In the world of real estate investing, achieving financial success often hinges on the ability to skillfully navigate the complex arena of private funding and creative financing. Melanie and Dave Dupuis have mastered this art, acquiring over 240 apartments across multiple countries, notably without deploying their initial capital or forging joint venture partnerships. Today’s podcast hosted by Jay Conner sheds light on the diligent craftsmanship of real estate deals by this power couple.
Crafting Calculated Improvements
Dave Dupuis delves into the nuances of enhancing properties–a blend of minor cosmetic changes that significantly raise appreciation while carefully weighing the potential risks, such as increased vacancy rates tied to raised rents. His precision in projecting expenses illustrates the critical balance between improvement costs and rental price upticks.
Embracing the Mathematical Approach
The host, alongside Melanie and Dave, unearths the analytical framework essential in real estate investment. They collectively underscore the irreplaceable role of arithmetical strategies over emotional decision-making, crafting a pathway where clear logic and numbers craft success.
Building Relationships in Financing
The couple’s journey to amassing their impressive portfolio started with their initial approach to raising private money, where they proposed mutually beneficial deals. They stress the importance of secure terms for lenders, articulating their practice in navigating owner financing, private and registered funds, and promissory notes.
Strategies for Growth and Stability
Melanie and Dave’s philosophy revolves around deal-specific methodologies and stabilizing properties post-growth. Their ‘buy, renovate, rent, refinance, repeat’ (BRRR) strategy underscores the need for thoughtful exit strategies, illustrating their savvy and systemic approach to building a diverse and profitable real estate portfolio.
Social Media and Education
With a burgeoning social media presence exceeding 700,000 followers, the Dupuis duo harnesses these platforms to share their intellectual capital. They advocate the indispensability of networking, consistency, and educating oneself through meetups and actionable content, as found in their thoughtful book ‘iLoveOPM’ and free videos offering real estate investing insights.
Conclusion: A Call for Action and Engagement
The episode wraps up on an encouraging note, with Jay Conner inviting listeners to engage with content through various mediums and promoting his ‘Raising Private Money’ show. Melanie and Dave’s parting wisdom is a clarion call to adopt the right mindset, pursue education, and take the actionable steps necessary to create wealth and realize real estate ambitions.
Real Estate Networking Tips:
“There’s always things that you can go to to start learning for free. Start having conversations. You’re going to meet property managers there who might have clients who are looking to liquidate. You might meet other owners that are possibly looking at selling and maybe their kids or their beneficiaries are not interested. You might be able to pick things up.”
- Dave Dupuis
10 Lessons Covered in this Episode:
- Embrace Owner Financing: Utilizing property owners for financing can lead to win-win scenarios, deferring taxes and earning interest.
- Develop Exit Strategies: Before using others’ money, establish solid exit plans to ensure everyone gets paid back in due time.
- Stabilize After Growth: Following an acquisition spree, take time to reposition and stabilize the properties before pursuing more growth.
- Simple Ownership Model: Favour one-off deals for simplicity instead of complex syndications, allowing for full ownership and control.
- Portfolio Diversification: While the focus is on buy-and-hold, be open to selling assets if it financially makes sense.
- Creative Financing Use: Combine seller financing, private funds, and traditional loans to craft unique solutions for each deal.
- BRRR Strategy: ‘Buy, Renovate, Rent, Refinance, Repeat’ to grow the portfolio, ensuring each property can eventually be refinanced.
- Social Media Leverage: Grow an online presence to over 700,000 followers, utilizing platforms for real estate investing education and engagement.
- Educational Resources: Offer insights and strategies through books like ‘iLoveOPM,’ teaching others to invest using other people’s money.
- Mindset for Success: Maintaining the right mindset and taking consistent action is key to acquiring multiple properties and achieving growth.
Here are three fun facts that were revealed in the episode:
- Dave and Melanie Dupuis are considering acquiring a 10-unit property in Costa Rica to convert it into individual short-term rentals.
- The Dupuis duo grew their social media following to over 700,000 through effective strategies.
- They managed to acquire 12 properties in 12 months, totaling 56 units, demonstrating hard work and strategic thinking in their investment approach.
Timestamps:
00:01 – Raising Private Money Without Asking For It
02:00 – Real estate experts help others achieve success.
04:24 – Learned about creative financing, and conquered fear.
08:42 – Improving pitch, win-win for all involved.
10:41 – Utilizing various funds to secure mortgage deals.
13:38 – We like to buy and hold properties.
16:24 – Utilize diverse financing to maximize investment return.
20:51 – We invest in different markets.
23:01 – Growing Action Family.
27:25 – Assessing property for income potential within limits.
29:45 – Confidence, teachable, action – anyone can succeed.
Connect With Jay Conner:
Private Money Academy Conference:
https://www.JaysLiveEvent.com
Free Report:
https://www.jayconner.com/MoneyReport
Join the Private Money Academy:
https://www.JayConner.com/trial/
Have you read Jay’s new book: Where to Get The Money Now?
It is available FREE (all you pay is the shipping and handling) at https://www.JayConner.com/Book
What is Private Money? Real Estate Investing with Jay Conner
http://www.JayConner.com/MoneyPodcast
Jay Conner is a proven real estate investment leader. Without using his own money or credit, Jay maximizes creative methods to buy and sell properties with profits averaging $67,000 per deal.
#RealEstate #RealEstateInvesting #RealEstateInvestingForBeginners #Foreclosures #FlippingHouses #PrivateMoney #RaisingPrivateMoney #JayConner
YouTube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/c/RealEstateInvestingWithJayConner
Apple Podcast:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/private-money-academy-real-estate-investing-with-jay/id1377723034
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/jay.conner.marketing
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/JayConner01
Pinterest:
https://www.pinterest.com/JConner_PrivateMoneyAuthority
The Power of Creative Real Estate Financing with Experts Melanie & Dave Dupuis
Jay Conner [00:00:01]:
Welcome to another amazing episode of Raising Private Money. I’m Jay Conner, your host. And this is the show where we talk about Raising Private Money without having to ask anybody for money. Well, let me tell you something. I’ve got some amazing guests here on the show, today with me. We’re fellow mastermind members. In addition to that, let me let you go ahead and know right up front that this dynamic In In addition to that, they have solely acquired over 240 apartments in just a few short years, and that spans across Canada, the United States, Mexico, and even Costa Rica. Now the strategy that they use, and we’re gonna dig deep into that, the strategy they use gives them the ability to purchase properties without using any of their own money or relying on joint venture partners.
Jay Conner [00:01:01]:
So what does this do? Well, this allows them to own 100% of the property when they buy it, which means they keep 100% of the equity, 100% of the cash flow, and course they get all the appreciation. Now, they’ve got over 23 years of combined experience in investing in real estate. They’re the founders of the coaching and education company, what’s called the Action Family TM mentorship program. They are dedicated to helping folks like you create their own time and location and get financial freedom. They do this by helping other people build their real estate portfolios without using as well, not their funds, and they get to keep all the ownership as well. Now, to date, they have served and helped over 1300 students to utilize their strategy across Canada and in the United States. Well, they both were able, because of this strategy, to quit their day jobs when they were only in their thirties. Well, following the debacle of a crash in 2018, they wrote 2 best-selling books.
Jay Conner [00:02:11]:
We’ll get them to tell you about that as well. So along with being on, podcasts such as this one, they’ve been on really, really big podcasts like Bigger Pockets. And of course, they’re very, very well known on social media as well. Got over 350,000 followers. So in just a moment, you’re going to meet my good friends, this dynamic team duo, Mel and Dave Dupuis, right after this.
Narrator [00:02:40]:
If you’re a real estate investor and are wondering how to raise and leverage Private Money to make more profit on every deal, then you’re in the right place. On Raising Private Money, we’ll speak with new and seasoned investors to dissect their deals and extract the best tips and strategies to help you get the money because the money comes first. Now here’s your host, Jay Conner.
Jay Conner [00:03:08]:
Mel and Dave, welcome to the show.
Melanie Dupuis [00:03:12]:
Hey, Jay. Hey, Jay. So great to see you guys.
Dave Dupuis [00:03:14]:
Yes. Thank you for having us.
Melanie Dupuis [00:03:15]:
So much for having us. We’re super excited to
Dave Dupuis [00:03:17]:
be here.
Jay Conner [00:03:19]:
Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for having me on your show, and then, doing me the favor of joining me on my show as well. And so, I can’t wait to dive into the creative strategy that you use to acquire properties without having to use your own money like I talked about in the intro. But before we get into that, I wanna talk about Raising Private Money a little bit. I mean, you’ve got a ton of experience in Raising Private Money as well. But before we get to that, take us back to the beginning. How did your real estate journey begin?
Melanie Dupuis [00:03:54]:
Yes. Well, it’s, we’re on quite a few years here. So when I first met Dave, I had 2 properties. Dave had the one property and, we knew, we, we knew that we could somehow create wealth through real estate, but we weren’t sure what and how. So we did what we thought was the best thing to do. We got to work. We started working all the time. We were both working 3 jobs.
Melanie Dupuis [00:04:14]:
I was full-time at our local college, teaching part-time classes, and fitness classes, and, part-time at teaching college classes as well. Dave was a firefighter, a janitor,
Dave Dupuis [00:04:23]:
one of the things
Melanie Dupuis [00:04:24]:
that I did. Yeah. And then we bought a couple of properties and then guess what happened? We ran out of money. So then, we we read the book Rich Dad Poor Dad when we were away on vacation, and we realized that we were doing it completely wrong. So although it it didn’t show us how to specifically do it, we realized that our mindset around it and that the way to get through it was using other people’s money or creative financing to grow our portfolio. But I had a lot of fear, especially I both did, but I certainly had a lot of fear about using other people’s money because, again, you, it is other people’s money. It’s somebody’s hard-earned income that you’re gonna be using that you have to make sure to pay them back. So I had a lot of fear around that.
Melanie Dupuis [00:05:07]:
So we developed a solid foundation, we call it the exit strategy where you’re gonna be how to pay people back before you touch anyone’s dollar, of course. And that was a life-changing year after we did that. We bought 12 properties in 12 months. They’re solely owned, so that was 56 units, using their own money, with no joint ventures. I think our buy was a little, outdated on a few things, but, yeah, we’ve purchased now over 250 units. We’re now in 5, countries as well. And, yeah, we’re teaching people, how to, how to do the same as well.
Jay Conner [00:05:39]:
That is amazing. Well, you know, I’ve discovered that all of us investors that have used Private Money in the past, and or currently use it. What I’ve discovered is all of us have something in common most of the time, and that is something that happened in your real estate investing business to where you realize that, you know, you learn about Private Money in some kind of way, and you start using it. What happened in your real estate investing business to where you realized that, you know, I need I need to learn about Private Money? Or how did you how did you ever originally hear about Private Money? I never heard about Private Money until 2,009 when I lost my line of credit, you know, at the banks in 2,009. But how did your journey with Private Money begin?
Dave Dupuis [00:06:29]:
Okay. And I love that, Jay. So kinda like you had said on our podcast the other day, we were part of, the bank starting to say no, no club. Right? The bank saying no more. So we had 5 properties and our total debt service ratios, you know, our credit score was good and everything was good. Our income was good, but we hit their certain threshold where head office said no more. You we were buying in our names back then as well, not in entities, and we hit the the roadblocks. So they said no.
Dave Dupuis [00:06:58]:
Thanks, but no thanks. So that forced us into the creative financing world. And what’s funny like you, Jay, is, you were saying I hadn’t heard about it till we had a mortgage broker. I saw him a couple of months ago. He awesome guy and he would always talk to us because there was another guy that was growing his portfolio very quickly. And he would talk to us about creative financing all the time and other people’s money. And Mel and I because Mel said she had a lot of fear in the beginning. We were worried, like, wait a minute.
Dave Dupuis [00:07:23]:
What is this? Is this illegal? Is this are we dealing with the mafia? Like, what
Melanie Dupuis [00:07:27]:
They must care and go to jail.
Dave Dupuis [00:07:29]:
I was like, yeah. I don’t wanna I’m a firefighter. I don’t wanna go. I don’t wanna do anything offside. So we had heard about it, and then once we read the book Rich Dad Poor Dad, I’m like, like, oh, people are doing this all over the place and kinda dove deeper, and that’s why you make that joke. Right? But, yeah, once we understood that and got notice from the bank, we studied it. We made sure to have our exit strategy, and that’s kind of how we were pushed into creative financing. Thank goodness.
Jay Conner [00:07:54]:
There you go. So when you started Raising Private Money, of course, you’ve got multiple creative strategies that you use, and we want to dig into that here in a minute. But when you started Raising Private Money, it’s like, how did you start conversations or how did you get, you know, your first one or 2 lenders?
Melanie Dupuis [00:08:14]:
Yeah. I’ll go ahead. The first one was, I mean, it was owner financing.
Melanie Dupuis [00:08:19]:
So number 1 was making sure that we understood it. Right? So we spend a lot of time researching it and learning about it and all that. And then it was explaining, making it a win-win with the owner. Right? Explaining why, like, they don’t know us. The first person that lent us money, didn’t know us. And the first time we pitched it, somebody, it was far from perfect. We’re human. It’s still not perfect, right? There are always ways to improve.
Melanie Dupuis [00:08:42]:
So a couple of times kinda went back and forth and we’d come home and say, like, oh, you should’ve said this, oh, you should’ve said this, and we helped each other as well to help perfect our pitch, you said. She but it wasn’t even it wasn’t pitching. It was it was because it wasn’t pitching. It’s a win-win. And I think as soon as we realized that it was a win-win for us because we didn’t have to come up with a down payment, it was a win-win for the owner because they could defer their capital gains, for example, over 5 years. And, they got interested as part of it, and they’re able to get perhaps close to the full asking price. Right? Most importantly, I had my exit strategy where I could show them how I’m gonna be paying them back. That’s how they were more than willing to do the deal.
Melanie Dupuis [00:09:21]:
And quite often, interestingly enough, one deal although they said this is my only property, once we paid them back, all of a sudden they say, hey. Guess what? I have more properties. We’re like, what? I think we did
Dave Dupuis [00:09:33]:
3 or 4 deals with that guy. Yeah.
Melanie Dupuis [00:09:34]:
At first, he didn’t tell us he had more than one building. He held his, cards close to him and then he said, you know what? You paid me back on time. It was a very positive transaction. Let’s do it again. That’s why it’s so important when you’re doing business to always make it a win-win and be very transparent with those you’re doing business with as well.
Jay Conner [00:09:52]:
Absolutely. So let’s go ahead and dive into your creative strategies to how they work. Now we talked about you you own all these apartments now in all these different, countries. So did you buy did you buy all these apartments with the seller carry-back financing or owner financing? Or did you buy some of them with private lenders coming along and funding the deals? Or tell us how what that looks like. It may be all the above. We’ll find out.
Dave Dupuis [00:10:21]:
Yeah. It depends on the deal kind of whatever, the deal that requires, the pieces of the puzzle that we have put together. So our favorite, yes, is seller financing, owner financing, and carryback. Everyone’s got a different, but it all means the same thing. When the owner takes the equity that they have in the deal and holds financing. So that’s our favorite. That’s our go-to. We ask that on every deal.
Dave Dupuis [00:10:41]:
Not every deal says yes, but that is our go-to, whether they’re gonna hold the 1st mortgage or a second mortgage. I always prefer when they hold the 1st mortgage, right, the lion’s share, and then we come up with other private funds for the down payment. But, yeah. So those will use registered funds in Canada, retirement funds in the US, like we have discussed, right, the self-directed, IRA and the funds. So that’s that as well. It has to be in the form of a mortgage, and then we’ll also do promissory notes. But with the promissory notes, we’ll make sure that they have some sort of, you know, some sort of security or collateral or, for example, we’ve done it where they’ve been named in our life insurance policy. Right? So that they feel secure or there’s been or we don’t go overleveraged on the deal, making sure that if something happens in the exit, we still have enough, meat on the bone in the deal that if we had to sell ASAP, everyone could still get paid.
Dave Dupuis [00:11:33]:
So, pretty much all the above.
Melanie Dupuis [00:11:35]:
We keep it very deal-specific for that again. We’ve all heard those stories where people don’t know what they’re doing. They get excited and they don’t have the exit rates. So that was our foundation, of growth. And, a big part of it was also stabilizing, realizing that sometimes we’re not always always in in buying mode. Sometimes we have to stop And after a big growth, after 12 profits, 12 months, all of a sudden we have a lot of properties that we have to oversee for the property.
Dave Dupuis [00:12:00]:
Reposition and stabilize. Yeah.
Melanie Dupuis [00:12:01]:
Stabilize and all that. So we’re going through some growth and then stabilizing, and we’ve been doing that, over and over again.
Jay Conner [00:12:07]:
Sure. Well, my focus, is on the type of properties that I do single-family houses. And when I borrow Private Money, we call it one-offs. Right? So do I have you know, I got a private lender, 1 or 2, that will fund that single-family house? And but with apartments, a a lot of operators, do what we call syndication. So, are some of your deals, I would think, are syndicated?
Dave Dupuis [00:12:36]:
We haven’t gone that route. Just to be it’s been mostly, and we’ve looked at it a couple of times, actually, syndications in that. We haven’t done it, but it’s been more kind of one-offs like you just said, Jay.
Jay Conner [00:12:48]:
It’s just Wisl, that’s a lot simpler. That’s a lot simpler.
Dave Dupuis [00:12:51]:
And it’s doing the BRRR. Right? Everyone knows, what is it. Buy, renovate, rent, refinance, repeat. I always gotta remember.
Jay Conner [00:13:00]:
Right. Yeah.
Dave Dupuis [00:13:00]:
We do that, and we pick the deals that we know will be, like, let’s say 12 to 24 months. Meaning, you know, Jay, you’re you lend us money. We get into the asset, reposition it to change a few tenants over, do some cosmetic or gut job, whatever it needs, and then refi it to a lender, within that period to pay you out, and then we go do it again. So that’s about kinda like kinda like you. Kinda like a one-off. So it hasn’t been syndications. No.
Jay Conner [00:13:27]:
Gotcha. So it sounds like, you are you’re you’re keeping all of these deals that you’re doing. Like, you’re you’re building, like, a huge portfolio. Right?
Melanie Dupuis [00:13:38]:
Yes and no. Like, we kinda like the monopoly Monopoly of the properties that we’ve purchased out of the 2 50 units, you know, we’ve sold some throughout the years. So it so it just depends. Sometimes we will flip some. Sometimes we’ll buy and hold, and we still I mean, Dave’s little house when I first met him. We still have that one for example. Some of them will, you know, will buy and hold for 5 years and then, you know, either or maybe sell it or I mean, but overall, yeah, if we like to buy and hold overall, but we’re not afraid to sell if it makes sense to perhaps take that money, invest it in a different bigger deal where we can get a nice new lift.
Melanie Dupuis [00:14:13]:
So we’ve done a variety of of, buy and hold, flip, and and sell.
Jay Conner [00:14:18]:
Right. So, how many doors would you say you have?
Dave Dupuis [00:14:23]:
Yeah. We still have over the 200 mark. We’re still, like because we got it’s fun because we’re looking at a 10 unit in Costa Rica right now that was a hotel, and now we’re gonna make it into individual short-term rentals. And, again, it’s always do we keep it? Do we refinance? Financing Costa Rica is a little bit stickier. So it’s a moving number now, a moving target. Depend depends on what we acquire. And when whenever we have our quarterly or monthly meetings with the accountants, we’ll look at the asset corps. We’ll look at the different things, and it’s like, hey.
Dave Dupuis [00:14:56]:
What’s making sense? Do we take the equity? Go do something else. So that number is kinda yeah. It’s kinda fun. It’s a monopoly in real life. Right? It’s always a moving number.
Jay Conner [00:15:06]:
I love it. I love it. So let me make sure I understand your overall strategy or your intention when you do a deal, and you tell me if I got it right. So you locate a, you locate a property, you know, an apartment complex that you’re interested in. We’re gonna come back and talk about that in a moment as to how you find these deals. Whether it’s single-family houses or it’s apartments, the 2 big questions are, how do I find the deals and how do I fund the deals? Right? So you find an apartment, that you’re interested in and your go-to is to talk to the owner about owner financing. That means they’re the bank. They’re they’re financing that deal for you.
Jay Conner [00:15:48]:
And then, you may use some Private Money in 2nd position for a down payment or renovations or, you know, value adds, you know, bringing it up to par. And then in 12 or 24 months after you’ve got it up to par, you’ll use a traditional lender for, you know, the, for the refinance. That way you’re gonna hold on to it. You’re gonna pay off the owner if they did under financing. You’re gonna pay off your private lender. And, again, rinse and repeat and go find another, apartment complex. Did I summarize that pretty well?
Melanie Dupuis [00:16:22]:
Oh, yeah.
Dave Dupuis [00:16:22]:
Yeah. Good summary. Yeah. I think about you.
Melanie Dupuis [00:16:24]:
You’re very not. Sometimes we use financial institutions in 1st place that are open to creative financing as well. Sometimes we use secured funds like in Canada, BRSPs, in the states 40StatesSo we’ve done a variety of those, as well. But, yeah, essentially we exactly, make sure the deal makes sense, make sure our ratios make sense so we can continue to get yeses from financial institutions, do deal specific for that money, find deals that make financial sense with the exit strategy where we can force the appreciation. We never discount natural appreciation. And, and then, yep, refinance it or sell it depending on the situation, pay back everybody else, and then we go do it again.
Jay Conner [00:17:00]:
I love it. Well, what we’re gonna talk about next is how you find these deals. But before we talk about how you find these deals, I want you to go ahead and share with our audience in case somebody’s gotta jump off early. I want you to go ahead and share with the audience, how to get in touch with you. And you’ve also got a free book, that you’re, that you’re offering to give away. So tell everybody about that, and give out the website.
Melanie Dupuis [00:17:26]:
Yeah. So we are all over social media. Our handle, Instagram, for example, is always investor Mel Dave on all the pro platforms. We’re on Instagram. We’re on Facebook as well and all the other platforms. You can find us there. And if you are interested, we’re gonna be talking after a little deeper into the strategies. But in this book, we we dive you even deeper, into our book, and we’ll be providing you with some additional information as well.
Melanie Dupuis [00:17:50]:
You can go to www.iloveopm.com/book. It’s an Amazon number-one bestseller.
Melanie Dupuis [00:17:59]:
perfect car crash. We never thought we were gonna tell anybody how we were doing this before, but then we had a very bad, highway crash, and then we decided to help other people do this as well. So go check it out. It’s a short, tiny, little book. You can read it in about 4 hours or so, just depending on how quickly you read, but it’s gonna get you thinking, bigger and and, you know, understanding creative financing a little bit more.
Jay Conner [00:18:21]:
I love it. So that URL for your book is www.i love o p m, for other people’s money. www.ILoveOpm.com/Book. And, again, your social media, everything ends with investor mail Dave. So that’s Instagram, is investor mail Dave. Facebook, investor mail Dave. TikTok, Investor Mel Dave. And LinkedIn, Investor Mel Dave. Now I know why you got 350,000 Well,
Melanie Dupuis [00:18:50]:
I think I’m gonna say, think, my team may send an older version because we’re around 700
Dave Dupuis [00:18:56]:
I think we’re over 720 or 750,000.
Jay Conner [00:18:59]:
Good night. Going. So That’s that’s double.
Melanie Dupuis [00:19:02]:
We’ve been done.
Jay Conner [00:19:04]:
need to have a side conversation with you about how you’re growing your social media. That is true.
Melanie Dupuis [00:19:09]:
Jay. Let’s chat.
Dave Dupuis [00:19:11]:
Yeah. A 100%, Jay.
Jay Conner [00:19:12]:
That’s fantastic. Alright. So let’s, by the way, if you’re listening here to the show, be sure and download, that book that they’ve offered. And if you’re driving, of course, it’s gonna be in the show notes as well. You’ll be able to take advantage of that. So let’s dive into how in the world you find these properties. I mean, for goodness sake, all the way back in, 2017, I guess it was, you got you got 12 properties in 12 months, and that was, like, 56 units in just, like, 1 year when you were starting. How do you how do you find these deals for goodness sake?
Melanie Dupuis [00:19:51]:
You know what? Number 1, I’d probably say I had the right mindset, right? We, we, we got, we tuned in our mindset knowing that, well, other people are doing this. You know, there’s essentially, we’re all regular people. Right? If they can do it, I can do it too. So we decided to, put a lot of work into this because we had a strong why. We have 3 kids. We knew someday we wanted to, to put our full-time job. So we just, you know, instead of looking at 5 deals a week, we 10x’d it, right? We looked at a lot of deals. We had a lot of conversations with, a lot of people.
Melanie Dupuis [00:20:23]:
We got a lot of no’s as well. Right? Not every deal is gonna make sense or the exit strategy just wasn’t there. And then, yeah, that’s how we were able to continue looking at market deals and working with investor-focused agents as well.
Jay Conner [00:20:36]:
Mhmm. Gotcha. Have you got a resource you can share? I mean, I’m you got many resources, you know I don’t even know if LoopNet is still around. People used to talk about LoopNet and stuff. Is there any kind of websites out there that you go to and look for deals?
Dave Dupuis [00:20:51]:
Well, honestly, and we like doing, Jay, it depends on what we’re doing. So if we’re looking at a flip, we we mi look at hotter markets and also tertiary markets because the numbers on flips can work kinda anywhere. I guess depends on how you look at it. If we’re looking for buy and hold, rental properties that are gonna cash flow, what we like doing is going to the secondary or tertiary markets. Right? So, like, we live in a city that’s 50,000 people. I know, Jay, you live in a smaller market as well. Like, you can do deals anywhere, but we find that there are typically higher cap rates, and lower purchase prices, depending you want anna make sure the vacancy is not too high because I’ve seen some in Texas where it’s, like, over 9 or 10% even with amazing cap rates. But, you know, how are you gonna rent raise the rents and everyone’s gonna move out and you’ll have no one to rent there anymore.
Dave Dupuis [00:21:36]:
So it’s kinda like this fine line. So but we love secondary markets. We love tertiary markets, high-e, and cap rates, and then we’ll start looking in there and asking for seller financing. So that’s kind of our sweet spot and using investor-focused estate agents as well.
Melanie Dupuis [00:21:49]:
And not being afraid to ask and let people know what you’re doing. So when we had any kind of budget whatsoever for any kind of marketing back then, what we did, what was free, right? Having conversations with people. Right? We used to have a little competition on, handing out business cards when we went grocery shopping. I would always win, by the way.
Dave Dupuis [00:22:08]:
Yeah. That’s why they’d rather talk to her than me, Jake.
Melanie Dupuis [00:22:12]:
We’re just letting people know, and it was fascinating just from doing that regularly over a longer period now, giving up today. How many people reached out to us because we’re around that, hey, the Dupuis are buying a lot of properties? I wanna sell my building. I’m gonna call the Dupuis. So just being consistent, looking at a lot of deals, and, yeah, not being afraid to get no’s because sometimes that’s part of being an investor.
Jay Conner [00:22:35]:
Sure. When someone is starting, know, investing in apartments, like you have, and, and you all have, you know, trained, and coached, and educated a lot of people. What are some of the common mistakes that you see new investors making getting into apartments and doing the best you do?
Dave Dupuis [00:23:01]:
Yeah. Thank you, Jay, for sg that. Our action family is now just shy of 21100. No? Like, yeah, it’s grown I wouldn’t anyway, after that car crash, we had no idea when we created it. But something that I see a lot of is now I had mentioned earlier the consistency. Right? Someone will look for a deal for a couple of days and, like, this doesn’t work or no one’s lent me money or I haven’t found the ideal property yet. It’s not an is not a you you might look for 10, 20, 30 daor ys. Sometimes there are we go by that there are no deals that meet the particular criteria that we want to invest other people’s money in, but it’s that consistency.
Dave Dupuis [00:23:37]:
And then don’t be shy like Mel said. So for example, like, I’m just thinking back where we had zero budget and and didn’t know people. We would just go we’d pick a market that we wanna be in, and there are investor meetups and landlord meetups. Like, there are always things that you can go to to start learning for free. Start having conversations. You’re gonna meet property managers there who have clients that are looking to liquidate. You might meet other owners that are possibly looking at selling and maybe their kids or their beneficiaries are not interested. You might be able to pick things up.
Dave Dupuis [00:24:04]:
So those are the easier low-hanging, that I would say just don’t give up and do that kind of thing. Be around people who are in real estate.
Melanie Dupuis [00:24:17]:
But your network is your network. Right? We have a lot of members that are doing great things together, for example. You never know who you’re gonna meet that maybe I have a bill I mean, I’ve heard okay. Interesting here, Jay. Story time. We So, 2, ladies from New Jersey joined our Action Family program years ago.
Melanie Dupuis [00:24:36]:
They were buying properties in New Jersey. Fast forward, down the road, and now they’re doing a project development in Dominican Republic. We ended up buying 2 units, and 2 penthouses from the Masala Punta Cana. So that’s the power of your network. Right? Like, I wouldn’t have seen I would have been exposed to these deals if if, I didn’t have that strong network. So, your network is in your network. You know, never forget the importance of that. You never know what’s gonna come, out of it.
Melanie Dupuis [00:25:03]:
And if you make it a win for everyone, it’s, very powerful.
Jay Conner [00:25:07]:
Well, tell us about the Action Family network that you’ve got. What is that? What does it look like?
Melanie Dupuis [00:25:15]:
Yes. The Action Family, essentially, is for those who wanna learn how to do what we do. Right? So, we teach people how to buy properties using, again, creative financing, and without joint venture partners. And there’s a combination of videos that they can watch at any time of a lot of templates or cash matrix with the exit strategy that’s been trademarked. They get access to weekly live sessions as well with Dave, and now we have over 2,000 members in the community they can network with as well as in the daily Q and A inside the group, with Dave and I. So we’re we’re very, very active with our our community. There are questions every day, so we love it.
Jay Conner [00:25:52]:
Alright. Well, that’s fascinating. And, again, well, how can people learn about, the Action family?
Melanie Dupuis [00:25:58]:
Yeah. If somebody’s interested, I mean, they can just send us a DM on any social, media, or they can go to our website as well, www.InvestorMelDave.com, and, contact us through, through there.
Jay Conner [00:26:11]:
Alright. Perfect. We have
Melanie Dupuis [00:26:11]:
just some free videos there as well they’ll be able to check out. So
Jay Conner [00:26:15]:
Love it. So that’s www.InvestorMelDave.com. Now when you are analyzing, an apartment that you’re interested in investing in, Give us the 30,000 or maybe the 50,000-foot view of how you, and I know there are a lot of details that go along with this. But when you’re looking, what are some of the first things that you’re looking at to analyze that deal to see if it looks like a viable deal?
Dave Dupuis [00:26:50]:
So, yeah, I love that, Jay. So to give you that, the 30, 40, 50,000 foot.
Jay Conner [00:26:54]:
And I know I just asked you a 3-day seminar question.
Dave Dupuis [00:26:58]:
And I love it though because this is something I’ll reverse engineer. So in the US, we primarily were in Texas, Florida, and recently Ohio. In our opinion, we wanna be in a more investor-friendly, landlord-friendly state. So we start there. Right? Then from there, we’ll look at properties, for example, that have higher cap rates. Right? If we’re gonna do a buy and hold, the BRRRR on a multifamily. So something that has a higher cap rate, and then tertiary market like we mentioned.
Dave Dupuis [00:27:25]:
Then when we go deeper, it’s, okay, can the rents be increased? Right? Can we lift this asset by increasing the income or doing, you know, some minor cosmetics? Sometimes we do full gut jobs, but I’d rather have that lower-hanging fruit just cosmetics. So can we lift the appreciation sorry. Lift the asset in appreciation, by doing either of those, how much is it gonna cost? And as I mentioned earlier if we do start increasing let’s take a 10plex, for example. If we do increase the rent on all 10 of those tenants, what is the vacancy rate? If it is a lot higher and they all walk, then I’m we’re stuck holding that building and all the carrying costs. So it’s just finding those once you start determining, hey. Nothing over a certain amount of vacancy rate I’m okay with. Nothing under a certain cap rate. So we just have those parameters, and we kinda stay within them, Jay, and that and that’s kinda how we do deals.
Dave Dupuis [00:28:16]:
And if it works, awesome. We’ll ask for seller financing. And then if the deal doesn’t work, we’re not afraid to walk away and keep on looking for the next one.
Jay Conner [00:28:24]:
Yeah. As you were going through that explanation, I had a, saying that bubbled up in my mind that I that I tell, that I tell people all the time, and that is the math makes the decision, not your emotions.
Melanie Dupuis [00:28:39]:
Yes.
Jay Conner [00:28:40]:
And in fact, that’s that’s a common mistake that I’ve seen with people starting even in single-family houses. They’re so excited about getting started, they pay too much for the property. Mhmm.
Melanie Dupuis [00:28:51]:
A 100%. It has to be numerical. It has to be strategic. Take the take and I mean, we’ve
Dave Dupuis [00:28:57]:
It’s this, not this.
Melanie Dupuis [00:28:58]:
Right? And we’ve admittedly almost made a mistake
Dave Dupuis [00:29:01]:
There are some buildings that I love and I just keep running the numbers. I’m like, please, the numbers change.
Melanie Dupuis [00:29:05]:
But they don’t. Beautiful, perfect-looking bill. I’m not saying they’re, you can’t cash out from them, but we had looked at one that we almost purchased, but it was making the same amount as a duplex. Why are you buying this 20 plex making it the same amount and a whole lot more work and a lot more effort and all those things? Right? So it’s looking at your numbers, getting your your ego a little bit, you know, put it aside, put your emotions aside and does the deal make sense? So I love it, Jay. We’re on the same page.
Jay Conner [00:29:33]:
The math makes the decision. Yes, ma’am. Well, Melinda, it has been such a wonderful pleasure having you here on the show. And, any final words or final advice you’d like to share before we sign off?
Melanie Dupuis [00:29:45]:
You know, I would just like to share that, you know, if you’re wherever you are in your journey, if you’re just getting started, what helped me a lot was realizing that I can do it was my own, I think, confidence back then of not knowing how or whatnot. Well, all that is teachable. Everything is learnable as well. So have the right mindset. Don’t just think about it. At some point, you have to take the action piece as well. And if all these other people can do it, you know, you can do it as well.
Jay Conner [00:30:10]:
Awesome. Thank you so much, Mel. Thank you so much, Dave, and God bless you.
Melanie Dupuis [00:30:15]:
Thanks so much, Dave.
Dave Dupuis [00:30:15]:
Thanks, Dave.
Jay Conner [00:30:16]:
Alright. Look forward to seeing you in person at, our next mastermind get-together. Well, there you have it. Another amazing episode of Raising Private Money. And we need your help. If you happen to be, watching, on YouTube, be sure and ring that bell. If you’re listening on any of your platforms, or your favorite podcast platforms, be sure to follow so you don’t miss out on any of the other, upcoming episodes. Be sure to like, share, and spread the good news.
Jay Conner [00:30:45]:
So there you have it. I’m Jay Conner, The Private Money Authority, wishing you all the best and look forward to seeing you right here on the next episode of Raising Private Money.
Narrator [00:30:57]:
Are you feeling inspired by the knowledge you gained in this episode? Then head over to www.JayConner.com/MoneyGuide. That’s www.JayConner.com/MoneyGuide, and download your free guide that shares seven reasons why Private Money will skyrocket your real estate investing business right now. Again, that’s www.JayConner.com/MoneyGuide. to get your free guide. We’ll see you next time on Raising Private Money with Jay Conner.