Currently, I’m getting ready for What Box? 2024. This is a yearly, two-day seminar Kim and I host each September in Tampa, Florida and on Zoom. The topic is ADVANCED Creative Deal Structuring Strategies.
While there are thousands of folks teaching real estate investing, only a handful are experienced enough to teach ADVANCED deal making strategies.
Which teacher is at the top of the mountain? Mr. Pete Fortunato. There’s no one else like him on the planet. He has been structuring mind-bending, universe-altering deals for more than five decades. Jack Miller, a legendary real estate investor who passed away in 2009, said Pete is the most creative dealmaker he’s ever met. Jack said it all!
While working on this year’s manual, I began making a list of the most important lessons I’ve learned about real estate investing.
At first, I titled this column, Bill’s Bible. I quickly realized this was a terrible title because it implied that what I wrote should be treated as if it came down from heaven. As if it outlines THE way.
As you will soon read, I do not believe there is a THE way. We each develop our own unique style that allows us to succeed as real estate investors. While there is no THE way, there is most definitely a YOUR way, and YOUR way will morph and improve over time.
To correct my mistake, I changed the title to Bill’s Bible for Bill. Much better don’t you think? My advice is to create your own bible. Of all the lessons you’ve learned, it’s fun figuring out which ones are most important to you.
Let me share with you one of the lessons in Bill’s Bible for Bill.
There is no THE way. There is only YOUR way, and YOUR way will continually adapt and modify.
Example: You begin real estate investing with near zero knowledge or experience. Maybe you begin life as a flipper or wholesaler.
Later, you decide to acquire some single-family rentals.
You realize there is much you don’t know, so you turn to YouTube videos, but discover they’re skimpish on details. You then find yourself forking over chunks of cash to “gurus,” only to realized most “gurus” are light on real-world information. Next you focus on learning from a handful of very experienced, successful real estate investor teachers…like Jack Miller, Pete Fortunato, and Dyches Boddiford. Let’s throw in John Schaub, Jimmy Napier, David Tilney, and Prentiss Yates into this group.
You then realize Performance Master Leasing is one heck of a way to control property and build cash flow.
You then become interested in affordable housing and begin acquiring Lonnie Deals.
This leads to buying a trailer park or two.
This leads to duplexes.
This leads to apartments.
This leads to storage units.
As you gain experience as a landlord, you find there is great need for mid-term (corporate) rentals and begin acquiring them.
As your assets and net worth grow, you realize you have a HUGE target on your back. You learn about entities, trusts, and asset protection.
You also begin thinking about TAX FREE income for your later years. You learn about self-directed Roth, solo 401k, and HSA accounts.
As you continually gain experience at the kitchen table, you discover there are some property owners, for a variety of reasons, who don’t want to sell YET. To solve these folks’ problems, you learn to do Options and Pure Options.
As you gain financial freedom, you no longer must pinch pennies or labor for a living. You have more money at the end of the month than you did at the beginning. What do you do with the extra money? You become a hard money lender.
Once most of your investment money is lent out, you realize the value of wrapping and Dorsie Deals.
At a point, you realize that because you have so many investment properties, all your time is spent managing property and people. You learn to do 1031s and trade two or three of your D & C properties for an A property. You also sell some of your B and C properties to owner-occupants while giving owner financing (Note: if you choose to do this, expect to encounter Pete Fortunato’s wrath…and he’ll probably hang an embarrassing award around your neck for being stupid enough to trade houses for paper.)
You end up with fewer properties, but because they’re all top-quality properties and performing notes, your net cash flow actually increases while your workload dramatically decreases. You say goodbye to all those landlording headaches the C & D properties generated.
Somewhere along the way, because of your success, other investors (Starters, Estate Builders, and Enders) seek you out asking for advice, guidance, and education. You begin teaching and maybe writing and maybe starting a REIA and maybe doing some coaching.
As you push into your 50s and 60s, you realize your estate plan is non-existent. You learn about estate planning.
With financial freedom comes a desire to help more people, to spend more time with family, and to travel. The idea of cleaning gutters and filling rentals bores you. You turn over your properties to an up-and-coming investor who is successful at Master Leasing. This frees up your time to accomplish the things you find most important in life. You buy a RV and travel the country with your beautiful redheaded wife. You jump on airplanes and cruise ships and travel the world. You decide to move to another country for a period of time to learn a new language…like espanol.
In your 50s and 60s, many of your great teachers begin aging out. When you realize you are slowly losing your oracles of real estate investing knowledge, sadness and terror set in. Why terror? With most of your mentors gone, who do you turn to when you have questions?
You s-l-o-w-l-y begin to realize you know the answers. You realize that in your own way, YOU are now the oracle other investors turn to when seeking answers and advice. It makes you chuckle.
This leads to a new group of closeknit friends who are 10 to 20 years YOUNGER than you. Because you’re realizing that the most valuable asset in life truly is TIME, you want to impart your most important life lessons on anyone who wishes to learn. You start leading trips like Backpack REIA, Ski REIA, Scuba REIA, Bike Touring REIA, Cruise REIA, World Traveling REIA, Pilot REIA….
Yep, there is no THE way. My friend, there is only YOUR way…and it will constantly evolve.
Hang on tight. Work hard. Have fun, my friend!
Love y’all,
Bill and Kim Cook
Want to learn more about ADVANCED Creative Deal Making? Go to BillandKimCook.com. It’s packed with you-won’t-find-it-anywhere-else structuring techniques and strategies. You’ll also find in-depth video interviews with many of the best real estate investors in the country. Bill and Kim Cook have been successfully investing in real estate since 1990. Their portfolio consists of single-family rentals, Lonnie Deals, a small mobile home park, plus notes and options.
