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Raising Private Money – Help Awaits With Jeremy Dahlgren

Mitch Stephen|By July 7, 2020

Episode 389: Raising Private Money – Help Awaits With Jeremy Dahlgren

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We can only go so far on our real estate journey without private money. So if you want to go deeper and explore other strategies while earning without splitting money to the money man, then private money is a natural way to go. Still, we have to admit that not all of us could easily find it. That is why in this episode, Mitch Stephen sits down with Jeremy Dahlgren to talk about raising private money and the help that awaited him in his journey: the Private Money Changes Everything Course. Jeremy shares with us his experience, some of the special successes he had through it, and tips and insights to get the results you need. Follow along to Mitch and Jeremy’s discussion and find out how private money changes everything.

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I have been saying the RE Investor Summit show for so long that I find it very difficult to say 1000Houses.com show, but that’s where we’re at now. I have Jeremy Dahlgren here with us. We’re going to be talking about private money and some special success he had because he did order the Private Money Changes Everything Course. I want you to hear what he has to say about it because he’s not the only one saying that same thing. I find it amazing because the same results happen to me when I do the same things and they’re lucrative and it’s quite exciting.

Before we get started, let me pay homage to my sponsor, TaxFreeFuture.com. You will not believe what your financial advisors are not telling you. We’re going to tell you what they’re not telling you. We’re going to tell you why they’re not telling you and then you can proceed forward. If you do not have a tax-deferred or tax-free environment in which to grow your finances or your retirement, you have no idea the size of the tool that you’re missing in your tool belt. Please go to TaxFreeFuture.com and watch the 37 little video vignettes. Learn how to self-direct your investments. Quit letting who’s in Wall Street takeover. You self-direct your own retirement plans and you learn how to grow a little bit of money into a lot of money quickly. That’s my favorite section of those videos. Jeremy, how you doing?

I’m doing well. Thank you.

Where are you sitting physically now? What city? What state?

I am in Arlington, Texas.

What a great place.

When my wife and I bought this house years ago, I wasn’t sure how much I would enjoy being close to the Cowboys Stadium. It’s been interesting, to say the least, but it’s been a fun experience with everything going on over there.

Where did you come from?

Unfortunately, my wife and I grew up in California. I try not to tell people that.

I think that maybe it is fortunate. There’s always a silver lining. You’ve got to see how it was there and how it is there and then you get to say what are the differences and advantages and disadvantages. Let’s get onto something fun. What’s your MO? What’s your strategy in Arlington, Texas? What do you like to make money in the real estate market? What’s your strategy?

My main focus has been finding private money. There are deals everywhere. We haven’t had any trouble finding deals. We’re looking for private money. When I say we, my business partner and I.

We all got to have money to fund or some kind of money. What strategies are you using? Are you fix and flip, or are you buy and hold, or are you everything?

It is a lot of everything. It’s buy and holds. We have one buy and hold. We have two flips and a lot of owner finances are the strategy.

When raising money, it's not about you nor your experience. It's really about the deal. Share on X

I want to put this for perspective. This is not an ego-measuring contest or anything like that, but about how many deals are you doing a year so people can get a feel for what you’re doing because I’m going to ask very specific questions and you need to know what that funds.

Before the COVID-19 hit this year 2020, we were going to buy two houses a month, which was going to be the busiest year for us so far.

I’ve been doing 100 houses a month for decades, but you do not have to do that kind of volume to have a great life and it also depends on your overhead. I have to do 100 houses a month because I’ve got bigger organizations and I’ve got to feed more people. Especially in the beginning years, 15, 20, 25, 30 houses were a great living and a good pace. When you start to get up above that, if you don’t learn to delegate and a systematized, maybe you make more money but your quality of life could suck.

You might as well be trading it for the job at that point.

You can have a glorified job. Ron LeGrand told me a long time ago, “Why don’t you quit doing so much and do a lot less and make twice as much, cherry-pick your deals and hone your craft?” What do you average a deal?

We are cherry-picking deals very much so and I think the average is around $40,000 before splits.

There you go. $40,000 times 24 houses, do the math.

It’s not rocket science. That’s a good living.

Somebody else said, “What’s the ROI on that?” He would say, “It’s good enough. I didn’t even take the time to do the calculation. I know that it’s way beyond good enough. It doesn’t matter.” Finding deals is a priority. Selling deals is a priority, but you got to have the money to fund this stuff or you’re stuck in a certain strategy. You also probably have to give a lot of bigger splits to the money man if you don’t come up with your own money. When did you start raising private money?

I started looking for private money I would say January 2020 when I started to get everything in order and realized, “Hard money isn’t going to work anymore. We need private money. We need it ASAP.”

What did you start doing?

I started talking to every single person I could. Every single person that passed me on the street, I said, “What do you do for a living?” or some variation of that to get them talking. You say get the 50, but after I got about 100 noes, I realized, “There’s got to be something wrong with my pitch.” I went through it and I sent you a text. I said, “Mitch, I’ve got probably 25 people on the hook or so that I’ve thought, ‘This does sound like a good deal,’ and I couldn’t get them off the fence. I couldn’t get them to dive in and get into it.” That’s when you told me to buy the Private Money Course. You showed me, “I have this available. Take a look at this.”

You purchased it and you studied it well.

Raising Private Money: Getting money raised is not about who you are. What matters is how much the loan and the collateral worth.

I got deep into it. I printed off everything I could and read it and practiced it. It wasn’t ten minutes of studying, I will tell you that. I’ve spent several days diving into this.

It’s not very thick. It’s not a heavy course. It’s very short, but it’s rich and you’ve got to get it right. There are 6 or 7 steps.

It’s timing. Once you get the timing down, when they’ve listened to enough of your show or they’ve purchased the course themselves, they’ll realize that there’s a flow to the conversation. If you can get into that flow quickly, it’s not like you’re trying to pull the wool over their eyes and get them to agree to something before they’re ready. You showed them everything they need to see in the order they need to see it. I’m not kidding. If you follow the script word for word and they will say it word for word what they need to. It was incredible.

That’s what I found interesting in your text. To be completely transparent, because that’s how I like to be, I’m not playing any games here with anybody. I’m trying to help those people who want and need to raise private money. I know I can help you, especially if you’re doing this owner finance strategy. This pitch is a little bit different if you’re trying to do a buy and hold. If you are trying to get money for a rental property. People understand that a little easier, a little faster. It’s different if you want to borrow some money so you can flip it and give it back to them.

I tailored the script exactly for the seller finance longer-term money that you need to be underneath when you’re doing a wraparound mortgage. When you’re selling the house on a 30-year payment and they pay you and you pay someone else and you keep the spread in the middle. Jeremy sends me this text that said, “I got your course. I did exactly what you said. I’ve had all these noes. I studied the script and when I thought I was ready, I went out. I said exactly what you told me to say and they answered exactly as you told me they would. I got my first private money lender.” What you said was word for word, but what’s even cannier is they talked to you back word for word that I tell you what they’re going to.

It was so much on the money that I almost felt like he was yanking my chain and reading his piece of paper on the other side of the phone. I said a couple of things to see if maybe he knew what I was talking about. I said, “Are you familiar with Mitch Stephen out of San Antonio, Texas?” His response was “No, I’ve never heard of the guy.” This guy is a real estate attorney. I thought there might have been a chance.

You’re thinking, “Maybe this guy already knows this script.”

I thought maybe he had that script sitting in front of him and I was just playing into it for him, but he didn’t. He had never heard of you before and we went top to bottom, front to back and all the details to it and then he thought, “This sounds like it works.” I said, “I know it works. I’ve got a gentleman that I could send you to verify this work. He’s done about 2000 houses this way.” He’s like, “Really? He’s done that many?” I said, “For over twenty years.” He’s like, “You’re kidding.” “No, I’m not kidding. I’ll send you his information.” He said, “Send that over to me. I want to check this guy out.” “It’s absolutely not a problem.”

I invite people to say that and if you need me to get on the line with you. If you bought my course and that’s all they want is some true confirmation, I’m happy to get on the deal. I’m going to gamble that it’s not going to happen that many times and it would paralyze my life, but I will do it for as long as I can or until it became overwhelming, but I don’t see it becoming overwhelming. The amount of people that take that course to take action, to get some get results because of their actions, because they took action, I like to call it the 95/5 rules. In real estate, it’s probably the 90/10 or the 95/5 rule because a lot of people don’t do what you did, which is immerse yourself, get comfortable and then go out there. They also never make it to a hundred noes as you did. If this thing worked even half-assed, you couldn’t get a hundred noes in a row. You’re doing something.

I’ve always felt like I found the ability to talk to anybody anywhere, anytime. I can carry a conversation for two people. I can keep it going and keep them engaged and I thought, “I don’t need to buy that. I’ve listened to enough of Mitch’s shows. I’ve gotten to talk to him a couple of times. I can do this. This isn’t a problem.”

You thought you could do it, you went out and then you got the course. Where were the differences? What made the difference?

I stopped saying what I wanted to say and I started saying what you told me to say.

Probably the biggest thing though is when you were going out at first, were you asking people to loan your money or were you approaching them? In the script, we don’t ask people to loan us money. We get in a position to present what we do for a living and then the money part shows up in our conversation and then we start making them ask questions like, “Where do you get that money?” That’s one of the biggest things in this whole course is how do you get them to ask you where you’re getting the money? There’s a way to massage that until they ask you, “Can I be one of those guys that give and loans you the money?” Unless they’re your friend and they’re going to sit down and give you the courtesy to hear you out but most people may say, “I’d like to have a meeting about you loaning me money.” They get in this boxing stance and you’re done and you can have any excuse not to show up.

If you have a thousand dollars to start investing in real estate by the private money course, then spend it. Share on X

A lot of the change too came with the mindset. With this course, one of the first things that I realized or that I read was who you were targeting versus who I was targeting. I was targeting anybody that had a pulse, “Do you want to talk to me? Let’s go through it.” In this course, you have a basic presentation to an attorney. I wouldn’t even go sit down in front of the attorney. There’s no way I would have done that.

Did you find they were that hard to get in front of?

Some are becoming hard to get in front of now absolutely, but at the same time, I didn’t feel like I had the understanding of the course or the topic of private money without this, even though I’ve listened to 200 or so of your shows, to various guys. I still didn’t understand it thoroughly enough until I purchased this.

Some attorneys or CPAs or whoever are busy and they may not even need any more business unless you’re a big fish. We’re not looking for that. We’re looking for the people that say, “I could use some more business. Come on down, sit down and show me your business. Let me see if I can help you.” That’s what you’re trying to do. That’s how you set the appointments. When you get there, you have to explain your business model to them and there’s a certain way to word it, “Is this truly NLP? I think it’s NLP.” I’m asking a question expecting a canned response that we as humans come back when we’re asked that question exactly the way that I want them to come back and it works well.

I would have never approached an attorney before and that was the first person that I pitched after I purchased the course. For those of you that haven’t purchased it or maybe on the fence about it, it’s a segment of the course that he talks about pitching professionals because the professionals plugged themselves into the situation. They plugged themselves into where the money is coming from. Once they ask you, “Where are you getting that money?” it’s because they’re already plugging themselves in and they already see this as an opportunity for them to make money.

The trick is not to tell them in your explanation, “I’ve done that before and screwed up. I’m getting this money from private people.” I blew the whole presentation. I’m getting this money at 8% and fifteen years fixed or whatever, 8% interest only, you got to make them ask you, “Where are you getting the money?” If they’re business people, they’re going to do that. I have 21 objections there that I have the answers to. Did they come up with those?

I’ve got a couple of them. In my experience and I’m sure most people are this way, but I try to be so transparent and so open about this entire process. As you said, I shoot myself in the foot too soon and say, “I’m getting it from private lenders,” before I ever get a chance to get there because I want to be so open about it, “You are protected and we’ve been through.” He was a real estate attorney. He understands the processes. I might’ve had two objections from him and they were both on the sheet that I had read and gone into.

I don’t know any other objections. If you come across an objection that’s not on there, send it to me because I’ll put it on. I never have gotten any other objection. That’s nice to know that you walk into a room and the only 21 things that an expert knows they’re going to ask you are already there with the answers. They’re your answers to all those 21 objections.

I would honestly say if it’s not on this list now, maybe that it’s necessarily not important enough to be on the list because I’m sure it would benefit somebody. These are the normal, everyday, they-understand-the-process objections.

That’s one reason I like talking to attorneys is most of them should understand the basics of real estate law in a first lien, how they’re protected, what a foreclosure is. They know how to get the statute and take your property from you if you don’t pay them. They don’t even have to pay anybody else to do it because they are attorneys.

The great State of Texas doesn’t take them long to get that property if they need to.

I want to thank you for taking the time to come on. Private Money Changes Everything, I think I was charging $997 for it. If you get one private lender, how much do you think this guy is going to do on your first deal or has he already funded your first deal?

I’ve found one solid since the first one and one is on the fence. Let’s say I’ve got two out of this course and I never use it again, but we know that’s not true. The first one, I have no idea what the cap is. He’s an attorney and has already explained that his friends have a lot more money than he does and he’s going to be sharing this information as fast as he can. Who knows what that pays, and what that’s going to bring? The second one is around $150,000 raised on that first pitch.

My Life & 1,000 Houses: Failing Forward to Financial Freedom

Let’s say the first one, all he has is $50,000. Who in the world wouldn’t pay $50,000 plus an extra $1,000, the cost of the course, to get some money so you could make $40,000 or $30,000 or $20,000 or $15,000 or whatever? What I’m saying is it’s $1,000 to figure out how to raise the money, but more important than that is now that you’ve got the first guy to say yes and the second guy to say yes, isn’t it amazing how your psyche changes? “I can do this all day long. I’m not afraid to go to anyone. I want my time back with those other 98 people that I blew it with.”

That I burned first, absolutely. I’ve got a chiropractor that I go to and he’s really young, brand new in the business and doesn’t have his place yet. We talked about going after veteran doctors, veteran attorneys, people that have the revenue to put into their investments now and they aren’t trying to get out of student loans. I went and I was talking to my chiropractor and had a normal session. We did our adjustments and he saw the drywall dust on my boots and he asked me what I did. I turned around and with the biggest smile on my face, I gave him the whole pitch top to bottom, front to back. He stopped and looked at me and he thought, “I want to know more about that.” I said, “You give me a time and a date and I’ll be there. We’ll sit down and we’ll talk about this all you want.”

I appreciate you taking the time to be on. One of the biggest things is the mindset change because one of the first things I go through is it’s not about you. It’s not about your experience or how smart you are, how many deals you’ve done. It’s about the deal. Someone in jail should be able to get this money raised because it doesn’t matter about who you are. What matters is, “How much is the loan and what is the collateral worth? If you don’t pay me, I get that piece of collateral. Is that correct?” “That’s correct.” “It doesn’t matter because I’m going to do okay if you pay me. I’m going to have to get a better rate of return to normal, but if you don’t pay me, I’m going to make a lot of money because this house is worth a lot more than what I’m loaning you.”

That’s my favorite pitch inside the pitch. Worst case scenario is I do exactly what I said I was going to do and I pay you what I say I was going to pay you.

The best-case scenario is you get my house, but I always like to follow it up with, but if that’s your plan to get my house, don’t hold your breath. You’ll be the first person ever to get it. Getting my house, this would be a bad bet. Before we go, tell me your last thoughts on Private Money Changes Everything.

You should be charging more money for it.

I probably could, but I got enough money. I would like to help some people change their lives and I don’t want to give it away because then no one will take any action. It’s a fine balance between that but I think it’s more than fairly priced. It’s ridiculously priced as you said.

Here are my parting words of wisdom to the new real estate investor that is sitting there reading this. If you have $1,000 to start investing in real estate, buy the Private Money Course. That’s where I would spend $1,000.

The other thing is when you know you have the money or you know you can get the money, then you have a different air about you. You’re not second-guessing yourself. A lot of the reason why people can’t seem to find deals is in the back of their heads they’re not sure how they’re going to pay for it. That hinders them immensely. The reason is not on the surface but in the back. It is all the reason why they can’t make a deal. They’re petrified that they’re going to get a contract and then they’re not going to be able to follow through with their word.

Go to Private Money Changes Everything, which is at 1000Houses.com. If you have any trouble, email us at Support@1000Houses.com. It’s not a thick course. It’s not heavy. It’s not bulky. It’s very thin, light and easy to understand the course. It’s very rich and every one of those six steps counts. As Jeremy said, it’s about the timing and you’ve got to do the pauses. You’ve got used that salesman science to get them to say what I’m going to tell you and what I’ve already told you they’re going to say. If you shut up and give them enough time, they’re going to say what I’m telling you they’re going to say most of the time. We then can proceed to the next step and then you do that silence again. They’re going to say what I’m going to tell you then.

What we’re trying to do is get these people to open the door themselves and walk into a room where there’s a conversation that I wanted to have. I already know there’s that conversation in that room, but I can’t open the door and push them in because that seems like a sales job. We’re trying to get them to open the door and usher us into the room of the exact conversation we wanted to have and we know what room we want to be in. We’re trying to make it their idea that we’re walking into that room. There’s a way to do it and it’s amazing.

I’ve listened to I don’t know how many different people on your show that have done the same thing I’m doing with Private Money now. It was always the pipe dream of, “That sounds great. One of these days I’ll find it. One of these days will be there.” If you purchase Private Money Changes Everything, it is a light switch. It is so simple and so easy to put to action. I couldn’t be more thankful.

I did learn from my friend, Sam Madrid, the guy that’s in the book, My Life & 1,000 Houses: Failing Forward to Financial Freedom. We did our first 450 deals together. Most of those on credit cards, because we hadn’t figured out how to raise private money yet. I told Sam that I was talking to people with money. I’m bringing this up because you said you were talking to anyone who had a pulse and that was a mistake. I talked to Sam and you might want to reconsider. Sam said he will talk to anyone about it that he thinks has an understanding of finances and basic real estate law. Even if he noticed they don’t have any money, after they understand it and they say, “I wish I had the money to do something with you, but I’m broke. I don’t have any money.”

Private money changes everything. It is a light switch. It is so simple, and so easy to put to action. Share on X

The next thing he says, “Don’t you know someone you can help or we can help? Does your mother, father, uncle or someone have money? Don’t they need this?” You planted that seed and they say, “My wife’s mother’s loaded and she has it sitting in 1% CDs.” Then you say, “Let’s go get in front of her.” You can practice on those people and then see if you can get them to introduce you to the money person in their life. It’s a two-step process instead of a one-step process but when you’re starting out, who gives a damn how many steps it takes. Eventually, get in front of somebody with some money. Be careful who you judge.

In my story, I was with a UPS guy that was dead broken. His car was a piece of crap and everything, but he’d been with UPS for 27 years. He had $1 million in his 401(k) that UPS matched. Be careful when you’re prejudging people. If you find out they don’t have money themselves, then figure out who you can help and get them to introduce you to their aunt or their uncle or their mother or their father or someone who needs this help with this return with these protections. Jeremy, thank you so much. I appreciate you.

It’s been great. Thank you.

Keep me posted. I want to learn more about it. The sky is the limit for you now. You’re on your way to your third person and you’ll be surprised how fast this turns into $1 million, $2 million.

I can feel it building already.

Also, don’t forget when they get to that point and they say, “That’s all the money I have. I can’t do anymore, Jeremy.” The next question is, “I still have some fantastic deals out there. Do you know anybody else we can help with? Certainly, you know someone who needs this kind of help. Who do you know? Who we can we help?” and get a referral. See you, Jeremy.

Thank you.

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About Jeremy Dahlgren

I’ve never enjoyed looking for houses.

I love looking at deals, but actually going out and finding them isn’t my niche. I enjoy finding private money. Providing above inflation rates of return.

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