the amount of equity you have. But you’d be locking in your equity. Okay. If you did have an underlying mortgage on the property, the example I gave earlier was a home that’s free. Clear. Okay. If you did have an underlying mortgage on the property, we would go ahead and cover that.

 

Your mortgage, any taxes and insurance? Any maintenance or repairs on the property as well? In addition, if you did have a significant amount of equity, you might be getting some of that equity each month, depending on how much equity you had to on top of that, you might get some some monthly cash flow.

 

And then yeah, with a lock in, you’re going to be cashed out. So because the other person on the other, the other variable so I’m working with the seller. But then we work with buyers and, and and about 85% of my clients are actually business owners. And you know, if I’m sure many of your listeners know it’s challenging to get that to a mortgage when you’re a business owner.

 

Yes. banks, typically require seasoning, in which, you know, you’re needing to prove that you ca be putting in enough, taking profits out of your business, going into a personal checking account. It’s usually about three times the mortgage. If you’re looking to qualify for in this case, you’re able to get into a home through our program, sooner than you normally could.

 

And you lock in that price today. So if you’re, if you’re looking to, to purchase a home, that would be, but you can’t, but you may not be able to qualify for for a, a loan in 24 months. You’re lucky in that price today. and that’s what you’re going to be qualifying for in 24 months. What’s once, the banks are able to qualify you and you’re seasoned.

 

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Forging Connections: Building Equity in a Property

 

Okay. So this is this is great. So now you’ve given us now the two sides of the coin. So if I’m a business owner needing to sell, you’ve already described that. And then if I’m a business owner who wants to buy it. Sounds like I’m able to to buy a home, establish a 2 year, 3 or 4 year track record, like, you know, with credit, with paying the mortgage and all of that, you know, without any sort of issues.

 

And then it sounds like that whatever that balloon payment is, timing that for the seller like you just described. Right. Then there’s also the balloon for the buyer to then go and get financed, like a traditional 30-year mortgage. But now you’ve got the four years of history paying on that property, am I tracking with you?

 

Correct. Yeah. So you want you to have a monthly lease payment and then you’d be putting money, additional money down towards the home over that time period. Okay. So, I would be building my own equity in the property. Yeah. You would because we and the way we structured you need to have especially if you’re self-employed. You’re going to need to have likely 20% down on the property by the time you’re qualifying.

 

Right. So we typically build in our down payment over that 2 to 3, 4 years that you’ll have at least 10% down on the property. And then hopefully you’re, you know, again, to get the best rates, to get you the the best chance of getting qualified, you might have 20% down. That’s if you’re self-employed of course.

 

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Forging Connections: The Tenant-Buyer Structure

 

Got it. Okay. So then I go to my lender as the person as the buyer who now has this four-year track record or whatever the time period is. And I know that you do deals with different time periods. Yes. So and then I say, well look, my family and I, we’ve owned this home for the last four years we’ve lived here.

 

Here’s all the tax records and all of that kind of stuff, you know, for both personal and for the business. And also during that for your time period. We’ve also built equity in the property. Right. So, it’s not just a payment history. Right. Exactly. Yep. Oh okay. So it sets you up. And here’s another thing. 

 

Just mentioned, you know, another approach that we, you know, if especially with your audience being business owners, if you are comfortable in, say, we take your scenario in which you’re needing to move out of your home and move into another property. If you’re comfortable being a quasi landlord and I say quasi landlord because we can market your property, find a buyer, and we call it a tenant-buyer because the way it’s structured, they’re leasing your home. Once we find the buyer, the middleman, us, we remove ourselves and we connect you with the buyer directly. And you’d be working with them directly, with the buyer directly.

 

Therefore, any spread that we would typically make in that agreement just goes directly to you and we get paid out of a down payment. I don’t want to go into numbers for that how that works. But there’s you know, we have another program which you’re able to actually make even more money out of your property.

 

And depending again on the equity level that you have principal paid on your mortgage. The spread on the lease payment each month, you can have several thousand, tens of thousands of dollars more. Once that term is complete and the buyer qualifies for the mortgage. So you can there’s several levels of ways if you don’t want to deal with your property anymore at all, we can take it over if you’re okay.

 

And in working with the tenant-buyer that we find, that’s another level. If you’re comfortable with that, you’re going to make even more money. So these are the kind of things that, you know, it’s hard to throw these out and, you know, in a short podcast. But this is the kind of thing that I’m working on with my book. To explain these things to help the consumer.

 

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Forging Connections: Having a Flexibility of Options

 

You know, for example, our business owners kind of work out these options. That there are options to selling traditionally through a realtor or doing it for sale by owner. Okay. So let’s take that piece in and make sure that we also put it in the context of what is going on right now with the Covid pandemic just in. If we’re talking about whether it’s going to be a U-shaped recovery or a V-shaped recovery, or invent another letter, I mean, there’s so much speculation right about what is taking place.

 

Okay. so given all of that many business owners are looking at as uncertainty, and we certainly encourage them to find the silver linings because they are there if we’re willing to look at that for them. Granted, we have to dig a little bit deeper to find it. I understand. So given all of that like this, creative terms that you’re talking about, like that’s alive and well even in this market.

 

Yes. Very much alive and well and honestly, there’s many times better options than the traditional only because it just gives you more flexibility. It gives you more flexibility, you know, more options are often many people are more comfortable to look at. What are my options for for, you know, netting what I want to net out of this property?

 

And also having, you know, the agreements that we work with, these are contracts that people are bound to. So there’s a lot of safety that’s built into our agreements and getting everyone to the finish line to be cashed out to get your equity and all of that. 

 

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Forging Connections: Creating a Connecting Point

 

So I think, definitely, in this market and what we’re looking at to have as many options, especially if you have had a hard time selling your home. That there are other options available that you don’t need to necessarily take a lowball offer.

 

There are other ways to explore. How can I get the equity out of my home that I deserve? Okay, so Chad, I think you’ve done a great job of, actually several things here that I just want to briefly recap because we’re going to sort of go in 180 degrees in the opposite direction here.

 

So Onward Nation Chad was kind enough to share story. Chad was kind enough to step into that story, and courageous enough to share additional layers of that story that I don’t even know. And despite all of the conversations we’ve had and be able to share how that can become a connecting point, if you are courageous enough to also share your own story, how that can be helpful to you within your business and how that attracts the people that you want to be able to serve, that are going to be, you know, happy clients and so forth.

 

Great lesson right there at the beginning of this conversation. Then he’s taken us into the depth of his expertise around real estate and specifically creative terms and then specific. We also teach you teaching us, excuse me, about niche and the types of people that he likes to work with on a surprise. He’s a business owner. A third-generation real estate investor in 85% of his clients happens to also be a business owner, just like you, Onward Nation. 

 

So it’s no surprise that those are the types of people that he is attracting into his business, and also people who are, you know, either relocating, going through some sort of transition because that syncs up so beautifully with Chad’s personal story as well as his love of travel and so forth. But my guest is Chad, there’s probably some skeptics who are listening to you right now thinking there’s no way that creative terms are going to work for me.

 

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Forging Connections: Disadvantages of Buying or Selling on Term

 

And there’s just no way that if I’m a seller, if I’m a buyer, whatever the scenario is, there’s no way this is going to work for me. So give us the flip side of this from your point of view. Are there any disadvantages to either buying or selling on term? Yeah. Thanks, Stephen. I appreciate you bringing that up because.

 

Yeah. number one. If you can’t be patient for the equity that we will lock in for you. If you don’t have the time to wait for that, it’s not a good fit. It’s not a good fit for you. Because if you need that cash out to make your next move. If you need to cash out to to build your next home, I recommend going, you know, through the traditional route and you just hold tight until you find the right price that someone can get you.

 

Number two. If you, and we both will tell people, you know, if you can’t sleep well at night with the security agreements that we put together, it’s not going to be right for you. Meaning that if you’re turning the house over to us, we’re purchasing it. But the cash out isn’t going to, it’s a delayed cash out many times in our deals.

 

So if you can’t wait for that same 3 to 5 years, not going to receive your equity. But if you’re a little unsure of how that might work out, even though that we do in the past couple months, we’ve done upwards of 20 deals a month around the country. And in getting people to the finish line, both with buying, selling and cashing out, if you’re not comfortable with that, with waiting, you know, it’s not a good fit as well.

 

There’s that inherent risk in everything if we have a lot of opportunities to pivot with if something does come up. You remember too, you’re getting your mortgage paid down or you’re getting some monthly income as well from your property. And none of that’s refundable. So you can keep that?

 

If somebody did, if some hiccup did happen. So we built in some, some safety for you as well. So those are two things that you to consider. So let me make sure that I’m tracking with you here when you mentioned the hiccup. So like if something were to happen like with the tenant-buyer for example, and that scenario we’re talking about before whatever that tenant-buyer has paid in that I’ve received as the seller in this scenario and something happens to that person, it sounds like you guys would step back in to find me a new tenant buyer.

 

And whatever that tenant buyer is paid is is mine to keep. Exactly. Wow. Okay. And so we can pivot out of that. We can at that point, there’s a dozens of ways we can pivot, put it back on the traditional market for you. We can buy our buyout folks, you know, within our group. We can find another tenant buyer for you.

 

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Forging Connections: Always Ask Questions

 

There’s a lot of options. Okay. So here I want to go 180 degrees in a different direction as well. So again, just to kind of briefly recap, we talked about story how that ties into authority. Then we’ve also talked about your niche. How you serve that niche, who’s in that niche in a couple of the creative financing or creative terms. I think, is what you described it as, we’re called it, and how that can benefit the business owners who you serve in, the business owners who are listening to you right now.

 

All of that is awesome. So here’s where I want to give you a bit of a curveball. Let’s talk mentorship. And let’s talk about, in fact, more specifically, what you would consider to be the most influential lesson that you ever learned from one of your mentors, whoever that person may have been. But what would you consider to be the most influential lesson that you ever learned from one of your mentors and how that lesson is still paying dividends for you today?

 

What would that lesson be? Because I think that’s going to be really insightful for organization business owners. I think the huge benefit for me for having a mentor or a coach is to be able to to ask them questions. And these are people that have had tens of years of more experience. And, so, for example, real estate than I have.

 

And to be able to ask questions that, I mean, when I’m stuck or, I haven’t had the I just don’t have the background to answer that question to be able to to pick up the phone and call a mentor and say, hey, this is where I am. More than likely they face that position. They’ve been in that position dozens of times, so it’s not really there.

 

So I guess just being able to ask questions and to continually ask questions to learn. I consider myself, you know, just a lifelong student, and I want to keep learning and I want to keep asking me questions. And I encourage my kids to, you know, always be asking questions. You know, that idea that there’s no stupid question?

 

Well, there’s really not any stupid question. Because as much knowledge as we acquire, there’s always going to be someone else who knows more than we do. So to be comfortable, you know. So I think the answer to your question is this what I’ve learned and this is an indirect lesson.

 

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Forging Connections: Giving People a Good Mentorship

 

This isn’t like my coach told me this or my mentor told me this is that I need to always be open to learning, to ask you questions and to know that I read something recently, in the package, he did his kitkats his credo. I don’t know if you his book is called Master Life and it that he says there’s no failure, there’s only feedback.

 

So no failure, only feedback. And that’s what we’re, you know, as we’re moving along, as we’re trying to grow in our business. In life, understanding that failure is okay because you’re going to be learning something from it. The feedback you get, the lessons you learn to be able to plant that is like, okay, that’s what I learned at this stage and not I’m failing and giving up and going in the corner and, you know, shutting down.

 

So asking questions, is probably the biggest thing. Okay. So here’s why I’m super grateful for that answer, because right now there are millions of business owners who have stepped into the corner and are shutting down the freezing. And just like when I interviewed regularly and from elite entrepreneurs for an encore interview about a month or so ago, and Brett and I were talking about the the fight or flight that we often talk about.

 

Right? We’ve all heard that it’s like the sort of the pre-wired whatever. Prehistoric. I don’t know, that is in our brain of the when there’s some sort of emergency or critical situation, we have the immediate response of, we’re either going to fight or we’re going to flee or flight. And he said, Steve and I will argue that there’s a third, and it’s more dangerous as a business owner.

 

I’m like, ooh, I’m intrigued. What is that? And so during the interview, he said, it’s freezing. And, and I will say that I’m seeing that this is Brett saying this. I’m seeing that among business owners all over the country right now and not discounting the tremendous challenges that we’re going through right now. Without a doubt. 

 

So when you talk about being asking questions, encouraging your kids to ask questions, you being a lifelong student and learner and not being comfortable with just sitting in a corner and freezing, I think that’s a phenomenal lesson for every single business owner because even if we think that, so you’re politely in a really good way, calling people on the carpet as a good mentor would. 

 

So that’s why I’m grateful for that, because it holds our audience accountable for even if they would argue with you and say, I’m not freezing, I’m doing these things. I would say that you can always do more. And if somebody in our audience is frozen and just afraid to take action, I think you just give them some good mentorship.

 

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Forging Connections: Last Bit of Advice from Chad

 

And that’s lovely. My pleasure. Thank you. So I know that our time is coming to an end, and I’m grateful for you taking time out of your compressed schedule to share lessons, share insights, share story, to teach generously, with our audience. so I know we covered a lot, but before we go, before we close out and say goodbye, any final thoughts?

 

Anything you think we might have missed? And then please tell Onward Nation the best way to connect with you. Chat. I’m not sure we missed anything. I think, just in the things you just said. Don’t you know, it’s not a time to lose hope. If anything, we need to stay hopeful. Wherever we are.

 

And at this stage in our really globally. What’s going on? To stay hopeful and I say that because, you know, each day I’m in my own microcosm of a universe. I have my challenges and I’m not thinking so much about globally. But I think we really do need to think globally because we’re shared humanity.

 

We have that in common. And don’t lose hope. And then, yeah, you can find me, my website is BuffaloPeakPropertySolutions.com. I’m also on LinkedIn, and you’re welcome to reach out at any time. My contact information is on my website. Happy to answer any questions about doing terms if you have questions. Then, that way or even if you’re interested in getting in this kind of investing as well.

 

So happy to answer any questions. And if an unrelated business owner wants to reach out to national property team because they’re not in your market, can they find the link off of your website, or what’s the best way for them to find National Property team? Yeah, that’s actually NationalPropertyTeam.com. And if it’s someone outside of, you know, outside of Colorado, if you’re in Colorado or if you want to connect with me, I can put you in touch with someone as well.

 

So Onward Nation, no matter how many notes you took or how often you go back and relisten to Chad’s words of wisdom, which I sure hope that you do. The key is in just repeating the mentorship lesson that he just gave you. The key is to take the knowledge, to take the wisdom, to take the insights that he so generously shared with you.

 

Take those. Apply them by taking action on them and accelerate your results. And Chad, we all have the same 86,400 seconds in a day. And I’m grateful again that you said yes to come on to the show. You accepted my invitation. You are a great mentor and guide to help us move our businesses onward to that next level.

 

Thank you so much, my friend. I appreciate the time and thank you, Stephen, and thank you Onward Nation. 

 

This episode is complete, so head over to OnwardNation.com for show notes and more food to fuel your ambition. Continue to find your recipe for success here at Onward Nation.

 

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