How to Build Wealth in Real Estate Without Traditional Debt or Upfront Capital with Ron LeGrand

I’m Igor Kheifets, and this is the List Building Lifestyle, the podcast for anyone who wants to build a wildly profitable email list working from home. If you’d like to make six figures, travel the world and help people improve their lives in the process, this podcast is for you. I also invite you to claim a free copy of my best selling book, the List Building Lifestyle Confessions of an Email Millionaire at igorsbook.com. Get the free book plus $3,000 bonus package that includes my best capture page templates, email swipe files and traffic blueprints, visit www.igorsbook.com for details, and now it’s time to claim your List Building Lifestyle.

Igor Kheifets  0:51  

Welcome back to the list Building lifestyle, I’m your host, Igor Kheifets, and today I’m hosting a legend, Ron Legrand. He’s a legend in the real estate investing space. He’s got more than 3000 transactions down his belt, and he’s a nationally recognized real estate expert and trainer with 27 years of experience in both residential and commercial properties and a 20 year history of hard money lending and brokering. Now really, this man needs no introduction when it comes to the real estate space, real estate education space, and I’ve invited him because, you know, as somebody who’s been making money online for quite a number of years, I’ve always gotten the same advice and would do with my money, and that’s put it into real estate. And being living in Canada for the last seven years, with the real estate market being as crazy as it is here, at least where I live in Toronto, I’m so pumped and so curious to pick his brain on the best approach to real estate investing and everything in between. So Ron, thank you so much for taking the time to sit down with me today.

Ron Legrand  1:56  

My pleasure. That must be an old bio you’re reading. I’m actually entering my 43rd year in this business.

Igor Kheifets  2:04  

Wow, yeah, that’s, that’s the one you got on Amazon. So, okay, so my bad, my bad. Uh, cool, yeah. So I know you’re still very much active. Uh, you’re definitely the go to guy when it comes to real estate education, and probably one of the few who actually practices what he preaches. Because, as we know, lots and lots of gurus out there in many different industries, you know, who teach, you know, people how to do something. They kind of stop doing that. But you’re different. You’re actually doing it. So can you maybe start off by, for the few who don’t know you, share with us how you got into the real estate space and what’s it been like for you?

Ron Legrand 2:45  

Well, it was 1982 and I was running a service station and broke and hungry and hot and tired and didn’t want to do it anymore, and I attended my first seminar. In fact, I had to miss Dallas Jr Ewing on TV for those…

Igor Kheifets  3:01  

Oh, I remember that we used to have that in Ukraine. I loved that.

Ron Legrand  3:05  

She was my hero, man. So that was a hard decision for me to make, but I made it. I went to that first two hour preview, and that got me into a two day seminar. And of course, I had no idea what I was getting into, but that was a life changing decision I made back then. And I wonder, you know, looking back, I mean, what if I’d watched Jr that night, would have been different. And, you know, I think over and over, throughout the years, how such a little, marginal decision that people make at the time, not knowing how big it is, could change everything in your life, good or bad for that matter. So coming out of that seminar, I did a little wholesale deal in three weeks, and got my first check for $3,000 and that was that was a spark that got me going. But I, you know, I quit my job and immediately started doing real estate, where most people just go home, go back to work. Fact, you probably don’t know this, but the largest training event that I’ve ever done, you know, was a four day event, was in Calgary. In 2008 we had 460 people in the room, all classroom style, if you can just imagine what that looked like. I mean, it was a sea of people out there, and so a lot of those students are actually still very active. I communicate with them from time to time. So I have folks all over Canada, and, of course, all over the United States, and they’re quite a bit of the rest of the world.

Igor Kheifets  4:34  

Yeah. Well, Canadians love their real estate. In fact, I believe the average Canadian’s dream is to own a home and to own a cottage. And real estate, you know, people recognize over here that real estate is a way to make money. I know lots of people. I came here like I said seven years ago. I know a lot of people who came from like, you know, post Soviet, you know, area, just like myself. So I was born in Ukraine, and I grew up in Israel. But, you know, mentality is still predominantly, you know, Soviet when I was growing up, it was still recovering from the Wall coming down, and, you know, everyone was really hungry and everything we were, you know, watching Hollywood movies on videotapes, and drinking Coca Cola, thinking that’s, that’s the life, you know, to us, that was, like, a big deal, like we had, I remember we were buying a Snickers bar and dividing it four ways, just so, you know, me, my brother, my mom or my dad could eat it. So here it’s like, people come in, they buy a home, they live in the home, and the price goes up, and that’s basically their retirement, you know. But that’s probably where most will stop, you know, doing real estate. There’s very few people who will actively engage in it as a business. Very few people do home selling on this side of the border of course, I know home wholesaling. You know, it’s pretty popular in America. So what are you seeing today? Like, when you look at the market today, has the market changed? Are we too late? Is it too late to make money in real estate? Are all the hot opportunities gone? Is the market cold or is the market too hot? Like, what? What’s going on?

Ron Legrand  6:12  

The answer is, it doesn’t matter. I started in 1982 the prime rate was over 16%. We were in a recession, and I’ve been through six of them ever since, and not one of those years could I not buy houses. And it doesn’t make any difference what the economic climate is or who’s in office, who’s running the government. None of that really matters. What matters is that we take care of our own house, so we don’t have to worry about what’s going on with folks that we can’t control. Only control we got is to vote, so I don’t have any time to even think about all of that. So over the years, I’ve learned that people are always going to need a place to live. People are always going to want to sell. Others are always going to want to buy, and the outside economics will affect that, but they certainly will not stop that. In fact, I could make you a case that the worse the economy gets, the easier our business is, because the more motivated people are to sell and the more motivated people are to buy, they can’t go to a bank to get qualified because of economic downturns in their life. So real estate is one of those things. It’s always going to be here. It’s not a fad. It’s not going to come and go, and it’s a stable income. Not only is it creating big checks now, but also you can do deals and you get paid for years and years and years in the future on them. We call that the term business. Of course, we do the wholesaling and we do the rehabbing and the retailing as well. But my favorite part of the business is terms business, because of all of the goodies that we get out of it. If we do an ugly house, we get one check and we’re done. And we got to give the government a good chunk of that, and your government too. And…

Igor Kheifets  7:59  

Oh, our government lost a chunk, they just increased, literally, just like a few days ago. I think they just increased the capital gain to 75% or what. Yeah,

Ron Legrand  8:10  

I don’t know how. I don’t get that well, you know, that makes a case not to sell them.

Igor Kheifets  8:19  

Yeah, exactly.

Ron Legrand 8:21  

Honestly, people think it’s all about buying and flipping and getting a check. And you know, there’s a lot of that going on, and in your case, you do have to pay taxes on it, but the real money is and not selling the houses, because you get appreciation, which is big, has made a lot of people rich the last three, four years. You get depreciation, you get the debt paid down. You get the monthly cash flow. And when I put a tenant buyer in a house, if they don’t buy the house, they lose their non refundable option deposit, which is measured in the thousands, not in the hundreds, because it’s an option deposit, not a security deposit. They don’t buy, they lose it. If they buy, they get accredited toward their down payment or the and their purchase price. 

So we get all these goodies by not selling that we’ll never get by just selling. I call them our golden geese. So that’s why it’s my favorite part of the business. Do it once and keep getting paid for years. I got one house right now I use for an example, because it’s a perfect example. I bought it 10 years ago. In fact, it’s right up the street from my home. I took over a loan for $351,000. That’s my purchase price. The house is worth about $385 then I closed on it. Within a week, I put a tenant buyer in it, and I priced it at 395 put tenant buyer in it. They gave me $50,000 up front, deposit, non refundable. Lived in two years. I netted $575 a month for those two years, and then they moved out and forfeited a deposit. And then I ever since then, my executive assistant has been renting. From me, but that was 10 years ago. So listen to this. During that 10 year period, that house has netted me with all those things I just described, $650,000 and the value on it, by the way, is almost $700,000 so that thing has made me $650 and I still own the house. Okay, so the benefits just keep on growing. So that’s how you get rich in real estate, not by flipping. 

Look, we all flip because that cash coming in is kind of handy and you know gotta but remember when I put sun tent buyer in a decent home, they’re gonna give me no less than 5% of that purchase price down, no less than that. So in this case, I got $50,000 down on a $400,000 house. I even got more than 10% nicer, the house, bigger, the down payment. And I do all this without risk. I don’t guarantee debt. I teach people not to guarantee debt. It’s the biggest mistake they can make, because if you guarantee debt, you’re always going to be a slave little lender when things don’t go right, you know you can’t control and of course, I’ve been around long enough where I’ve seen a whole lot of people go out of business because they guarantee debt, whether it be in residential and commercial. But we learn to buy properties without guaranteeing debt. We don’t go to the bank. 

We don’t need anybody’s approval to buy a house except the sellers, so we either buy with seller financing, which we also do in Canada. It’s called an agreement for sale up there, and we lease it with an option to buy and we own the house, and from then on, and our financing comes with the house. We don’t have to go beg for money. We don’t fill out any applications. So that house and several others that I’ve got very similar to it, have been producing income, and nowhere on public record is my name. Now you guys can’t use the Land Trust up there. You use LLCs for the most part, either way, solves the same issue, and that is, nobody knows what I own serves public record. You’ll never find my name there. That was a long answer to that question when it.

Igor Kheifets  12:09  

Yeah, and got me curious, can you tell us a little bit more about the terms of business? And yeah, it obviously seems to be a more lucrative way to make money in real estate than buying and flipping.

Ron Legrand 12:18  

Well, it’s a way to make money without risking anything. When I buy a house on terms, I sometimes have to pay the closing costs because the seller gets little or no money, and sometimes I have to put up a down payment. But that down payment is never going to be larger than what I think I can get out of the non refundable deposit from the tenant buyer, which will be in the house in less than 30 days after I buy it. So I got a front end profit there. And I don’t leave money in real estate. I don’t mind putting money in it as long as I know I’m gonna get money back, more money than I put in it in a short period of time. I don’t ever want to leave money in real estate the old conventional way, and here’s why. 

If you bought a million dollar property and put up $200,000 down, like when lenders are going to want you to do or more, that $200,000 is in that property until you either sell it or refinance it, which could take years. If you take that same $200,000 and invest it outside of real estate, we can get outrageous rates of return on that money pairing it with real estate. So if I like, if you invest money outside at just a measly 15% annual rate of return, that money will grow 10 times over a 10 year period. It will be 10 times more than it is today. If I leave it in that real estate, I will get no rate of return on it, because I’ll get the same rate of return on the real estate whether my money’s in it or not. Rate of return is measured by your investment and your return. So learn how to buy real estate with little or no money, and your rate of return will be infinite if I get my money back very quickly after I buy it, everything after that is free money, if that makes any sense. So it’s a matter of worrying what to do with money. The only thing that I do with cash is put it in something that is going to get me more cash back quickly. I don’t bury it in real estate, because I can buy all the real estate I want without using my money even in Canada.

Igor Kheifets  14:37  

So what you’re saying is, you find a property, you get the seller to finance it for you. You might put a down payment on it, and you cover the closing costs. 

Ron Legrand 14:48  

Maybe I give them money they’re going to pay some of the closing

Igor Kheifets  14:53  

costs. Okay, now then, within 30 days, you put a tenant into it, but it’s not. A normal tenant, it’s a tenant who wants to rent to buy. So they put a down payment to you, and they start paying rent, and if at any point, they change their mind, they don’t want to buy the property anymore, and they move out. You get to keep the deposit. 

Ron Legrand 15:16  

Clearly spelled out in their documents and in front of an attorney, it’s the condition of the option. Not only that, they’re responsible for all of the repairs after the first 30 days. I don’t do repairs on houses that attended buyers in that’s probably

Igor Kheifets  15:31  

the most annoying thing as a landlord.

Ron Legrand 15:35  

Yeah, yeah. Well, it’s quite incredible when a tenant moves out. That’s an annoying thing to a landlord. When my tenant moves out, we have a party, because we’re going to go out and get another 50, or whatever it is, and do it all over again. It’s kind of like buying houses without having to buy houses. Yeah, so…

Igor Kheifets  15:51  

How often do you find that a tenant actually moves out and forgoes a deposit?

Ron Legrand 15:57  

You and your listeners are not going to believe the answer to that question, okay, about 10% of the people that I put in these homes actually buy these homes. Sooner or later they move out. Now I’m not ever making a move just because they’re option expired. Ever I got a house right now, the tenants have been under 11 years and the option expired 10 years ago. Okay? They still pay for it. They are still doing repairs. Now, if they want to buy it, I work it out. I’m not going to prevent anybody from buying it and wanting to buy it, but they just don’t do what they need to do. You got to understand that people coming to me can’t go to the bank, qualify for a loan, credit, debt ratio, or whatever, stopping them. I give them plenty of time to clean up whatever their mess is, and they go get a loan if they want to. They just don’t do it, man, I and you are going to ask why? 

So I tell my folks to quit asking why, because that’s going to drive you nuts. I don’t know why people do the things they do. I just know that they do and I don’t do anything to hurt anyone. At any time they ask for my help, they’ll get my help if they don’t want my help, fine. Just get the rent in here and let me know when you’re ready to buy or move. So when they move, it’s not a bad thing for us folks who understand lease purchases. It’s actually a good thing. It’s another payday. But again, I don’t ever want to do anything to stop somebody from buying a house if they won’t buy it, but they just don’t ask for help, and they just don’t go do what they need to do to clean up the mess.

Igor Kheifets  17:18  

Wow. So what are some of the lessons you learned doing this for like, what, 40 years now? What would you recommend or suggest to a brand new investor?

Ron Legrand 17:29  

Oh, well, actually, I wrote a book on that, and the title of the book is Lessons Learned. Fact, you might even be able to see it up on my shelf back there. Maybe you can, maybe you can’t up here in the bottom. Anyway, that book was about that thick. It should have been about that thick. So, I did run out of energy writing it. One of the big mistakes that I see people making coming in is that they give up too quickly. You know, they go to a seminar and expect everything to work out perfectly, as it was in a seminar, it’s like any other business, it ain’t gonna work out perfectly, and you got to stick in there long enough to fix what little bit of problems you have. And in real estate the problems are always a little problem, but they’re big to the person that has them at the time, they don’t hang in there long enough to figure out how to solve the problem. Not having money is one of the biggest reasons people don’t come in because they don’t know you don’t need money, and they don’t believe it. Of course, when you tell them, I didn’t, I absolutely did not. But I learned very quickly that, yeah, you don’t need money to buy real estate a little bit, maybe because you got little bit operating costs, and you’re probably going to want to do some marketing. And maybe they might get a deal on a house where you want to pay some closing costs, which is not measured in the multi 100,000 this small amount of money, again, I get it back very quickly as well. I put it on my MasterCard back when I was coming up. I used my Visa MasterCard quite heavily, put money in the house, do a deal, pay it back. And a couple times I forgot to pay it back. So that’s one lesson. 

If you get some money, pay it back. So anyway, nice number one. Number two is be careful to whom you listen. Because the whole I got a t-shirt says the whole world is full of crap, and it is. You can’t believe anything anybody tells you. And unfortunately, too many people are trying to get rich by letting broke people tell them how to get rich. It doesn’t work that way very well. And you know, you really got to know that people don’t want you to succeed if you dig deep. I hope the ones in your home do, but outside of that, they want you to fail miserably so they can Waller and self pity with you and show you how right they were when they try to tell you this won’t work. This is a scam. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah countries full of those folks full of and you gotta ignore them, so I try to get my people to get a check as fast as they can. We call it the Shut up check held out in front of you. Shut up. Go away. Leave me alone. And unfortunately, some of those folks have your last name, so if you’re going to make this climb, you’ll be surprised how hard it is to get other people to make it with you. 

And they just, you know, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve reached out my hand people that are close, even my own family. You know, what an opportunity they have, and they don’t use it. I quit worrying about it. Okay? I’ve done everything I can do. They know what I do. Well, they think they know what I do. They don’t really, but it’s kind of up to you. You’re the only one in charge of what’s going on in your house, so first you got to get the education. And to try to do this business without the education is downright ridiculous. How many businesses have you ever seen succeed when they have no idea what they’re doing? I’ve had six restaurants, and I often use this: you can’t eat at a restaurant and learn how to run one. Okay? 

You gotta get the magazines. Same with real estate, what you see on the surface is not quite what is reality. So you gotta get deep in and learn from people that have done it, and know what the heck they’re talking about, because you’re right there. Boy, the internet is full of folks who’ve done a few deals, and now all of a sudden, they’re an expert, so be careful to whom you listen, and also you have to manage your time. I teach time management, and I find that it’s a big, big flaw, and the vast majority of people have no idea. Just go from one chaos to the other all day, every day, nothing gets accomplished. Your phone is one of those big violators. 

We all live with the phone. My phone is sitting right here, but just because it rings doesn’t mean I’m going to pick it up. And just because I get a message, doesn’t mean that I’m responsible for answering that message immediately. In other words, you got to choose who you work with, and I only work with people who want to work with me. And I make a point. I don’t want to work with anybody that’s a pain in the ass. So I’ll get rid of them quickly. I don’t care how many initials they have after the name, either, they don’t repress me. It just means they passed the test. Because I’ve been around long enough to know that what comes out of most people’s mouths, it just isn’t reality. Once you get past their world, and if you take a look at the people that want to criticize you, you’ll find out their life sucks, sucks trying to take it out on you. Long question, I’m long answer in it.

Igor Kheifets  22:11  

Well, I’m always happy to hear a long answer to a question like that, because you can’t live 100 lifetimes, so you might as well start asking the questions of the people who made the mistakes before you. So hopefully, I mean, still doesn’t prevent you from making the same mistakes, but hopefully you can avoid these, some of them, and I agree, I agree, most people will not hold back on criticizing you, even though they do not have any track record. And most of the time, people with no business giving you advice will be the first in line to offer their advice to you and tell you you’re an idiot if you don’t listen to them. 

Ron Legrand 22:48

What it cost, didn’t it? Yeah, nothing.

Igor Kheifets  22:51  

You know my biggest shock was to discover that you know my friends and family, it seemed like they didn’t have my best interest in mind, because as soon as I’ve announced to them that I wanted to become an internet marketer and to go into business for myself and to be free and break out of the routine and the nine to five grind, I wasn’t met with you go, man, like, you know, let’s, let’s make it happen. Yeah, it was like, What are you an idiot? What are you doing? And then it kind of went further there. Did you, were you met with support when you decided to walk away from your job and go into real estate full time?

Ron Legrand  23:34  

Well, I was 35 years old when I started, so I didn’t need my parents’ permission. Didn’t even tell them, for that matter, but no, I was not met with support. And in fact, everybody was telling me the same thing. And frankly, you know, looking back, that might be one of the reasons why I succeeded. I just had to prove them wrong. I don’t know which was top priority for me, and probably getting checks, but that was what that motivated me, when I knew that I could do it, and people were telling me that I couldn’t do it, so that’s the reason I did it. And you know, that’s not just me, that’s not you, that’s a lot of folks. That’s how they get started, to other people telling me can’t do it. 

Igor Kheifets  24:13  

Yeah, I completely get it, and I see it all the time. I’m actually mentoring this kid right now, and he’s being met with the same thing. He once started his own business, training soccer, and his mom, his dad, all of his family is just every day they’re like, sitting him down for long conversations, he’s like, Don’t be an idiot. Go work construction. You know, it’s like they want him to aim really low, if you know what I mean. No disrespect to the construction workers. I think there’s a big boom in construction in general, but this guy, he ain’t a construction worker, you know, like he’s…

Ron Legrand  24:46  

I understand that. I don’t get why they give him that because that’s their mentality, you know, that’s the way they live. But who, why would I want to go out in the hot sun and work my tail off? Physically, if I can find a way to make many times more money than that and not have to do that. I used to be in construction too, man, you talk about construction. Y’all be down here in Florida, where I live, in the middle of the summer trying to build something and sweating all day. I couldn’t take much of that. So I learned very quickly that you don’t make money with your hands. You make money with your brain, and that’s what we’re doing. That’s what you’re doing. And this kid is lucky that he’s got you because think where he’s headed if he continues to think like they think, yeah,

Igor Kheifets  25:31  

The first thing I had to teach him was to go read some books. Like I’m actually having to sit him down in my basement, which is where I’m recording this right now, on this couch. And I was like, did you read today? It’s like, no, it’s like, sit your ass down, grab a coke and read. And it’s like, physically painful for him to actually go and do it, because he’s used to physical labor, you know, training and, you know, soccer…

Ron Legrand  25:51  

Thinking about it. That’s what got me interested in real estate. Was reading books. I think back, I read all kinds of real estate books and got me excited. That’s why I went to that seminar, I think. But, man, that seems like two lifetimes ago. I’m still buying houses. Still do it. I have an acquisitionist that does all the work. You know, I’m 77 and I’m almost 78 years old. I’m opposed to hard work. So I learned to delegate, which is another thing that you got to learn if you’re gonna ever make money in this world. You’re gonna have to learn how to delegate, because you can’t, you can’t do it by yourself. You’re gonna need help, not necessarily employees. But we got all that done. We got all the outsourcing done. We got the company plug and play. Do this, do this, do this, and you’ll start getting checks. And some people actually listen to me, believe it or not. So some people, most people, don’t. 

Igor Kheifets  26:39  

I actually told a buddy of mine that I’m going to be interviewing you, and he was like, what the great long Ron, oh, my God, no way. Great. Yeah, so your famous cross border. 

Ron Legrand  26:48  

Man, okay, uh, Listen, the only difference between me and others is I decided to actually go do it and not find reasons not to do it, and people look harder for reasons not to do it then they certainly know that same way when you’re interviewing when you’re screening out deals. I have to guard against, uh, tell them constantly. Listen, you’re supposed to be finding a way to buy it, not buy it. You don’t make any money if you don’t buy it. But people get scared. You know, that’s the biggest thing right there is fear. Everybody comes in with fear of something. We have to kind of dig down and figure out what that is, because most of it comes from low self esteem, I believe, and that comes from a lifetime of not very many successes. So all it takes is a few of those successes, and that attitude can change, and that thing, you know, you’re getting cocky and forgot where you came from. I never forget where I came from, because I don’t want to go back there. Igor, I’ve been rich and I’ve been broke. Rich is a lot better.

Igor Kheifets  27:44  

Yeah, I agree. I agree. I mean, it still has its own problems, but better.

Ron Legrand  27:49  

I don’t say that rich people don’t have any problems.

Igor Kheifets  27:53  

Well, I guess if you have a problem, you have money and you can buy a solution, then I guess you don’t have a problem.

Ron Legrand  27:58  

Not always true, but most of the time. It’s true. Yeah, right. 

Igor Kheifets  28:02  

I know we’re short on time because you’re not so much a busy guy, but very protective of your time kind of guy, so I want to be respectful of that. I know there’s a webinar coming up that we would call the terms webinar. We’re going to be teaching the terms strategy or the terms blueprint, and I wanted to see if you want to, want to chat a little bit more about that. 

Ron Legrand  28:22  

Well, first of all, people have to have an idea what the terms is. And I think using that house, I think I explained it, we can have multiple streams of revenue, just one, and we’re in it for the residual income. Mark that word down, folks, residual Okay, you want to work hard to get as much money coming in every month without you doing anything that you can. So pretty soon it will surpass your income. And then you’re really financially free. You don’t have to have a million dollars in the bank to be financially free, but you have to have cash flow, because without cash flow and nothing else is going to work. 

And I want you to focus on that first now, cash flow does mean that big check up front, but that monthly money and all those other goodies that you get along the way will make you wealthy, and make it wealthy very quickly. So terms is a business that I didn’t even catch on to till about 20 years in. I mean, I didn’t know anything about terms, but it just simply means you’re buying the house from the seller by taking over their debt or issuing a new agreement for sale back to them. By the way, we have all those agreements, and then you own the house, but your goal is not to cash out of it. Right now, if I buy for cash, I sell for cash because I’m not leaving that cash in that house, even if I borrowed money from private lenders. I don’t want to leave that in that house. It’s of higher interest in the short term. But if I buy on terms, I sell on terms, which means to me to lease options in the property, which you guys do up there as well. Alright, so I’m setting up a golden goose, so as many of them as I can get set up, the faster I’m going to get rich. To be honest with you. So the terms are all about doing just that. It’s step by step. This is a whole seminar on where you start step by step by step, on how to find them, how to construct the offers on them, the documents that are necessary, and so forth. 

And then how to exit from the exit. And is the easiest part of a house you’re selling on terms, because 70% of the people who want to buy a house can’t buy a house for whatever reason. That’s our market. So when I put one out there on a lease purchase, it’s not a matter of finding buyers. It’s a matter of screening out and getting the best one that has the most money up front. Selling, it will be easy when you’re offering terms, especially in Canada, because, I mean, you guys do it up there, but nowhere near the degree that it goes on down here in the States. So you got a huge market up there, you’re going to get some big down payments if you do it correctly. So I teach you how to get out of that thing and make sure you get those big down payments. 

And remember, all of this without risk to you. Nobody’s going to guarantee any debt period in Planet Ron or I’m going to send a big old, ugly guy named Guido out to your house with a big stick and beat some sense into your head, because if we don’t operate without risk, Murphy will show up. And if you can, if you can learn, just learn to operate without risk. Just learn how you buy property without risking it. Don’t guarantee debt, don’t leave your money buried in it. And frankly, you’ll have more to do than you can do. And I’m telling you, you got a better market up there than we got down here, because we got massive amounts of competition down here, and yet we still buy houses. So this terms, course, is all about how to do it this way. You probably won’t run across anybody up there, I don’t know you live there that actually specializes in terms.

Igor Kheifets  31:45  

I’ve never heard anyone do terms on this side of the border. 

Ron Legrand  31:49  

Well, look at that. Ain’t that something that’s kind of like, that’s kind of like being Jeff Bezos in his garage selling books in it. I mean, you know Ronald bull.

Igor Kheifets  31:59  

indeed. Well, guys, if you want to attend this webinar, it’s a free webinar to attend, and we’re doing it for our listeners only. You can head over to Igor dot top slash terms and sign up for the upcoming webinar when you go there, if you’re in time, okay, you might be listening to this like, I don’t know, year after we recorded. So you’re too late. Sorry about that, but if you’re on time, then go to igor.top/terms, and you’ll be able to sign up for this free webinar where myself and Ron will be there to show you how the system works. 

Ron Legrand  32:33  

Okay, that’s Igor dot top. Okay, that’s a hard one to remember, man, you need another URL. igor.top/terms. You got it? Okay? I had to write it down. That’s how it is for me to remember. 

Igor Kheifets  32:49  

That’s why we have the show notes my friends. My Yes, so guys, again, you’re gonna this free webinar that runs you. It’s a virtual webinar. So even if you’re attending from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, Bulgaria. I mean, doesn’t matter where you are. This works everywhere. So igor.top/terms will show you how to pick the right properties, what to say in your contracts, the step by step approach to setting up your own terms deals, as well as how to exit those deals correctly, which is, like Ron said, pretty much the easiest thing is to exit the deal, because you get the down payment up front, getting the monthly the monthly rent payments. If they fail on their part of the contract, they forfeit the deposit. You get new tenants in. But the point is that we operate with no risk. We’re looking to get some cash flow up front. 

We’re looking to set up deals where it’s huge upside for us, it’s huge upside for the tenant, if they stick to their end of the bargain, but if they don’t, we carry no risk, we guarantee no debt, and then we just get a new source of income into the household, and we keep going. And the most important thing to realize is whether the economy is up or down. Recession, no recession, boom or bust, bear or bull. People are always buying houses. People always need a place to live, and even if they don’t have the money, especially if there’s a recession and people are really struggling to get, you know, credit, then this is the perfect condition for a terms deal, because what you’re looking to do is you’re looking to find tenants who can’t qualify with the banks, or some, you know, lenders, hard money lenders, and you’re offering them extremely flexible terms in order to be able to afford the house that they want to buy for their family. So it’s a really cool setup, I think. And what’s, what I really like about it is that you can probably set it up as a system, just like Ron did, to do lots and lots of transactions throughout the year. And you know, you get the upside from multiple streams of recurring revenue. You get the upset from the value of the house growing and not carrying the risk. In case the tenant fails to pay on their fees. So a really cool model, definitely better than fix and flip. You don’t risk anything. Don’t have to take on any debt for that, either. So igor.top/terms, if you want to learn more about that.

Ron Legrand 35:19  

There’s a lot. There’s some other things you’re going to learn that might even be more important. One of the things that I dwell on is how to handle the conversation with the seller. I’ve got some time tested and proven scripts that are very short and simple. In fact, you’re going to spend less than two minutes on the telephone to screen out the people that do not want terms, which is the majority. Okay, we’re not dealing with the majority here. You know, one of the first things people have to get over is, why would anybody sell on terms? I deal with that in there because, trust me, the percentage of the market does for various reasons. And then, how do you teach people to ask questions and then answer questions with questions, and therefore the seller makes us an offer. We don’t make them an offer. 

I need to go over those with you quickly so they’ll have a clue what I’m talking about. So my virtual assistants get all the information on the property information sheet for the students. Okay, and then you gotta call a seller and screen them quickly with a script that goes something like this. Igor, this is Ron calling about the house we discussed yesterday. You got a minute? Are you discussing? My assistant? Got a minute? Okay, sure, yeah. Well, I see here that you indicated that you may or may not be interested in options other than cash. Sometimes, of course, we pay all cash, but it’s always going to be much lower than the terms price, and there’s a lot of advantages to doing that. So would you like to hear about those advantages

Igor Kheifets 36:50  

Yes, sir.

Ron Legrand  36:52  

you’re telling me that if you sell, you do not have to have all your cash. Yeah, okay. Well, if you give me that answer, then I’m going into all the benefits of selling on terms, which I’m not going to be right now. But if you said, No, I only want cash, then you have screened yourself out. But I’m still going to ask you one more question. Well, if I did pay you cash, what’s the least you could take? Okay, now, if I like your answers, we’re going to go to a three question script I called a million dollar script. All right, you said you wanted 480 for this house. Tell me what is the least you could take if we agree on a term. 

Doesn’t matter what you say. I’m gonna say, is that the best you can do? You’ll be shocked how far people will come down by just letting them talk. Okay, okay, so then we’re gonna go to question number two. Now listen, we usually buy with nothing down. Okay, okay. You only got two answers, yes or no. If it’s yes, I shut up and move on to the third question. Okay, not talk myself right out of a deal. And if it’s no, and I’m going to say, well, then you know you do. You have to have a down payment. And if so, you know what you have in mind. What’s the least you could take? You don’t give me an answer. Okay, if it’s too high, I’m going to beat you down, or I’m not going to go any further. 

In other words, if you’re selling a $500,000 house and they want $100,000 down, ain’t going to happen. So I just tell them, Listen, I’m not going to give you 100 grand on a $500,000 house. So we usually buy with nothing down. How close to nothing can you get? That’s a good way to give me an answer. I’m going to say, well, you’re going in the right direction, but we’re not there yet. Okay, so if I get an answer that is good enough for me to want to come out to your house, then I’ll ask you a third question, and I’ll make an appointment. All right. Third question is, well, listen, I assume you’re okay if I make your payments to your loan is paid off, yeah. All right, good. 

We you just named me the term. Whatever your term is, my term is okay, which is the way I buy most of them. If you say, no, no, no, I don’t want to go that long. Well, then how long will you get me? You notice you’re answering the questions and making me an offer, okay? And you don’t give me an answer, and I’m going to say, well, listen, oh, some people give me 30 years. Some people give me less. I haven’t done one in less than 10 years, as long as I can remember. Can you do 10? Alright, so seminar over here, by asking the questions and getting them to answer the questions, they make me an offer. I don’t make them an offer. And boy, if you learn that, if you just learn to shut the hell up and let people talk. 

Ask questions, answer questions with questions, you’re going to get way more what you want inside and outside of real estate for the rest of your life. And actually, you’ve learned to carry on good conversations that people respect. Because I got 14 mistakes people make when they’re making that call, and we all make them. And you know, all these things that people can fix themselves if they just take the time to learn it. And I mean, it affects your conversations with your kids, even much less everybody else. So anyway, there is a lot to learn here. But frankly, the real estate business is not that difficult, and it produced one thing I like about it. I have a very small overhead, and I have huge high transaction value checks. Very few businesses can say that. I can tell you for sure, I need restaurants. I need retail stores. This is a very unique business worth your while to learn it and take time and fix all your little problems, most of which are self inflicted in this business. And I’m running off at the mouth, aren’t I? Okay,

Igor Kheifets  40:26  

Okay, alright. Well, don’t give away the whole seminar. So guys, if you like this, if you just like this little value nugget right there, go ahead and attend the free webinar at igor.top/terms to learn more about the system. Ron, thank you so much for doing this. I appreciate your time. One final question before I let you go is, if you could go back in time, let’s say 20 years back in time, 30 years back in time, and can you have 60 seconds with yourself? What would you tell yourself?

Ron Legrand  41:02  

Well, I would tell myself to always get help and ask for help. Look, I’m a man with testosterone, you and all of us other men have, and we don’t ask for help. Last thing a man’s going to do is ask for directions, right? In fact, if it’s working perfectly, we have to fix it, don’t we? We can’t help it. It’s testosterone, alright? So get help and get out of your own way. Because truthfully, there’s not one thing you do in your business somebody else can’t do for you. I’m a living example of that. I do almost nothing, okay? And that’s in all my businesses, not just real estate, and has been for quite a while. So get out of your own way. You can’t grow without other people helping you. Mostly outsource folks and quit trying to think you’re so smart because you’re not as near as smart as you think you are. And you just take a look at all the really wealthy people that earn their wealth. They’ve all learned that lesson, delegate and let others do what they do best, so you can do what you do best, and that gives you time to focus on growing your business and not putting out fires and taking care of all the groundwork that almost everybody does. And you know, I still do a little of it, but I’m a master delegator. I mean, it lands on my back and jumps off quickly onto somebody else’s.

Igor Kheifets  42:23  

Nice All right? Duly noted. So this was Ron Legrand, everybody? Ron, thank you again, and guys, until next time we chat, have a good one. 

Thank you for listening to the list building lifestyle. Get access to the previous episodes, transcript of today’s show, as well as other exclusive content at listbuildinglifestyleshow.com Also remember to claim your free copy of my best selling book at www.igorsbook.com It explains how I made millions with list building starting from scratch, plus I’ll give you $3,000 worth of free bonuses, including my best landing page templates, email swipe files and traffic blueprints, go to www.igorsbook.com now to claim your free package.