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Welcome to Episode Six of Season Seven of the Growing Empire Show. Today is our Question + Answer segment. So stay tuned.

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Welcome to Growing Empires hosted by real estate entrepreneur and trusted investment advisor Jennifer de Jesus. Growing Empires provides insight to building wealth through passive income producing real estate investments for those who want to build and manage a more profitable real estate portfolio.

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I’m really excited about today’s show, we have some really great questions from my listeners. So let’s just jump right in and get started. Question number one is what questions should I ask when interviewing candidates to compliment my investing goals? This is actually a really great question. And I guess it’s really going to depend on who exactly you’re interviewing. And let’s just assume that what we mean by this is that you’re going to potentially interview attorneys, accountants, property management companies, real estate brokers, stuff like that. So let’s talk about the real estate broker property manager first. Okay, so if you’re interviewing these types of people to complement your business strategies, you’re going to want to first know what you’re trying to accomplish, and then create your questions around that. So if your goal is to be as passive as possible in your investing, what you want to know from your real estate broker and from your property management company is; how do they help you be successful being a passive investor? So how much involvement Do you have to have? And what is it going to require as far as your time? So your questions could be something like this. You know, how do you source deals? If you’re talking to your real estate broker? How do you source deals? How involved Do I need to be? How often can I expect you to send me deals? Are you going to analyze the deals before you send them to me? Are you going to handpick them or are you going to give me a list of they need to sort through? Those would be the types of questions that would help kind of steer you to the direction of whether or not they’re going to need you to be actively involved in identifying deals for yourself, or whether they’re going to take an active role in sourcing and vetting those properties for you before they give them to you. Let’s say we’re talking to our property manager now, or a potential property management candidate. And you want to have a very active role in the investing strategy. You would ask questions like; how often do you communicate with me? Do I get statements once a month? Do I get to any online portal that allows me access to what’s happening in real time? Let’s just say you want to be a passive investor, and your property management company would need to do more services for you. I would ask them things like; how much time commitment do you need for me? How often do you need to talk to me? And what do I need to approve for you to work a little bit more freely, so that I don’t have to be so involved? I think it’s really important that no matter who you’re talking to that you identify what you really want out of that partnership, and see if what they can do aligns with that. But I always caution you on any kind of interview, is don’t give away all the keys to the castle before you’ve allowed them to answer. So don’t tell people what you want before they tell you what they can offer, if that makes sense. Because you don’t want people to be creative and how they respond to you. And make you think that they are going to create this world for you that you in turn will find out that they do not. So again, just you know, figure out what your goals are, figure out how that looks to you in a day to day operation and then ask the questions around that that would help you identify and pull out whether or not they can offer those services. And again, just a quick tip, ask them to explain before you tell them what you want. And I think that you’ll find that that’s going to work really well.

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Next question, what are the biggest mistakes that one makes when starting a partnership? This is actually a pretty easy question. So I think the biggest most critical mistake that people make when starting a partnership is to not get it in writing. And I cannot stress this enough. I don’t care if this is your spouse, you must have your partnership in writing to protect yourself and everybody in the deal. Partnerships are great until they don’t work out well. Right. Everything is great until it doesn’t work out well. And by the time you get to the point of something not working out, well, you’re going to wish that you had something documented in writing. Okay, think of it as like, you know, you’re the wealthy spouse and you didn’t have a prenup before you got married. It’s never a problem until it’s a problem. So make sure that you’re preparing for the worst case scenario. That’s how you best prepare your partnership is to think of what is the worst and prepare for that. And then everything else should be flowers and sunshine. So make sure that you get everything in writing. And to be really super detailed on what I’m referring to is you need to identify the length of the partnership, how long this partnership is going to last whether it’s ongoing or it’s going to have a deadline. You need to identify who is involved in the partnership and what each of their roles or responsibilities are. What everybody is going to bring to the partnership, how people would get out of the partnership, and what the partnership is going to do together. And if you’re able to identify that and put it in writing, you will find that you are going to have a much better foundation to actually start your partnership because everything is clear and up front and honest from the gate. And if you can’t even get to the point of getting your partnership in writing, you don’t have the right partners. Okay, so please get everything in writing. Another mistake that people make is not identifying clearly what everybody’s roles are, and who makes a decision and who does not. If you’re talking about real estate investing, you have to make sure that your partnership aligns with what the marketplace is giving you as far as dynamics. So if the partnership is put together, where let’s just say there’s three partners, and all three partners need to make a decision for anything to happen. So for any property to be bought three people have to make a decision for any property to be sold, three people have to make a decision. And for any, you know, day to day operational things to happen, all three partners have to make a decision. That would work if the dynamics of the market that you’re in allow you time to do so. But if you’re in a really aggressive market, or something is very time sensitive, and you’ve got to wait for answers from three people and three people have to agree, that’s going to be very disastrous. So make sure that your partnership aligns with your marketplace. And your marketplace aligns with your partnership. And you’ll find that that makes it a little bit easier. But I would highly suggest that you identify everybody’s roles and responsibilities in the respect of who is making decisions. One person should be enough for the partnership to make the decisions, they can confer with the other partners. But if it’s a property management company, for example, that has to reach out to three different people, that’s going to be extremely time consuming for the management company to do and it can be quite frustrating if they don’t get the same answers from all three partners, or all three partners or not so readily available. So I always suggest that you identify one person that makes decisions, maybe one person that watches the financials, and then one person that is sourcing or vetting other deals as an example. And that I find to be a much stronger type of partnership that can get things actually done. If they first identify who’s going to make the decisions and in what method they’re going to go about handling their business operations.

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The episode will continue in just a moment.

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Building your dream team must start with trust, which is the cornerstone of our approach and what allows us to deliver the results that we do. You need to trust your team, so they’re empowered to bring their best and deliver the results you need to be successful. Your team is your true partner in your growth strategy and trusting their contributions and capabilities is what will free you up to focus on sustaining your growth. Whether you’re an active investor or a passive investor, your dream team should be compromised of not just experiencing capabilities, but people with heart you can trust as true partners. wrong choices will cost you lost time, money, and most importantly, opportunities to capitalize and grow. I want to share my experiences with you and help you sidestep those risks when building your dream team. Let’s get on a call and talk about your dream team so we can get you set up for success. Book a call with me today at growingempires.com and I will help you clarify what you need to build the perfect team for you.

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Next question, Where can I network with other investors? So a couple of great places to network, the Chamber of Commerce. If you are not a member of your local Chamber of Commerce, you might want to consider being a member of one of them. The Chamber of Commerce is always about networking. Your local BNI groups are also all about networking. So depending on what your business is, you may want to do this for your own personal business. It has nothing to do with investing. But you may find that those relationships also are very beneficial to your investment goals as well. So definitely check into like your chamber of commerce, and check into your like your BNI groups. And again, you may not necessarily involve yourself in them specifically for investing. Maybe you one of your businesses or your day to day operations day to day jobs, allows you to network in these groups. Don’t be shy about talking some of the other things that you do in those groups or in those networks. You also want to look at social forums. There’s so many out there for investors. You want to look at both blog types of forums, as well as interactive type of forums. One of the ones that I hear a lot of people referenced that I think is a great place to get started. Maybe not necessarily a great place to find all of your information, but definitely a great source for you to interact with other investors is Bigger Pockets. That’s one of the more popular ones that I hear on a regular basis. And from that, really, it’s just a forum where you ask questions and other investors answer and it could be developers, it could be real estate brokers, it could be attorneys, accountants, all types of people are on these forums. So it’s very easy to get your questions answered. and for people to give you The only thing I would always caution you is, you know, you’re talking to a social media forum, in a sense, you know, everybody has an opinion, but no raised opinion is valuable to you. So you’ll have to pick and choose which of those comments and directions and pieces of advice you use are going to be beneficial to you. But definitely start looking into those forums, because you very well may start to develop a partnership that makes a lot of sense for you. Also get involved in networking groups. Now I know, you know, post COVID, a lot of these networking groups that used to meet face to face now meet via social forums, and they’ll do like zoom calls and stuff like that. But whether or not you’re face to face, or go through a zoom, or some other source of video networking, these network groups are a really great source of information. Sometimes it’s just about listening to people, but also it’s about asking their stories, asking their challenges, you know, I think it’s really important to hear people’s stories, good and bad, because those can help you really navigate direction for yourself, you know. And when you’re talking to people, you know, be genuine in those conversations and, and, and try to learn from their experiences, you know. Not just ask them what they do that makes them successful, but what did they learn? You know, what did they do in the past that they wish they’ve never done before? or What mistake did they make that they wish they can, you know, not make again? Or what advice could they give to a new investor? You know, you always don’t have to be the one with all the answers, you know, be the one that’s asking for guidance. And if you ask for help, I find that a lot of people want to help. So definitely join some networking groups.

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Last question is what are the secrets to building meaningful and lasting business relationships? And I think that that is a really great question. But I have a lot of advice in that area. So number one is you want to be authentic. Make sure that you don’t try to make yourself sound better than you. Be authentic. Identify what your shared goals and values are. You know, people respond to people that are authentic, and are not afraid to share what are their goals and what their values are. I think it’s important to show some vulnerability. And you know, that makes people develop mutual respect for each other. So definitely share some of your vulnerability with others. You know, this allows you to develop a very mutual respect. Be meaningful in the connections that you make. And what I mean by that is, if you are going to network with people, and you say things like, I’m going to call you make sure you do what you say you’re going to do. You want to make sure that your connections are meaningful. We’re not just out here trying to waste time talking to as many people as we want to talk to you. We want to talk to people that have a meaningful place in your growth as an investor. And when you say that you’re going to do something, make sure that you do it. It’s okay to get a little bit more personal. Although you are building a network of business partners and business relationships, it’s okay to get personal. I think some of the most valuable pieces of the business relationships that I have, are the fact that we have some personal connection. You know, maybe our kids are in a similar place. Or maybe we’re personally in a similar place. Or maybe we can relate to each other. I think that you know, businesses business, but it’s okay to sometimes mix a little bit of that personal connection, so people can see the reality and again, that vulnerability, that makes those relationships so strong. So just to recap, how do you build that really lasting relationship and something that has a lot of meaning? Be authentic. Make sure that you’ve identified your shared goals and values develop mutual respect for each other, share some vulnerability, make meaningful connections with people and help network with others. Don’t be afraid to share your connections, get a little bit more personal and get connected. I hope you got a lot out of today’s show and until next time, take care.

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For more information about how Jennifer can help you plan, develop and manage a strong real estate investment portfolio, visit growingempires.com