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Terry: My name is Terry Nation and I'm from Columbia, South Carolina. I started the mentor
course 12 weeks ago. I was taking the newsletter for probably about a year before I got into
the Mentor Program. Terry: I knew that another step probably needed
to be taken, but I did my first deal just off the newsletters and I said, 'Oh boy, if
I can do one deal off of this, what in the world is waiting for me?' So I decided to
take the next step. Terry: You learn real basic stuff off of the
newsletter; you learn signs and a little bit of the marketing thing. But the first thing
that I did was that I went and had some signs printed, the 'I Will Buy Your House' signs.
My first deal had come from a guy who was calling for his dad whose house had been on
the market for about 8months. His dad really needed to get out. He had moved on. He had
built a new house. And the house was just sitting there, and of course, the mortgage
was eating at him. At that point, I didn't know anything about "Subject-to's" or anything
I probably could have offered this guy. Terry: So when the son showed me the house,
I kind of explained to him that I could put someone in there and that I would just make
a fee and he said, 'Well, I'll tell my dad about it and if he's interested, he'll call
you.' Well, he did. He called me the next day. He still hadn't met with his dad. We
had an agreement over the phone. I didn't have a lease option agreement. I didn't know
anything about it. Terry: So I went over and put a sign in his
yard, and within 2 weeks I sold his house for what they had it on the market for, and
I thought I was a big hero at that point and I said, 'Man, I've got to do more at this
point.' Interviewer: What did you make on your first
deal? Terry: $3,000. I probably could have sold
it quicker but I had a $3,000 mindset on that job, on that particular deal, and so I weeded
out anybody that didn't have $3,000. With that house, I was taking about 40 calls a
day. I think I put out 15 to 20 signs on that house. I put them on a major highway. If it
was a crossroads, I put a sign out, and I put them at all the interstates that the main
road connected to (which was with two interstates). Interviewer: What kind of signs did you put
out? Terry: Rent to own. I actually put the rent
price there. I went back and put the rent price after a week or so because I was getting
so many nonsense phone calls. "Rent to own, 3 bedroom, 2 bath," and my phone number. I
answered every call. Interviewer: Handwritten?
Terry: Handwritten, yes. Interviewer: How much longer after that did
you then jump into the Mentor Program? Terry: Probably two months.
Interviewer: How long have you been in the Mentor Program?
Terry: 12 weeks. This is my twelfth week. Interviewer: How many deals have you done
since you've been in the Mentor Program? Terry: I've done six more.
Interviewer: Six more? Terry: Yes.
Interviewer: About how much money did you make?
Terry: I was trying to think of that awhile ago. It's probably been $12,000 or $13,000.
Terry: My biggest goal now is for it to be what I do for a living. I'm a contractor at
this point. I work for another company. We build schools, and I hate getting up and going
to work. I look so forward to doing this business. I always wanted to do something in real estate.
I got my contractor's license young. I've built houses and I've always loved the residential
real estate business and that's where I've always wanted to be. So that's what I want
to do for a living. Terry: My goal is this year... I want to quit
my job this year. If I could do 2 deals a month, I would quit my job.
Interviewer: You think you can do it? Terry: I think I can do it. I did two deals
last week, so I definitely think I can do that. Joe's material pushed me in a... I've
bought many courses. His motivation factor is different than any other course I've bought.
Still, at that point, you have to make that decision on your own. Either I'm going to
do this or I'm going to keep wasting money. So I just made a decision that I was going
to do it and once I made that decision, I've done it.
Terry: Every day, I've had something to do with this business, whether it's getting off
work at the least and going to look at a house that I've talked to someone about. I've been
a lot more involved than he suggest that you be, but I think that I needed that early on
-- to go look at every house, to meet every owner and to put out my own signs. I've done
every bit of that. And like I said, early on, I answered every single call. I didn't
let it go to a voicemail. And I've talked to every person that made a phone call, and
yes, I can't stand answering the phone now. Interviewer: Yes, I completely understand.
Terry: Don't get me wrong. It was a great training. After 100 phone calls, to talk to
a buyer is so simple now, when with the first 50 you're kind of nervous and you didn't know
what to do, but now it's just second nature. So now I'm ready to second nature that to
a voicemail and get something sent to me. Interviewer: How is talking to sellers?
Terry: Talking to sellers is great. It's no problem.
Interviewer: No problems there. Terry: No.
Interviewer: How did you feel about it when you started?
Terry: I was scared to death. I didn't know about what reaction they would have. So I
sat down one evening and I got into the for rents to start talking to them. I probably
called 15 people that night. I left, well, I probably called 20. I left about 15 messages
because I'd done it in one evening. I talked to one couple. I think I owned the phone.
I picked up two houses. The next day, I had eight return phone calls from folks that were
interested in doing it, and out of those eight, three or four actually did it. So within three
or four days, I had five or six houses. Now, I didn't make deals on all of those houses.
They actually either rented them out or something else, but it made it real easy to start talking
to sellers. Terry: My Mentor Program would have been (September,
October or November?) - October. My first deal was probably in August or September,
no -- August -- probably around August was my first deal. And then I joined the Mentor
Program. And so, in October is when I really started even calling for rents to make deals
on the "For Rent Method". Terry: With the market and anybody that I've
ever been around telling me I'm crazy for trying anything, but it's like Joe says -- there's
really no risk to what we do, so all it takes is a little effort. But the negativity around
me almost pushes me down not to do anything, so I decided to put all of that aside and
just prove everybody wrong. So that's another one of my goals, is that on the day I can
quit my job, to let them know that this actually works.
Terry: I guess your first deal is always your best moment because you build so much confidence
that, 'My gosh, this really does work. How can something this simple... How come everybody
in the world isn't doing it?' Terry: My next one. And it came from calling
all of those for rents. I have an agent who called me back who also has a bunch of rental
properties so she gave me two houses, which I sold both of her houses from when I started
advertising them, both within a month. She's blown away because she had them both on the
market (her own houses) so I put rent to own tenants in both of hers and in return, she's
given me two other agents that I now try to sell for.
Terry: As a matter of fact, I closed one of those this past week. And then, with your
help and your script for Craigslist, one of the biggest deals that I got just happened
last week as well. I sent the script out to 10 or 12 people. One guy called me back and
he is actually a builder in town and wants me to start selling houses he has already
built. But if I can get folks prequalified to know they can get a loan in the next year,
I'm going to be able to offer them building a brand new house that we can put them in
in whatever neighborhood they want. This particular builder has 15 neighborhoods in the Columbia
area. So we can actually build them a house and put a rent to own buyer in a brand new
house. So I'm real excited about what he's got.
Terry: With that being said, he actually had a customer when he called me that was ready
to buy one of his houses but with this big financial thing going on, as of January 1st,
something happened to where they weren't going to let him buy the house until he had his
rented or sold. So this guy said, 'You will be my hero if you can rent this house out.'
He's been trying to rent it -- he can't rent it. So I went and met with that owner that
afternoon and he signed the agreement, and within a week I closed that deal the day before
I came here and I put somebody in that house that week. So they're just kind of blown away.
He had it with two different management companies. He's fired one, hired another one and they
wouldn't put anyone in there. I went up there and I didn't even put a sign in his front
yard because of the realty company sign -- I just put them outside the entrance and on
main roads, and within a week, I had somebody in his house.
Interviewer: That's pretty cool, isn't it? Terry: Man, I just can't believe it. And the
owner -- I even offered him a subject-to deal. He went and talked to his mortgage broker.
I never knew what came out of that before I ever got an answer, which I'm confident
he wasn't going to do because he didn't call me back the next day anyway. I called him
and said I had somebody for his house so it didn't really matter to me. That deal there
will give me -- that builder's going to have so much confidence in what I do now. I just
think the Columbia area's going to explode (just between me and him -- because he does
a massive amount of houses and neighborhoods). Interviewer: Are you going to start thinking
about getting a piece of the back action on that?
Terry: Yes, as a matter of fact, he and I were talking about that. And he's willing
to work with me in any way possible. He just thinks what I do is the greatest thing. And
he promised me and he said, 'I'm not going to steal your idea.' He said, 'I know other
people have.' And I've had two people that I've talked to from the for rent ads, and
then after I talked to them, I would notice that next week in the paper, they'd have their
houses rent to own, so they kind of think they learned the process. They're still in
the paper a month later. Interviewer: That's what I love -- they keep
running an ad in the paper. Terry: That's right. I've never run an ad
in the paper and I've got all I can do while working a full time job.
Interviewer: That's awesome. To be honest, I couldn't be happier for you.
Terry: Thank you, sir. I'm excited. The biggest thing in my situation is that I couldn't have
went out and bought a house for $1,000 if I could have turned around and sold it for
$10,000. That's the situation that I was in. My wife can't work because I have an ill son.
I had to do something that didn't require money. So the biggest investment I had was
buying a few signs, but with one deal, I can buy all the signs that I'll need for the next
year. So, with that deal I put some money in the Mentor Program, but within two deals
after that, I paid for my Mentor Program. So yes, the initial investment seemed really
big but within just two deals it takes no time before you've paid for your investment
and then you're building a profit center. Terry: It's just an amazing thing. I mean,
with the negative people with real estate, I still can't imagine that people wonder what
in the world you're getting into. I've always wanted to do it. I've never been negative
about it. I've just never gotten off my butt to do it.
Terry: But everybody thinks that if you're buying into a program that you're just making
someone else rich, that all of these programs are out to get you, and they're selling you
junk. It is so simple, and it still to this day blows my mind how simple it is. I don't
want to share it with people in my area because, first of all, if we were all doing for rents,
all of us, I mean, there's only so many in my paper, but I'm scared that more people
are going to learn about it in my area which is really stingy. And I don't want to be that
way, but with the more stuff that I know Joe teaches, I'm not really worried about that
because I can see myself getting more into the for sale by owners now. I see how well
that's working to where I kind of graduate from picking up that for rent paper and making
those phone calls. Interviewer: Yes, but you have a son with
special needs. Tell me about your son. Terry: He has cystic fibrosis and he's on
Medicaid up until the 18th of March. His medications can run up to $5,000 a month. Luckily up to
March, that's paid for. So I have to now look past March when he turns 18 unless the government
has some other program that's going to help us to pay for his medical needs. Last year,
he spent four straight months in the hospital. The year before, he spent three, so it seems
that every year, he gets a little worse. Terry: With that being said, my wife can't
work a full time job. When he's well, he's fine but when he's not well, he's not fine,
and no employer can allow somebody to take a four month leave without having to replace
you. And that's fine. She does a lot of stuff to take care of him. So, not only with that
being said, I know that I've got medical bills that are coming in the future and I needed
some more income to handle that, but I also want to create a way that I can spend more
time with him. Terry: It's tough for me to talk about that
he's not going to be here forever. And I want ways that I can spend more time with him.
And I know that this is the way.