Tentmaking Tips

This shouldn't surprise us.

Solomon said, "The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender." (Prov 22:7)

The implication here is that you're probably not going in the right direction financially if you're a financial slave to someone else.

Just a few verses later, Solomon again warns of the danger, "Do not be one who shakes hands in pledge or puts up security for debts; if you lack the means to pay, your very bed will be snatched from under you." (Prov 22:26-27)

That's scary. Who wants their bed snatched from under them? Solomon is trying to warn his listeners about the potential consequences of going into debt & not being able to repay. Perhaps his warning will cause his listeners to rethink "shaking hands in a pledge" by going into debt.

I think he's suggesting we ask the question, "If you go into debt, how do you know you'll have the means to repay?"

In other words, we're...

Let's just assume you don't want to Flip Hack, House Hack, or even Agent Hack (represent your family and friends as a real estate agent).

There's still a way you can make extra income from real estate.

Referral Fees.

What you may not know is that when one agent refers a lead to another agent, the referring agent will often be rewarded with a percentage of the commission (often 25%).

You must be a licensed agent to get this referral fee, but you don't actually have to represent any clients to make this extra money. And getting your license is a fairly quick & easy process. See the post entitled, The Best Places to Get Your Real Estate License.

We have a neighbor that does this exact thing. She was an active real estate agent for years, but now that she's older, she really doesn't want to be active in the business anymore. But, of course, she'd still love to make some extra money. The...

In this post, I want to talk about our 1st Quick Flip.

Remember, with a Quick Flip, you don't fix up the house at all. You buy it and sell it again as-is, usually a few hours later. You don't make as much money as you would on a Cosmetic Flip or Fix & Flip, but it's more convenient and you can do more of them quickly.

Here's the story behind our 1st Quick Flip:

1. We built a list of investors who we knew could close quickly with cash & were looking for investment property.

2. We sent out letters to homeowners in multiple zip codes where we knew these investor buyers were looking for houses to purchase. In the letter, we offered to buy the seller's home quickly, as-is, & with cash. We knew this would likely appeal to sellers who had...

I often joke that unless the home is older than 1970, my wife probably won't like it. Haha!

She'd tell you that older homes have a certain character and build quality that is hard to replicate in newer homes (especially with the increasing cost of lumber). This is obviously an opinion & very subjective! ;)

That's led to us living in many different older homes over the years.

And these older homes have really accelerated our financial goals.

I want to share some reasons why older homes can be advantageous if you're looking to supplement your income.

1. Older homes give you the ability to "force" appreciation

   I'm using a term here that's more common in commercial real estate but applies here as well. Normal appreciation is the 3-5% (on average) that your home may increase in value each year. Forced appreciation is when you accelerate the appreciation by making changes to the house that increase its value quickly (like updating a kitchen or...

I'd like to do the same thing for airlines.

Flying can be expensive, especially when you're taking your kids. It's really important to maximize every single point you can when it comes to airline rewards. Doing this will help you be able to travel nearly free with the whole family.

In this blog, I want to talk primarily about domestic travel.

What airline has the highest value point redemptions? Let's take a look.

Delta Airlines - worth 1.1 cents per point

• For a $350/flight, it would require 31,819 points

United Airlines - worth 1.3 cents per point

• For a $350/flight, it would require 26,923 points

American Airlines - worth 1.4 cents per point

• For a $350/flight, it would require 25,000 points

Southwest Airlines - worth 1.5 cents per point

• For a $350/flight, it would require 23,334 points

Southwest Rapid Rewards points are some of...

These are some of the most savvy investors & life hackers (aka optimizers) I've found online.

This community is pursuing Financial Independence which would allow them to Retire Early if they wanted. And by retire, they usually don’t mean sitting by the beach for the rest of their lives. They mean no longer having to show up to a 9-5 job they don't like. They can do this because their passive investment income now meets or exceeds the income they were earning from their jobs. This frees them up to be able to spend their time doing whatever they'd like.

In the same way, as tentmaking pastors, missionaries or Christian leaders, we're trying to generate income to free us up to do what we've been called to do — ministry!

A common story in the F.I.R.E community will sound like this: John graduates college with a...

A flat fee broker keeps a flat fee, rather than a percentage, of each of your commission checks.

This is quite uncommon among brokerages.

Usually a brokerage will charge you a significant percentage of the overall commission - 25% on the lower end and up to 50% on the higher end. In addition to this, the broker will often have monthly fees they charge for office, equipment usage, supplies, etc.

Imagine you make $10,000 in commission on a deal. If the broker takes 25-50% ($2,500-$5,000), that’s a huge chunk of your earnings. Add to that any other monthly fees they charge.

On the other hand, if you find a flat fee broker, they may charge you $500 per transaction regardless of what you make. In the example above, if you made $10,000, they’d take $500 and you’d make $9,500! Wow! Quite a difference.

In this scenario you’d have to do between 2-4x...

The process to flip a house is simple.

1. Find a property off-market that's in need of some work

2. Buy direct from the seller at a discount

3. Fix it up (fix & flip) or leave it as-is (quick flip)

4. Resell it for a profit

See. It's simple.

What's difficult is taking action.

A lot of people understand how flipping works, but they never take action and actually do it themselves.

Here are the common objections:

1. I don't have enough money to flip houses

2. Flipping houses would take way too much time

3. I'm afraid I might lose money flipping a house

The problem is, these objections don’t apply to all types of flips.

Remember, there are 3 Ways to Flip a House.

The one I focus on and teach other pastors, missionaries and Christian leaders to focus on is Quick Flipping (aka Flip Hacking).

With Quick Flipping:

1. You don't have to have money to buy or remodel the house

2. You don't have to spend as much time as a retail fix & flip

3. There's...

She had been with her mom & sister to NYC for Christmas & thought our girls would love the lights, the decorations, and especially the shopping!

At the time, that wouldn't have been in the budget. Plane flights for all of us + hotels + taxis + food + shopping made me think it was more than we could bite off. We were in ministry, after all.

Once I was introduced to Travel Hacking and started earning rewards points, I knew this was the first place I wanted to take the family!

Like I recommend on this blog, the first card we applied for was the Chase Sapphire Preferred card (my wife got it first — click here to see why). We applied for several other cards as well, and with the welcome bonuses from those cards, plus the spend we put on those cards, we eventually had enough points to go to NYC for 4 nights FREE (well, free travel that is — we bought some toys...

Forgive me for stating the obvious, but you wouldn't believe how many people leave money on the table when they go to sell their home. And I'm not talking a few dollars here and there. I'm telling you people leave thousands on the table, that could be theirs, when they sell their home.

I don't want that to happen to you. Next time you sell your home, I want to help you get top dollar for it.

My wife and I have sold many homes at top of the market value, sometimes even over market. We've had houses under-appraise on several occasions. That means the appraiser doesn't even think it's worth what someone is willing to pay us.

Here are the 5 items you need to focus on to sell for top dollar:

1. Remodel the areas of your home that are in need of being updated

   People don't want to pay top dollar for a home that doesn't look top dollar. That doesn't mean you need to spend a ton...