2022 was a year of many mistakes and lessons learned. Over the course of the year, I’ve tried a lot and changed so much. My perspective and outlook on things has shifted completely and I can say with sincerity that I am not even close to the same person I was a year ago. I think that’s the beauty of it. This is the time of year, and it has been for the last few years, where I can reflect on and see my growth as a person and my progress over the last 12 months. It really is quite astonishing how much things can change in such a short time. In 2022, I went for it all guns blazing and I failed miserably at most of what I tried! However, the lessons I learned are invaluable and what is going to come in 2023 from what I’ve learned in 2022 is well worth the struggle!
Trying to conquer the world
The best thing you can do if you want to be someone and achieve things worthwhile in this world is to go out and take massive, imperfect action. I am not saying to know nothing about what you want to do and throw caution to the wind. What I am saying is while you engage in learning about what you’re trying to achieve, applying that knowledge to real-world experiences is a great way to kick start you and see how that knowledge you’re consuming translates to reality. It’s never as cookie-cutter as the content you consume can make it seem and that’s why the best lessons you can learn are from the actions you take.
In 2022, I did just that. I joined the real estate mentorship I had been eyeing for 6 months prior in March for $8,000, a huge investment at the time in myself and my future. From this investment, I learned so much about real estate and how to generate income from it creatively, and I met so many amazing people and now partners from being in the group. From the lessons I learned and the group’s continuous push for people to take action, I went out to conquer the world. I put a $4,250,000 student property portfolio under contract as my first creative finance transaction ever! “This is going to be easy, I’m already going to be a millionaire”, I foolishly thought to myself. Not long after, I put another $1,000,000 student property under contract! I was using what was taught to me in the group, a method called “Morby Method”. This is a strategy that allows you to get into large deals using none of your own money and still being able to provide a seller with a large down payment with an owner finance portion. Long story short and a lot of money and time later, both deals ended up falling apart. After countless hours spent trying to get the deals to close, spending money on appraisals and inspections, and trying to do everything myself, I found that I should have consulted more experienced people with an outline of my plan and it should’ve been clear cut and structured correctly from the beginning. I had a few seemingly gigantic deals come together and fall apart in 2022. I had no real substantial income and just managed to get by with the little wholesale deals I did along with a bunch of odd jobs and gig jobs. With all that being said, I wouldn’t trade what I went through for the world. The lessons these experiences have taught me have been nothing short of life-changing. Trying to conquer the world all at once is a noble thing to do, but without the right team or resources around you, you will fail and fail hard! I learned this lesson the hard way and am working to correct this issue in the tail end of 2022 into 2023.
Too many methods
During my 2022 real estate endeavor, I tried so many methods of prospecting for leads to wholesale or buy that I never was able to find a concrete strategy I felt good about sticking to. My mind was also always pulled in a million different directions. One hour I would be doing transaction coordination, another I would be working underwriting, later I could be doing seller calls, then agent outreach, I was all over the place! At one point for the better part of 4 months I had a VA on board cold calling for me who I paid a good amount of money for. The two main things 2022 taught me in regards to all of this is that I need to work on leveraging more so that I can focus on what I am best at, and I need to stick to one or two strategies of lead generation and be consistent enough to build a lead pipeline even if for sometimes it seems slow or monotonous.
One of my biggest goals from all this chaos in 2022 for 2023 is to develop better systems and processes. My partner Nick was able to help develop a one-stop-shop CRM for me to input all leads and move them down a lead pipeline. This CRM called Podio allows me to enter lead notes, categorize them, make and assign tasks, and mark events related to leads on my calendar. Although I’m still tinkering with the system, I’ve already seen great results from it. I have been able to stay on top of leads and that has been resulting in contracts for me. From our Podio, a Google Drive link is connected with all relevant documents related to that specific property such as contracts, analysis, leases, etc. I will continue to build up and streamline this system in 2023 until it’s clean and replicable enough so that I can hire it out for someone else to manage to let me focus on higher level activities.
Another huge piece of the puzzle for me is the team aspect of things. I need to develop connections in the professional world around me that understand my vision and can add into the manifestation of it. I have had really good success in the latter half of 2022 with this, but I need to expand further. In 2023, I need to build a network of private money lenders I can leverage as equity partners or short term funders for deals so that I can 10x my deal flow and close as many properties as I can. Money should not be a hindrance to my growth as a business and the more value I can add to investors in terms of returns, the more people will want to fund deals with me. Most if not all of the deals I see myself doing in 2023 are low entry fee deals meaning that the cost of entry will be on the low end based on how well I negotiate. This will allow me to get into many deals and begin to build my credibility so I have the backing to take down larger deals a little later on. In addition to private money, another resource I’ve struggled with in 2022 was attorneys. Naturally, attorney’s first reactions to things they don’t understand is to say they want no part of what you’re doing. If you’re not careful, they will charge you a lot of money before they tell you they don’t want to be a part of what you’re doing (another 2022 lesson). In 2023, I want to have attorneys who have an understanding of what I want to accomplish so they can help me structure things in the correct way. Deal structure is critical to get deals to close and that is something I struggled with mightily in 2022. Lastly, I need a transaction coordinator I can rely on to take the contracts I get to closing. I can’t be bothered and bogged down with the headaches that come with escrow. Transaction coordinating myself has cost me a lot of time that I could have spent running acquisitions and getting more contracts, not to mention I hate transaction coordinating myself and I’m not very good at it!
The future looks bright
It’s always good practice to make next year your best year yet every year. If you can look back on the beginning to end of a year and see your growth and progression as a person over that time, you’ve had a successful year and you should be proud of the person you’re becoming. Now more than ever, it’s important to take the lessons we’ve learned from 2022 and apply them to 2023. How can we get better? What did we do wrong and how could it be corrected? What do you need in 2023 that you didn’t have in 2022 to put yourself in the best position to succeed? These are all questions to ask yourself going into the New Year. Where you are now and where you end up at the end of 2023 and beyond depends on it!