BE YOUR BEST CLIENT

BY MELANIE ROBITAILLE, SR. STAFF WRITER & GRAPHIC DESIGNER

If you’re in real estate, chances are you either have personal or professional experience with income properties, or at the very least, have thought about it. EXIT Realty’s Director of Brokerage Development, Janice Petteway, has been following her own rules when it comes to this topic since opening her first EXIT Real Estate Results office, and the moment she first took advantage of EXIT’s Formula of sponsoring.

I made a commitment to use residuals only to purchase real estate. I’m somewhere in the $1.2 million range of residual income and that portfolio is worth about $3.4 million in equity now.

—JANICE PETTEWAY, DIRECTOR OF BROKERAGE DEVELOPMENT

So how did she do it? By being a “sponsoring machine,” as she calls it, and assigning her residual income to specific tasks. The real key was not touching it, while compounding her sponsoring and production efforts from one year to the next.

You have to learn to put your money to work for you, so you don’t have to work so hard. I guarantee you, no matter what amount of money you earn, if you spend all of it or a dollar more, you’ll never be a millionaire,” she quipped. “A teacher who gets out of college and puts away $342 every month for their whole career, and doesn’t touch it, will retire as a multi-millionaire.

So, she proposes that you think of sponsorship a little bit differently and assign sponsoring income to that task for you.

I had heard Janice talk about investing before and I had been interested in it for a while. I knew my residuals added up each year, but I never saved them for a purpose until I earmarked my sponsoring bonuses for my daughter’s wedding during 2017 and 2018. I was able to pay for her wedding, and in 2019, when I went to Janice’s Convention Breakout Session, everything clicked.

—FRANCHISEE, JENNIFER ANDERSON - EXIT REALTY BY THE BAY

Janice’s Recommended Approach:

1. Learn the difference between good and bad debt

Eliminate bad, personal debt first then shift toward creating personal emergency savings. Once personal affairs are in order, apply the same approach to your business.

2. Create multiple accounts

Money comes into your business account and stays there to pay bills, so you know what your overhead is every month. When it has six months of reserves in it, then a second account comes in for anything over and above your overhead and six months’ worth of reserves. But don’t touch it!

3. Research all things income properties

Think outside the house here, as short-term rental trends show people will rent out moored boats, refurbished RV’s and other tiny dwellings. Look at things like the NAR® report on the top places where people are buying vacation homes; learn where most vacation homes are purchased, and where people in your town come from.

4. Join EXIT’s Facebook Referral Network Group

Set up referral relationships and cross marketing with the EXIT offices and agents in the areas and states which refer back and forth to yours most.

5. Attend investor meetings or classes in your area

Get educated. Read books on the topic regularly in order to learn the language and terms used on this side of the business.

6. Consider learning to teach this at your office

Whether or not being a landowner or landlord is for you, put your newfound knowledge to good use benefiting both your agents and their families.

There’s no other vehicle like EXIT’s Formula of residual income that can help you live mortgage free and compound your earnings faster in this business. As a real estate professional, you’re already ahead of the buying and selling curve, all you have to do is be your best client.

Janice’s Recommended Reading:

Everyday Millionaires by Chris Hogan

Rich Dad Poor Dad book series by Robert Kiyosaki

The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley Ph. D

Watch Janice's 2019 Breakout Session:

Log into EXIT's Resource Center, and find Janice's video under the Multi-Media tab