Credits to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQhyf3lDSCM
“Banks Cut Him Off. Private Money Made Him Unstoppable with Jay Conner”
https://www.youtube.com/@GabrielPetersen
For many aspiring and experienced real estate investors alike, securing funding often feels like the biggest hurdle. Traditional bank loans come with red tape, strict applications, and often unpredictable approval outcomes. But what if you could skip all the forms, avoid the nitpicking inquiries, and instead offer opportunities that have people lining up to lend you money? That’s the empowering world of private money—and it’s at the heart of how savvy investors like Jay Conner have built resilient, profitable businesses.
What is Private Money?
Private money refers to funds loaned by individuals (not banks or institutional lenders), usually to finance real estate deals. As Jay Conner explains, private money isn’t hard money—it’s often “lazy money” sitting idle in savings accounts or retirement funds earning unimpressive returns. When you borrow private money, you’re not filling out endless applications. Instead, you’re offering people an opportunity: a secure, asset-backed way for them to grow their wealth while you grow yours.
Why Private Money Beats Traditional Lending
From his first real estate ventures funded by local bank lines of credit, Jay Conner thought he had the financing game figured out—until the global financial crisis of 2008-2009. In one abrupt phone call, his credit line was slashed, threatening his ability to close on deals. Yet, that same crisis forced him to ask: “Who do I know that can help fix my problem?” His answer led him to private money—and he’s never looked back since.
With private money:
- You, the investor, make the rules. Set your interest rate, terms, and payment structures.
- No applications, no rejections. If you’re listening and learning, you’re “already approved.”
- Win-win relationships. Investors get better returns than banks, and your deals get funded smoothly.
Where Do You Find Private Lenders?
According to Jay Conner, there are three primary sources for private lenders:
- Your Current Network: Those already in your sphere—friends, family, colleagues, people in your cell phone contacts. Often, you’re sitting on more than $1M in potential capital and don’t even know it.
- Your Professional and Service Networks: Your CPA, attorney, or local business owners—these “gatekeepers of money” can become lenders themselves or refer you to others.
- Existing Private Lenders: Those already lending to real estate investors, though Jay Conner prefers teaching the opportunity to newcomers for more favorable terms.
Expanding your network is as easy as getting active in organizations like Business Networking International (BNI), where relationships and referrals can snowball into millions in funding.
Structuring the Deal: Terms that Work for Everyone
Transparency and security are essential. Jay Conner typically pays an 8% annual interest rate, which is appealing when compared to low-yield bank accounts or CDs. Terms are set based on the use of funds—two years if coming from liquid capital, five years from retirement accounts. Payment frequency is tailored to the lender’s needs: elderly lenders may prefer monthly interest payments as supplemental income, while others opt for interest to accrue and pay out at sale.
A feature that sets Conner’s approach apart: for investment capital (not retirement funds), he offers a 90-day call option, giving lenders flexibility if emergencies arise.
Lessons from the Trenches: Education Matters
If there’s one piece of advice Jay Conner would give his younger self, it’s this: don’t invest alone. Mentor support and ongoing education shorten learning curves, minimize mistakes, and accelerate success. Books like Jack Canfield’s “The Success Principles” or Conner’s own “Where to Get the Money Now” provide the foundational wisdom investors need.
The Future: Marrying Tech and People Skills
As AI transforms business, it’s making investor workflows even more efficient. Speed-to-lead becomes instant with automated agents, helping investors connect with motivated sellers faster and never miss a deal.
Bottom line: Private money isn’t just an alternative to bank financing—it could be the key that unlocks your full investing potential. Whether you’re new or seasoned, focus on relationships, provide value, and educate yourself. Doors (and vaults) will open.
10 Discussion Questions from this Episode
- Jay Conner emphasizes that with private money, the borrower makes the rules. How does this differ from borrowing through traditional institutional lenders, and what are the practical implications for real estate investors?
- Why does Jay Conner refer to private lenders as people with “lazy money,” and what motivates these individuals to become private lenders?
- What were the circumstances that led Jay Conner to shift from using institutional money to raising private funds, and what lesson did he learn through that transition?
- How does Jay Conner identify and categorize potential private lenders, and why does he prefer approaching contacts in his personal network over existing private lenders?
- What is the significance of the 90-day call option that Jay Conner offers to private lenders using investment capital (not retirement funds), and how does it address liquidity concerns?
- What typical terms does Jay Conner offer his private lenders regarding interest rate, note duration, and repayment schedule, and how does he adjust these terms based on his exit strategy or the lender’s objectives?
- Both speakers share lessons from deals that went wrong. What are the key takeaways from these stories about having multiple exit strategies and avoiding greed in real estate investing?
- How does Jay Conner use AI—specifically an AI agent named Bailey—in his real estate business, and what results has he seen from this implementation?
- Jay Conner prefers finding deals where sellers are actively searching for buyers rather than using “interruption marketing.” What are the advantages and disadvantages of pay-per-click, pay-per-lead, and traditional marketing methods?
- If you were starting as a real estate investor today, which piece of advice from Jay Conner or Gabe Petersen would you prioritize, and why?
Fun facts that were revealed in the episode:
- Jay Conner Hasn’t Missed a Deal Since 2009
After discovering private money in February 2009, Jay Conner shared that he has never missed out on a real estate deal due to lack of funding since then, emphasizing how transformative private money was for his business. - Jay and His Wife Carol Joy Celebrate 40 Years Married
Jay Conner mentioned he and his wife Carol Joy have been together for 42 years, celebrating 40 years of marriage this month—a testament to both a strong partnership in life and business. - Jay’s AI Agent Bailey Answers Calls 24/7
The show revealed that Jay Conner uses an AI agent named Bailey to instantly respond to seller leads and answer calls from direct mail campaigns, never needing a break and achieving a 75% success rate in setting phone appointments.
Timestamps:
00:00 Discovering Private Money for Real Estate
05:59 Discovering the global financial crisis
07:45 Discovering private money lending
11:01 Securing private money for real estate
15:15 Identifying your private lenders
20:04 Investment duration options explained
21:59 Managing Loan Payments and Cash Flow
27:24 Investing locally in real estate
28:58 Interruption vs search marketing
33:02 Regretting not selling property
35:04 Using AI for speed to lead
Private Money Academy Conference:
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
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Private Lending Demystified: Jay Conner’s Blueprint for Real Estate Investors
Jay Conner [00:00:00]:
What makes raising Private Money for your real estate deals so different is that you, as the borrower, get to make the rules. Hey, I’ve got great news. You are already approved. If you are listening to this podcast, you are already approved as a real estate investor to borrow Private Money because you’re not applying. There are no applications. There’s no applying to borrow money, institutional money. Instead of asking or applying for a mortgage, you’re offering an opportunity.
Narrator [00:00:40]:
If you are a real estate investor and are wondering how to raise and leverage Private Money to make more profit on every deal, then you are 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.
Gabe Petersen [00:01:12]:
All right. Welcome back to another episode of the Real Estate Investing Club. I hope you guys are having a great day, great week, wherever you are and whatever day it is for you. As always, it is Friday on the podcast, so we’re bringing that Good Friday energy to you. It is a good day for a Second reason, because we have Jay Conner with us on the show. He is the Private Money authority, with a lot of experience in single-family flips and lending money and getting the capital you need to actually get deals done. So I’m excited to jump into this. Jay, thanks for hopping on.
Jay Conner [00:01:48]:
Gabe, thank you so much for inviting me to come along and talk about the topic that I’m so excited about, so passionate about, and I’ll tell you why. The reason I’m so excited about Private Money is that ever since February of 2009, when I started using Private Money to fund my real estate deals, I have never missed out on a deal for not having the funding. And when I talk about Private Money, I’m not talking about hard money. Hard money is normally a broker, institutional money, but this Private Money is from ordinary people that I call who have lazy money. They have money that’s not working for them. That’s why it’s lazy. And so yeah, I’ve been practicing this. Carol Joy, my wife, a nd I, we started investing in real estate all the way back in 2003 here in Eastern North Carolina.
Jay Conner [00:02:47]:
I was cut off from my banks in January of 2009, and then I learned about Private Money, and I show real estate investors as well. How to go raise this money from ordinary people who are just looking for a better rate of return safely and securely.
Gabe Petersen [00:03:04]:
Yeah. Yeah. And capital, you know, having the money to actually do deals is one of the first obstacles investors, most investors that I talk with, run into. You know, maybe they got their first deal done because they’d saved up enough to do, you know, however much it was, $100,000 to get this first deal done. They want to go bigger, and then they realize, crap, I don’t have the money for it. I need to figure out how to do that. Raising money is the way to do it. Private Money is the way to do it.
Gabe Petersen [00:03:31]:
And so I’m excited to jump into this. Before we do that, though, I told you before we got on the show, we always like to start with stories. So why don’t you take us to the beginning of your story in real estate and just tell us how you got here?
Jay Conner [00:03:42]:
Sure. Well, I was raised in the affordable housing industry. My dad, Wallace Conner, his company was the largest retailer of manufactured homes, mobile homes, and trailers.
Jay Conner [00:03:58]:
In the na— in the nation. And, um, but unfortunately Wall Street fell out of favor with the industry,y and the consumer financing for that product went away.
Jay Conner [00:04:11]:
So there was no way to sell the product without financing. So that was in 2003. I knew if I ever got outta mobile homes, I wanted to get into single-family houses and flip. I mean, I was trying to make $3,000 on a single-wide mobile home, but you know, my very first flip, it’s gonna be $40,000. So Carol Joy, my wife, and I, I’m here in Eastern North Carolina. We’ve been, we’re celebrating our 40th anniversary this month. 40 years.
Gabe Petersen [00:04:43]:
Nice. Congratulations. That’s, that’s awesome.
Jay Conner [00:04:45]:
We’ve been dating 42 years. Just 40 years of it has been married. But anyway, she’s originally from Texas. Met her on my first Sunday in town at church. That’s a good place to meet your spouse, right? But anyway, in 2003, we started investing in single-family houses, and Gabe, for the first 6 years, the only thing I knew to do was to use institutional money, the local bank. I had a line of credit at the local bank. It was called BB&T at the time, Branch Banking and Trust. And that worked out okay.
Jay Conner [00:05:22]:
I had this line of credit that I would use off of, and I did a bunch of deals using that for the first 6 years. But then everything changed. Everything changed in January of 2009. My banker’s name was Steve. I called him up in January 2009. I told him about these 2 deals, these 2 houses that I had under contract to purchase. And, um, I thought I still had a line of credit. And, uh, so I learned like that over the phone that my line of credit had been closed with no notice to me.
Jay Conner [00:05:59]:
My first thought was, well, it would sure have been nice to know about that before I had put my earnest money down. And back then you couldn’t get your earnest money back in North Carolina. And so anyway, I said, Steve, what in the world are you telling me? My line of credit’s been closed. I got a great credit score, never late on my payments. We’ve done a ton of deals. And Steve said, Jay, don’t you know there’s a global financial crisis? Going on right now? I said, no, I’m here in Eastern North Carolina living underneath a rock, but you just gave me a financial crisis. I don’t have a way to fund these deals. So I hung up the phone.
Jay Conner [00:06:40]:
It’s interesting to know, okay, we still have landlines here in North Carolina with cords attached to the handsets. You know, it’s just, it’s surprising.
Gabe Petersen [00:06:47]:
I haven’t seen one of those in a while.
Jay Conner [00:06:49]:
Right. So anyway, I sat here for a moment, and I asked myself a very important, powerful question. And by the way, this question, I mean, I, I mean, I had choices. I could have gone home, put my, my, you know, tail between my legs and sat in my beanbag chair and eaten Cheetos all day and had a pity party, or I could have made a different choice. And so I asked myself a powerful question, and, you know, asking the right questions gives you the right answers. And I asked myself the question. I said, who do you know, Jay? Who do you know that can help fix your problem? And John Maxwell said, there is not an answer to every problem. There are multiple answers and solutions to every problem.
Jay Conner [00:07:45]:
Multiple solutions. And so when I asked myself, who do I know that can help fix my problem? I immediately thought of a dear friend, Jeff Blankenship. He was living in Greensboro, North Carolina at the time, investing in single-family houses. I called up Jeff,f and I told him what had just happened. And Jeff said, well, welcome to the club, Jay. I said, well, I’m not sure I want to be a member of that club, but what club are you talking about? He said, well, my bank cut me off last week. I said, well, how are you going to fund your single-family?y He says, well, have you ever heard of Private Money? I said, no. He said, have you ever heard of self-directed IRAs and how regular ordinary people can take existing retirement funds and move ’em over to a self-directed IRA company and then lend that money out to us real estate investors? And the interest we pay them is either tax-free or tax-deferred.
Jay Conner [00:08:46]:
Depending on the type of account they had. I said, Jeff, I don’t know what in the world you’re talking about. I said, ” You’re like talking over my head. You’re like talking Greek to me. I said, What’s Private Money? He said, ” Well, I’m not exactly sure. I said, ” Lovely. That sounds like I’m talking to the right person. I said, ” What’s Private Money? He said, well, I’m not exactly sure, but there’s this fella down in Jacksonville, Florida, by the name of Ron LeGrand.
Jay Conner [00:09:14]:
I said, ” Who’s Ron LeGrand? He said, ” Well, I’m not exactly sure about that. I said, ” Lovely, here we go again. But anyway, he had heard that Ron LeGrand was putting on this conference down in Florida to show how real estate investors could raise Private Money. And I said, okay, let’s go. So I went to that conference in February of 2009 and Gabe, oh boy, oh boy, did I learn about Private Money and how to raise a lot of money with no deals attached to it very, very quickly. So I came back home, and what’s the first thing I did? The first thing I did was put on my teacher hat, which says Private Money Teacher, Private Money Teacher, my teacher hat. That became my mindset. Over these years, Carol Joy and I have had 47 individuals, ordinary people, lending us money on our real estate deals.
Jay Conner [00:10:15]:
You know what’s interesting, Gabe? Not one of these people had ever heard of Private Money. They never heard of self-directed IRAs. And we’ve had ordinary people loan us money from their investment capital, loan us money on our deals from their retirement funds. Some of our private lenders have done both investment capital and retirement funds. They’d never heard of this until I shared the opportunity with them. And so what’s really cool is when you get to share the opportunity. So what did I do? The first thing I did when I got back home was I put my opportunity together. I decided what interest rate I was gonna pay my private lenders. 8%.
Jay Conner [00:11:01]:
I’ve been paying an 8% annual percentage rate with no fees, no origination, no points, 8% APR ever since February of 2009. And they love it. The reason they love it is that, in their mind, they are comparing 8% to what they can get in the local bank, which is maybe 3% APR on a certificate of deposit. Today. And so what makes this world so different from raising Private Money for your real estate deals is that you, as the borrower, get to make the rules. Hey, I got great news. You are already approved. If you are listening to this podcast, you are already approved as a real estate investor to borrow Private Money.
Jay Conner [00:11:54]:
Because you’re not applying. There are no applications. There’s no applying to borrow money, institutional money. Instead of asking or applying for a mortgage, you’re offering an opportunity.
Gabe Petersen [00:12:09]:
Yeah. Yeah. And Private Money is something that I, you know, I didn’t understand before I got into real estate, but it is a great way to get money for your deals. And what people don’t understand when they’re actually lending their money out is that the money is not just- you’re not just throwing it out there. It is secured by the real estate behind it. And so if something does go wrong, your money is protected by the actual asset itself.
Jay Conner [00:12:35]:
Exactly.
Gabe Petersen [00:12:36]:
Yeah. And so it is not the only comparison that I need to kind of put a clarification on. You compared it to putting it into a bank and getting the 3%, but that bank lending, that is, it’s still liquid. When you do lend out your own money in a private lending scenario, that’s not liquid; that’s not money that you can just go and take out. It is, you know, it is allocated towards an asset. And so you can’t just get the money back whenever you want to. And that’s one thing.
Jay Conner [00:13:06]:
Actually, Gabe, that’s a good point. So one thing that I do differently, and the real estate investors that I coach in this aspect, is we give our private lenders a 90-day call option on that note. And now we don’t do that on retirement funds because the likelihood of them needing to call that note due early is, you know, very, very unlikely with it being retirement funds, but they’re just using investment capital. We give a 90-day call option in the promissory note, and that gives us as the borrower plenty of time to replace that Private Money with another private lender’s money.
Gabe Petersen [00:13:48]:
Yeah. And that would protect somebody who, in the case they had $50,000 that they wanted to put into, you know, they wanted to lend out, and then 60 days down the line, something happened, a medical emergency, whatever it is, and they’re like, crap, I need this money. I need to get it back. They still are within that window. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense to me. So, putting the cap on the person who is doing the deals, you’re trying to get some flips done. You want, they want to raise money. What are the steps that you would coach people to do to actually go out and approach people to lend the money to your projects?
Jay Conner [00:14:23]:
That’s a great question. There are 3 categories of private lenders. Where are these, where are these people? The first category is what’s called your current network, your current connections that are in your cell phone. The second category is what I call your expanded network. So sooner or later, if you want to scale your business, you’re probably gonna need to grow your network. And the third category is existing private lenders. These are individuals that are already lending money out to real estate investors. But my favorite categories are categories 1 and 2, because I’m not putting on my teacher hat for category number 3 because they already know about Private Money.
Jay Conner [00:15:15]:
And they’re already spoiled. They’re already used to getting 12%, 14%, 15% plus points. But when I’m offering the opportunity to people that have never heard of this, then I get to make the rules and, and there’s no, there’s no negotiation. Now, in the first category of private lenders, which I call your existing warm market, your existing network, There’s 3 subcategories underneath that, and that’s called your social network. Secondly, your professional network, and thirdly, your service network. So the first subcategory, your social network, well, your social network includes family, friends, coworkers, People that you see regularly every week, people you go to church with, what organizations are you involved in, et cetera. So that’s your current social network. I’m telling you, most people, from my own experience coaching other real estate investors since March of 2011 on how to raise this Private Money, I’m telling you, most people have got potentially over $1 million easy, easy, easy in your cell phone contacts.
Jay Conner [00:16:48]:
Then there’s your professional network. Your professional network is the gatekeepers of money. So your professional network is your CPA. So I would encourage you to let your CPA know what the opportunity is that you’re offering, you know, to ordinary people. Interest rate, how are they protected? The frequency of payments, the length of the note, et cetera. Which, by the way, I’m gonna give your audience my national bestselling book for free, Gabe. And in the book, Where to Get the Money Now, my entire opportunity that I offer potential private lenders is in the book. So, sharing with them, you know, what that is, right? So your professional network, your CPA, your real estate attorney, your realtor or realtors, people that you’re already doing business with that you trust, they trust you. Well, let them know, you know, what you’re doing with Private Money so they can refer people to you.
Jay Conner [00:17:55]:
And then there’s your service network. Those are people that are entrepreneurs. They’re already in business. They get it. They understand it. Where do you take your dry cleaning every week? Well, who’s the local business owner of the dry cleaners? Who do you buy your car from, et cetera? So those are the major categories. So these people are already in your life. These people are already in your life.
Jay Conner [00:18:23]:
Now, to expand your network, and I’d go into detail about this in my book, Where to Get the Money Now, to grow your network, one of the best ways to do that very quickly is to get actively involved in your local BNI, which stands for Business Networking International. And Business Networking International is a fantastic organization founded by Ivan Misner a few decades ago. Most cities and towns have a BNI or multiple BNIs, and I have gotten millions of dollars referred to me by being active in the local Business Networking International chapter.
Gabe Petersen [00:19:07]:
So one question that I have: I’ve actually never lent out my own money to other people’s deals, but I have raised money for deals, and when you are actually lending out your own money, or you’re negotiating with people to raise capital for your deals, what terms do you generally give them? I’m
Jay Conner [00:19:29]:
not lending money.
Gabe Petersen [00:19:31]:
I borrow. Well, I said when you raise money from other people, what terms?
Jay Conner [00:19:34]:
Oh, when I raise money. Yeah.
Gabe Petersen [00:19:36]:
Yeah. And so you’re getting private capital to fund your deals. What terms on these loans do you generally give them? Are you doing short-term, long-term? Is it interest-only? Do you have balloons? What is the standard that you, I mean, you mentioned you do 8%, but I’m curious if that is, is it amortized over 30 years or is it, you know, a short 1-, 2-year, 6-month loan? Generally, what do you guys do there?
Jay Conner [00:20:04]:
Sure. So we offer the same thing to everybody. So if they’re using investment capital and it’s just liquid capital that they want to get a higher rate of return safely and securely, the length of the note is 2 years. Now, if I’m flipping a house, I’m probably not going to use it for 2 years. Uh, but if I’m selling, if I’m buying a house and then selling it on a lease purchase, then if I’m going to help the buyer of that house get ready for a mortgage, then I might need it for 2 years. If the private lender is loaning, uh, retirement funds, then I’ll do that note for 5 years. They’re not looking to get that money back anyway. So that just keeps me from having to extend the note.
Jay Conner [00:20:47]:
But you know, they don’t want the money back anyway. I mean, when I’m getting ready to sell the house, and you know this, Gabe, you’ve raised Private Money. I’m getting ready to cash out on the property. They say, Can’t you just keep the money? No, you cannot keep the money. The SEC will come knocking on your door because we want to collateralize that note. This is called asset-backed debt. This is not raising money for a fund. This is not syndication.
Jay Conner [00:21:15]:
Now it’s all the same money, but it, you know, it all comes down to how you structure the deal. So back to the terms. Now I leave the frequency of the payments up to the lender. Different lenders have different objectives. We’ve got some elderly private lenders that need the monthly payments and want the monthly interest payments because it’s supplemental income to them. So if we’re making monthly payments or quarterly payments, we pay interest only. Now, interest-only payments are a win for the lender and a win for us, the borrower. Interest-only payments are a win for the lender because they’re making more money.
Jay Conner [00:21:59]:
If I make principal and interest payments, I’m paying down their principal loan amounts, so they’re not making as much money. And then interest-only payments for me, the borrower, help cash flow because that’s smaller. But I got some private lenders that they’re not looking for that monthly income. So we can just let the interest accrue. And then, on a flip, on a flip, and then when we sell that property and cash out, We’ll pay the private lender all of their principal loan amount plus the accrued interest. Now, if we’re selling that property, that house, on a lease purchase to a buyer, rent-to-own, if you will, I want to make monthly payments on that. I don’t want to accrue that interest because if I’ve got money, if I’ve got income coming in per month, I want the interest to the private lender going out monthly as well. So it’s depending on your exit strategy and what you’re doing with the deal.
Jay Conner [00:23:01]:
At the end of the day though, how often payments are made really comes down to the private lender’s objective.
Gabe Petersen [00:23:09]:
Nice. Yeah. Man, there is so much more we can get into here. Unfortunately, we already ran the clock down. We are past the 20-minute mark, so I do have to push us into the quick question round. We’ll probably have to have you on again to go into the details there, but We’re starting it off with education. It could be any form. It could be a movie you’ve seen, book you’ve read, conference you’ve been to, mentorship program you’ve been a part of, anything like that.
Gabe Petersen [00:23:35]:
I just need 2 recommendations, one for general life wisdom and then one for real estate.
Jay Conner [00:23:41]:
So for general success principles, I highly recommend Jack Canfield’s bestselling book, which is called The Success Principles, the Success Principles. There are 63 principles in that book. The first principle is to be responsible: be 100% responsible for everything that happens in your life. There’s a great formula in that first chapter that I will not reveal now due to time, but you want to read; you want to learn what that formula is in chapter number 1. And it will put you in control of your destiny. And then, for real estate investing, unashamedly, I’ll just tell you about my book, Where to Get the Money Now, subtitle: How and Where to Get Money for Your Real Estate Deals Without Relying on Traditional or Hard Money Lenders. And it’s $20 on Amazon, but let me just give it to you for free. I’ll autograph it, I’ll ship it to you, I’ll express mail it.
Jay Conner [00:24:44]:
Just cover shipping and handling, about $6.95 for shipping and handling. But you can pick up the book at www.JayConner.com/Book. And I’m an E-R, not an O-R. So www.JayConner.com/Book. That’s www.JayConner.com/Book, and I’ll ship it to you, express mail it.
Gabe Petersen [00:25:08]:
Awesome. We appreciate that. And yeah, the Jack Canfield book- that’s when I first got started, kind of in the, I guess, it’s self-help genre or whatever genre that is of motivational, trying to be more productive, that type of book. It was Zig Ziglar and then the 7 Habits book. And then Jack Canfield was the first one that I read. And I really, those books, yeah, they’re really good. And it had a good place in my memory because ot kind of started everything off. So yeah, really good recommendation.
Gabe Petersen [00:25:40]:
Moving us on to the next question. This is for your younger self. If you could go back to the Jay who is just getting started so many years ago, I think you said 2003. Go back to that version of Jay, give him one piece of advice moving forward.
Jay Conner [00:25:55]:
Don’t start real estate investing by yourself without education, coaching, a mentor that’s already done it and already been successful. Be careful who you hang around. Be careful who you hang around. But that is the advice. I mean, my first 6 years, I just relied on my experience, but real estate investing is different than anything else. So do not go it alone.
Gabe Petersen [00:26:24]:
Yeah. Yeah. I would second that, third that, fourth that. That is the best advice you can give somebody in real estate. I got started, and I bought,t like, it was like one of those courses, like it was like a $5,000 course. It was good information, but I really wish that instead of just going and doing it myself, I had done it alongside someone already successful because that can cut your learning curve down 100 times, 100-fold. I made all the mistakes possible. I flipped houses that I shouldn’t have.
Gabe Petersen [00:26:54]:
I did, bought deals that I had to take a lesson from. And all of those probably could have been cut short if I had done it, had a mentor there alongside me. So great advice.
Jay Conner [00:27:06]:
Well, if somebody thinks education is expensive, try ignorance.
Gabe Petersen [00:27:12]:
There you go. Moving us on to the next question. This is about the US. It’s a big place. There is a lot of opportunity out there. Give me the single metro you’re most excited about investing in today.
Jay Conner [00:27:24]:
Well, the only area that I am familiar with is my own, which is here in Eastern North Carolina. I’ve been investing in single-family houses ever since 2003, right here in my local area. And so I just made a business decision. If I can’t drive by the property personally within 30 minutes of my office and where I live, I’m not interested. Now, I’ve got a lot of very, very good friends that are very, very successful in investing in other areas, other states, et cetera. But my personal decision is I want to be able to drive by it myself.
Gabe Petersen [00:28:03]:
Yeah. And I feel like that really does come down to preference, but it’s a very, you get a competitive advantage if you stay in your market because you know that market better than anyone else. I invest across the country, but that’s mostly because I focus on asset class, you know, in the commercial asset class versus the location. But I’m always a little jealous of the people who only invest in their backyard because there is something to be said for knowing every single street corner that you invest in. You really, it really is a competitive advantage that you cannot replicate across the United States. Moving us on to the next question. This is about finding deals. It all starts with getting in contact with the seller and penning that purchase agreement.
Gabe Petersen [00:28:52]:
So what is your favorite way to generate leads and find new deals?
Jay Conner [00:28:58]:
My favorite way, in the big picture,e is having people looking for me instead of me doing interruption marketing. So what is interruption marketing? Well, if you’re doing Facebook ads, and I’ve bought a lot of houses from Facebook ads, but you know, the owner of a property is just scrolling their Facebook feed and then boom, you know, you show up with your ad. Well, that’s interruption. Radio ads, that’s interruption marketing. They weren’t looking for you, but you interrupt them with an ad. But my favorite is when they’re looking for you. So how are they looking for you? They go on Google, and they search for how to sell my house fast, or, you know, how to sell my house without a realtor. I mean, there are approximately 75 key phrases.
Jay Conner [00:29:50]:
So my favorite marketing method is either pay-per-click or pay-per-lead.
Jay Conner [00:29:57]:
I prefer pay-per-lead over pay-per-click because pay-per-lead is, you’ve got an agency; that’s all they do. They’re hopefully good at it. I use different vendors. I’m using 5 different vendors right now for pay-per-lead. Uh, but that, that’s my favorite. I’m only paying for the marketing when I actually have a lead that comes in.
Gabe Petersen [00:30:21]:
Yeah. Yeah. I’m, I used to do a lot of PPC. We still do it for like RV parks that we own. We run PPC ads, but I’m curious how that is going to be affected by, I mean, it already has been affected, but how, you know, 1 year, 2 years down the line, how it’s going to be affected by AI search because more and more people are going into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and doing their searches there versus going into Google. And I’m curious how that’ll kind of pan out. Anyways, I don’t really have any thoughts there quite yet, but it is an interesting topic. Moving on, this next question is about lessons learned.
Gabe Petersen [00:31:01]:
Not every deal we get into goes the way we expect it. In fact, pretty much every time something goes wrong, that’s when we get to learn a lesson. So what was a deal that went a little bit sideways for you? And then what was the lesson you pulled from it?
Jay Conner [00:31:15]:
The deal that went sideways. Well, I’ve had a lot of deals go sideways. My most important lessons have been through failures and messing things up. But the first one that comes to mind is that I bought a condominium on the beach here in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina. Years ago, my intention was to flip it. So it was a foreclosure bid at the courthouse. And so I bought it and renovated it, turned it into a beautiful, beautiful condominium. And in the meantime, the market has started to turn, and I was stubborn, holding onto my price.
Jay Conner [00:32:04]:
Which was stupid. And so it didn’t sell. And so carrying costs are still going on. So to stop the bleeding, I rented it out.
Jay Conner [00:32:20]:
Well, that works great in the summertime at the beach here in Eastern North Carolina for 13 weeks. It’d rent for $1,400 a week, but between September and April, no rentals, no money coming in. So what’s the lesson? The lesson is: do not have one exit strategy when you buy a property. You better run the numbers and make sure that property can cash flow positively if you have to rent it out. And if those numbers don’t back you up, then don’t do the deal.
Gabe Petersen [00:33:02]:
Yeah, man, that hits home even right now. There was a deal that I bought, and it was a small self-storage facility,y and because of interest rates, how they’ve been going up, I was stupid, id and a year ago I was like, all right, let’s sell it. And we listed it for about a million, but we didn’t get the number that I wanted. And I was, it looked, hindsight’s 20/20 looking back, I was being too greedy, and I had somebody offer like $925,000. I should have taken it, but I said, ” No, you know what? I’m going to hold onto it. And so I put it off the market, and then I waited 6, 8 months, and I was like, all right, let’s try it again. But the interest rates had been going up and up and up, and now people are even offering less than that. And so I just laugh because I’ve learned your lesson as well, and I’m learning it right now.
Gabe Petersen [00:33:53]:
And it’s just, don’t be greedy. If you get somewhere near what you feel is a reasonable asking price, just take it. It’s not; if you’re trying to pinch pennies and you’re trying to milk a deal out for every last dollar, it is no; you don’t know where the market goes. There are too many unknowns, so just take it and just take the win and move on. So.
Jay Conner [00:34:14]:
Well, Gabe, you know, when you just gave out the advice of not being greedy, that reminds me of what Doug Goins, my real estate attorney for years, told me when I first started. He said, Jay, I’m going to give you some advice that will help you not be greedy. And here’s the advice he gave me. He said, pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered. Be a pig. Don’t be a hog.
Gabe Petersen [00:34:42]:
Yep. Easier said than done, but it’s definitely, yeah, great advice to take in. Moving us on to the second-to-last question. This one is about AI. It is new, and it’s here to stay, and whoever is implementing it in their business has a competitive advantage. So how are you implementing AI in your business today?
Jay Conner [00:35:04]:
The most beneficial way that we are implementing AI is we are using it to efficiently do what’s called speed to lead. Okay. So when we have a lead, when we have a lead come in, a motivated seller responds to our marketing, we have an AI agent. We named her Bailey, and Bailey, our AI agent, when that lead comes into our CRM, she immediately texts that lead and has a conversation with that owner, with that seller, to set a phone appointment with our acquisitionist, who’s been with us for over 20 years, to talk about their property. So, you know, if you’ve got leads coming in, you know, motivated sellers or potential sellers. And if you’re not getting back to them until later in the day, the longer time that goes by between you getting them on the phone and having a conversation, the less likely you’re gonna do business with them or ever get ’em on the phone. So we’re using AI to get our prospects on the phone ASAP. Also, in our marketing, we do direct mail.
Jay Conner [00:36:30]:
So we do direct mail to all inherited properties, heirs of properties. And there’s a phone number in that direct mail for the heirs to call. When they call, Bailey answers the phone. It’s not a voice message. Bailey, and you know, the great thing about AI agent Bailey is that she never has to go to the bathroom. She never takes off on Saturdays and Sundays. She never takes, uh, any vacation. Bailey answers the phone 24 hours a day and has a conversation with the prospect.
Jay Conner [00:37:10]:
Bailey identifies herself as an AI agent with Jay Buys Houses Fast. And so she identifies herself. And you know what’s interesting? We get more information from the prospective seller talking to Bailey. They know they’re not talking to a real person. They know they’re talking to Bailey, and Bailey’s not gonna try to, like, you know, twist their arm and talk ’em into anything. And so the prospects are very, very forthcoming with Bailey, the AI agent. So we miss no phone calls. And we get appointments set.
Jay Conner [00:37:49]:
Bailey has got a 75% success rate on setting phone appointments with our acquisitionist.
Gabe Petersen [00:37:56]:
Wow. Good job, Bailey. I’m impressed. Yeah, we’ve, we’ve set up several, uh, um, voice agents, uh, with my business as well. And I have not done the inbound yet because I just don’t trust that it’s gonna do a good job. But, um, that is, that’s good. 75%. That is a good case study.
Gabe Petersen [00:38:13]:
So maybe I’ll have to revisit that one.
Jay Conner [00:38:16]:
Sure were.
Gabe Petersen [00:38:17]:
All right. That leads us to the very last question. This is for the listeners. You’ve given us a lot to think about. I’m sure people want to reach out, get in contact with you. Is it a 2-parter? Where can they find you? And then what can they expect when they reach out?
Jay Conner [00:38:30]:
Sure. Well, the best way to reach out to me is to take advantage of my gift, Where to Get the Money Now, the book. And my main website is www.JayConner.com. And, you know what, Gabe, we really do something very interesting here in our office. We actually answer the phone when somebody calls. You don’t have to press 1, press 2, press 3, press 4. So, uh, I love to talk shop. If anybody wants to talk about real estate investing or Private Money, uh, let me just give you my phone number for goodness sakes.
Jay Conner [00:39:06]:
Isn’t that something novel? Uh, 252-808-2927. We’re here in Eastern time, right on the coast of North Carolina. 252-808-2927. Give me a call. I’d love to talk to you.
Gabe Petersen [00:39:21]:
Perfect. I will put that link in the show notes. Jay Conner with an E. So if you guys want to reach out, all you’ve got to do is click the little more in the description. It’ll pull down that full description, and in there you can find Jay’s links. All right, man, that wraps it up. Thank you very much for hopping on the show.
Jay Conner [00:39:39]:
Gabe, thanks so much for having me. I appreciate it.
Gabe Petersen [00:39:42]:
Absolutely. For everybody who’s with us today, thank yo,u gu, ys for showing up. You are the reason we do this. So if you guys have any questions, reach out to me at gabe@therealestateinvestingclub.com. If you guys want to leave, want to help us, just leave us a review, comment, anything like that. Other than that, I hope you guys have a great week. Keep rocking real estate, and I look forward to seeing you on the next episode.
Narrator [00:40:04]:
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 7 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.