Mike Swenson - 5 Takeaways From Hunter Thompson's RaiseFest
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A week ago I had an opportunity to attend RaiseFest, which was put on by Hunter Thompson, author of the book "Raising Capital For Real Estate." Held in Phoenix, AZ, this conference was attended by over 1,000 people looking to raise capital for their real estate ventures. I had an amazing time, made some great connections, and learned a lot about the next steps we plan to take in our business to grow and help people to passively invest in real estate opportunities. Here I share some of my favorite learnings, quotes, and concepts to be able to share with you.
In this episode, you will be able to:
- Identify why you may find some of the most lucrative real estate investing opportunities for 2024-2025
- Master the Art of Raising Capital for Real Estate Success
- Cultivate a Winning Mindset for Real Estate Investing
- Forge Meaningful Connections in the Real Estate Industry
- Learn the Art of Crafting Compelling Real Estate Stories to attract more investors to you as they find that they can connect with you
The key moments in this episode are:
00:00:00 - The Power of Timing in Real Estate
00:05:22 - The Importance of Getting Started
00:08:34 - Building Strong Connections
00:11:44 - Crafting a Compelling Story
00:12:47 - Building Deep Connections
00:13:32 - Changing Your Family Tree
00:15:51 - The Power of Your Mind
00:17:50 - Overcoming Rejection
00:20:15 - Key Takeaways
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Mike Swenson
One of the most powerful quotes that I heard, and the thing that's going to continue to stick with me is over the next 24 months, you'll see the best deals you've seen in ten years, and it might be another ten plus years until you see deals like this again.
Mike Swenson
Welcome to the REL Freedom show, where we inspire you to pursue your passion to gain time and financial freedom through opportunities in real estate. I'm your host, Mike Swenson. Let's get some REL Freedom together.
Mike Swenson
Hello, everybody. Welcome to another episode of REL Freedom, real estate leverage Freedom. I am your host, Mike Swenson, where we talk about building time and financial freedom through opportunities in real estate. Now, if you want to get started investing in real estate, please go to our website, freedom through realestate.com. That's freedomthroalestate.com.
Mike Swenson
We have a lot of great information on there of how you can begin your journey or get to the next step in your journey as it relates to finding time and financial freedom. So today's episode is kind of a special episode. It's a little bit different, but I wanted to share, I had the opportunity here recently to go attend raise fest by Hunter Thompson. For those that don't know, Hunter Thompson is the guy that wrote the book on raising capital in real estate. So his book raising capital for Real Estate, how to establish credibility, attract investors and fund deals, really is a great guide for many people on how to get started with raising capital.
Mike Swenson
And so he held raise fest in Phoenix and myself and Mike Swenson from our team got a chance to go. And there's a lot of really powerful things that I wanted to share with you guys of what I learned and hopefully inspiration for you to encourage you to take your next step on your real estate investing journey. So without further ado, we've got five powerful takeaways that I consolidated here in the learnings. There's a ton of great speakers, a lot of great sessions with panels, people sharing their stories, all the in between stuff. But here's kind of what I felt was really most important.
Mike Swenson
I will say disclaimer, none of this is investing advice. I don't have a crystal ball. I can't predict the future and so do your own due diligence. But here's some of the things that I learned. Number one is the power of this year and next year in real estate.
Mike Swenson
I listen to so many different podcasts and people talking about I wish I got to invest in the 20 08 20 09 20 10 crash man, if I would have bought back then I would have so much money right now, I'd have so many real estate properties. And so you can either look back at that or decide to get in the game for yourself and do something about it. That being said, we're at a unique spot in history here as it relates to real estate. We just had the high interest rates. A lot of the people are maybe sitting on the sideline.
Mike Swenson
And I still remember a great talk that I listened to where they said, if people are running away from the fire, you should take a look at maybe now might be a time to run into the fire. And so there was a little bit of a consensus here that despite some of the stuff that's happening, some of the adjustable rates that are coming due, the high interest rates, it really kind of creates a unique opportunity for people looking to buy. And so one of the most powerful quotes that I heard, and the thing that's going to continue to stick with me is over the next 24 months, you'll see the best deals you've seen in ten years. And it might be another ten plus years until you see deals like this again. Like I said, I don't have a crystal ball yet.
Mike Swenson
That seems to be the consensus. People are thinking that 2024, 2025 might be some good opportunities. Now why is that? Because properties, depending on the market, a lot of different markets, a lot of different stuff happening nationwide. But there tends to be some discounts out there.
Mike Swenson
You might find 10%, 20% discount on properties. And what we see is you try to get the numbers to work as best you can based on the rates that you have. But the one thing that you can't change when you buy a property is the purchase price. And so if we can restructure the debt down the road, if we can make those payments a little bit lower, if we can add value to the property and do some sort of refinance, all those things are great. While we own the property, the one thing that we can't change is the purchase price.
Mike Swenson
And so we can't restructure that. So if we get it at a discount today, fantastic. When those prices go back up, when rates go back down, now we've got a chance to make it a little bit more affordable for us to provide a great opportunity to hold that long term. And so the other thing that we saw was a lot of people felt like rates are going to fall, right? They're higher than they've been for a while.
Mike Swenson
We don't necessarily know how fast they're going to fall or how long it's going to take until they fall. But if we look ahead, we're probably going to see lower rates than what we see today. We'll just see kind of how low that goes. But once again, if you have a property and you can restructure the debt when it makes sense to do so, great, you can do that, but you can't change that purchase price. So now is kind of a powerful time in the real estate space to be able to pick up some assets potentially at a discount to where you can look back ten years from now and say, I'm glad that I bought these properties at this time.
Mike Swenson
Number two, I talk about this so much, the power of getting started. A lot of you like to consume content, a lot of you like to do research, but if you're not in the game of real estate right now, you're just a consumer of media. And so pace Morby was talking about how when he first got know, he worked for seven years as a contractor and he felt like because I'm a contractor, I'm in the real estate industry. And so he had shared kind of another powerful quote that resonated with me, which is you're not in real estate until you own real estate. So you might be working in the real estate industry as a lender, title person, as a vendor, contractor, whatever it might be, but until you own a property or own part of a property, you're not truly in real estate.
Mike Swenson
And so that was a powerful thing for pace Morby that really kind of pushed him over the edge of getting started with his investing. And his subject to stuff that he's become really famous for is just realizing you're not in real estate till you own real estate. So if you're listening to this and you don't own real estate, how can I get started? How can I do something to give me a win in the real estate space? Now, I was at a conference where I felt like a super small fish in a big pond.
Mike Swenson
However, start with where you are and what you have, right? So look at yourself and say, what can I do to get into the space? What can I do to manufacture the next win that I need to do to move my career forward in real estate? And that's what you got to focus on. Get a win.
Mike Swenson
You're not going to get better till you get started. So figure out a way to make that work. Now. It was really encouraging to hear. There was a lot of people that shared great stories of how they fell flat on their face when they first started for those of you that have read raising capital for real estate with Hunter Thompson's book, you know, when he made his first pitch, he was ready to do his touchdown dance and walk out the door and got a big fat zero.
Mike Swenson
And so if Hunter Thompson can do that the first know, I heard a story about somebody that had flew in people from all over the place to do an investor meeting and they had four people show up, right? Some might see that as a huge failure. Now the funny story about that is those four people ended up contributing over a million dollars. So it turned out to be a huge win. But there's lots of stories where people are doing something in real estate.
Mike Swenson
Now if you're not somebody that's looking to raise capital, that's fine. But whatever you're looking to do in real estate, realize you might fail for a while and that's okay. And so we'll talk about Mindset a little bit later. But think about this like I'm a learning machine. I've gotten this far being this bad.
Mike Swenson
Imagine what's going to happen when I get better, right? So I'm going to get a little bit better, a little bit better, a little bit better. And pretty soon what you do know is going to outweigh what you don't know. And so that's where I just really want to encourage folks. If you're not where you want to be or if you're not started in the area you want to be within real estate, figure out how to get started.
Mike Swenson
And a great answer to that is partner with somebody who's already in that space. Right. You don't have to recreate the wheel yourself. Find a way to add value to somebody that's already doing what you want to do and get started. So number two, the power of getting started.
Mike Swenson
Number three, the power of building great connections. Conferences are fantastic for that. There's a lot of times where you can sit and chat with people, have lunches. The food at this conference was phenomenal. So we got some great time to sit down and meet people from all over the place, different states.
Mike Swenson
Surprisingly, there was 1000 people that were here. Surprisingly, a lot of them were like, hey, I'm just getting started. I don't really know what my next step is going to be. I don't really know what I want to do yet, but I'm coming here to learn. And then obviously you had the people that had raised 1015, 20, 5100 million dollars.
Mike Swenson
However, I was surprised at how many people there were kind of in my spot, figuring things out looking for the next step, looking what to do. So I got to experience a different way of thinking, a different way of seeing things, and in a lot of ways, too, patting myself on the back for what we have accomplished. By the end of the next month here, we should be at about 60 doors with what we currently have, with the partners that we're working with. It's not just me owning those 60 doors, but with our partners. And there's a lot of people that are just getting started.
Mike Swenson
I can look up and see how people are taking down one 2300 unit complexes at a time, and I can say, oh, look at how small I feel. But at the same time, hey, I've accomplished a lot. So that's good. So great relationship building there. As you start to think about who you're surrounding yourself with and building these great connections, think about, am I hanging around people that are assets, people that are helping me get stronger and closer to my goals, or am I hanging around people that are liabilities, people that are pulling me away from my goals?
Mike Swenson
And so kind of sit down and take that assessment here of if you're in a house with somebody that might be considered a liability, you're not going to cut that person off. However, figure out how you can find some assets to surround yourself with. This podcast is a great tool for me to find other people that are assets. I'm not going to necessarily do business with everybody that I have a podcast episode with. However, it's a great way to connect, a great way to know who to talk to for certain things, who to ask for for advice.
Mike Swenson
And so figure out how can I build some more assets around me to help me continue to grow. The other thing that really resonated with me in terms of connecting with people is the energy that I bring to conversations. I can be somebody who presents high energy, or I can be somebody that presents low energy. And so if I want to have more high energy opportunities, I have to figure out how to be more of a high energy person to get those opportunities. And so the other thing that really resonated with me as it comes to kind of relates to energy is, can you be in a high energy state when things don't go your way?
Mike Swenson
Another quote that I heard was essentially the difference between highly successful people and people that are less successful is how long you feel sorry for yourself. When things don't go our way, when we have that investor meeting, or when we have that investing goal and we don't hit it, how long are we going to feel sorry for ourselves, right? Take a couple of minutes, feel sorry, and move on. And so that was something that was really encouraging to me. Things I do okay some of the time, sometimes I'm better than others.
Mike Swenson
But just thinking about that high energy, how can I bring and attract high energy and really be an asset to help others? That was, number three, the power of great connections. Number four is the power of a great story. So there was a couple of people that talked, well, pretty much everybody that shared from the stage shared some types of stories. And so we got to hear stories of people that have had a lot of challenges that they've had to overcome.
Mike Swenson
They've been in prison, they've been bankrupt. They've had relationship issues. They've had a ton of money issues. And so all these people have things that they've had to overcome. And so what we're remembering here, as it relates to capital, and even, too, for those of you in real estate working with others, remember, they invest in the story about you, the numbers and the deal.
Mike Swenson
But first it starts with you, right? So they're investing with you. The deal is important, the numbers are important, but they're investing in you. And so how can you tell a good story? Right?
Mike Swenson
Everybody has a great story to tell. It's just telling it in a way that attracts the right people that you want to work with. And so you got to find a way to build connections with people, especially in this more trickier market of raising capital. You want to find people that you connect with. So it's figuring out how to go deeper in your relationships with people, build some of those deep, strong connections that are going to last versus kind of going surface level for people.
Mike Swenson
So figure out kind of your story. What are you going to attract to remember we talked about before, start with where you are and what you have. So I'm not going to make up a fake story about how I own thousands of units and millions of assets under management. No, I'm going to tell the story of where I was, what we're looking to do, how we're looking to grow, and the types of people that we want to work with. And so start there, build a good story.
Mike Swenson
The other thing that was really exciting to hear was so many people are trying to change their family tree, do something better. I didn't have a lot growing up, and so I'm going to provide something more for the generations behind me. It's that type of mentality that really pushes people. And so we heard a lot of folks kind of say, I'm looking to change my family tree. I don't have to leave everything to my children or loved ones or charities or whatever is important to me, but if I want to, I can.
Mike Swenson
And so this idea of I'm here to help people, I'm here to do something big to change my family tree for the future really has driven people. And so they're sharing that story. We heard a great story of a guy who grew up in gangs and started to go to college, was still kind of involved in gangs in college, and ended up going to medical school and becoming a dentist. And one of his best friends growing up was shot and killed shortly after he got into dentist school. And so he shared this story of that very easily could have been me.
Mike Swenson
And so I'm going to make sure that the life that I live is going to be positive, encouraging, helping other people versus the story of one of my really close friends that ended up dying, getting shot because of drug deal. So it's that idea. Like, I didn't have that rough of a story growing up, and so I just tell the story that I have, right. And it's going to attract the right people so we don't have to come up with a false narrative. Just tell the story, be who you are, share that story, and it's going to resonate with others.
Mike Swenson
The other thing is, as we're talking with people kind of have this, they called it a with or without you mentality. If I'm raising money for a deal, the deal is going to get funded with or without you. Right. I'm not coming from a place of desperation. I'm coming from a place of I have an opportunity for you, and we'll talk about this in the next step.
Mike Swenson
But I have an opportunity for you. If it's going to be you that invest in this deal, great. If not, it's going to be somebody else that invests in this deal. And so as you're telling your story, you're helping people, but you want to share it in a way of I've got an opportunity to share. I'm not coming from a place of desperation.
Mike Swenson
So that is the power of the story. And so we are going to spend a little bit of time kind of talking about that, crafting that, coming up with an effective way to communicate our story so that it can resonate with the people that we're working with and hopefully find like minded people and people that want to go in the same place that we want to go. So the power of a great story number four. And then lastly, number five, the power of your mind. Right.
Mike Swenson
Mindset is so important. The further along I get in the real estate space, the more and more important mindset is. And so we had a speaker, Tom Bile, and he's just a very uplifting, encouraging person. And he's built major companies, multiple major companies in different industries. And so he talked about the human experience is an inside job, but we have to stay committed to the training, right?
Mike Swenson
So how are we going to work on our mind? What are we going to do to sharpen our skill set between our ears so that we can get to the next level? Another key learning was in the way of mindset is pace Morby talked about that gratitude is a skeleton key to every door you ever want to open. Right. The skeleton key is kind of like the master key.
Mike Swenson
So gratitude is the key to opening all of those doors. And so going back to how can I come from a place of being grateful? And gratitude to help and serve others is really going to open up a lot of those doors. And then, like I talked about previously, we're not selling, we're gifting opportunities for others. So if I have a deal that I'm sharing with somebody, I'm not selling you anything.
Mike Swenson
I'm just presenting an opportunity that you can invest in this opportunity with us or not. And if not, we're going to go find the people that do want to invest in that deal. And so from a mindset standpoint, when I hear somebody say no or not right now, that's okay, because they might be somebody that's going to invest with us in the future. So it's not a no, it's just a not yet. And if it's not them on this deal, glad we found out now.
Mike Swenson
Thanks for telling us. And we'll go find the people that do want to invest in this deal. So how we approach capital raising is really important to handle the rejection, handle the no's, so that it inspires us to get more yeses. And like I'd mentioned before, the key point here is how long do we feel sorry for ourselves? Some of the best people take a minute, feel sorry, move on, versus stewing in it, and maybe keeping us from picking up the phone or contacting the next person.
Mike Swenson
We're just going to keep moving on, talking to more people to find that success. The other thing, a key learning here as it relates to mindset is the level of thinking that got you where you are is not the level of thinking that's going to get you to the next level. We've got to level up our thinking, right? So the stuff we're putting in our head, the thoughts that we have, what we're listening to, what we're focusing on, who we're surrounding ourselves with, is really important. And so, as we continue to upgrade and move forward in our lives, we've got to find more people that are further along on our path and can help bring us up to their level and help us continue to grow.
Mike Swenson
And then a big piece here is just understanding, what can I control, right? There's a lot of stuff that's outside of my control, but what I can focus on is my own focus, right? If I'm getting distracted, I can clear that right back up. Focus on what I need to focus on with where I'm at. I can control the content that I'm consuming every day.
Mike Swenson
Right? That's why I hand pick a few podcasts that I like to listen to, the books that I read, focusing on the media that I consume. It's not all the downer doom and gloom stuff. It's all the positive stuff. Focusing on that, and then also who we surround ourselves with, right.
Mike Swenson
On a day to day basis, we talked about the assets and the liability piece, so we can focus on those things. So if I want to continue to grow, how do I go upgrade those pieces? And then kind of the last piece that really resonated with me was they talked about occupational integrity. A lot of us are entrepreneurs. A lot of us can set our own schedule.
Mike Swenson
We can spend our time doing whatever we want. And so kind of this ideal sense here of who I want to be is they said, do your job at the highest level every single day without being watched or monitored, without needing any accolades, and in the face of adversity. And so think through that. Where am I at? So, doing your job at the highest level every single day without being watched or monitored, without needing any accolades from outside people and in the face of adversity.
Mike Swenson
And so that's really helped to motivate me to think about those things, like, what am I doing? Did I just waste some time? I spent five minutes wasting it over here. Well, then that's maybe five minutes later. I have to work, which means that's five minutes away from my wife and kids.
Mike Swenson
And so it really helps us to strive to that. And so there's just a lot of motivational stuff there that resonated with me, and that's one of the main takeaways for me. So, kind of going back and recapping here, the power of this Year and next in real estate. Right. Number one, the power of getting started, finding a way to manufacture a win.
Mike Swenson
The power of Great Connections, meeting and growing your Sphere and upgrading that. Number four, the power of a great story. Kind of identifying your story and shaping that and telling that story to attract the right People. And then number five, the power of your mind. So there you have it.
Mike Swenson
Hunter Thompson's raise fest. Five powerful takeaways for me and what I learned. And so I hope that this inspires you guys. Maybe next year, sign up. We already bought our ticket for next year, so we're going to be there.
Mike Swenson
And so if you are in the shoes of considering going, I highly recommend going. I'd love to meet you in the future, but hopefully this will give you some things to think about, some things to consider and hopefully grow so that 2024 and in the future can be really great for you as it relates to investing in real estate, getting to your time and financial freedom. So once again, if you guys want to get started on this journey, go to our website, freedom through realestate.com, consume some content tent, get some information, but then ultimately take action on something, find a way to get in the game. So there you have it. Mike Swenson, thoughts from Hunter Thompson's braze Fest.
Mike Swenson
We're out.
