How to Leverage Partnerships to Grow Your Business Fast [FB Live AMA: Doug Smith]

On Wednesday, July 15th, 2:00 p.m. CST, we had a discussion with our special guest, Doug Smith, founder of our very own MyHouseDeals. In this Ask-Me-Anything, we discussed how to achieve bigger profits and leverage partnerships to grow your business fast without driving yourself crazy—especially during the pandemic.

Who is Doug Smith?

Doug loves to build and run companies, buy, subdivide, and sell rural land, generate exceptional returns for his co-investors, and help other people become successful investors. He is the Founder and CEO of a private equity firm and founding partner of MyHouseDeals.

As a real estate investor, Doug has bought and sold over 100 houses and thousands of acres of rural land. He is most proud to be transforming lives by providing quality training and highly-profitable deals to investors throughout the nation through MyHouseDeals.

If you missed our session with Doug, you can view the Facebook Live post here or play the video below:

Summary of our discussion

Below, we’ve included the main questions and topics discussed during our conversation with Doug so that you can skip to the sections you’re most interested in.

5:04 Introduction to Doug Smith

06:33 How are you doing with with this current situation we’re going through, COVID, both personally and business-wise, how’s everything going for you?

10:37 Can you tell us a little bit about how you got started in real estate and what got you to real estate in the first place?

12:54 How’d you make that leap?

13:33 What were you focused on during your first deal?

14:32 Is there a particular event that you can attribute to going from not having deals come in to actually feeling like, okay, this is gonna work, there’s something here?

17:03 Were you skeptical at all about your first partnership?

19:48 What is the best way for a new investor, who doesn’t have a history to rely on, to impart credibility and reputation to someone that they may be interested in partnering with?

22:30 How did you set the terms of that partnership?

24:50 Are there any red flags that would cause you to be a little bit more formal with an agreement or even walk away from a potential partnership?

35:59 What Doug looks for in a partner.

41:02 How do you structure those win-win partnerships to make sure that both people are coming out ahead?

47:37 What’s the difference between you and the investors that are maybe just stuck in a cycle for years and years and years, and they never do a deal?

51:03 Thoughts on learning vs implementing.

53:13 In the beginning, did you choose a particular thing (wholesale, flipping,etc) when you were getting started? How did you navigate the options?

54:13 Do you think that short selling is poised to make a comeback with the current situation that we’re facing?

55:28 Why did you choose to focus on buying and subdividing land?

57:05 Why was land, following this model, such a better deal?

59:32 What’s the best way to get funding on a home investment?

01:01:32 Can you take us back to the idea behind MyHouseDeals and what was your vision when MyHouseDeals was created?

01:04:23 What is the best way for new members to maximize the value of their MyHouseDeals membership? How should they be using the website?

01:09:29 Thoughts on when and how to scale a business.

01:12:15 Do you think it’s important to have a shared goal or shared vision for a partnership?

01:13:57 How is it different for you with the fund and what kind of skill set have you had to learn to be able to make that happen?

01:16:59 What are some tips and tools that you would share with our audience to help them optimize their time and make sure that they’re spending their time on the right things?

01:20:05 Is there a mistake that you see new investors making, that you would advise them to steer clear from

01:23:07 How are the current lowered real estate mortgage rates affecting the real estate markets?

01:28:46 What would you tell a newbie today that will make his/her life a lot easier for the next few years.

01:37:15 If people watching wanna know more about you, if they want to learn more about the fund or what you’re doing, what’s the best way to get in touch with you?

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