From Zero to 400 Units step into the fire. You just have to move forward and tweak it as you go. At the beginning of anything you’ll be juggling new roles and tasks. Maybe even an old school traditional job and being a landlord, or a part time job and your own real estate business. Then it may be multiple real estate related businesses. A huge part of surviving this and staying sane is knowing when to delegate. Leveraging other people’s time and expertise can be even more valuable than using other people’s money to invest. I am really only able to do all that I do because I hire others, and have built an ever expanding team. It’s about putting the right people in the right roles. Then trusting them to complete the jobs you have put them in place to handle. It may not always work perfectly. It may require some tweaks as you go. Though you won’t get far without others. I personally don’t believe in work-life balance. Perhaps that’s the great natural drive that I have. Though I’m sure there are things you are passionate about that inspire you to keep pushing too. Being self-aware, I’ll admit I find it very hard to stay still. 50
Sterling White I always have to be doing something. I have to be active. I’ve got to be working towards my goals. If I can’t be working, then I’ve got to be reading a book, taking some sales training, or finding another way to move forward. Trying to just relax makes me bored and anxious. With my daughter I make sure I’m at the events that are important to her. When she’s in gymnastics, I’ll be watching and she’ll know I am there for her. I balance by mixing family and business, not sacrificing one for the other. Being there for people is something you can’t really outsource or delegate. Though if you are going to improve your situation, you’ve got to identify the highest value tasks you should be working on. Refuse to waste your time on low value tasks that lead to minimal upside. Cutting your own grass is a great example of this. So is doing your laundry. It’s just not the best use of your time. You can spend hours on each of these things a week, and complain you don’t have enough time to start investing in real estate or building your financial skills. Or you can hire someone else to handle them. If you can’t afford a lawn service or laundry care 51
From Zero to 400 Units vendor, then find a kid in the neighborhood who will do it for minimum wage. You could be making thousands per hour, or at least hundreds, during that time otherwise spent doing $15 an hour jobs. Technology has enabled me to speed up and outsource a lot more things. One of my favorite is just ordering my groceries from an app to be picked up and delivered. I’m not a huge fan of grocery shopping at all. The service just delivers what I need, and saves me a ton of time going to the store, walking around and waiting in line. I also have personal assistant. This assistant can handle both personal and business tasks. Like ordering things from Amazon, booking flights to events, and so on. Those things can be such a time drain. Add all this saved time together each week and you may find all the time you need to really change your finances and life. If you want the best possible outcomes in your life, you’ve got to be putting your time into the tasks that will get you there fastest, and refuse to be distracted by everything else. Honestly, at the beginning we had on every hat you 52
Sterling White could think of. It took me a really long time to get to delegating work. I just held on in the trenches. Though I’ve learned to push myself up and focus on the highest value activity. Which in this business is branding and property acquisitions. Keeping Your Mind Sharp How do you know what to delegate, and say no to? You’ve got to maintain focus and have a really clear picture in your mind’s eye as to where you are going. Some of the ways I do that, as do many successful people is through a strong morning routine. I choose to read, meditate, practice yoga and write down my goals. Test these things out for yourself and find a routine that really sets you up for success for the year and each day. Be very clear about your end goal and ideal lifestyle. Then reverse engineer what it will take to get there. If you need X money in the bank and Y free time, what will it take to achieve that? Maybe you need a certain number of passive income investments to provide the money and disposable time you desire. 53
From Zero to 400 Units To get there you may have to be out looking at 150 properties each week to find one that meets your investment criteria. You may have to invest time each week into learning so that you know what properties you should really be making offers on, and how to negotiate the best deals on them. If so, those are your highest value tasks. They can return far more than the average doctor or attorney makes per hour. Far, far more than a lawn maintenance guy or cash wash attendant. Refuse to do those activities that won’t take you where you want to go. Find someone else to handle them. Maybe you can hire a virtual assistant from fiverr.com or upwork.com, or a college intern, the next homeless person who asks you for a handout, or even your own kids. Then as your higher value tasks pay off, hire the best professionals you can in all of these areas. Today, I have a personal assistant, people to find property deals and evaluate them, teams to renovate properties and deal with tenants and do the bookkeeping. I find my urgency to really take action when I take time to reflect on life. When I’m laying in bed at night I’m not yet sure what happens after we die. Maybe there is nothing. Maybe it is all black and quiet nothingness. Are we reborn as unicorns? Or do we 54
Sterling White go to heaven? I’m not sure about what happens after. Though I am certain we only have so much time in this life on this planet. Keeping that end in mind, and our limited time here, every day counts. Especially if you want to leave a legacy. I don’t want my time here to just float away. There’s a great quote/story I love that gives an example of percentages of people in life. 100 men in a war was used as an example. The story goes; 10 of those just aren’t supposed to even be there. They’re not going to make it. Another 80 just managed to show up. They are just targets. Out of the remaining 10, 9 are the elite ones contributing the most and 1 man is the warrior who is absolutely crushing it in the battlefield; I don’t know about you, but I want to be the one crushing it! To crush it in business and real estate, you’ve really got to be efficient with your time. 55
From Zero to 400 Units CHAPTER TEN Choosing Your Path Finding & Following the Right Path for You I want more for you. How will you get it? I trust you’ve enjoyed this book so far. It is my personal journey and experience on the road to gaining more of the time and financial freedom I desired, and being able to help others and the neighborhoods I care about. I’m so glad that I allowed myself to be curious. That I found the one second of bravery I needed to ask the guy at the gym to lunch to find out what was behind his success. I’ve found a whole new world of possibility. My life has forever been changed for the better by discovering real estate and more about myself. Perhaps you’re still struggling to get ahead financially. Maybe you’ve got a reasonably good sized retirement account but aren’t confident the investments you have now will deliver on the income and ability to help others you want. You might have friends trying to talk you into a robbery to get some 56
Sterling White cash the ‘easy’ way without regard to what it could really cost you. Or you may already be doing some house flips. Wherever you are at, I believe you can achieve a lot more. Your next step could be just learning more about all of these concepts. It could be researching a new way to invest passively. Or it might be stepping up to apartment buildings, or even raising money as a real estate deal syndicator to do even bigger deals than I’ve done. Maybe you’ll grow to where you can do more for those you love than you thought possible before, without ever having to worry about bills. You could change lives and neighborhoods at an enormous scale or even change how the real estate market works. That could be done through flipping, private lending, investing in crowdfunded and syndicated investment opportunities or a new app or software solution. I just encourage you to try taking the next step up, and see what it can do for you. It might blow your mind. At the same time I get that you need to be happy with what you are doing. 57
From Zero to 400 Units The truth is that while there is a lot of noise out there about jumping into the entrepreneurship realm, starting your own business isn’t for everyone. It’s not always as glamorous behind the instagram filters and sets of reality real estate TV shows as they make out. There is real work. The good news is that whatever you do enjoy doing, there is going to be a crossover with real estate. You may not make enough money on your hobby to afford the freedom and lifestyle you really need. Though you can find a way to really enjoy investing and engaging in real estate. That starts with real self-awareness. I’ve always enjoyed marketing and sales. I’ve liked taking an idea and pushing it out into the marketplace and universe. I like seeing what someone’s problem is, and finding a way to solve that for them. I can do all this through real estate. So, I strongly urge you to take a moment to consider what will make you happy, what your skills are, what you enjoy doing, what you want to achieve and how you can combine that with real estate. 58
Sterling White Take what you want to achieve in terms of your goals and re-engineer that through what it will take in terms of real estate investments, and the role you can play in that. For example, maybe you enjoy running the numbers on deals, hustling and taking action. There are plenty of negative ways to use that talent and energy. Or you can apply it to hustling to find multi-family deals. That could be as a wholesaler or an acquisition manager and turn those findings into cash by bringing a motivated seller to someone like myself (shameless plug) who can buy and renovate them. You add value to both parties and get paid well for your service. People like me are always interested in good deals where the numbers really work. Or maybe you have the money to invest and know you need to be putting that into real estate. Yet, you’d prefer to spend your time on a nonprofit or travelling the world. Investing in a syndication is a option. Enjoy the passive income that will fuel you doing the other things you care about. If you love putting deals together you could become a real estate syndicator. Help others who have money to invest place it in solid properties. Be the dealmaker 59
From Zero to 400 Units that serves end investors well, while revitalizing properties and neighborhoods and providing much needed housing to tenants. Perhaps you see yourself as the next Mark Zuckerberg and love tech. Can you find a way to improve the real estate buying and selling experience and create an app for that? The real estate industry is ripe for some disruption. There is a path for you. I believe real estate, and especially multifamily investing can help fuel that journey. Take the next step on your journey today. I’m all about helping people too. Feel free to reach out online via BiggerPockets, Facebook or LinkedIn to get in touch with me directly. 60
Sterling White Additional Resources Want to learn more about me and real estate investing? Check out these resources, expand your knowledge and capabilities and take the actions you need to get the life you want and need. For live updates from me and on the market connect on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/ sterlingwhitefan/ Expand your network and add me as a connection on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sterling- white-b8840763/ Get my audio updates on Alexa via my Amazon Real Estate Briefing Follow the latest insights and lessons on investing in real estate and get your questions answered 61
From Zero to 400 Units via my column on BiggerPockets: https://www. biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/author/sterlingwhite/ Find the latest multifamily real estate investing opportunities at Holdfolio.com For further reading you may want to check out some of my favorite books: 1. Lead the Field by Earl Nightingale 2. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill 3. Multi-Family Millions by David Lindahl 4. Sell or Be Sold by Grant Cardone 5. The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz 62
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