For real estate investors striving to build substantial wealth, there’s often a belief that the secret lies solely in finding the right deals or accessing more capital. But as shared in the episode “Become The Architect Of Your Own Wealth With Emilio DiSpirito IV” on Raising Private Money, true success often comes down to mindset, relationships, and the willingness to think—and act—differently.
Jay Conner, the Private Money Authority, introduced Emilio DiSpirito IV as someone who doesn’t just think outside the box—he reconstructs the box entirely. Emilio’s track record speaks volumes: over $750 million in real estate closed, nearly 50 homes flipped, major development projects, and one of Rhode Island’s top luxury real estate brands. His unique perspective as not only an agent but also an investor, advisor, and developer distinguishes his approach in empowering others to create wealth.
Thinking Like a Wealth Architect
What sets Emilio apart, as discussed with Jay, is his commitment to acting as a true advisor. Many in real estate are purely transactional, focused on closing deals rather than fostering long-term relationships. Emilio advocates for a different model: be the expert who helps clients sidestep pitfalls and seize the right opportunities. He recounts instances of talking clients out of deals that didn’t serve their long-term interests, highlighting the value of wisdom over mere knowledge. Investors are willing to pay for experience that saves them time, money, and stress.
This advisor-first mentality also leads to deeper relationships. Emilio’s ideal clients are those who value expertise and are ready for a partnership based on trust, mutual respect, and shared vision. Such relationships yield more than transactions—they generate referrals, repeat business, and lasting impact.
From Zero Experience to Raising Capital
A common question among new investors centers on raising private money. Emilio and Jay both emphasize that success here is not about chasing after people with wealth, but about cultivating relationships and proving reliability. For those starting without connections, Emilio recommends aligning with experienced partners, even offering to help established developers or investors for free initially. This builds credibility and opens doors to private money conversations rooted in trust, not desperation.
Jay’s philosophy complements this approach: focus on serving, not selling. His experience with 47 private lenders—many of whom have stayed with him for decades—demonstrates the power of prioritizing relationships. Investors should see themselves as educators; very few private lenders even know such opportunities exist until someone trustworthy introduces them to the concept.
Busting Myths and Leveraging ‘Lazy Money’
A persistent myth in real estate investing is the idea that debt—especially private money—is something to be feared. Emilio counters that leveraging private money, even at the risk of break-even or slim profits early on, is an investment in expertise and future earnings. The experience and confidence gained far outweigh temporary profits.
Additionally, many believe private lenders must be ultra-wealthy. Jay challenges this notion by focusing on “lazy money”: funds sitting idly in savings or retirement accounts. With a little education, everyday people become empowered to participate in private funding, creating a win-win dynamic.
Resilience and Mindset: The Foundation of Success
Throughout their conversation, both Emilio and Jay stress that setbacks and failures are inevitable, but they are crucial for growth. Resilience isn’t just an admirable trait—it’s a requirement. Emilio’s ability to sell previously unsellable properties by repositioning strategies and targeting new buyer personas underscores the importance of creativity and adaptability.
Moreover, faith, discipline, and self-improvement round out the foundation. Emilio’s openness about his faith journey and commitment to personal growth remind listeners that success isn’t just about financial achievement–it’s about becoming the best version of oneself in all aspects of life.
Your Journey as a Wealth Architect
To step into the wealth architect role, Emilio advises listeners to believe in themselves and avoid being limited by the doubts of others. Align with inspiring mentors, surround yourself with positive influences, and never underestimate the power of starting—imperfectly, perhaps, but with determination.
At its core, the message is clear: when you focus on building real relationships, embrace a learning mindset, and boldly take strategic risks, you move from merely seeking wealth to actively designing it. For anyone wanting to construct a future on their own terms, the conversation with Jay Conner and Emilio DiSpirito IV offers a practical, inspiring blueprint.
10 Discussion Questions from this Episode:
- Jay Conner highlights mindset as the foundational step to successfully raising private money, emphasizing service over selling. In what ways has your mindset either helped or hindered your ability to attract investment or close deals?
- Emilio DiSpirito IV draws a strong distinction between being an advisor and being an agent, focusing on expertise and long-term relationships. How would adopting an advisor’s mentality change the way you interact with clients or partners?
- Emilio DiSpirito IV credits much of his success to building a network of “power players.” What practical steps have you taken—or could you take—to build a high-value network in your career?
- For those new to private money, Emilio DiSpirito IV recommends seeking mentorship, even working for free, to build credibility. Would you consider working for experience over immediate compensation? Why or why not?
- Both Jay Conner and Emilio DiSpirito IV assert the importance of investing in relationships before deals. What are some concrete ways you nurture professional relationships so they lead to meaningful, long-term results?
- Jay Conner introduces the concept of “lazy money” and stresses the value of educating potential lenders about private lending. How do you (or could you) approach educating others who have never heard of private money opportunities?
- Emilio DiSpirito IV disputes the belief that “debt is bad,” arguing that leveraging debt can provide valuable learning and growth. How do you differentiate between good debt and bad debt in your investment strategy?
- Emilio DiSpirito IV shared his process for repositioning and marketing difficult-to-sell properties, including using buyer personas and AI tools. Have you repositioned a stagnating asset for sale? What strategies worked for you?
- Both Jay Conner and Emilio DiSpirito IV talk about faith, discipline, and mindset as essential to success. How do your personal values or routines align with your professional ambitions and outcomes?
- Emilio DiSpirito IV advises listeners to develop self-belief and ignore doubts from others, referencing “The Pursuit of Happyness.” Can you share a time when you had to overcome skepticism—either internal or external—to pursue your business goals?
Fun facts that were revealed in the episode:
- Deal-Making Powerhouse: Emilio DiSpirito IV has personally closed over $750 million in real estate transactions and flipped nearly 50 homes, contributing to the creation of one of Rhode Island’s top luxury real estate brands.
- Reverse Psychology in Real Estate: When tasked with selling homes that had sat on the market for over 200 days, Emilio DiSpirito IV shifted the strategy by identifying a new buyer persona, staging properties, and even increasing prices—leading one home to sell in just one day!
- “Lazy Money” Insight: Jay Connor and Emilio DiSpirito IV agree that raising private money isn’t just about targeting the wealthy. Often, it’s about educating “regular” people who have “lazy money”—funds sitting stagnant in savings or retirement accounts—about private lending opportunities.
Timestamps:
00:00 Meeting Emilio DiSpirito
04:21 Creating real estate inventory
09:38 Exploring alternative lending options
10:49 Focusing on relationship-building
15:44 Using private money for investments
19:16 Slow housing market in Rhode Island
21:24 Adjusting marketing strategy
24:25 Using AI for real estate listings
28:20 Personal growth and helping others
32:07 Inspiration from personal struggles
36:00 Connect with Emilio DiSpirito IV
https://www.instagram.com/emiliodiv/
36:46 The Curiosity Opener script giveaway
https://www.JayConner.com/Scripts
37:37 Sharing investment insights from Emilio
Connect With Jay Conner:
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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.
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Architect Your Wealth: Million-Dollar Private Money Strategies with Emilio DiSpirito IV
Jay Conner [00:00:01]:
Let me ask you something. What if the reason you’re not raising more private money isn’t the money? What if it’s how you’re thinking about deals, how you position opportunities, and how you show up in the marketplace? And what if just one shift in strategy could unlock millions? Well, today you’re about to hear from someone who doesn’t just think differently. He executes at a level most people never even reach. I’ve got Emilio DiSpirito with me, and this guy has closed over $750 million in real estate. He’s flipped nearly 50 homes, developed multiple projects, and built one of the top luxury real estate brands in Rhode Island. But here’s what’s really caught my attention about Emilio. He’s not just an agent, he’s an advisor. He thinks like an investor, like a developer, like a deal architect.
Jay Conner [00:01:00]:
And because of that, he’s raised millions in private money, shattered pricing records, and consistently sells properties other people cannot even move using bold marketing and relentless outreach. Now, in this episode, we’re going to dive deep into how Emilio actually sees opportunities, how he positions deals, and how you can start attracting more capital by thinking and acting at a higher level. So if you’re ready to stop chasing money and start attracting money, you’re in the right place. You’re going to meet my good friend Emilio right after this.
Narrator [00:01:41]:
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 to raise 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 [00:02:09]:
Emilio, welcome to the show.
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:02:11]:
Jay, it’s great to be here. Thank you. I’m a huge fan.
Jay Conner [00:02:15]:
Well, I’m so excited to have you on here, Emilio. You’ve closed over $750 million in real estate. So here’s my question. What are you doing differently than, say, the average investor advisor, etc., that most people completely miss out on?
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:02:38]:
Man, there’s. That’s a loaded question, Jay, because you know, it takes so, so much, so much grit to make it in business. And all of it is literally just showing up, constantly learning, self-improving in all areas of life, and most importantly, the network. Right? You’ve got to have a network of power players that enable you to operate at a high level.
Jay Conner [00:03:02]:
Well, that’s a mouthful right there. So one thing that really, really makes you stand out different, Emilio Is you say that you think like a developer first, you think and you act like an advisor, not an agent. How does that shift alone change the way you find deals and even attract private money?
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:03:29]:
Yeah, I mean, well, let’s think about it, right? Whenever you’re hiring somebody, especially in real estate, to help you buy properties or sell properties, wouldn’t it be that much better if that person actually had hands-on experience? If that person could not only guide you from what they read in a textbook, but also guide you through experience? You know, they have wisdom. And wisdom really is something that people are willing to pay for. If they can skip a few steps and miss several hurdles. By working with somebody who actually specializes in what they want to do, they’re only going to fast-track their success. And when you’re plugged in with an advisor, an advisor is not transactional. An advisor. I talk my clients out of the wrong deals. I sometimes make them wait for the right deal, you know, so that it’s more of that approach.
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:04:21]:
And I want to say this, back in 2020, when the inventory fell, it was such an opportunity, and there was really not much for our advisors here, Engel and Volkers, the brokerage I run in Rhode Island, there wasn’t much inventory for them to sell. So I said, I got the brilliant idea, Jay, why don’t I make the inventory? So I lined up with different private investors, and we can get into that after. And I started buying up properties that needed to be rehabilitated. I went in there, I opened a company that did that, and brought the inventory to the Marketplace. And those 50 or so transactions had actually equated to over 150 real estate deals for my brokerage, for my team. Because every time you list a home, you usually get another listing or, and, or a buyer out of that equation. So that really multiplied. But the most important thing, and this will resonate well with your listeners, is that I actually got to learn the process of the inner workings of a home.
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:05:26]:
The mechanics, the structural, the inner workings of putting private money together at work. You know, leveraging real estate, finding opportunities, maximizing those opportunities. And then I put that grit, and I put that work,k and I put that experience into now purchasing land, nd and you know, and building houses now. So when I’m sitting down with developers, I’m sitting down with them, understanding what their costs are, where to find private money if they need it, how long these projects take, the in and outs of the project, and all the parties involved. I mean, it is quite complex in what we do. Jay,
Jay Conner [00:06:09]:
going back to talking about being an advisor. And you know, you mentioned before we went live on the show, an advisor is really about a long-term relationship. An agent is transactional.
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:06:23]:
Yes, sir.
Jay Conner [00:06:24]:
Who would you say is your ideal client that you advise that you have a long-term relationship with? What do they look like? You know, how do these relationships come about? What’s that? Ideal client. How would you describe your ideal client that you’re advising?
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:06:42]:
Yeah, I mean, my. I’ll tell you, my ideal client is somebody who values expertise. My ideal client is somebody who understands that they don’t know everything in any given area. And my ideal client and my clients that I choose to work with, that’s the other thing about advisors, too. We’re not thirsty. We’re not just taking anybody. Our time is valuable, just like our clients. And when we take on a client, we want to make sure that we have the time and the ability to be able to answer all of their calls, do what we need to do to operate at an optimal level, and take care of everything they need.
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:07:18]:
Right. Because if we’re slow on something or we drop the ball on something, it could cost them millions of dollars. So my ideal client, again, is somebody that wants a relationship, believes in what we say, fully, trusts us, almost like a, it’s like a friendship on top of it. Okay. As far as what they look like, you know, we have, you know, we have male clients, female clients, people from all over the world. The age range, I would say it’s mostly 40 plus, because they’ve, they’ve fallen on their face by hiring the wrong professionals, by having bad experiences in the past, and now they’re like, you know what? It’s more costly to hire the wrong person or to do it yourself than to hire the right advisor.
Jay Conner [00:08:07]:
Makes a lot of sense. Well, the name of this podcast is Raising Private Money. So let’s talk about private money a little bit. You’ve raised a lot of private money yourself. So for the person that’s listening to this show right now, and let’s say they’ve got, they’ve never raised any private money. They got zero private money connections. What would you say they need to do first to get on their way to raising, say, their first hundred thousand dollars in private money?
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:08:37]:
Well, the way I went about it was I had existing relationships in real estate with other lenders. So the way I went at it was maybe a little easier because of those relationships. But if I had to guide somebody who was brand new, who didn’t have those types of connections, I would suggest that they link up with somebody who is in the field. They. They link up with somebody who has experience who can take them under their wing. And even if you work for free. For that developer or for that person or for whatever it is you’re raising money on to learn the ins and outs of that, you’re building your credibility, you’re building your resume, you’re building your references. And then when you have that experience, you’re then able to have those conversations with people, you know, clients you have, co-workers, anybody who may have the capital to put towards your project.
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:09:38]:
The other thing you could do, too, is, of course, you could go to private lenders. You know, just. And I’m talking about not the institutional ones per se, but there are a lot of hard money lenders out there, and I think it’s a quicker, easier way. Although you’re going to be paying much more for juice. You’re going to be paying all those points up front, and you could be paying, who knows, anywhere from 10 on the low end to 14 on the high end. Jay, I was really intrigued by you when I had you on my podcast, The Wealth Architect, and you told me about your philosophy, the way you go about doing things, and what I love about our country and what I love about the people. The network that I built with this, which includes you, is that we all have a different approach, and there isn’t necessarily one or two or three right ways or wrong ways. It’s just about trying all these different things and seeing what makes sense.
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:10:34]:
But I thought that your philosophy on this was brilliant. And. And really, I. I love your take on it. So I’ve been starting to think, I’ve been kicking the can around, and I’m taking more of the approach as you do.
Jay Conner [00:10:49]:
Yeah, well, one of the most common questions that I get from real estate investors who haven’t raised much capital, they’ll ask me, they’ll say, you know, what’s the first thing I need to do? And I can say, I can tell you the first thing you need to do is you’ve got to make sure you’ve got the right mindset, right? No chasing, no begging, no selling, no persuading. It’s all about serving. And we talked about this, you know, on your podcast. And based on that, to piggyback on what you just said, relationships come first. Relationships come first. Which means, like you’ve been saying, I’m not interested in the transactional. I’m interested in, like, you know, my wife Carol, Joy, and I, we’ve had 47 private lenders fund our deals. And many of those today we’ve had for the past 20 years, you know, and so it’s just not transactional.
Jay Conner [00:11:47]:
It is a relationship. And, you know, we talked about on your podcast, how can you grow those relationships? How can you nurture those relationships? And I think one thing you and I had in common, if I’m remembering correctly, is BNI Business Networking International.
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:12:03]:
It’s huge. If you’re not in a BNI, you gotta get into one, you know, and. And we were talking about the people who say, ” Oh, you know what? I just don’t have the time for that, or I don’t know if that works. And I loved your take on it. And it’s funny because you and I are both education coordinators in our BNI chapter.
Jay Conner [00:12:22]:
Yes. Yes. Yeah. You know, right off the bat, just as soon as I could, I volunteered to be the education coordinator, which gave me five minutes or so at the beginning of every BNI, you know, once a week to. And of course, I think I shared. All I did was go to Ivan Meisner’s books and grab a chapter because it’s all about, you know, networking. So when the relationships come first, then, you know, we’re not pitching deals. We’re not running around chasing money.
Jay Conner [00:12:53]:
We’re actually attracting the money. What are some other common beliefs that you think real estate investors get wrong or misunderstand? What’s another myth surrounding raising private money?
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:13:08]:
Oh, you know, well, I don’t want to owe anyone money. Debt is bad, right? Like, debt is probably bad. Or owing, you know, somebody private money is bad, is probably one of the biggest myths that I’ve ever seen. You know, people want to wait until they have all the money or all the cash to move forward on a project, but really,y you’re letting go of so much leverage,ge and you’re letting go of the time opportunity when you go in. And even if you’re making a small profit to start, or even a break-even, right? A break-even, while it’s not ideal, is better than a loss. And you’re gaining expertise, you’re gaining experience, experience which is far more profitable than really anything else you could do. And, you know, Jay, after that, you know, the. The profit is going to come.
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:13:55]:
You’re going to make more and more money, but it takes time, and it takes the risk, and it takes going for it. But the thing that debt is bad is probably one of the worst things. There’s certain bad debt, like credit card debt, but not a private mortgage or a private lender. Right. That’s not bad. That’s leverage.
Jay Conner [00:14:16]:
Exactly, exactly. And you know, as you were just talking, I was thinking about other myths that I hear real estate investors have in their minds when it comes to starting to raise capital. And they think they gotta find rich people. Now it depends on the kind of project you’re doing. So, you know, if you’re, you know, if you’re doing this huge multi-million dollar project, then you might need to be talking to a family office, right? But if you’re doing deals like I’ve done a ton of single-family houses, then I’m not looking for rich people. I’m looking for ordinary people who have what I call lazy money. Lazy money? They got money just sitting around that’s not working for them. That’s why I call it lazy money.
Jay Conner [00:15:01]:
It could be in their self-directed, I mean, it could be in their retirement funds. And you know, we talk about leading with being an educator. Not one of my 47 private lenders ever heard of private money, private lending, or self-directed IRAs until I educated them on it. And when you do that with people, you immediately position yourself as the expert, someone who knows what they’re talking about. And what I love about offering private money opportunities to people that’s never heard of it is it allows you to be in the, in the driver’s seat instead of, you know, chasing or begging; you’re offering an opportunity instead of applying for money. Does that make sense to you, Emilio?
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:15:44]:
A hundred percent, you know, and the best part about it, too,o is, you know, there’s no lengthy bank applications when you’re doing private money, right? You’re, you’re literally using the asset as the collateral. And I think once people, once people learn, you know, your philosophy and learn how you’re doing it and see how actually easy it can be to implement once you do your first one. It just keeps coming after that. Another thing I’m too lazy to make money. It’s funny you said that because I just had a client, I’m selling several properties for him, and I asked the question, I said, ” Hey, you know what, you’re going to have all this money coming in, you know, you’re retired, you’re living really well. What are you going to do with it? Like, you love being involved in stuff. What are you going to do with it? He said, ” You know, I hadn’t thought about that. So I said, well, would you be interested in investing in some projects? Would you be interested in basically being the lender on some Projects, so you get an 8% return on your money?
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:16:50]:
He said, emilio, absolutely. Now, that. That’s probably about a million plus that could be coming in. It benefits him because now he’s getting guaranteed money back, and he’s gonna have some fun doing it. We. We talk every single day, this client and I, and we have a blast doing it. And he wants to be involved, and he wants to do something. So those things pop up, Jay, and.
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:17:15]:
And you just have to, like. I think you said this, too. You have to, like, be ready for the cues, right? For the social cues. What’s going on in someone’s life? What is going on in their life right now where you can help them with this, or maybe you can’t. If you can’t, don’t even have the conversation. Or if you do have a conversation, you can ask who they know that you can help with that, who they know that you could help raise some money with, right? So, looking at it that partner way, the other myth I wanted to say, too, while I got the microphone here, is that people feel that they need all sorts of experience to dive in. And I know it said.
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:17:57]:
I said it’s good to get experience along the way, but everybody starts somewhere, okay? Don’t procrastinate to the point where you never get started. You have to tie your shoes. You know, you gotta. You gotta. You pull your pants up, like, put your pants on, tie your shoes, and you just gotta go at it, and you just have to just start, and you have to take some risk, and you gotta be willing to fall on your face and get some egg on your face sometimes. It’s all part of the process.
Jay Conner [00:18:29]:
Well, when you share that, Emilio, one word comes to mind that all successful entrepreneurs and business owners can relate to. And that word is resilience. Oh, yeah, resilience. Because, yes, you are going to fall. If you don’t fall, you’re not doing enough new stuff that you haven’t done before.
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:18:53]:
Right? That’s right.
Jay Conner [00:18:56]:
Now, one thing. One thing you’re known for, Emilio, is that you’re known for being the person who has sold properties that other people could not sell. My question is, what’s your framework for making the unsellable saleable?
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:19:16]:
Let me give you a quick story, and I’ll break that all down for you and your listeners, right? So here in Rhode Island, okay, we’ve had a very slow past several months, and, like, this is how crazy I am, right? Like, so there was a subdivision, okay, here in Coventry, Rhode Island, and this can be applied anywhere, right? And the subdivision was sitting, sitting, sitting, sitting, sitting, sitting. And there were what, four or five houses left, and they were sitting for like 200 days on the market. They were on their second broker, the broker that they hired. Amazing people, great reputation here. They do a great job. But I’m looking at this, and I’m like, wow, like there’s, there’s a lot that can be done. And I know that this is probably going to expire anytime soon.
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:20:07]:
Right. But I didn’t go into this. I didn’t go into the situation really trying to get these listings. Okay. The developer contacted me after I bought one of these properties that was sitting. And I got about 70,000 in concessions back. So I think that prompted the builder to call me and say, Emilio, right? Like you negotiated like 70,000 in concessions. I know your track record in the area.
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:20:36]:
My listings are expiring with my current broker. How can I get this sub-development sold? And I said, ” Look, it’s simple. We have to reposition it. And don’t be afraid to reposition things if what you’re doing isn’t working. Right, Right. So I said, listen, we’ve got to reposition it. But before we do that, I need to know 100% that I’ve got your trust and that you’re going to do exactly what I suggest for you to do. And we’re going to get these sold.
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:21:04]:
Now, here’s what we did. We went in, and I toured the properties with him. I got a really good feel for it. I already knew the neighborhood. I bought a house, actually in that neighborhood. Okay. And I saw all of the missing pieces. But you know what the most important missing piece was, Jay?
Jay Conner [00:21:22]:
What’s that?
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:21:24]:
They weren’t targeting the right buyers. You see that area, that market? Okay. The price range for that market was high. So what we had to do was we had to market outside of that town. We had to get people thinking outside of Coventry, Rhode Island. We had to get them thinking on the county level. And there are very wealthy towns in that county called Kent County. So what we did was we started targeting the buyers that were looking in East Greenwich, looking in West Greenwich, looking for all these wealthier,y higher-end areas.
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:21:59]:
And that was our buyer Persona. So we put together a buyer Persona. Aged 45 through 55, they have one to two children, working professionals, this, that, whatever else. And we target-marketed that Persona. I staged the properties fully, I paid for all the staging, brought the staging in, cleaned the properties, deep-cleaned all the construction dust, rebranded the whole sub-development, and launched it. I sold one of those properties that was sitting for 200 days on the market. Guess how many days it took me to sell the first one, Jay?
Jay Conner [00:22:34]:
Sounds like less than a week.
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:22:36]:
One day. And by the way, I raised the price. I just raised it a hundred. 150 bucks. Whatever it was, I made the number nice and round because when was the last time you went into Louis Vuitton and you bought something on clearance for, you know, 880? Nine. Nine.
Jay Conner [00:22:53]:
No, you didn’t.
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:22:54]:
- Okay, all right. So. So we did all that. The psychology, the targeting. We sold the next one in 10 days on the market, no concessions, by the way. Sold that one over asking. And we got the list price on all of them that we sold.
Jay Conner [00:23:10]:
I love it. I love it. So what you did is you pivoted or you. You advised your client to pivot, go after a different market, right? So one of. One of my marketing consultants, years ago, when business had slowed down, said, ” Jay, you’ve got to go fish in a new pond. You gotta go fish in a new pond, because the pond you’re fishing in, you already caught all those fish.
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:23:43]:
right?
Jay Conner [00:23:44]:
I love that. I love that. Now you’re. Go ahead. I. I can see. I can see the smoke coming out of your ears.
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:23:51]:
Well, I didn’t mean to cut you off, but I gotta say, the first open, this works, by the way. The buyer Persona, the first open house that we held, the first person that came and said, ” You know, we weren’t even looking in Coventry, and. And I. I looked at one of my advisors, and I said, look at that. It worked. It legit worked. Our plan worked. They put an offer enclosed.
Jay Conner [00:24:14]:
How did you? How did you target those people outside of that immediate area? How did you get the word out to them so that they noticed the message?
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:24:25]:
That’s a good question. So the. The artificial intelligence is really, really wonderful. And here’s what’s happening. Zillow, you know, Zillow and Chat GPT, okay? They’ve been working together. So, in the comments, in the remarks of the listing, this is how basic this is. But no one’s thinking like this. In the remarks of the listing, I put Kent County, okay? So now people who were looking in East Greenwich, because it’s part of Kent County, for this type of product now pop up in Chat GPT, now pop up in all of the different types of websites, and the search algorithms.
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:25:03]:
So just by doing that, that was one. And the other one, of course, is targeted social media ads. And. And just, you know, portraying a quality, quality product that makes sense.
Jay Conner [00:25:17]:
So the reason I’m asking is I have this particular property, this house that’s in New Bern, North Carolina, and it’s on the canal in New Bern, North Carolina, here in East North Carolina. And the thing is that I got it priced right, and most of the time, my properties just fly off the shelf.
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:25:37]:
Yep.
Jay Conner [00:25:37]:
Multiple offers and all this stuff. But this property has an issue and a problem. So I’m gonna. I’m going to put you on the spot, and you can give me some. You can give me some coaching and some advice right now.
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:25:50]:
I love it.
Jay Conner [00:25:51]:
The thing that’s been keeping the house from selling is that a few years ago, the house had to be raised on stilts because it flooded. And so, to get to the entrance to the front door, you have to go outside the house, upstairs to the front door; there’s no elevator. So I’m thinking maybe I need to think about the price of an elevator to this front door. No.
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:26:24]:
Wow. What’s your clientele like? Who, who’s living in the neighborhood? Is it an elderly neighborhood? Retirement community?
Jay Conner [00:26:32]:
Yeah, more so. They all. All these houses and lots have. Have slips, you know, for the boats and that kind of thing. So a lot of retirees enjoy getting out on the water.
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:26:47]:
So with retirees, right, A lot of them, what do they do? They miss their children, they miss their family. So who’s a wealthy retiree who wants their active children to live next to them? That’s your target. Those are your buyers. Don’t pay for an elevator. Find the active children. Find the people with deep pockets who want to bring their children closer to them.
Jay Conner [00:27:08]:
Excellent, excellent advice. Emilio. You’re a man of faith, you are a believer, and what would you say? know this is a very broad question, but when it comes to faith, discipline, mindset, how do those actually translate into being more successful, maybe making more money, maybe raising more private money? How do those core values play into your success?
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:27:46]:
Well, you know, first off, you know, I’m a sinner. We’re all sinners. Right. And just knowing that we fall short every day and that there are opportunities to improve and when we ask for forgiveness, we’re forgiven is for me such a motivator. Right. And the ability to be able to work on self-improving, but not only that, being able to show up my best. And I’m still working on that. Like, I got a little pot belly here.
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:28:20]:
I gotta. I’m working on getting rid of that. Yeah, I’ve been working out more, but I know when I show up, my best and I take care of my mental, my physical, my spiritual, all of that. I can then lead, I can then help other people do what they need to do in what, whatever capacity that is, Jay. So just knowing that, look, if you messed up in life and you did something. I’ve messed up a lot, man, when I was younger. If you mess up, but if you correct that and you want to be forgiven and you want to move forward and you want to help people, there’s an amazing thing that happens when you’re helping people. More is going to come to you.
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:29:05]:
Okay? So, yeah, don’t procrastinate on that, you know, I hope that answers your question.
Jay Conner [00:29:13]:
Well, it does, because when you just gave me the answer, I had a quote come to my mind.
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:29:18]:
What’s that?
Jay Conner [00:29:19]:
That my good friend Matt Andrews said a few years ago, when he was presenting to my mastermind group. He said, quote unquote, it’s not about reaping. It’s all about sowing. It’s not about reaping because when you sow, you’re going to reap what you sow. So focus on the sowing. Right. And you know, when you were talking about your spiritual, your physical, that’s all tied together, cannot be separated. It’s what makes us the complete person that we are.
Jay Conner [00:29:58]:
Thank you for sharing that.
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:30:00]:
Amelia.
Jay Conner [00:30:00]:
Go ahead.
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:30:01]:
I was gonna say, the more you give, the more you get. And again, something that I love about the BNI principles, right? Givers gain and like. Yes, like, those are all like. And the, the, they’re all Christian philosophy, right at the, the core of it, it all, it all ties back into there do on to others. Right? It’s an amazing thing, man. I’m so, so thankful, so grateful every day to be connected with people like you and to connect with people out there that, that need a helping hand, that need to be shown the way one way or the other, with whatever I can help them with.
Jay Conner [00:30:36]:
I, I see that, you know, you have branded yourself as a wealth architect. Wealth architect.
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:30:44]:
My listeners are the wealth architects.
Jay Conner [00:30:47]:
Right. Well, but, and you have, you advise people on how to become a wealth architect. So, for someone who’s listening right now and wants to become a wealth architect, what’s maybe the first identity shift that they need to do first?
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:31:05]:
You gotta, you have to first believe in yourself, and you have to have the confidence to start and not worry about what you’re on. Focused friends or family or people around you are going to think a lot of people come up in this, in this business, a lot of people come up in this real estate, in the real estate industry. And there’s so much potential for you to come up in this. But you cannot be pulled down by the thoughts of the people who are not doing it right. There’s, I think, about the movie, The Pursuit of Happiness. You know that movie, Jay?
Jay Conner [00:31:39]:
I’m not sure I do.
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:31:41]:
Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happiness. Watch that movie, man. I cry every time I watch that. So Will Smith, right? He’s, he’s. I don’t want to say the whole story, but basically, he’s a struggling salesperson. Okay. And you know, he’s struggling trying to make ends meet. There’s a point where he’s like literally lying down in a bathroom stall on the subway with his son, who’s probably like 5, 6 years old at the time.
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:32:07]:
And it’s just heart-wrenching seeing this guy lose everything. His wife left him and left the sun, and he literally had nothing but his son. The suit he was wearing was in this broken machine that he had to sell. And he was out playing basketball with his son one day, and he just stopped what he was doing. He looked at his son, and after he yelled at his son for something, he said, ” You don’t ever, and I’m gonna screw this line up. But basically, he said something like,” You don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t do something because the people that are telling you they can’t do that, you can’t do something, don’t believe they can do it. And that really resonated with me so much because growing up in a, you know, a blue-collar family and a lower-middle-class family, I had hardworking parents, but a lower-middle-class family and demographics, it’s like crabs in a bucket. And people want to pull you down.
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:33:05]:
Not my family, thank God. But you get advice from people that you love the most, who are scared for you. Jumping into this unknown, this uncertainty. Okay, it takes guts, it takes resilience, as you said, but it takes an unshakable confidence, and you gotta fake it until you make it to get out of that bucket. Don’t listen and understand that they love you, but their words are going to hold you back. If you consider those, you are doing something that no one else around you has done before. You’re carving a path that no one else around you has done.
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:33:43]:
Look to those who are carving that path. Connect with those who have made it through that path. Connect with those who are on that same or a similar Journey. And I promise you, you are going to go far.
Jay Conner [00:33:57]:
Emilio, that is sage advice. Be super, super careful who you listen to. My good, my good friend Tom Crow, one of the smartest and most loving people I’ve ever met on the planet. But Tom says, well, there are two people you can get advice from, people you’re giving your money to, and people who are giving you money. And so anyway, thank you so much, Emilio. This was fantastic. How so? Describe. So for.
Jay Conner [00:34:32]:
For the listeners. For the listeners of this show, describe the client that you would like to get in front of and how you can serve them.
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:34:41]:
Absolutely. So I love to get in front of anybody, you know, outside of people that are buying and selling real estate. Okay. I’d love to get in front of people who want to build wealth through real estate, who want to look at things from, you know, new eyes, that understand the new way of making money. In most markets, I hate to say it is not about upfront cash flow, but it’s about long-term planning, it’s about leverage, it’s about building a portfolio. Right? And that’s, that’s the type of person I want to connect with. And I, by the way, through Angle and Volkers, my network. Okay.
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:35:23]:
My brokerage and Realm Global, another amazing network of the top real estate advisors around the world. I can connect you with advisors in nearly any market. I’m talking across about 40 countries all over the United States. So if you get caught and you need help or you need somebody who can give you the right advice, tap into your network. My network is your network. And Jay, I appreciate you so much for allowing me to come on here and connect with your listeners. I admire you and what you’ve done, and I really find a lot of value in what you do.
Jay Conner [00:35:59]:
Thank you so much. Emilio, what’s the best way for folks to reach out to you?
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:36:04]:
So I, I’ve got. I would say this Instagram is Fantastic @Emilio Div. That’s my personal Instagram. I also have the @Wealth Architect podcast. You could check that out. But my personal one as well is always great@emilio di v on Instagram.
Jay Conner [00:36:22]:
And that’s at Emilio. And what are the last three letters?
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:36:26]:
I like Desperado IV because I’m the fourth. Emilio.
Jay Conner [00:36:31]:
Oh, gotcha. Yeah. So at Emilio Div. Right?
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:36:38]:
Yeah.
Jay Conner [00:36:39]:
Okay. Awesome. Awesome. All right, Emilio, thank you so much. And God bless you, Jay.
Emilio DiSpirito IV [00:36:44]:
God bless you, too. Thank you so much.
Jay Conner [00:36:46]:
You got it. One of the most common questions I get is how in the world can you start a conversation or ” What’s the best way to start a conversation with a potential private lender, an individual in your network. Well, guess what? I got a gift for you simply for listening today, and that is, I want to give you my new private money script. It’s called the Curiosity Opener. How do you start a conversation with a potential private lender? Go to www.JayConner.com/Scripts, and you can download that script right there immediately. Well, before we wrap this up, here’s the real takeaway from today’s show. If you’re listening to this and you’re in real estate, you already know most people aren’t struggling because they lack deals. They’re struggling because.
Jay Conner [00:37:37]:
Because they don’t have the right thinking. They don’t have the right person in their corner like Emilio, the right positioning, the right people in their corner. And what you just heard from Emilio is not a theory. It’s execution at the highest level. It’s how deals actually get structured, funded, and scaled when you stop thinking small, as Emilio said, believe in yourself. So here’s my ask: if this episode hits, you don’t keep it to yourself. Port it to another investor who’s stuck trying to figure out private money or finding deals, selling deals. Share it with someone who’s sitting on deals but doesn’t know how to move them.
Jay Conner [00:38:21]:
Emilio can help you, himself, and his network. Post it, tag us, get it out there. Because the truth is, conversations like this don’t just change businesses, they change trajectories. So the more people that hear this, the more deals get funded, the more investors get free, and the more wealth gets created the right way. I’m Jay Conner, the private money authority. This is raising private money. And we’ll see you right here on the next episode.
Narrator [00:38:54]:
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.