John and Jasmine Means are a brother and sister duo who’ve done over 30 deals in their first year since joining Trailer Cash Academy. In their most recent deal we partnered with them to secure a home for 12 grand and sell it for 25 grand in less than 24 hours.
They’ve always had an interest in real estate. Just from reading books like Rich Dad Poor Dad and other things they always knew that there were other opportunities out there.
What they initially tried to get into was traditional stick-built real estate. But they were busting their butt for a long time and didn’t get the success that they wanted.
Then John and Jasmine met us and we told them what we were doing. We were just starting out at the time. They decided to continue with their original path and see things through. After about a year of trying traditional real estate, they reached out to us again and joined Trailer Cash Academy.
We’ve spoken to Jasmine several times already, and so in this blog we wanted to get John for an interview so that the Trailer Cash Academy community can learn more about his journey and ask him some questions.
Getting over the feeling of being overwhelmed
John and Jasmine were literally two of our first students. We remember doing our first webinars with them and one of them said, ‘This is all great information, but what do we do right now because we feel very overwhelmed?’
Since they were both engaged and asking questions like that we were able to work closely with them and give them useful advice.
”You told me to just take it in bite sizes. I think the reference you used was an elephant. How you can’t eat an elephant in one bite.
So, we took it in bite sizes and comprehended the best that we could.
The biggest thing was we just didn’t sit on the information. We took it, we applied it, and then we messed up. And then we came back and watched the videos again. And then we applied it again.
Piece by piece we just took action on it. We just didn’t want to sit on it.”
What has surprised them the most about their mobile home investing journey was how sticking to the plan, the blueprint, staying engaged with us and the community, and just remaining consistent was the key to getting those first deals done. They just had to trust the process.
John’s first year has been a transformational experience because it’s helped him mentally to realise that he can accomplish anything. He’s gained a belief in himself that he can overcome uncertainty and obstacles and has the power to improve his life.
John & Jasmine’s most recent deal
We partnered with John and Jasmine on their most recent deal. We turned $12,000 to $25,000. It was an interesting deal because we also ran into a unique challenge with the seller.
The seller was deaf. We had communication issues. Going over the deals was difficult, but Jasmine had studied some sign language in high school. So John and Jasmine had to use an iPad as well as some basic sign language to communicate.
The seller was looking to move, he had some back Lot Rent due that he didn’t mention, but they were able to figure it all out.
”This was a no brainer, man. Anytime you come across a 4 bedroom 2 bath here they go so fast and they’re so desirable.
It’s in an all-ages park. And he really wasn’t asking that much. Jasmine was able to negotiate and we just picked it up for a good price. It didn’t need much work. This house was in fairly good condition. It needed some upgrades. But other than that, it was a solid deal.
No issues with the park manager at all. It went quickly.”
The buyers were some friends of ours that we have in the Trailer Cash Academy community. We were able to flip this really fast in 24 hours.
“This community is so powerful. I don’t want nobody to like, not appreciate what we have here, man.
Like I said, we want to be in and out of homes.Aand we just came across a friend, the famous Lee Love, and he was able to come in because he wanted the property to do a fix and flip.
We got it at the right price. We negotiated it. He walked the property and he was like, ‘I want it, let’s get this done.’ And so it was that quick. We were in and out.”
John and Jasmine could have done the fix and flip themselves and sell it for a higher price. But they had to prioritize some short term financial targets because they want to quit their 9 to 5 and go full-time in mobile homes. It made more sense for them at this stage to sell it as-is.
Lee was able to fix it up and eventually re-sell it again to another buyer that he’s working with, Marcus, who is one of our members as well. Marcus moves homes and he services the Mexican community. The home ended up being moved to land.
It’s just amazing to see all of the connections. How we’re all able to get value from this one deal and just pass it along. And everybody wins.
What’s next for John and Jasmine?
John and Jasmine have done over 30 deals in a little over a year since joining us. Their next goal is to scale things up and turn this into a big family business. They’ve got a brother who’s looking to help and their dad who is a handyman is about to retire and get an LLC set up too.
They’re both getting closer to the point where they can step away from their full-time jobs where they work about 50 or 60 hours a week.
”That’s the plan, man. We’ve adjusted our schedules to make sure we can accommodate our mobile home business. And right now, our mobile home business has taken off a lot faster than what we anticipated.
So we are definitely working on that transition out here soon. Don’t be surprised if you see us in the group saying we’re free!”
And as far as their next deals go, they’ve got one in the pipeline that’s out in Flagstaff, Arizona. It’s a little far out from Phoenix so they’re hoping to get the deal closed sooner rather than later.
It’s a double wide 3 bedroom 2 bathroom that’s a model from the 90s. They’re picking it up for $14,000 and they’re listing it at around $29,000. They hope to get it sold anywhere between $22,000 to $25,000.
So that’s a profit of about $10,000 in the pipeline. And the deal they closed a week ago was a profit of $13,000.
We’re very excited for John and Jasmine. They’ve been great students who’ve stayed committed to following the TCA blueprint.
Now it’s just about really taking the knowledge that they have and scaling it. Which means getting people in place, getting the automations in place, getting the systems in place for them to be able to expand their capacity.
Best questions from the Q&A session
How long did you guys wait and research before you did your first deal?
”Man, our goal was to get through the course as fast as we could. We went through it in a week. We just watched everything and just got a broad understanding so we can get the concept. And then from there we went back and we just started applying.
I believe there’s homework and everything. We didn’t necessarily do it right after. We just wanted to know the whole process. And then we took action.
The first action was how to do the marketing. So we just did that. And then from there, we went back to the videos.
Watched it all in one week and then just applied it.”
How do you locate mobile homes in the $5000 to $10,000 range?
This is a great question, especially for beginners who are in a market where they can’t locate homes for $5000 to $10,000.
In the strategies that we teach, we don’t like to shrink the pool of people we can serve. We want to be able to serve individuals in the retail and even in the wholesale space.
So when you guys are putting out your marketing and you’re going out and networking with other investors, park managers, or real estate agents, you don’t necessarily need to focus on homes that are under $5000 or $10,000.
”I think that the biggest thing we focus on is our marketing. Once it does come, we just try to take advantage of it.
Just focus on the marketing and the strategies and the deals will come. You’ll be surprised.”
Yes, there are deals for the $5000 to $10,000 range in most markets. It’s just about knowing other strategies so when you do get people calling you that don’t have their home priced at that range you can still make money, you can still make it work.
Just having those multiple strategies is so powerful because in the beginning we were just looking for homes under $5,000 and we threw away many deals. And so, it’s really important to open up your mind to not just the price of the home, but really how motivated the seller is and how you can help them.
I’m currently in the analysis by paralysis phase. What were some of the biggest hurdles when it came to starting your journey?
”The biggest thing for us was time. Like I said, we both work, so it was about maximizing our time. I know one of the biggest things that Jay and Samera talk about is maximizing your time.
So if it’s 2 to 3 hours after work, you just have to maximize that. Or even just certain days out of the week, you just maximize that.
We knew what our goals were and we really wanted to get our first deal done. We didn’t sit around on that information. And we also didn’t necessarily get too trigger happy with some of these deals because every opportunity isn’t the best opportunity.
We tried to stay level headed and use everything that was in the course about maximizing our time.”
One of the things that we preach to our new students is Imperfect Action.
It’s not going to look pretty in the beginning. You’re going to make mistakes. It’s going to happen.
Just be open to learning instead of feeling like you need to have it all figured out in the beginning. Most people think it’s Ready, Set and Go, but in reality you have to Go first. When you Go first is how you get Set and Ready.
So, change your mindset from ‘I have to have all of this prepared in order to get everything that I imagine’ to ‘I’m just going to Go for it. I’m going to try this and I’m going to make some mistakes. That’s okay. Because all of that’s going to help me learn.’
The clarity that defeats analysis paralysis comes from taking Imperfect Action.
”One of the things you guys left out too is how you told us about Little Wins. How to set ourselves up for Little Wins.
If it was just studying this week, that’s a win for us. Getting out our marketing, that’s a win. And so on.
So, that was really helpful from a confidence standpoint because I’ve seen us getting stuff done. And those Little Wins helped us a lot.”
I saw your video on remodeling on a budget, and I know you try to stay under $5,000 in total. What do you use as your budget for purchasing your manufactured mobile homes?
”As far as budget, when we go into every deal we have that Deal Analyzer that’s in the course. We use that to make sure what our ultimate goal in that situation is.
We try to figure out every route we can take. Even if the deal is bad, we try and figure out how we can make this best for us. You know what I mean? As far as getting in and out of it.
So it’s very situational. We don’t necessarily have a budget. But based on the Deal Analyzer, we try and figure out what’s the most we can offer. And what’s the most we want to put into this. So based off of that is how we come up with those numbers.”
You can get a property for under $5,000 and sometimes those are not good deals.
So, it’s really about looking at the deal and the big picture and running the numbers through our Deal Analyzer tool, which is super helpful. You can see the profit, you can see if you do it on payments versus if you sell it for cash versus if you didn’t put any repairs into the property. You can see how much you’re going to make.
There’s no cookie cutter formula. It’s really about looking at the deal in the situation that the seller is going through at the time.
I’ve been driving for dollars and I have my first appointment tomorrow. I’m nervous as heck. I don’t know what to expect. What can I expect?
”We’ve all been there. I know for me and Jasmine this was all new to us, so the biggest thing that we did was preparation.
The program is solid. We watched those videos so many times before we went into that appointment. So we just prepared the best that we could. And we just went into that situation with an open mind, took what we’ve learned and applied it.”
“We understand. But you’ll get over it. It goes fast. It’s actually pretty fun.”
Guys just embrace being nervous. If you’re nervous, that means you actually care and that means you’re human. But outside of the nervousness, it just means that it’s a response to something you’ve never done before. So, it’s the fear of the unknown. It is False Evidence Appearing Real.
We think the way you get over the nervousness, like John said, is having the knowledge. The more knowledge you have, the more weaponry you have or the more armor you have.
If you’re going in there and your knowledge base isn’t very strong, then you’re just not going to be confident in any of your rebuttals or the way you’re projecting your words or articulating yourself or even how to navigate through the negotiation.
Continue to learn as much as possible in order to feel more confident going into any opportunity.
And also recognize that you’re going to learn the most by just doing it. Until you actually get out there and you put yourself in that uncomfortable situation your learning isn’t complete.
It’s probably not going to be perfect, you’re going to walk away realizing that you’ve made a few mistakes. But that’s the experience that you’ll use for the next deal.
To minimize your nervousness, keep your attention on the buyer or the seller and try to serve them. Don’t feel pressured to make the purchase right away and solve their problems. Build rapport and learn.
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