Jenn & Joe Delle Fave - The Creative Finance Playbook For Real Estate

Jenn started out as a middle school English teacher while Joe was stuck working at a car dealership in Upstate New York. Over time, they slowly started chipping away at their real estate goals through the use of creative financing and the rent to own strategy. What started out as a 1 month long trip to Florida turned into them taking 45 days to pack up their lives in New York, sell their primary residence and permanently move down to Florida, where they now homeschool their 2 kids while pursuing their real estate goals in warmer weather. As host of the Creative Finance Playbook Podcast, they help others use creative financing methods to help them achieve their real estate goals by buying rental properties without banks

In this episode, you will be able to:

• Mastering Creative Financing in Real Estate: Uncover innovative ways to secure financing, giving you the edge in real estate deals.
• Discover how real estate can be a powerful tool for creating long-term wealth and financial stability.
• Seller Financing Strategies: Learn effective tactics for leveraging seller financing to close more real estate deals with ease.
• Rent to Own Real Estate Investing: Explore the potential of rent-to-own strategies in real estate to expand your investment opportunities.
• Generating Real Estate Leads on Facebook: Unlock the secrets to using Facebook as a powerful tool for attracting quality leads in the real estate market.

The key moments in this episode are:
00:00:00 - Getting Started in Real Estate Investing
00:05:37 - Transition to Creative Financing
00:09:57 - Going All In on Real Estate
00:11:07 - Virtual Real Estate Investing
00:13:20 - Using Facebook for Lead Generation
00:19:28 - Choosing the Right Market
00:22:23 - Benefits of Rent-to-Own
00:25:04 - Lifestyle Changes
00:26:46 - Getting Started and Building Momentum

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Jenn Delle Fave, Joe Delle Fave
Within a little over a month, we had our first creative finance deal seller finance free and clear property. It was a turnkey. It was like, not a junker. It was the first house we bought that we didnt have to do work to, so, which is really nice. We bought it with a $100 down. I had a 0% mortgage and a super low dollar 500 payment in New York. Like, that was a crazy deal. I remember getting home and showing her the agreement because I signed it with him at McDonalds. And that was the day life changed.

Mike Swenson
Welcome to. Welcome to the REL Freedom show, where we inspire you to pursue your passion to gain time and financial freedom through opportunities and real estate. I'm your host, Mike Swenson. Let's get some REL Freedom together. Hello, everybody. Welcome to another episode of REL Freedom, real estate leverage Freedom, where we talk about different ways that people can build wealth, gain time and financial freedom through opportunities and real estate. I know for a lot of you out there, you often hear, I don't have the money to invest. I don't know what to do, I don't know how to get the money. My debt to income ratio is off. And so you've probably heard a lot about creative financing, and for a lot of people, at least the people that I talk to, they don't know enough about it. They feel scared about it. It feels weird maybe for some people, but when you're in it, there's a lot of success. So today's guests, we've got Joe and Joe Delafave, and they have put together the creative finance playbook. Also host of the Creative Finance Playbook podcast. Just a great story of working w two type jobs, building wealth and real estate, being able to move from Florida. I heard a great story of you guys selling everything, moving back down to Florida after being in Florida. So excited to hear kind of more of your journey and how that works. But you guys really focus on creative financing, and so would love to dispel a lot of the myths out there and you guys to be able to share how you guys are doing that. So welcome to the show.

Jenn Delle Fave, Joe Delle Fave
Oh, thank you so much, Mike, for having us on.

Jenn Delle Fave, Joe Delle Fave
Yeah, we're super pumped to be here.

Mike Swenson
Go back a little bit, share that backstory, and talk about how you guys got into real estate.

Jenn Delle Fave, Joe Delle Fave
Well, you know, we're doing a lot of deals now. We got a closing we're doing in a couple of weeks with a house built just two years ago, and they're open to seller financing. So it's really changed our whole business. But it did not start that way in the beginning. It was the year 2024 years ago. I was completely broke. I was like 22 at the time. My buddy bought a course on some late night commercial about real estate. That's what got me into it. I begged him to let me borrow it. I did. A month later, I had a deal under contract and I wholesaled it. I didn't even know what that even was. I got it under contract. I found a cash buyer, but I made like $12,733 on that deal. And back then I was so broke, I never went to college. So to have that kind of money, it was like life changing for me, because before that, if I had $1,000 in my checking account, it's because I didn't pay rent yet that month. So this was really big and it really kind of, you know, all my family and friends who are kind of negative and like, what are you even doing in real estate? Like, you don't have money, you're broke, and how are you going to do this deal? It worked. And everybody just jaw hit the ground. So, lucky enough to meet Joe had a job. Met Joe and she was a school teacher.

Jenn Delle Fave, Joe Delle Fave
Yeah. So 2008, we met in January. I owned my own house, he owned his own house. And by the end of summer, we were starting to buy some properties that were definitely in need of some love fixer uppers. The market had started crashing, and so in upstate New York, we could pick up a house around, what, 40,000?

Jenn Delle Fave, Joe Delle Fave
Yeah.

Jenn Delle Fave, Joe Delle Fave
And it was actually a decent area, a nice little house. It just needed some work and slowly added, like a property every other year. In the very beginning, I was still teaching middle school English, which I loved, but Joe was in the car dealership and we just had no time together. So we got married in 2000, 2010, and then I walked away in 2011, and we really started to talk about our future of like, how do we spend more time together? And we saw real estate as a vehicle. We just didn't know exactly how to implement it.

Jenn Delle Fave, Joe Delle Fave
Yeah, because when Joe walked, when walked away from being a teacher, we're like, okay, like, we're going to start having kids, we're going to be like this family, it's going to go to my dealership job. But we still wanted to buy real estate. And so we were doing it kind of slow and that's what we didn't learn to. I didn't know what Brrrr was, that's what we were doing. But we weren't getting to the portfolio size as quickly as I would hope to, right? Because now I'm in my thirties and just trying to scale. So maybe I could eventually leave these golden handcuffs of my job. Because ultimately I worked a lot. I didn't see my kids, I barely saw my wife. And when I was home, I was exhausted from working 1213 hours, days. That was a goal. And then in 2016, I was at the bank refinancing out of our latest deal that we were doing. I had a one year old, a three year old, and my friend at the bank was like, hey, you know, at ten mortgages, the banks going to end up cutting you off. So what are you going to do next? And I never thought of that. So I went down a rabbit hole. I started researching, and then I found out that you can buy real estate without banks, without getting your credit checked with, like, and I heard, like, $100 down. And I'm like, there's no way. Um, I watched, like, every video back in 2016 when I found this is actually a thing. My head was like, oh, my gosh, it was blown. So, uh, first thing we did is we went out and hired some help. We got a coach who walked us through the steps of how to do this. And within a little over a month, we had our first create a finance deal. Seller finance, um, free and clear property. It was a turnkey. It was, like, not a junker. It was the first house we bought that we didn't have to do work to, so, which is really nice. We bought it with $100 down. I had a 0% mortgage and a super low $500 payment in New York. Like, that was a crazy deal. I remember getting home and showing her the agreement because I signed it with them at McDonald's. And, like, that was the day life changed. That was the day where I'm really.

Jenn Delle Fave, Joe Delle Fave
Light bulbs went off and proof of concept. Everything started really changing there and then. At the time, I think we had five properties. Yeah, in 2017. And we learned about the rent to own strategy. So we started changing those rentals over to rent to own. So we started collecting large, nonrefundable option deposits upfront, and then we're actually cash flowing because now the tenants were going to take care of maintenance and repairs. And then eventually those tenants will buy those properties, and you make a big back end check, too. So that combination of buying on terms and then selling on rent to own is really what helped propel us to where we are today.

Mike Swenson
Awesome story to hear. I think for a lot of people, you sharing the story about $100 and. And being able to get your first property. For a lot of people, number one, they may have a thought of, like, a traditional way that real estate should go, right? Like, I've been in residential real estate for, for ten years, and it's like, well, this is how it goes. I'm an agent. This is what we do, right? Realizing there's so many different ways to do it. And then the other thing that I always think of for people is they always think for you guys to win, a somebody else has to lose. And it's really about a win win situation. You're just looking for the right mix of opportunity. It doesn't mean you're trying to, like, pull the wool over somebody's eyes or, you know, get one over on them. For you guys to get a property, you really can create win win situations where both sides are really happy with how it works and you don't have to use a bank. And so that's the thing for me over the last few years, investing more and doing more creative financing. There's just so many options out there. There's so many things that you can do to create these win win scenarios and help you guys and help the sellers that you're working with.

Jenn Delle Fave, Joe Delle Fave
Well, and you hit it on the Hud. Cause, like, we paid his price. I didn't try to, like, negotiate. He was more than fair with his price. I just asked him if he would do it in payments. And he's like, yeah, that's fine. He didn't really want to list it in the market. It had a lot of sentimental value. It was his grandfather's. He inherited it, you know, he was renting it to a coworker and didn't want to do that anymore because he lived so far away. But then that's what really set that movement forward, that we could actually pay top dollar for a house. All of the people who had a turnkey house that were maybe motivated to sell, sometimes they were motivated and even had some, like, pain, like some financial struggles or something like that. And if it wasn't a fixer upper that I could buy for like $0.50 on the dollar, I used to just say, no, thank you. I can't help you. So once I found out, wait a minute, I could still do that and do this, too. Watch out, world, because here I come. So the next deal we bought, she had a mortgage. That's when I learned I could buy it. Same thing, $100 down. I covered a few thousand in closing costs, and we just took over paying her old mortgage directly to her lender. I didn't assume it. I didn't have to. To get bank qualified. It was closed in, I don't know, probably a month. This is an upstate New York, so maybe probably even over a month. Cause they're just so slow. But not. That's a different podcast. Um, but we did that deal. We put in a renter, rent to own, and we're like, oh, my gosh. Because now, instead of getting a security deposit, our renters are giving us 1020 30,000 to move into our rental house. So that was like, wow, okay. So now we're actually doing it and making money, which is a wonderful thing. And we're helping people. Cause, like, those people, a bunch of them bought their house. Some are still renting. But then Covid happened, and 2020, I was just getting a raise at my job, and he told me, like, you're not quitting anytime soon, are you? And I said, no, oh, no, I'll be here for a long time. And he said, good, I'm paying more money. And then two weeks later, Covid happened. They shut down New York state. We thought we didn't know what's going on. We had some rental property, so we had that coming. And then that's when Joe had this crazy idea.

Jenn Delle Fave, Joe Delle Fave
Well, we had intentions of going full time eventually. Like, the goal was when our youngest son went to kindergarten in the fall. You know, I'd go all in. We'd run some sponsored ads. We'd have this whole kind of operation up and running, and it just happened a lot sooner. So in March of 2020, Joe never went back to the dealership, and we bet on ourselves, and we went all in and just started building a team eventually. And, you know, really ended up down here years later.

Jenn Delle Fave, Joe Delle Fave
And that's what happened. We just. Our coach at that time, different one, said, you can't do what yourself. Like, you got to get some help. And we did. And, like, one guy was a pizza delivery guy who was 19, the other ones a 22 year old bartender. But we brought him on our team. We showed him exactly what to do. Now we started getting a ton of leads, and now we're just doing deals. And we went from doing one deal every year or so to now doing a deal a month, and then it started getting to two deals a month and three, and then we started bringing more people to our team. And then it started just, you know, doing a bunch of deals. And that's when I think, really, we've kind of opened up. I love upstate New York, but can we do deals in Pennsylvania. How about Florida? It was hot market. What about the Carolinas and Texas? And we even did one in North Pole, Alaska, which is crazy. And so from doing deals in Florida, obviously we wanted to get away. We were tired of being in the snow. We're working from home. We homeschool our two kiddos. So Joe had the master plan two and a half years ago, almost three years ago. Like, we're going to get away. Let's just go to Florida for a month. We work from home. We do this all virtually anyways. So we came down to Florida for one month, ended up staying for three. Our Airbnb host must have loved us because we just kept on renewing, and they had three months of us staying there, which was great. And then that's when we made a decision to go back to New York, sell our house. We still got a bunch of rentals and other properties up there, and moved to Florida. So that's what we've done.

Mike Swenson
Talk a little bit about finding these opportunities.

Jenn Delle Fave, Joe Delle Fave
Right.

Mike Swenson
I mean, because so many people have been trained to think a certain way on the seller side. You know, you're looking for these. These opportunities for. To find people who have flexibility, find people that are open minded to do this. So for people maybe listening to this, exploring that conversation, I think, number one, there's probably some mindset work that you might have to think about first to kind of clear out the junk, be open to accepting these other ways of doing things. But how. How does that conversation go? How do you find these people that are open to doing it this way?

Jenn Delle Fave, Joe Delle Fave
Yeah. Before you even dive into how I would say, like, mindset on yourself, too. Like, don't assume that a seller would just say no. Um, I think that was a really big aha. Moment for me, was like, you don't know unless you ask. Right? So that's really what's going to be important. So there are people out there that will do terms. You just have to ask the questions. And so, like you said, like, really work on the mindset that really is, I would say, 95% of it.

Jenn Delle Fave, Joe Delle Fave
Well, and like you kind of already said earlier, if you're helping, providing some value, and it's a win for them that they don't, these aren't like junkers. These are, like, really nice houses that they wouldn't take. A low cash offer won't work. It won't work. Right. And so if I'm able to pay their price and they're just a little bit flexible on either me taking over their current loan, because it's got a really low rate and a really low payment. So now I could cash flow or if it's a free and clear property and we could kind of work out those details, right, and make it a win. So they're getting some money and the way we could structure it is generally because we pay all the fees and all of that. They're going to make the most money doing business with us. And they would anyway, other way. Um, there's no commissions like there would be if you listed your house with an agent. So, um, if I could pay a good price and I could still get great terms on the deal, we both walk away. High five. This is a great deal for both of us, and I think that's the key. So it is a mindset, uh, mindset shift, because now, like I said, no junkers. Um, although this works on junkers, too, so, uh, that's a different story. But, um, so where do we find them? I think that's the big thing. That's the number one stopper. A business doesn't matter if you're wholesaling, you're an agent, you're whatever. So how do I find motivated sellers? I'm going to give your audience a big secret weapon that we use, that they could use, and they can start generating leads today, anywhere in the country for free, without spending any money. And it's just sitting right in our lap.

Jenn Delle Fave, Joe Delle Fave
Yeah. So we love Facebook and a lot of people kind of roll their eyes. Like, Facebook is so old school. Like, no one's on Facebook, but, guys, sellers are on Facebook and I seriously think it's really underused. So they'll stop your profile. It's okay if you haven't used it in a while. Like, let's get back up to speed. Take off old college photos, whatever. But, um, you're going to go into, like, different areas. So one, on your Facebook profile, like, tell everybody that you're looking to buy houses, right. Keep it simple. We don't ever use crazy terms like sub to creative financing. You know, just let everyone know that you buy houses. Like, keep it really simple. And then from there, whatever areas you're looking to invest in, there are a ton of Facebook groups. Like how many? 10 million.

Jenn Delle Fave, Joe Delle Fave
There's 10 million Facebook groups, which is crazy. And it's like 70% of the us population is on Facebook. So a lot of people, 10 million groups. There's groups everywhere. So say we want to join groups in Kansas City, right? Because maybe I want to do business in Kansas City. You just go in the search bar and Facebook and put in Kansas City hit groups. There's all of these groups and there's all different interests. It could be, I love, you know, the area, moving to garage sale, yard sale.

Jenn Delle Fave, Joe Delle Fave
These are not real estate groups. Yeah, they're like community groups where people.

Jenn Delle Fave, Joe Delle Fave
Are hanging out on Facebook, farmers looking for farmers groups. Like, hey, it's all good. Maybe they found love and they have a house to sell now. Right? So join all of the groups, especially if it's a really active group, and then make a post inside of the group, talk about you buying houses. And do you want to go ahead? Oh, we're going to do it. All right. So this is the exact one we use, but I'm going to tell you two big tips. If you're going to use it, please use it exactly like this. Don't change it because it doesn't work as well. I have split tested this thing billions of times, and when we use it, you could have sometimes no groups. You have a group that maybe you don't get anything from. That's okay. You'll have some groups. You get some from. Our record is one group produced 1100 comments on this post. So if you're looking for off market leads, people who are actually reaching out to you, I'm not calling them or bothering them. They're reaching out to me. To have a house to sell. 1100 comments in one post. Um, that's very unlikely. But hey, if you get a higher number, just send me what you got. Um, so what we do is I go into a group, I'm gonna make a post inside that group. If it's a buy and sell group, and it's like, what do you want to sell? There's actually a tab for discussion where I could just make a post hit discussion, make this post, and here's what it says. It's really simple. Don't giggle. But it works really well. Does anyone have a house for sale that's not market ready? I'm looking to buy one in the next two to three months. Now, I can make slight variations. My wife and I are looking to buy one in the next two to three months or the next two to three weeks. But the front part's got to say, does anyone have a house for sale that's not market ready? The minute you put like, hey, everybody, I'm a. I live in the air. It puts it too wordy. Keep it simple. Now, before you hit submit or hit post, you could actually change the background. You can make different colors, right? We call it the blue post, because I would always do that blue. It really stands out well, and it pops when it goes by your screen. I've used pink. There's a poop emoji. Don't use that one. Uh, but there's a lot of great ones that kind of like stick out. Um, and use that background. And then here's the next tip. Put it into like four or five groups every day. Five, six days a week. It only takes five minutes to do it. But now you're going to have people messaging you or they're going to write a comment saying, I do now. And don't get me wrong, some people like scam or whatever, ignore them. It just helps boost your algorithms. Um, if they do comment that. So it's just getting more people for free. So if they do say, no scam here, move on. Smiley face emoji. Don't fight with them. But you'll start getting comments and check your message folder because there's like a spam folder inside your messenger. And sometimes you'll have Bob and Nancy sit in there like, hey, I have a house and this is my address. I want to sell it because I live somewhere else. Right. And then start messaging. Right. Here's your leads, guys. Do your thing. Talk to sellers. It's a numbers game.

Mike Swenson
I think, going back to mindset, I tell people your job isn't to convince everybody that they should do it this way. You're just looking for the people that are open minded to it. And so you're sifting and sorting through all these people, all these comments to find the hand raisers. You don't have to go to every single person and say, here's why you must sell creatively. Here's why you have to do it this way. No, you're just looking for the people that are open minded. The path of least resistance, right? And then you deal with the people that raise their hand and are open minded.

Jenn Delle Fave, Joe Delle Fave
Well, and you said it perfectly. So what we've done is we've actually just designed a script. This is the script that is so easy peasy, lemon squeezy. Like, anybody could use it. Um, we actually have a virtual assistant do it. My kids have actually done it and they're like nine and eleven. Um, and it's just copy and pasting one question at a time where we're actually asking great questions and the seller is making us the offer. And that's where things have changed. We learned that from, like, really great negotiators, like, ask questions, have them give you the numbers, right. So once we figured out how to do that with our script, I that really changed everything. And if your audience wants that script, it's, we give it away for free. There's no charge. Go use it, don't change it. We give away that blue ad post like, go generate leads. It's free, it doesn't cost any money. But these were the two biggest things that held me back in the beginning. I couldn't find the people. I didn't know what to say to them. This takes all of the thinking out. Now just go take action and take massive action. Take messy action. If you goof up, no big deal. Just don't write a big check. And you can't goof up too bad, right? But get some advice on how to do it properly. If you're going to really go and you're like, hey, this is definitely what I'm going to do. I always recommend getting some great attorney and things like that. As you know, getting good legal advice and professional advice on how to do this properly, I think was key, too.

Mike Swenson
Now, in terms of finding markets, I think people might think, okay, you were in New York, now you're in Florida, Pennsylvania. What is that? Kansas City? What is that? How would I maybe decide where I want to pursue? I can go to anywhere in the United States. So where am I going to pick? And I think some people sometimes too, think I have to pick the one perfect market or the best market. No, every market has opportunity, right? So how are you guys helping people decide where to go?

Jenn Delle Fave, Joe Delle Fave
So I always say, first start where you know and where you live, your own backyard. Now, some people like, okay, I live in Florida. House here is a million dollars. It's a lot of money. But if I'm not buying with any credit, I'm not buying with banks, I'm not really coming up with a million dollars or paying cash for the property. I maybe buy it on terms and things like that. I don't feel like there's anything that's too over or under the range. My favorite thing I will tell you my secret weapon is where I am buying. Wherever that market is. I find out what the median price range is in that area, and I like to stick around that or slightly under that. But I want to do it in the best school districts. Um, because I could feel like, man, if the market's going up or if it's going down, if I'm around a little bit under the median house price range and I'm in a really great school district, to me, that's always a kind of a safe bet. And if the area is cash flowing and it's a beautiful house and a beautiful neighborhood anywhere across the USA, that's primarily what I love. Um, so is it sometimes in a small town in the middle of Pennsylvania? Yeah, I have some. That cash flow really nicely back there. Probably not going to appreciate time and time and time over in the next 1520 years because those houses generally don't do as much. But then there's opportunities like Florida and the Carolinas and there's so many places. So for me, I want to look at, obviously, appreciation over time. That's how you build wealth, is by holding them. But also too, like you got a cash flow, because if you don't cash flow and things start to happen, you're not going to have that money to go to go fix, right. Take care of it. And so to have that money coming in every single month, and that's how you're going to build that freedom, because eventually, you know, one plus one equals two and then two plus two is four. And then all of a sudden it starts to grow and you've got some serious cash flow coming in eventually.

Jenn Delle Fave, Joe Delle Fave
Yeah, absolutely. So we've never had a property manager when we just had our rentals, it was just us. And that was what we quickly realized we did not want to deal with all of the phone calls. And the time and time again, this went, this happened. So when we found the rent to own option, it was really the best of both worlds, because now our tenants are becoming homeowners, kind of in training, and they do take care of it all. So honestly, the only thing we have to worry about is collecting the rent at this point, or maybe the occasional utility bill that we have to pay and bill them for, and that can all be done online. So the rent to own option is just a beautiful hands off approach where, honestly, we do get way less calls. If anything, they're like, do you have a contractor that, you know, like and trust that you'd recommend? And then they're carrying that bill on there. So I love it. And I think that it really, truly sets us up for success. It set the seller up for success who entrusted us with their mortgage. And now we're helping renters become homeowners. And so I'm a huge fan of rent to own, and we're not having to pay a property management company. At some point, if your business grows like ours, you will want to hire some sort of assistant. We have an executive assistant who helps us kind of man all of that. Now, I'd say anything over ten properties is started to get a little, a little much for just me. So I'd say that was the point where I wish I had hired sooner. So if you have quite a few properties and you feel a little overwhelmed, then definitely get some help. But you don't need to pay those big fees to a management company if you're doing rent owned well.

00:24:02 - Jenn Delle Fave, Joe Delle Fave
And I think you're right. And we, we attract a completely different renter, a completely different client. These aren't folks who are just going to plan on moving in and moving out like they're going to. They're planning on staying there. Right. They're, they're putting down roots, their family, their kids in school and things like that. So they really care. And I think that's the big thing. When you see the pride that they take in there, it's really fulfilling because you own a property, right? That's like, almost like you're a baby out there. So to have somebody take really good care of it makes me feel great. Makes me sleep. Yeah.

Mike Swenson
They've got the vested interest because they, they want to make payments. They want to, you know, eventually potentially own that property. And they, they, they're going to treat it like their own. And so it's not just the, oh, who cares? Put holes in the wall and treat it like dirt. They're going to want to take pride in that. And, and to. You've got these Facebook groups that you're in. You can just post in there. Hey, who knows of a good, good so and so? That's the thing that I found, too, is these Facebook groups are great for finding recommendations. People love to talk about who they've worked with that they love. And so asking for recommendations in these Facebook groups is good, too.

Jenn Delle Fave, Joe Delle Fave
Yeah, spot on.

Mike Swenson
Talk a little bit about kind of your lifestyle.

Jenn Delle Fave, Joe Delle Fave
Right.

Mike Swenson
We talk about building time and financial freedom through opportunities in real estate. Now that you guys have built and grown this, obviously, you move to a new state, you're able to homeschool your kids, travel, things like that. So talk about the other side. For people that are listening, that are just getting started, wondering, is it worth it? There's a lot to learn. There's a lot of hassle out there. Um, you guys are on a different side of this. So talk about how your lives have changed because you've went through this and because of all the lessons you've learned.

Jenn Delle Fave, Joe Delle Fave
I say the first thing that pops in my head is, like, our health. Being able to, you know, wake up when our bodies are ready. You know, if it's 06:00 a.m. great. If it's seven. Cause I need a little extra sleep. Cool. We take a morning walk. It's 75 degrees right now. And we check the weather. Back in Rochester, it was like 48. So, like, even the quality of life, of being able to move outside and being warm and then having breakfast, lunch, and dinner with our kids is honestly the most amazing thing. I think, because nobody's rushing out the door, there's not this sense of stress of catching a bus or, oh, dad's going to be late for work. You know, it's just we do have a lot on our plates. We're very busy, but at the same time, we control it. And so I just got back from basically being gone all of September, which was a little crazy. Normally I'm home, but I got to go out to San Diego and meet a bunch of real estate women there. I was in a. At a retreat in Utah with the women investing in real estate community, and so I would never be able to take that much time off as a teacher, there's no way that would have been allowed. And I was able to know that my husband is home with the kids because he's able to be there.

Jenn Delle Fave, Joe Delle Fave
Yeah. And I think the big, you know, thing to always remember is, like, if we can do it, you can do this, too. Um, I never went to college. I just learned from this, right? I was going to be a chiropractor, chickened out, said no way.

Jenn Delle Fave, Joe Delle Fave
But I went to college, but I learned about literature and Shakespeare, and that's definitely not helping me with creative financing, not real estate.

Jenn Delle Fave, Joe Delle Fave
So the point of just finding the right people who could help you. And so, like, my day to day is like, I wake up. I mean, I go on walk, we have breakfast together. It's wonderful. Hit the shower, listen to podcasts, and then it's the two things we focus on. You know, obviously, we have our real estate business, and we're looking at deals, and I have a small team that's helping, and they're making calls, and we're looking at what deals are we going to do this week. And then we have some clients that we work with that we're teaching this to, and, you know, we're making sure client success, and they're getting deals. And so when you could really kind of focus, like, just people being successful around you, and then that helps you be successful, now you're just focusing on, how can I make everybody around me superstars. And that's pretty cool.

Mike Swenson
And for people listening, I want them to think about, like you said, if I can do it, you can do it, too. Sometimes people gloss over that, right? Like, and they just think, like, oh, but you had x, y, z. You had this handed to you. You're in this position. And I think for people to really realize, like, you can structure this, it may take some time, right? Like, you were working your jobs and doing this, and then eventually it steamrolled and it built some momentum. So there is that period there potentially. We always tell my team, you know, there's the two best times to plant a tree 20 years ago and today, right? So if I didn't plan it 20 years ago, I got to start today. And so figuring out what steps can I take today that are going to impact, you know, the next 1020 years of your life?

Jenn Delle Fave, Joe Delle Fave
Well, and I think that's huge. You got to just get started, right? And I think that's the key. If you look back on my Facebook or Joe's Instagram, you know, look at our names up, you can go back on our stories and see, like, back when we were just rookies, we had no clue the first time we went live, and I was like a deer in the headlights and like, hey, we got this. It was like our fourth house. We owned. And so we didn't document it knowing it was ever going to turn into this. Joe was just, we were just having fun and that's all it was. But. But one small win at a time is the key, and it adds up and it just takes that small little win one step at a time to get you there.

Jenn Delle Fave, Joe Delle Fave
And I think it's putting the blinders on, too, because we get very caught up with, like, what everybody else is doing because what everyone else is doing is typically not what we're doing. Right. Like, as entrepreneurs now, like, I can totally see that. But when we were getting started and people are like, well, what do you think you're doing with that, you know, real estate business or rent to own, like, sounds a little, you know, weird. And I remember being a little shaky at first because I was new to it. Right. And so you have to trust the process. Surround yourself with a really supportive community, get your coaches, and just be around those people because they are the ones that are going to help lift you up. And that's what I wish we had had more of that. Like, I'm glad that we had each other, but I know that, you know, now with, you know, with online, it's amazing how we can connect via Zoom and podcasts and all of that. So definitely keep plugging in and tune out the naysayers. Just smile and nod and know that if you have that pull in your heart, like, keep going. I truly believe that you're on the.

Mike Swenson
Right path for people that want to reach out to you, learn more about you, connect with you. How can they do so?

Jenn Delle Fave, Joe Delle Fave
I love Instagram, so Joedelafabe over on Instagram is where I like to hang out. I share a lot in stories and on my feed, same thing.

Jenn Delle Fave, Joe Delle Fave
Joseph Delafavellef Facebook and Instagram safety we like to share a ton of what's going on our podcast. We go live and do podcasts every week. Creative Finance playbook our resources. So if somebody's listening and you want to get our script, you want to get that blue post, maybe you didn't write all the details down. It's all on there. Creative financeplaybook.com. you could go download that stuff for free and go put it into work. I mean, if you put this stuff into groups today, you can get leads of off market properties tonight and you can focus anywhere around the country, anywhere around the world. So there's no excuses, like get leads, talk to people, help them, help yourself, and, you know, create the magic.

Mike Swenson
Awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming on and sharing your story. It's really inspiring to see and it's relatable. Seems very simple to do. So I'm excited to see you guys continue to grow and wish you best of luck in the future.