Tentmaking Tips

And you know how no one ever takes it?

Well, it probably won’t surprise you, but I always do!

Why?

Because the in-flight offers on cards are often better than the offers online.

A few years ago it was about time to for me to get the Southwest personal card to renew my Companion Pass. I believe the bonus at that time online was 40,000 points.

I happened to be on a Southwest flight during that time & they offered an additional 10,000 points if you applied in-flight. 10,000 Southwest points is a free one-way ticket almost anywhere in the country from a major metro, so that’s a good extra bonus. Those extra 10,000 points also helped me cross the minimum points I needed to earn the Companion Pass as well.

I applied in-flight, got approved, met the minimum spend, and received 50,000 Southwest miles rather than the typical 40,000.

Recently I was...

I want to share 3 streams of income you can easily add this year with resources you already have & 1 stream of income you can add with just a little bit of work.

1. Interest Income

   If money is just sitting in your checking account, chances are you’re losing money. There are several ways to have your cash making 5% or more for you right now. I wrote about some of those recently here. Over the past few years, your extra cash wasn’t a great income stream because it was earning very little interest. Now it can earn significant interest. Make sure you are leveraging this. Invest that extra cash in a HYSA, a CD, or a short-term Treasury. This will immediately add an additional stream of income leveraging money you already have.

2. Cash/Rewards from Cards

   If you strategically make your daily purchases on certain credit cards, you can add an additional income stream (or...

I’m living proof that’s not true.

It’s a numbers game.

If you talk to enough people & make enough offers, you will find deals.

In a hot market, you may have to talk to more people to find a deal than in a cooler market, but they’re still out there.

We just closed on a deal this week that we plan to do a “Lipstick Flip” on.

We had people offering us $10,000-15,000 more than we paid for it just to “Quick Flip” it to them, but we knew if we put a little work into the house, we could make significantly more than that.

We plan to do a light remodel & then sell it again to a family who will live there.

How did we find this deal?

It was a referral from a seller we had bought a deal from previously.

We called them about a year after the first deal & asked if they had any other properties they’d be interested in selling.

They did.

By “conservative” I mean government-insured or government-sponsored accounts — CDs, HYSAs, and Treasuries.

It’s not laughable anymore!

Right now you can buy CDs or invest in Treasuries and get a yield above 5%. Unbelievable!

Now, I’ve recommended in this newsletter that you should probably consider a more aggressive (i.e. less conservative) approach to investing for long-term returns (like retirement savings).

I like stock index funds the best for this.

But all of us need a more “conservative” place to put short-term funds like our emergency fund or savings for an upcoming purchase.

The good news is you have lots of vehicles to choose between right now to get a great return.

For HYSAs, check out the Marcus savings account by Goldman Sachs.

For CDs, check out your local bank or use a broker like Vanguard to buy brokered CDs.

For...

My wife applied, was approved, & we’ve already earned that additional 90,000 points.

Now it was my turn.

I downgraded my Chase Sapphire & then I decided to reapply online because the online offer just went up to 80,000 points.

I used my wife’s referral code to apply for my card which would give us an extra 15,000 points for the referral. Even better than the current in-branch offer.

Just a few minutes ago, as I’m writing this, I was approved for the Chase Sapphire card (again) and once I hit the minimum spend, we’ll receive a full 95,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points (including the referral points).

Nice!!

95,000 Chase points can be worth well in excess of $2,000 in free travel!

Now’s a great time to get the Chase Sapphire Preferred if you haven’t already.

And if you want to use our referral link, we’d love that — thanks for the support!

...

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...

In that notice, they told likely told you your appraised/market value and your assessed value (taxable value).

Most people assume there’s nothing you can do about it.

That’s not true.

Due to the increase in property values nationwide in recent years, tax authorities are taking the opportunity to significantly raise taxes.

An increase makes sense, but you can negotiate with them about how much your increase should be.

And, obviously, you want the increase to be as little as possible.

Their increase is often applied broadly & doesn’t account for the specifics of your house.

That’s why you want to tell them more about your house to have them evaluate it specifically & hopefully lower your taxes as a result.

We had a big increase in our appraised value last year and we were able to protest & negotiate a six-figure drop in value for our house, which was awesome!

...

If you missed the first five, here they are:

$140,874 Profit - Student Deal Highlight

$13,000 Profit - Student Deal Highlight

$26,000 Profit - Student Deal Highlight

$23,637 Profit - Student Deal Highlight

$50,000 Profit - Student Deal Highlight

For today’s Student Deal Highlight, I’m going to let the student share it in his own words.

This is a student who has been through our Flip Hacking Course and also our Flip Hacking Freedom program for students who have done 5+ deals.

Here’s the story in the words of the student:

We are calling our last deal the Duolingo deal.

I started learning Spanish everyday 713 days ago to reach our local mission field better. Who knew it would also net us a big deal.

We had texted the seller...

The bonus on this card is most often 50,000-60,000 points - a great bonus!

Right now, many Chase branches are offering this card with a 90,000 point bonus if you apply within a Chase branch.

My wife and I both had this card and it was coming up on her 4-year anniversary. The terms of the Chase Sapphire are that you can get the welcome bonus once every 4 years.

Wanting to take advantage of this great in-branch offer, we downgraded her current card to a no annual fee Chase Flex card, waited 3 weeks for the old card to be removed from the system, and they reapplied for the Chase Sapphire again at our local Chase branch.

She was instantly approved.

We have to spend $6,000 on the card in 6 months to get the full 90,000 points which will be no problem.

I’ll hit my 4 year anniversary with the Sapphire card this month...