Transform Your Financial Journey with These Creative Finance Essentials

Brett McCollum (00:00.972)
Welcome back to the show guys. I am your host Brett McCullum and I’m here today with Mark Monroe. And today we’re going to be talking about best practices within creative finance. Before we do guys, at Investor Fuel, we help real estate investors, service providers, and real estate entrepreneurs to 2 to 5X their businesses to allow them to build the businesses they’ve always wanted and allow them to build the lives they’ve always dreamed of. Without further ado, Mark, how are you, man?

Mark Monroe (00:26.805)
I’m doing wonderful. Thanks for so much for having me on and you know, we’re chatting there a few minutes before we got on and you know, really enjoyed it. So thank you so much for having me on. I really appreciate it.

Brett McCollum (00:37.58)
Now, Mark, this is gonna be like, it was really good catching back up. know we met probably, I don’t know, a few years ago, just catching back up, you know, over the, you know, it’s been a while. So it’s been good catching up and guys, I have to tell you, I kinda say this a lot, Mark, like this is gonna be a great show. Guys, this is gonna be a great show. Mark is a expert in the field of creative finance and we’re gonna talk all about that. But before we do, give us a little history, give us some background.

Who’s Mark Monroe? How’d you get into real estate? That sort of thing.

Mark Monroe (01:12.386)
So believe it or not, this spring, I’m gonna be in this for 30 years. I started back in 1995 at the age of 25, believe it or not. It’s just amazing. I can’t believe how fast time has gone. I can’t believe how much the industry’s changed throughout the years and the different trends, like, you know, where we were five years ago, three years ago compared to where we’re at now. It’s just, it’s a cycle. And, but yeah, like I mentioned before, I grew up in Vermont, you know, I came from nothing.

Brett McCollum (01:19.309)
Wow.

Mark Monroe (01:39.497)
You know, we’re talking about that property. And then I did my first deal, believe it or not, at 19. And because I did the Carlton Sheets book and, you know, went and put bandit signs up on the telephone pole, we buy houses. And I got in trouble by Miss Palladier. I didn’t know, I was 19 years old. So I had to go take it down. And when I went to take them down, this guy called me up and he had a mobile home for sale. And I’m like, I wasn’t interested. And I kept throwing her away. I kept saying I wasn’t interested. He came back and I ended up buying that thing for

$3,000, it was worth 21. And what I did is I went and placed an ad in the class when I negotiated with them, I went and placed an ad in the newspaper, mobile home for sale owner financing for $25,000 with $3,000 down, took that 3,000, gave it to the seller and I’m creating a note like at seven and half or 8 % over seven years. It was $300 a month, it was my car payment insurance. That was my first deal at 19. But then I got sucked into the corporate world for about five years, six years. And so yeah, that’s a little bit about me and now.

Brett McCollum (02:32.59)
19.

Mark Monroe (02:39.164)
I’m down here in South Florida, had a real estate banking firm in Washington DC, run 1995, ended up blowing it up to 107 loan officers at that time. So, but yeah, thanks so much. I appreciate it.

Brett McCollum (02:52.61)
Man, that’s super cool. 19 though, man. Like I have to ask you this though, cause I know me at 19 and I promise you, I was not thinking about real estate or anything like that. Or I know it was Carlton Sheets. it a late night infomercial that got you? how did, like, how do you at 19, like, yeah, I’m gonna just get, like, how did that happen?

Mark Monroe (03:12.33)
Because how I grew up with nothing and I knew I had to do something to change my life to be able to have the success. And I just saw different people were the owner that I actually worked for. Believe it or not, I ended up in McDonald’s corporation and I was there for 10 years. And I started at 15 and I excelled and I was in charge of several stores. That’s why I was transferred down to DC to be in charge of like 80 stores. But the owner owned real estate.

And I saw like, that’s where he made a lot of his money also. I, I, and I saw that and that’s where I saw, okay, maybe this could be my path forward to be able to be financial freedom. And that’s kind of where I really started into that path. But then I got sucked into the corporate world and enjoyed that and kind of thrived in that environment for a little while.

Brett McCollum (04:00.418)
Yeah, so we were talking kind of pre-show a little bit. I think there’s a lot of investors, lot of people, entrepreneurs even, that grew up in some varying forms of poverty. And I think when I look back on it, the beauty of hindsight, you can look back and see things like it didn’t happen to you, it happened for you, and that’s true, I believe that. But what’s interesting is I think…

What I heard you say is you found somebody and you saw something that was possible when you looked at it and really like, we don’t have this here. And where I came from, I didn’t really have a lot of that to look up to. never seen anybody, but I was good at sports. so it’s about, it’s funny. It’s like you see the poverty mindset, put their efforts in. If you really are trying to get out, you put your effort into something that you think you can make it at. Thank God for you that you saw somebody that had said realist saw or

Real estate. had baseball and I did, and I played through college. played a little bit post college. Did that sort of thing. But I, I, I’ve talked to all the people I interview and talk to that come from that background. It’s a, it’s an interesting thing, you know, that like, yeah, I saw that this was possible and nobody told me I couldn’t do it.

Mark Monroe (05:16.618)
I mean, you just, the way I look at it is I looked up the people that I saw that they were successful at something and I made them my mentor, but they didn’t realize they were my mentor. So I’d always learn as much as I could from that individual. And then I took that and went on to the next one. I mean, I can’t tell you how many mentors I’ve had over the years going through. Even today, I’m always looking at people that know something a little bit more knowledge than I do. And I just, I wanna…

Brett McCollum (05:27.458)
Yeah.

Mark Monroe (05:43.24)
I’m like that sponge. want to be in a room and just absorb as much information as possible.

Brett McCollum (05:47.502)
Yeah, we have to be, man. You never want to be the smartest guy in any room you’re ever in, right? Because once we… I mean, what’s the… At that point, what’s the point? It’s kind of silly.

Mark Monroe (05:59.951)
You know, you said something a little before and it’s kind of, and I just want to put that out there because some people might be listening. You know, when you’re in that situation of poverty and you’re trying to always trying to figure how to kind of get out of the situation where you’re at or you think you can’t because you’re stuck in it and then you start hanging around the wrong people. The key to it really is just start surrounding yourself with different people that’s going to lift you and don’t be environment where it’s just going to be toxic and pull you down and, you know, committing crimes or whatever you want to.

just do surround yourself with people that are successful, learn from them. But the beauty of today’s, you have the internet and I didn’t have that back then, so it was a lot more challenging. But now you can just jump on social media and just kind of grow and learn from others.

Brett McCollum (06:43.246)
Exactly. Yeah, I mean so typically and statistically speaking Mark you and I shouldn’t be talking to each other right? Like we should be the ones that are like, yep us too. We’re in part but What I’ve had for me what I had to and it took I mean it’s years I mean it’s maturity and growth and things like that that you have to go through and I’m sure you had to go through some of those things of your own but When you are for the longest time I operated out of a place of negativity meaning I’m not gonna be poor

So I’m going to do this in that operating mode is fueled by negativity. I don’t want to be this and it’s powerful. But what’s more powerful is I want to operate from a lens of I get to do and pursue this vision and pursue this thing right here so that I can be this for myself, my future, my family’s future. I get to do way more powerful than the other. But it took, I’ll be honest with you, I I’m 38. It took, I mean, I probably was

Mark Monroe (07:22.43)
in this.

Brett McCollum (07:42.542)
31, 32 when I finally, it clicked. Because for that, know, from the time I’m 18, till then it’s always been in pursuit of I’m not gonna be like that. And that was a hard shift.

Mark Monroe (07:54.101)
Yep. It is. And, you know, I was about that same age where what you’re saying, I went through and it’s, it’s a mental shift in your mind. And I did the same thing where you talked about, was rooted on that same age. I went to therapy for three years, you know, it’s, you gotta start working on your mind because I was, I was drawn to toxic women, you know? So that was one of the things, cause I was drawn because that’s how I grew up. So I did, you know, I did the book, secret.

Brett McCollum (08:17.742)
Mmm.

Mark Monroe (08:24.072)
That was the reason that started it. And you become what you think. then I started, well, the secret was the beginning where I cut out about 85 % of my friends and family, cut everybody out and was alone for about six months refining. The only person I couldn’t cut out was my mother, but I understood it. And then I was kind of going through the therapy. the thing about therapy with the mindset is,

Brett McCollum (08:24.814)
Mm-hmm.

Mark Monroe (08:50.026)
I went for a month and I’m like, this is ridiculous. I’m just wasting anything. Nothing’s happening. And then somebody said, that went through it said, think of it this way. Somebody that’s like 500 pounds and they wanna lose a hundred pounds and they go in 30 days. You think they’re gonna lose a hundred pounds? So it’s really the same concept. So then I went back and I stuck with it. And then approximately about six months, it just clicked. Then I could see things. I understood my mind. I understood where my issues were, if you will.

Brett McCollum (09:12.59)
Mmm.

Mark Monroe (09:18.824)
We all have issues. Everybody’s got issues. Recognize them and how you deal with them and that’s what really makes you grow.

Brett McCollum (09:19.022)
Sure, we all do. Yeah, we all do.

Brett McCollum (09:24.91)
Incredible, yeah. So move it forward into the real estate conversation here, because I know we could do that for a long time, and it’s powerful in its own right, you start, know, again, was it 95? You said it was. We kind let into some of creative financing. So have you always been kind of operating from that creative, like you did it in your first deal at 19 even, right? Has that just been kind of something you’ve been evolving your whole career, or was it something you’ve?

started focusing on later. When did that kick in?

Mark Monroe (09:55.901)
Yeah, I mean, we all kind of go through the normal path of, you know, fix and flip and being the landlord and holding. We all go through it and a lot of us fail at it because we don’t know what we don’t know. So what really kind of shifted is when I got back into it in 1995 and I got into real estate banking, where I ended up having a lot of my clients were investors and I started becoming friends with them. I started looking at how they’re doing things in their mindset.

So then I started doing my first deals around 95, 96 was what I call a sandwich lease option. I don’t know if you’re familiar with that, but during a time period, it was kind of like how it is now. Things were sitting on the market and homes weren’t moving. They were sitting in there for about four to six months. So I was going to sellers, I’m saying to the sellers, because my background was real estate banking at the time at LO. I was going to the sellers like, hey, would you be willing to sell your home to me on a rent to own? I’ll rent it for a few years, take care of the property maintenance and repairs, and then we’ll close on it.

Well, the problem was most of those people needed to sell that home to go buy the other property. So what I did was I said, okay, I’ll refinance your property, like an 80 % loan to value. At the time, arms were very popular. So I would do like, I think it was a five one or five two arm at the time. So the rates were roughly where they’re at now, seven and a half. And I would do get a rate for around like five and a quarter, five and a half and be fixed for two years. So I’d refinance it.

And then, by the way, Mr. Seller, your new home, I wanna do that loan. And then I would put a tenant buyer in the property and they would put down what’s called an option fee that’s non-refundable. So off of one lead, I was making roughly about $35,000 on the front end and then creating cashflow. So that was how I originally did my, besides that other one at 19, that’s how I started doing that. I did that for a couple of years and then I segway into doing like a subject twos and then agreement for needs. So all these different creative seller financing strategies.

I took probably a couple years on each one of those going through the process of the education on each one of them.

Brett McCollum (11:55.778)
Yeah, and I bet you learned a lot of what to but also what not to do during those. Yeah, and that’s kind of where I wanted to spend a lot of time talking about today because I’ve known you to be like, I’ve known you to be like this, like sub to Creative Finance guy long before it was almost made popularized, you know, in recent years. Can you kind of…

I guess that’s the main one that everybody talks about. know, everybody, you know, it’s the subject to stuff, sub two, sub two, sub two, right? And we know that it works. Let’s start from that position. We know that it is, it can be done, it can be done legally and properly, but I want to talk more about compliance, legal, to make sure that, you know, you’re as the real estate investor, you’re doing it properly, that both you’re protecting the seller avatar, you’re protecting yourself, any future, just,

kind of walk me through like some, I know start with basics and maybe let’s build on it just a little bit. and cause I really want it to be, cause I think the same best practices are going to be true for whether you’re doing sub two wraps, all the, you know, all the other kinds of stuff too. There are going to be a lot of similarities. So talk me through that a little bit.

Mark Monroe (13:06.026)
Sure. So, well, the number one thing is not necessarily compliance, is doing what’s right. That’s the number one thing. Right by the seller, right by the buyer. It doesn’t matter. And always be upfront, honest, and be truthful about what you’re doing. That’s the number one thing. You just want to just educate people, talk to them about it, give them the options, and explain the process of what can be done.

Brett McCollum (13:13.486)
Mm-hmm.

Mark Monroe (13:34.475)
And subject to it’s a great strategy, but it’s designed for that investors that have been in the business for quite some time. This is an advanced strategy. I didn’t do my first subject to until I was probably maybe four or five years in the real estate investing world. I learned some of the other ones because it is, there’s a lot of moving parts and if you don’t do it correctly, you can really hurt the seller and buyer. But mainly a lot of it falls back on the seller.

Brett McCollum (13:49.538)
Yeah. Yeah.

Mark Monroe (14:03.242)
And years ago, back around in 2003 and five, people actually, what they’re doing is, a lot of times they didn’t have a lot of, nowadays there’s a lot of consumer protection regulations to protect the homestead buyer that you put in a property. Back then it was kind of like the wild west. And it’s kind of a little bit like that now the wild west, but the regulator has been sitting in the sideline, but now they’re starting to come back in because they’re getting a lot of complaints from sellers that they’re end buyers defaulting.

It was never designed for assignments, wholesaling, you will. was always designed for us investors to buy the property, stay in the middle, and control it. So if there’s anything that’s going bad with it, we would be the ones stepping up to the plate and making things what’s right. If your end buyer stops paying or if you’re putting a tenant in there, you would always step up. And I’ve done it. I mean, I’ve cost me $47,000 on a deal before because I did a deal in a state that I could go and…

on and on. what I did is I sold that in a lease option contract. it was a state where the, you know, when you do a lease option, when you put out an end buyer, and they usually do a lease agreement, and then you do what’s called a purchase and sale agreement. And they stopped paying. And it was in the state where when they go ahead and evict, they automatically get legal aid. Well, the legal aid attorney ran circles around my attorney, and he knew exactly what my attorney was doing. So they went in to try to do the eviction on it.

And they said, all right, your honor, since we’re doing eviction, let’s throw out the purchase and sale contract. And my attorney and their attorneys and the judge all ruled to throw out the purchase and sale contract. And now we’re just going with the eviction process. Because typically that’s what you want to do as an investor. You want to go in and evict so you can get them out quick as possible. Well, in this state, and this attorney knew what they’re doing. And then all of a sudden, it becomes landlord-tenant law because the sense of purchase is great.

all the maintenance and repairs, guess who got stuck reversing over $25,000 of supposedly they came up with. So that’s kind of one of the reasons why you really need to know the rules and regulations in the States and stuff to that nature. hopefully that answers some of that.

Brett McCollum (16:16.587)
No, it does. It’s just there’s so many different, because I promise you this, I absolutely promise you this, the person that just watched something on YouTube for 10 minutes that goes, my God, I can do it too, has no idea that, wait, what happens in court? Like, wait, they’re gonna, how could they even throw out the purchase and sale agreement? And I bet, to be fair, I would bet until you had it happen, you may not have understood the full process of it either.

There’s so much complexity. But let’s maybe let’s do some best practices on the front end, right? So Mark, you’re my seller, okay? And I’m gonna present you a sub two options. Hey, and here’s what’s happening today that I’ve seen. Okay, Mark, you know, I know you’re struggling to make your mortgage payments and I know you need to get out of the situation. You know, we don’t want you to get into that foreclosure either. We can take over those payments for you. The way we do it is something, you know, this is the pitch. I’m serious. I’ve heard it so many times. It’s

It’s called subject to, some people call it sub to, you know, and we’ll just take over your mortgage subject to your existing terms. You don’t have to go out there and do anything special. It’s just some paperwork that we have, you know, and you’ll sign that and we’ll take it over. We’ll maybe even service it with a third party, you know, person so that the loan’s being serviced not from me. And we’ll just make sure that it’s being paid on time every month. You can move out. It’s not gonna get a foreclosure on your credit. You’re gonna be in good shape. Does that sound like a great benefit?

These are good salesmen at that point. Like, wow, that’s nice. Wow, well done. Thank you for saying that. Yes, right? But then the pay port comes into play.

Brett McCollum (17:55.2)
It’s loose at best. And how are we, what’s the best practice here? What should people do?

Mark Monroe (18:02.548)
You gotta explain everything, the pros and cons. The pros, like you’re saving the credit, making the payments, they can’t sell it. The con is if I stop paying or whoever stops paying, it’s gonna hurt your credit, you can have a foreclosure. Or the lender could call the loan due, what’s called the due on sales clause. So you really need to, and most people have those disclosure documents in there, but they’re just sliding the paperwork right in front of the seller and they’re just sellers just signing.

Brett McCollum (18:29.166)
Well, because we’re afraid, right? If I send them a disclosure, it might scare them away.

Mark Monroe (18:33.094)
You have to be upfront and honest. That’s the number one thing. You have to be upfront and honest because things will come up. I guarantee you things will come up. And you, even if you’re doing assignments slash wholesaling, you will get pulled into it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard these people come in. my contract is solid. I’m not gonna get sued, not at all. It’s my end buyers responsibility. I can’t tell you how many times a week or month.

that I get people that they’re getting sued or they got a big legal mess and they’re like, oh, my contracts or something, it doesn’t matter. They can sue anybody. Everybody’s gonna get pulled into it. The wholesaler, the back investor, everybody’s gonna get pulled into it. And then the other thing that’s really happening, it’s really blowing my mind is they do, they sell the pitch. Oh, if anything happens and I stop paying, we’ll do what’s called a performance deed or a deed in lieu. You automatically get the property back Mr. Seller.

I can’t tell you, did a deal, I did a deal like 12 years ago and I paid down on this mortgage for seven years. And back then they didn’t have the portal where you can go in. Like nowadays I go in do the portal payments automatically on mine on the 25th automatically sent directly to the lender. A lot of people will wait until the money comes from the buyer and then disperse it. That’s a big no-no. I can tell you, I had a call a couple of months ago with somebody who’s getting sued for $130,000 because

they didn’t realize that the loan servicers, usually when your buyer makes the payment on a loan servicer, they hold it for two weeks. Well, this guy’s first payment was on the fifth and the next one was the ninth and then he made the 18th. Well, by this time, they’re 30 days late. And guess what the wholesaler did?

Brett McCollum (20:14.136)
Yep. Started late on the, your mortgage. Yep.

Mark Monroe (20:18.258)
And guess what they had? They had a Deed & Lube performance clause in it. The seller’s like, I want that property back. And they got $50,000 from the end buyer.

Brett McCollum (20:27.842)
Yeah, no request. Don’t do that again, that’s what you do. Yeah, man. Yeah, and that’s why I really wanted to keep talking. It’s not to scare people, right? We don’t wanna scare anybody from doing these. Creative finance is a very powerful tool and are built, if done appropriately.

Mark Monroe (20:27.87)
They called me up asking, what do I do? What do I do?

Mark Monroe (20:47.242)
Yes. Yep. 100%. And the thing about it is people coming in are just jumping straight into a subject to without knowing what an LTV is with a DTR. You know, they don’t even know about the consumer protection regulations. That’s why if you’re listening and you’re coming into this, that’s why they sell to other investors, because then you’re exempt from this consumer protection regulations. Now, we are trying to pass a bill.

There’s a group of us that we’re trying to pass a bill in Congress right now that, cause right now you’re only allowed to do a three year before you have to do use a license arm a low, which if you’re new, always, always, always use a license arm a low. That’s a mortgage loan originator to underwrite your end buyer to make sure they can qualify. The key to it is they got to make sure they can make the payments. The credit doesn’t matter so much, but you need to make sure the payments. Cause otherwise, believe it or not, you as the investor, whenever you’re structuring a loan that has terms,

anything like that. You’re also viewed as a lender in the regulatory eyes and people don’t realize that. You are a lender and you’re also originating deals so you could be viewed as what’s called a predatory lender. A lot of people don’t know that.

Brett McCollum (21:46.766)
Mm.

Brett McCollum (21:55.31)
Sure. Yeah, that’s, mean, there’s just so much like involved, right? There’s so much involvement on it. What would you say, like, cause to be fair, if you’re, and you’ve been living this 30 years, right? I’m in it for maybe 10 ish at this point now. By all metrics at 10 years, I’m a seasoned veteran, right? There’s so many brand new people that are now investors that all have been in a couple of two or three, five years, maybe at the most, you know, two years, you know, whatever.

And they’re here in creative finances like because the market has shifted rates are not two and three percent and four percent now They’re seven and eight, you know, and you know the best deals were like we got to pivot with the market You’re like all the things that you’re hearing and we’re gonna pivot by using creative finance And that’s the way to do it and it is I’m not not hating on it because I think it’s right But how do people get the right education? Where do they go? How do they do that? What’s the best in your opinion?

Mark Monroe (22:53.628)
My opinion is look who’s teaching, how long they’ve been doing it for, minimum 10 years. And then I hate to say it, how many times have they been through a legal process of a deal going bad? Then you know that they’ve been through it. I mentor people and what happened was I got into this mastermind and this mastermind, said, I paid a lot of money to join this thing.

And they’re like, you’re gonna be surrounded by other real estate coaches and you guys build a network and all this stuff. And then we’re gonna go down to Puerto Rico. So I go jump on a plane, go down to Puerto Rico. And there was probably about 15 coaches. And I was just, don’t know how, my feelings were like, I was appalled. I was embarrassed. I was shocked because most of these people that were part of this program,

have only done two to three deals. And they’re all like trying to learn about, at the time they were really pitching the Airbnb model. You know, that’s kind of, we saw what happened there. They’ve only done two or three. And I’m like, I was just like, oh my God, you guys are still learning this stuff. mean, how many of you guys been, how many had a deal that goes by and they end up in some litigation with you’re getting sued or anything like that, or a deal gone bad. And so great people, you know, very nice.

Brett McCollum (24:01.496)
Yeah, yeah.

Mark Monroe (24:20.542)
You know, I did, they brought, they had some amazing speakers. So I did really well on that. But again, make sure that whoever you’re learning this from has had years experience. even the people that are processing the paperwork, you know, they call them TC, transactional coordinators. I see them giving legal advice and there’s a lot of wrong, illegal advice. So, you know, how long have they been doing it for? You know, make sure they’ve been in the business for at least five, 10 years. I’ve done, have they done a hundred transactions minimum?

on that stuff. And then, quite frankly, reach out to some attorneys. Talk to some attorneys, like some attorneys, review your contract. That one contract, that one deal that I told you about earlier, it was a state that I never done business with and I was lazy and I used one of my old contracts. And they had their own language and their own laws and regulations for lease options in that state. it bit me, quite frankly, it came back and bit me because I didn’t want to pay $1,000.

to have an attorney review my contract because I’ve been doing it. I thought I knew what I was doing, but it came back and bit me hard. So always have your attorneys review those contracts in those states. I’m sorry.

Brett McCollum (25:22.819)
Yeah.

Brett McCollum (25:26.114)
Huge and am I a lot I’m gonna do it anyway because you didn’t do it but also hook up with mark like like mean you do you mentor you teach people to do like this is something that you know in your you’ve got your the I Mean you you’ve done exactly what you just said i’ve been through in it for 30 years i’ve been doing this i’ve been through the legal complexity of it i’ve done this i’ve lost this i’ve had you know when if you guys are going to take advice from like

I was just talking to somebody a minute ago, Mark, and he had some really great wisdom that I thought was really cool. When you’re hiring coaches, never hire a coach that, like you said, hasn’t been through it, but also doesn’t have somebody they’re looking up to that’s teaching them to.

Mark Monroe (26:12.394)
Absolutely. You want to constantly keep growing. It’s great, great, great advice. I like that.

Brett McCollum (26:13.472)
Right? Yeah. so I’m like, so yeah, because well, I mean, I know a lot of coaches are like, no, I’m guy.

OK, can you?

Mark Monroe (26:24.475)
Hey, there’s things that I get like, hey, I’m not from the, and I’ll tell people if I don’t know the answer, I’ll definitely look into it and help you. Like if it’s a state, like I don’t do business. For example, I stay out of Texas because of Texas regulations, and know, like the least options, but I had people ask me questions and I have a lot of, my Rolodex is pretty big. You know, I can reach out to people, do a little research and kind of look into it and find out, be more than happy to help people. But the other thing I don’t want to,

Brett McCollum (26:36.739)
Mm-hmm.

Mark Monroe (26:50.408)
talk about price, but my mentorship programs are fraction of the cost of everybody else’s nowhere near because I’m a big believer just paying it forward. And that’s kind of, I know everybody’s like, why are you charging so little? But anyways, sorry to say that. Go ahead.

Brett McCollum (27:05.068)
No, don’t be sorry at all. mean, that’s our convictions, right? Like if like, I know given it shall be given unto me, right? That’s a principle, you know? And I apologize for it. Good on you.

Mark Monroe (27:13.61)
Well, what I get out of it, yes, I charge a little fee just to kind of my time is worth something. But I really, really enjoy watching somebody doing their first deal. It’s kind of like when I sell property to a family on a seller financing strategy, where they typically can’t, they don’t think they can own a property, they don’t think they can get home ownership. And when you see how they’re how they react, and they become a true homeowner, and they

Brett McCollum (27:22.979)
That, yeah.

Mark Monroe (27:43.531)
refinance a property, getting her a name. It’s such an amazing feeling and it’s the same feeling as helping somebody do the first deal, helping somebody to be able to succeed. I guess the best way of describing it is think of your child when they, at Christmas time, and they open that gift up and they’re getting something and you see that, you know, that feeling that you feel good. That’s, I get more of a high than that, than anything at this moment.

Brett McCollum (28:07.394)
Yeah, yeah, I mean, and that’s and when that happens, like, I mean, it’s the law of reciprocity to right. So like, you’re able to, like, you’re bringing this value and you’re bringing this value and you bring this value and the natural byproduct is for Mark. I don’t know, I am making assumptions here. But I imagine it’s, it comes back, it comes back, it comes back, you know, I love that. I mean, I think that’s, that’s beautiful. I want to ask you this, though. People, I just kind of plugged you a little bit, but like,

How can they get a hold of you? Like, what’s the best way for that to happen? How can they reach out? You know, what does that look like?

Mark Monroe (28:42.666)
Sure. Well, you can just type my name, Mark Monroe, and then real estate. You’ll see all the stuff that pops up. But my website is mark, like my name, M-A-R-K, the minus sign, munro.com. But you can follow me. I have a huge group on Facebook. I think we just hit 160,000 members over there. Just in general, we’re always giving information, helping people out. But just type my name and Mark Monroe in real estate, and you’ll see all my stuff that pops up.

I have a book over there that was number one on Amazon as well. Actually, I have a copy of it here. So you can get that on Amazon as well. But you can probably follow it through the website as well.

Brett McCollum (29:20.795)
perfect,

Brett McCollum (29:25.442)
Yeah, I mean, and guys, it’s it when we say there’s no brainers, sometimes there’s no brainers, right? This is a no brainer because if you’re going to be doing it and pivoting with the market, you need to do it the right way to save yourself from I’m telling you, don’t get we talked about this pre show mark humility, right? Don’t have your pride get in the way enough to say it can’t happen to you because it could be out of just unintentional ignorance. Yep. It can be out of. Yeah.

Mark Monroe (29:51.572)
Happens all of us.

Brett McCollum (29:53.344)
Unintentional ignorance, you didn’t know that rule and that state that you didn’t know. Right? Unintentional ignorance costs you $47,000. Unintentional ignorance, guys, that’s why you have people in your corner, coaches that have been there, done it, have the, you know, they have the scars, they have the, you know, the things like that. So it’s a no brainer. Reach out to Mark, get to know him, at a bare minimum. Guys, it’s a free Facebook group, okay? Just go on. You know what mean? So, yeah.

Mark Monroe (30:22.73)
It’s not just that, it’s about networking. mean, we’re always looking, we met another mastermind. So we’re even always surrounding ourselves with like-minded individuals that kind of raise our level, even at this stage. So it’s that a lot of people don’t want to pay because they think they can take shortcuts and do this, but it will save you so much time and money and headaches. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen people come in. They listen, I do free Zooms on Monday nights, also on solid financing strategies.

Brett McCollum (30:33.687)
That’s right.

Mark Monroe (30:52.532)
They come in and try to pick my brain and learn stuff to go out there and do something and it costs them because they didn’t have the right guidance to the whole entire process on it. The whole product on that. But the other thing is also is there’s so many creative seller financing strategies. You have to understand the seller’s needs. And this is where most people really get, where people really go wrong. And even other investors, they’re always looking at the numbers. Yes, you need to look at the numbers.

Brett McCollum (31:09.112)
Yeah.

Mark Monroe (31:20.126)
But when it comes to creative seller financing strategies, you have to think of it like this. It’s a marriage. You’re gonna be in a long-term commitment with these sellers for three, five, seven, 10 years. So the first time you’re having that conversation with a seller, think of it like your spouse. You’re sitting down talking and getting to know each other. 80 % of my phone call with them is getting to build a rapport and a relationship with them. I could give you a quick example on a deal. One of my members had a program. We jumped on a phone call.

Brett McCollum (31:44.056)
Mm-hmm.

Mark Monroe (31:50.165)
This guy had, he was open to sell of financing. He only won $128,000, but he wanted $30,000 down. It did not make sense. He had over, I asked him how many offers he had, had 12 or 15 offers from other real estate investors. And I said, what’s the problem? They’re all beating them up in a low price. So I spent a good half hour just getting to know him. I got to know his kids, his dogs, his sports, and he’s getting to know me in return. We just built that rapport. I found that he banked with a credit union, good credit, all that stuff. And I found out what he needed the money for.

Brett McCollum (32:13.262)
Sure, yeah.

Mark Monroe (32:19.892)
Goes, I need $25,000 for a camper. And then he needs some spending money. So I took him on that journey of asking what his life’s, you know, we’re visualizing camping, what he’s gonna be doing, blah, blah, blah. So I took him down that road, made him feel it. So I came back to him and I said, you know, I’m gonna be frank with you, nobody’s gonna put $30,000 down on a $120,000 home. So what I’ll do is I’ll give you $3,500 down, go ahead and take a loan out from the camper at the credit unit he banks with. He has really good, great, and we’ll make the payments.

So on the 20th of every month, we automatically make the payments on the camper on his behalf. We got that deal for $3,500 because I listened to him. He built a rapport and I understood what his problem was.

Brett McCollum (32:58.784)
And it was, yeah, that’s, and that’s, that’s why I mean, there’s power in creative finance, right? There’s so much power in it, but it’s got, guys, you have to do it responsibly. But when you do figure it out and you can do it responsibly, I mean, I imagine, Mark, I don’t make one, I make any assumptions, residential, I’m sure there’s commercial plays. I’m sure there’s all kinds, like it’s, it’s exponential, am I right?

Mark Monroe (33:22.762)
Oh, well, I about five years ago, there was a land development deal in Carolinas. The seller wanted one point five million for this piece of land. Don’t remember how many acres, but it was on public water and sewer. Instead of him getting one point five million, he ended up making three point one on it. And what I did is I brought a build a developer in and we used the land as a leverage. We ended up building forty nine homes in there. We used the land as the leverage for the entitlement and we would build five homes at a time.

We got into that deal with no money down.

There’s a partnership.

Brett McCollum (33:53.614)
Yeah, that’s the thing man, so yeah, so guys again you’ve heard it here like go follow mark He’s got the you know, he’s got the free Facebook page mark-mark-I’m gonna say mark-monroe.com Follow him guys. He’s worth following and really like dive deep because If you’re gonna be doing it do it the right way and you know, like I’ve be like mark guys Like do it do it there, you know with hopefully without some of the lessons you’ve had to learn, right?

And learn from us. So all right mark. It’s been a phenomenal show man. I seriously thanks for jumping on here with us today It’s your wisdom is is so good. Thank you for sharing. I appreciate you

Mark Monroe (34:35.858)
I appreciate you having me on, know, and it’s always a pleasure. You I always enjoy chatting with you. It’s always a, it’s high level. You know, I really enjoy that. That’s the key to it is like, you need that high level and it makes it more fun, you know, especially talking to like, not an individual.

Brett McCollum (34:47.329)
Yeah, yeah, it’s well, it’s iron sharpening iron, right? Like we’re getting, we’re helping each other, you know, grow. So yeah, same to you, man. You’re the best. I appreciate you. And guys, until the next show, we’ll see you on the next one, everybody. Take care, guys. All right, bye.

Mark Monroe (34:59.147)
Be well,