Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
Speaker: My name is Taylor Armstrong.
Speaker: I went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in a year and cracking the code on why sales reps fell.
Speaker: I teach you to avoid the mistakes I made and bring in the top solar dogs of the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro and closing more deals.
Speaker: What is a Solarpreneur you might ask?
Speaker: A Solarpreneur is a new breed of Solar Pro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery and you are about to become one.
Speaker: What's going on, solarpreneurs?
Speaker: We are back here with another episode.
Speaker: Happy to be here.
Speaker: Hope you're doing awesome.
Speaker: Hope you're closing lots of deals and crushing it in the solar industry.
Speaker: My name is Taylor Armstrong.
Speaker: As usual, we are here to help you close more deals, generate more leads and referrals, and have a much better experience in the solar industry.
Speaker: And you can listen to us exclusively, not exclusively, but on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, wherever you find your podcasts.
Speaker: We are there.
Speaker: We are coming to you every Tuesday and Friday.
Speaker: And I'll be honest, it is 1130 on a Thursday night.
Speaker: I'm recording this, so I'm getting at it late, but I got to show up.
Speaker: My motto is done is better than perfect.
Speaker: And I hope you can apply that in all areas of your life.
Speaker: Because if I waited till this podcast was perfect, there still would be nothing.
Speaker: So sometimes you just have to go dive headfirst in things without knowing what you're doing.
Speaker: You learn as you go and just live for the experience.
Speaker: Done is better than perfect.
Speaker: So use that as one of your mantras.
Speaker: Use that on your affirmations.
Speaker: Done is better than perfect.
Speaker: You're not going to be perfect in solar cells.
Speaker: You're not going to be perfect in closing, but that is how you learn.
Speaker: That is how you progress.
Speaker: So anyways, let's jump into the topic.
Speaker: I'm going to talk about my first experience in real estate.
Speaker: Many of you know, I think I brought it up in the podcast here.
Speaker: I have an Airbnb property.
Speaker: It's in St.
Speaker: George, Utah.
Speaker: So I'm going to tell you what that was like getting into that property, kind of the fears I had going into it.
Speaker: But the same thing with that done is better than perfect in real estate investing.
Speaker: I thought I needed to wait for the perfect timing, perfect property, perfect this, that, but really you just got to go into it.
Speaker: Same thing in the real estate world.
Speaker: So before we get into that, just wanted to thank, we have a new review last Friday from CybuckPhoenix.
Speaker: He said, five stars, tons of value in here.
Speaker: Thanks, man.
Speaker: So appreciate it.
Speaker: You rock, Cybucks, whoever you are.
Speaker: Go buy solar from this guy, if you're listening.
Speaker: But again, we want to thank all the people that have left reviews, that have shared the podcast.
Speaker: That is how we've grown this.
Speaker: And that is really what makes this happen is all you guys sharing it, all you guys reaching out saying it helped you in some way in your solar sales experience or your solar career.
Speaker: Let's jump into the topic, real estate investing.
Speaker: I'll just give a disclaimer.
Speaker: I am far from an expert in this, so I am probably not the one to learn real estate from.
Speaker: I'm just going to give you my humble opinion, my humble experience so far on how I've started.
Speaker: Maybe some of you listening are way ahead of me.
Speaker: Maybe you've already got multiple properties.
Speaker: Maybe you've gone through the experience multiple times now, but for me, I've just done it one time.
Speaker: I've got my one Airbnb property and I'm trying to figure it out still.
Speaker: So I'm going to give you my perspective.
Speaker: But just a disclaimer, if you really want to take it to a next level in your real estate investing, some great people to follow.
Speaker: Sam Taggart, I know he has a lot of properties.
Speaker: He talks about it.
Speaker: pretty extensively.
Speaker: And then Dave Allred, he's huge in the real estate world.
Speaker: A lot of you know him.
Speaker: He was in door-to-door.
Speaker: He was in the alarms and he's really just growing a real estate empire now.
Speaker: Jimmy Rack, seen him speak multiple times at door-to-door events.
Speaker: He's kind of someone that does focus on helping door-to-door guys.
Speaker: Dwayne Richens, another one of my friends, real estate guy in Utah that's been a lot in door-to-door
Speaker: And then also Brody Fawcett is another guy I've been following a lot.
Speaker: He has a real estate investing school, I think it's called.
Speaker: And he is kind of his brand is helping door to door guys really just take that money and learn to invest it in real estate.
Speaker: So if you haven't done any investments, I would definitely recommend following those guys.
Speaker: They're going to help you learn way more than what I'm going to share with you on this podcast.
Speaker: But also we have my friend Bennett Maxwell.
Speaker: He's going to be on the next episode coming up here.
Speaker: And he has, I think he has six or seven properties now, but he talks about just really how simple the process can be getting into real estate.
Speaker: And it's actually a second time on the show.
Speaker: So that's kind of why I wanted to jam on this today, because we talk about just kind of the ways to get started and
Speaker: the basics, the beginner stuff.
Speaker: And Bennett, he has sold his solar company now and he is doing dirty dough.
Speaker: It's his cookie company.
Speaker: I always make fun of him that he left selling solar to sell like Girl Scout cookies, but no, he's crushing it in that.
Speaker: And he's really doing well with his investments.
Speaker: So that kind of spurred up the conversation.
Speaker: And that's where we're going to talk a little bit about it today.
Speaker: And then with Bennett on next episode, we're going to get a little bit deeper and give you some more concrete ways you can get started from a guy who has done it a lot more than I have.
Speaker: And so my experience, I have had our property now for, I think, going on five months, pretty recent.
Speaker: And this property, it's in St.
Speaker: George, Utah.
Speaker: It's called Desert Color.
Speaker: And if any of you want to rent it out, let me know.
Speaker: Great for maybe team activities.
Speaker: It's not a huge place, but it is a townhome.
Speaker: It's a duplex.
Speaker: And what's cool about it, some of you that have followed me on Instagram, you've seen me post, but it has this giant, they call it a lagoon.
Speaker: So it's this huge pool looking thing.
Speaker: surrounds the whole area.
Speaker: And we call it beachside bliss because it feels like you're sitting beachside.
Speaker: And so it's really cool.
Speaker: You have access to this giant lagoon thing.
Speaker: You can paddleboard and kayak.
Speaker: And then it's got like a community pool.
Speaker: So it's got that little resort style feel.
Speaker: And so that's what intrigued me about it is it feels like kind of a resort type investment, almost like a timeshare type thing.
Speaker: But I'm also making money on it.
Speaker: And so because that it was expensive, it was an expensive piece of property.
Speaker: We went through the building process.
Speaker: I think we got up for one point five million.
Speaker: And I say start small because I did not do this by myself.
Speaker: So I'm not out doing one point five million investment properties yet.
Speaker: Hopefully I'll get there.
Speaker: But I actually did this with about six people, six or seven people from my family.
Speaker: Yeah, I think everyone was in my family that was in on the investment.
Speaker: And so that's the first lesson I learned from this is you don't have to start big.
Speaker: You don't have to have tons of money.
Speaker: What you can do is get in it with other people.
Speaker: So maybe it's family.
Speaker: Maybe it's guys from your company.
Speaker: Maybe it's, I don't know, lots of different groups.
Speaker: You can just network with guys.
Speaker: Obviously make sure it's someone you trust.
Speaker: but lots of different options for getting in on it.
Speaker: If you don't have the cash, maybe find someone that does.
Speaker: You can split up the percentages.
Speaker: So we just have one share in the property and the rest is split up between other people.
Speaker: So the pro of that is I don't have to put a lot of money down.
Speaker: I think we did about 50 grand down when all was said and done.
Speaker: But the con is that you're splitting all the profits.
Speaker: And so when that money's coming in, it's not like we're making bank from it because it's all divided up.
Speaker: But consider doing that.
Speaker: Find someone that maybe is in your solar company.
Speaker: Maybe you're an owner.
Speaker: Maybe you want to approach some of your reps.
Speaker: And again, reach out to some of these guys that know what they're doing.
Speaker: Dwayne Richens is a great resource.
Speaker: He's a realtor in Utah.
Speaker: They can help find some of these good properties.
Speaker: But you can start small that way.
Speaker: Go in on it with somebody that you trust.
Speaker: And so I went in on the property.
Speaker: Like I said, did about 50 grand down.
Speaker: And it's been going about five months now.
Speaker: And it's actually been going great because of it has kind of that resort style feel.
Speaker: Super easy to rent out.
Speaker: People are always wanting to go down to St.
Speaker: George, Utah, which is in southern Utah.
Speaker: Desert weather.
Speaker: But it's got this huge, massive lagoon.
Speaker: So people can stay cool in it.
Speaker: So that's kind of the perks it has.
Speaker: Feels like you're in a resort.
Speaker: But the other thing is we pay a management fee.
Speaker: So this is something to consider.
Speaker: As we're renting it out, it goes through an association there.
Speaker: And we pay, I think it's 35% goes straight to this association to manage it.
Speaker: And so another thing you have to kind of weigh, do you want to do something like that?
Speaker: I know there's management companies, there's people you can pay to manage it for you, to do all the listing, to do all the bookings.
Speaker: And anyone that's in solar, I would highly recommend, you know, getting some type of management deal because you don't want to be in the day to day of this.
Speaker: Last thing you want to do is take away from your solar cells to go sit and manage properties.
Speaker: So what Bennett's going to talk about on the next episode is actually how he uses virtual assistants to help him manage his properties.
Speaker: So he has just people from the Philippines.
Speaker: And I've talked about getting a virtual assistant before.
Speaker: but he has them manage his properties.
Speaker: He doesn't have to do anything.
Speaker: So he can focus on selling his cookies.
Speaker: He can focus on his family.
Speaker: He can focus on his other business ventures.
Speaker: So make sure as you are considering getting into these investments, getting into real estate, don't let it take all your time away from solar.
Speaker: This is a big mistake I see from people.
Speaker: focus on what you're good at, which is selling solar panels, and then join other groups to find these properties, partner with people who know what they're doing.
Speaker: Brody Fawcett has his real estate investing school where he guarantees, you know, like an investment property and he'll help you until he helps find you something.
Speaker: And so we'll probably get him on the show here.
Speaker: I'm gonna have to hit him up, actually talk to him at the last, I think it was door to door con about coming on.
Speaker: But yeah, that's what I would suggest.
Speaker: Join a mastermind.
Speaker: You got Pi Syndicate, who sponsors the show.
Speaker: And they actually helped me kind of analyze the numbers on this investment property.
Speaker: And they were, when we went through the numbers, I mean, there are better investments.
Speaker: Sometimes real estate doesn't have the greatest numbers.
Speaker: But basically what it came down to, they said, Taylor, if you, it's not a bad investment.
Speaker: But there are better things you could invest your money in.
Speaker: But if you think this is good for the family, if you think it's a place you would go, you'd spend time at, then I think it's a great idea.
Speaker: So the way we kind of thought of it is, like I mentioned before, kind of almost like a timeshare.
Speaker: It's something that we can also enjoy.
Speaker: We can go down to southern Utah, take the family there.
Speaker: But at the same time, we're going to get money as we rent it out.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And this is another thing to be careful with.
Speaker: Make sure as you're going in on it with other people that they understand that the primary reason you're getting it is to make you money.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: You don't want to turn this into liability and just you be staying in it.
Speaker: You're not making any profit.
Speaker: So something we've had to do is just sacrifice on when we're actually going there to stay.
Speaker: We have a certain number of days allocated that we can all use it.
Speaker: I think it's like a week out of like 10 days or so out of the year.
Speaker: We can go there so we can book it out for ourselves.
Speaker: But we actually had it booked.
Speaker: My wife and I were running a half marathon in southern Utah in St.
Speaker: George.
Speaker: We were actually booking it that weekend, but then we found out that's actually one of the biggest renting weekends in Southern Utah because of this race.
Speaker: People come from all over.
Speaker: It's also a marathon, half marathon.
Speaker: And then I think it's like spring break or fall break for a lot of people.
Speaker: And so we're like, OK, we can't miss out.
Speaker: It's going to be renting out for way more during these nights.
Speaker: We can't sacrifice that.
Speaker: So you just got to keep in mind what's the goal with it.
Speaker: If you want to make money, don't be renting it out.
Speaker: Don't be going and staying in it all the time yourself because you want it to be an asset for you.
Speaker: You want it to be making you money.
Speaker: And so, yeah, that's kind of how the experience has been so far.
Speaker: We're doing a couple grand a month right now, averaging a couple grand a month after expenses.
Speaker: So it's doing well.
Speaker: Obviously, that's all split up.
Speaker: And disclaimer, I have not made a penny yet off of it because what we're doing is building up a slush fund, just, you know, kind of your emergency expenses, water heater breaks, AC goes out.
Speaker: You want to have money to not have to cover that out of your pocket.
Speaker: So that's what we're doing.
Speaker: And then we started an LLC, separate LLC to be able to do the property since it's under so many people.
Speaker: So that's been the experience so far.
Speaker: We're having a great time with it.
Speaker: I look forward to learning more and I'm going to be trying to learn more about real estate and share my journey with you guys.
Speaker: But the key is just start somewhere with this.
Speaker: Partner up with somebody.
Speaker: Go find some properties.
Speaker: Talk to a realtor.
Speaker: Talk to Dwayne Richens.
Speaker: Reach out to somebody who can give you some advice.
Speaker: See where your financial situation is at.
Speaker: and then recommends maybe some properties to look into.
Speaker: And so again, a great resource for that is Pi Syndicate.
Speaker: They can help you get started with all this.
Speaker: They are going to be giving us a link to book some calls with them probably coming up in the next couple of weeks.
Speaker: So for right now, we don't have a link yet to schedule a time with them.
Speaker: But if you are interested, hit me up.
Speaker: I can connect you with those guys.
Speaker: They can coach you on getting into real estate and other investments you might want to get into.
Speaker: So that's my take.
Speaker: That's been my experience with the rental property.
Speaker: I haven't done a lot because, yeah, I'm focused on selling solar, but we got the property managers.
Speaker: We're paying them 35 percent of the gross.
Speaker: What we make on it is going to them.
Speaker: So it is a steep price, but they book it.
Speaker: They clean it.
Speaker: They pretty much do everything.
Speaker: And that's how I like it.
Speaker: I want it as hands off as possible.
Speaker: So hopefully that inspires you to get into something.
Speaker: Start small.
Speaker: We did about 50 grand.
Speaker: You can get in things for cheaper than that too.
Speaker: So again, just talk to these guys that have a lot more experience and they can give you more coaching.
Speaker: Also reach out to me.
Speaker: I can give you, you know, what I know so far, but I'm learning and hopefully you are too.
Speaker: So I can't wait to see you on the next episode.
Speaker: We're going to have Bennett Maxwell on.
Speaker: He's going to get a little bit deeper into this stuff.
Speaker: He's going to talk about why he ditched solar for cookies.
Speaker: He's crazy.
Speaker: I don't know why he'd do that.
Speaker: But you're going to hear all about it.
Speaker: You're going to hear his business, what he's been up to since the last podcast.
Speaker: And so I can't wait for him to be on it.
Speaker: Make sure you don't miss out.
Speaker: Thanks for the support of the show.
Speaker: And we will see you on next episode.
Speaker: What's up, solopreneurs?
Speaker: Hope you enjoyed the episode.
Speaker: Before you run out and start selling more solar yourself, wanted to let you know about an exciting new cheat sheet we created specifically for you in mind.
Speaker: One of the top questions I get asked on Instagram, on Facebook, by our listeners is, Taylor, where should I start?
Speaker: What episodes should I listen to in the podcast?
Speaker: You got too many podcasts, man, because now we have over 200 episodes.
Speaker: So what we've done, we created the top 10 most downloaded, most listened to, and I would say widely accepted, most useful podcasts that we've done here on Solapreneur.
Speaker: We put them together all in one sheet so you can go, you can hit the ground running, especially if you're new and you do not want to not have this sheet.
Speaker: So go download it right now.
Speaker: It's going to be at top10.solarpreneurs.com.
Speaker: Again, that's top10, the number 10,.solarpreneurs.com.
Speaker: Don't forget the S on solarpreneurs.
Speaker: We will have that in the show notes.
Speaker: Go download it right now.
Speaker: And especially if you have not listened to them, go listen to them and you can re-listen to them.
Speaker: That's going to show you how.
Speaker: So go download it and we'll see you on the other side.
