Tentmaking Tips

Probably not too surprising if you’ve read this newsletter for awhile.

We lived in our previous home almost 3 years and we decided to sell it recently & move on to our next project.

Our friends & family joke that after we’ve lived in a home 2-3 years, we start getting the itch to move again. They’re certainly not wrong!

Because my wife and I both have a real estate license (and own a real estate brokerage), we knew we’d be able to list our home on the market without having to pay half of the commissions, since we’d represent ourselves, or without having to pay any commissions if someone came & represented themselves.

Like many people who bought a home before COVID, our house had gone up a lot in value.

We knew that commissions could take a huge chunk out of our profit, so we hoped to work directly with a buyer who didn’t have an agent.

We hosted 2 open houses, where many people came to look that weren’t working with a real estate agent. What’s great abo

I tell them I’m glad to help. Then, I direct them to the free resources we offer like:

• Our weekly Tentmaking Tips newsletter

• Daily tweets/threads about earning extra income

• Step-by-step guides to earning thousands in extra income and free vacations

But it’s usually the case that they want to pay extra for additional courses & coaching.

I tell them about some of our paid products and then share the ways they can get those free as well.

After all, if I’m teaching hacks to get free travel or live nearly free, shouldn’t I give hacks for getting my paid content for free? Ha!

Here are the ways I tell them they can get any or all of our courses for free (and you could too):

1. Follow my step-by-step guide to earn an extra $1,200 quickly and apply that to any or all of the courses

2. Refer 3 friends to any course and get all of the course cost refunded to you
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Some of the common misconceptions of getting stated in real estate are:

• I need to go into lots of debt

• I need to understand the real estate market

• I need to be able to understand the inner workings of complicated contracts

• I need to be good at construction

• I need to be good at decorating

• I need to have a lot of money

These are misconceptions that keep many people from getting started in real estate.

I’d like to use this newsletter to give you 6 simple ways to get started in real estate (in no particular order):

1. Buy a fixer upper & update it while you live there

   We’ve done this many times and made a significant profit when we sold. And I’m not handy at all. We hired everything out. What’s great is that if you live there at least 2 years, the profit is tax free up to a certain amount. We call these “live-in flips.”

2. Airbnb something on your own property

   There are so many ways to make money on Airbnb using yo

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1. Try to sell it FSBO (For Sale By Owner) first & pay $0 in commissions.

2. If you want MLS exposure, hire a Real Estate Agent from a Discount Brokerage who will charge you a flat fee, like $500-$1,000, to list your home.

3. Ask an Agent for a discount on their commission to list your home.

4. Use an Agent and pay full price.

I’ve already written about #1 and #2, so I’ll focus on #3 today.

If you are determined to use an agent from a traditional brokerage, I’d encourage you to ask them for a discount on their commission.

Remember this: The commission that you pay the brokers is negotiable!

Most people don’t know this. And there’s a reason you don’t know. Agents would like to get paid full price, which is totally understandable.

But you are an educated seller & yo

The first way is the most obvious and most frequently pursued. But it’s not the best option if you don’t want your real estate business to take you even more time.

The second and third ways are less often pursued, but very powerful if you can pursue them together. Neither of them add to your time commitment, but both can add significantly to the bottom line.

Ok, let’s get started.

1. Increase Your Volume

   This is what most people think of when they’re wanting to increase their commissions. Just increase the number of transactions and you’ll increase your commissions. While this is certainly true, it requires more effort. Each transactions represents hours of additional work. That’s fine if you’re wanting to do this full-time, but if you’re wanting to do this on the side to supplement or replace your ministry income, this is usually not the best option.

2. Increase Yo...

1. You don’t like the process of buying and selling houses.

   It probably goes without saying that if you don’t like real estate, you shouldn’t get into it. To get your license, you will have to take quite a few real estate courses and to keep your license, there will be continuing education every few years.

2. You have a close family member who is an agent.

   Because many of you would get your license mainly to represent close family members and friends on the side, there could be some family conflict if you take business away from the other family member. Of course it doesn’t have to be this way, but if the other close family member derives most of their income this way, they may feel threatened if you get your license. And they may worry that they’ll lose some of the business they would’ve otherwise received from the family. There are ways aroun

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As the kids started growing up, she was interested in finding a way to make some extra spending money without giving up her dream.

We didn’t need the money, but she thought if she could work for herself a few hours on the side, it would be more like a hobby than a job. And it would give her some extra cash.

Her mom was a real estate agent. She was a full-time teacher but became an agent for extra money on the side. Her mom helped friends and family buy and sell houses and she made some great money doing it.

Her mom always told her she wished she had been able to be a stay-at-home mom. That’s probably part of what influenced by wife’s dream.

My wife has always loved house projects and so watching her mom in real estate inspired her to give it a try herself.

She took an in-person class to get her real estate license while our daughters were in school. I think i

Longer Answer:

Retail real estate and investment real estate are two different businesses.

In retail real estate, you are representing clients who are buying or selling houses.

In investment real estate, you are buying and selling houses for yourself for some investment purpose.

In retail real estate, you need a license because the state regulates the industry to ensure you are a qualified fiduciary for your client.

In investment real estate, since you are working for yourself, your activity isn’t regulated in the same way.

Getting a real estate license is typically for the purposes of engaging in the retail real estate business.

Quick Flipping is buying and selling houses yourself for a profit which is the investment real estate business.

The reason I’m making these distinctions is two-fold:

1. Sellers who are selling you a distressed, off-market property at a discount are usually looking for an inve

I’m going to share the approximate costs to get your real estate license in Texas and it’ll likely be similar in your state.

Sales Agent Application = ~$150-200

Real Estate Education = ~$400-600

Exam Fee = ~$30-60

Fingerprint Fee = ~$30-50