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Podcast Transcription
Dave Dubeau [00:00:08] Everyone Dave Dubeau here at the property Profits Real Estate podcast coming at you with another real estate investment club Spotlight interview today. It’s my pleasure to be interviewing Gualter Amarelo from the Boston Real Estate Investors Association. And I’m guessing you’re zooming in from Boston, but that be a fair guess there, Gualter.
Gualter Amarelo [00:00:29] Dave, the joke’s on us. So I’m actually living in Tampa right now, so I actually when COVID hit, I said, You know what? I’m out until they allow us to do live events. I’m going where the money is and I can. I can do more deals down here right now. So I just moved. There you
Dave Dubeau [00:00:44] go. All right. Well, but you’re still running the Boston Real Estate Business Association these days. Everything’s virtual, so we’ll talk about that. So first of all, let’s jump in. Tell me a little bit about the club. I’m guessing it’s based in Boston.
Gualter Amarelo [00:00:59] Absolutely. So the Boston Real Estate Investors Association is actually based out of Dedham, which is the greater Boston area. Trying to get a space big enough that was affordable enough that would fit. Everybody just wasn’t going to happen in Boston. City is absolutely crazy to park it. And so we shifted down a little bit further south. And it’s a huge community. I mean, just absolutely amazing. I met so many great people there. I’ve raised capital there. I’ve seen our community build and do deals, see other partnerships and the speakers are fantastic. They fly from other parts of the country to come and speak. We’re one of the larger real estate investor associations, if not the largest in the country. We do brag about that often just because of the fear the desire to invest in Boston is just absolutely nuts.
Dave Dubeau [00:01:45] So how many? How long has the club been around for and how many members do you have?
Gualter Amarelo [00:01:50] So the club’s been around for over a decade now, and they’ve got about 5000 members inside the Boston area that are just vibrant like they do stuff. You know, it’s different from other associations where associations of meetups and events, where you go, and then it’s just a bunch of analysis paralysis in the room. We’ve built a really good mentorship community and people take people under their wing. And once people have made money, they don’t just leave like they actually stay and they help other people all along because they know it’s paying it forward. It’s paid for to them. So pay it forward to the next person and they actually end up doing deals with each other. You know, it’s so funny that somebody who has money or has made money eventually becomes a lender on a deal. It’s just how it works.
Dave Dubeau [00:02:31] That’s very cool. So while it sounds like you’ve been around the block a few times with different clubs and associations and whatnot, what do you think makes that difference? What is what is it that that people are watching this other club organizers can take away from this, that they might, you know, create more of that sense of humanity?
Gualter Amarelo [00:02:51] That’s a great question. And actually, I spoke to the representative of Home Depot and I said the same thing. He asked me the same question. I gave him the same answer. It’s followed up and community goal. So it’s not just how many people can we get in the room, it’s how many people can we keep in the room? How many people can we keep coming back? What are their desires? What are their failures? What are their opportunity, not failures, opportunities? What can we do to move them forward? And the biggest thing we found was follow up, you know, it’s just stay in touch.
Dave Dubeau [00:03:17] What? What is that? Even what does that mean to you? What is follow up for your club members?
Gualter Amarelo [00:03:22] So it’s actually a simple question what have you done this week in real estate? And it’s a text that goes out and that text, is it simple? Hey, what have you done in real estate? And then there’s a conversation that starts. You have to be able to man that conversation, be willing to, you know, be face to face with the community other than the event itself. Yeah, but that relationship is so much deeper because you reached out because you showed they cared and then you’re giving them the one favorite topic themselves. And you are just it’s so easy, you know, you know, their name and you know, you’re about to learn about themselves like they’re done right? They found new family.
Dave Dubeau [00:04:01] Well, that that is brilliant, Gaulter. That’s the first time I’ve heard of somebody doing that. So hats off to you for if you are the smart guy that thought that up. That’s fantastic. Now, with 5000 members, obviously, you’re not doing twenty four seven texted me every single one of them. You must be using some sort of a system for this. If you don’t mind sharing what system works well for you and then how the heck, you know, out of the five thousand how many people typically get back to you.
Gualter Amarelo [00:04:35] So it’s not as many as you would think. It’s not terrible and a lot of them. So we got overwhelmed at first. And also let me answer that in order. So we use quicker car. So we’re real estate agents. We have I’m a licensed to my girlfriend’s licensed agent. She handles a lot of the follow up and Duncan handles a lot of the follow up. But we handle that more aggressive, you know, personal touch, and we use K.V. Core, which has a lot of automations involved. So we just we pay the extra price for have the ability to text the masses and follow up is probably. I’d say it’s about six hours a week is what we spend total because we don’t answer them as they come through. It’s I’m going to go spend about 30 minutes and just batting through maybe 100 responses.
Dave Dubeau [00:05:17] Yeah, you match things up. That’s really, really smart. So yeah, I can imagine that the first time you did it was like, Holy crap. You got back to you now that you’re doing it? You said on a weekly basis.
Gualter Amarelo [00:05:28] So we do Rob Break. Not everybody, not everybody is getting hit weekly. So we had to spread it out because it’s like you said, it’s just too much. So they’re getting hit once a month. We’re just taking on the workload once a once a week.
Dave Dubeau [00:05:40] Got it. Got it. So you split it up to about 1200 people or whatever. Yeah, 200 people, 150 people once a week are getting this and then it gives them more manageable for you. All right. That makes a lot of sense. That’s brilliant. And creating that community. And not only that, what I really love about what you send there, Gaulter, is you’re using technology to mass communicate, but you’re doing a personal response. Exactly. That’s really, really key. I can see why you’ve got so many enthusiastic members. Smart, smart, smart, smart. So hey, Gaulter. For somebody who’s kind of watching this and perhaps they’re not part of a local real estate investor association or group or club, why do you think anybody who’s either actively involved in real estate or wants to be actively involved in real estate should be part of a good club?
Gualter Amarelo [00:06:33] That’s a phenomenal question because it’s too many investors out there who’ve been relatively successful, but they haven’t gotten to their max result. So I wrote the book Get the Deal. And this is in page like one. I say there’s only two problems and those problems are you have enough time or you have enough money and you’re always looking to serve one of those, either. If you have too much money, that means you’re looking to find somebody else to do the work for you. And if you have too much time, that means you’re looking for money, right? You’ve got to go and get some money in your life because you’re not doing enough so that that principle comes from finding people. It really. It’s either you need to find somebody who has money or you need to find somebody who has time. And at the rears, you’re getting those people. You know, we say it all the time, I’m sure you say, and all your guests say the same thing is, it’s not just what you learn in the room, it’s the people you connect with in the room where the money is made. We probably say it so much that people are ignoring the simple truth because the path to wealth is simple, but it’s not easy. It’s not easy to go and repeat repetitively do to show up at the event again to get yourself out of your comfort zone again. And the biggest mistake I see people make when they do go to the is business cards. They meet somebody and they hand a business card. The only time I give somebody a business card is if I don’t want to talk to them, right? Like, I like somebody wants my card, then I’ll say, Hey, I don’t have any cards. I want your number. I’ll text you right now and build that deep relationship so that we have something tomorrow because you give him a card. It gets lost. How many cards that they collect that night?
Dave Dubeau [00:08:03] And everybody’s very schlepping the same thing, and it’s all me, me, me, me, me been there, done that. I’m guilty of having done that in the past myself, that’s for sure.
Gualter Amarelo [00:08:13] We all feel that guilt, right? It’s like a shame. It’s like, man, like, I’ve done that. But the truth
Dave Dubeau [00:08:18] is, it was that guy.
Gualter Amarelo [00:08:19] Yeah, we’ve been that guy. And that’s how you learn. And the secret to the business card and doing it the right way, like going and getting that connection is you’re no longer about you, you’re actually about them because, you know, you can serve them better. If you’re a realtor or you’re an insurance agent or you’re a contractor or a plumber or any one of the dirty dozen that we need in this business. That’s your moral, ethical duty to make sure that they know they can count on you. So you’ve got to contact them. You got to say, hi,
Dave Dubeau [00:08:46] yeah, you got a follow up, right? Yes, that’s the that’s the key there. All right. Very, very good. So different associations, different clubs sometimes have different focus areas. So for your club, for the Boston Real Estate Investors Association, do you cover a wide variety of topics for the club or is it kind of more flip focused, wholesaling, focused, multifamily focused? What do you guys do?
Gualter Amarelo [00:09:13] So Duncan is fantastic with the guests he brings on. We have 12 months, right? So we look at and we have 12 topics. We make sure we cover wholesaling once a year, sometimes twice a year, and make sure we cover accessing deals. So getting and finding deals, whether it’s multifamily or single family, the marketing strategies are about the same. And then we talk about capital. You know, the how do the capital stack sometimes is the most confusing part. So that’s a great way to bring in new members is how to buy houses with no money down. And that’s what gets me
Dave Dubeau [00:09:44] into real estate back
Gualter Amarelo [00:09:45] in the same my friend.
Dave Dubeau [00:09:46] Same you two could get real in rich and real estate with little or no money down, right?
Gualter Amarelo [00:09:51] Dave, Linda. All right.
Dave Dubeau [00:09:53] No, I actually know David was it was Ron McGrath, actually
Gualter Amarelo [00:09:57] that was there you go. Another championship in that that brings people in. So you have to do those, but you also have to do the ones that serve the community, like credit repair every so often or how to have a unique marketing strategy like we had Max Keller come in and Max Keller writes a book. You know, Max,
Dave Dubeau [00:10:16] I know Max.
Gualter Amarelo [00:10:16] Yeah, he writes a book for you. And now you’re the authority on why. How to this position your house when you’re elderly, when you’re getting to that age where it’s no longer serving you, how to get rid of it for, you know, working with investors? Yeah. And then there’s another gentleman, Brant Phillips, who wrote the book on raising private capital. So and then Max Keller and then work together so you can actually get both books so you could go and raise capital because you’re the authority with the book, or you can go and have a seller. Instead of leaving a business card, you leave a book. Now it’s sitting on their counter and they’re like, Wow, like, this is something amazing. Yeah. So we cover a broad spectrum.
Dave Dubeau [00:10:53] That’s a really good idea. That’s why there’s a one of the things we do with our clients as well is, you know, you
Gualter Amarelo [00:11:01] walked the walk, right? It works.
Dave Dubeau [00:11:03] Yeah, definitely brilliant. So you got a wide variety of topics. You’ve got a wide variety of different speakers. You kind of have, you know, the dirty dozen of the main things that you want to cover smart. All right. Now, Gaulter, you’ve been part of the club for quite a while. What’s your besides your own success story? What’s your favorite member success story out of the Boston Real Estate Investors Association?
Gualter Amarelo [00:11:28] So we also run a mentorship program and, you know, I only sell it if I’m asked. So it’s just an offer right now. And the mentorship program is where I really get to connect with people. We have about one hundred and fifty students who’ve come through that, and of those, I only take on three coaching students a year. It’s just the limit that I put on myself because I’m an investor. I’m active doing things, but I still like to stay in touch like really closely and touch people who I see have the passion. And there’s one student who came through his name’s Saeed Khan, and he comes through and he actually drove an hour to come to the Boston area so he lives out an hour away in Worcester. And this this kid came in with a quarter million dollars net worth. And within six months, he went from a quarter million to one point five million, not because the buildings went up in value because he took massive action. He just is one of those people who, when you say something, he trusts you and he trusts himself and he takes action on it. And he put an offer after offer. We’re talking seller financing bills, raising private capital like he got nervous. We put the PowerPoint together, he went out and did it and in like he went through all the phases that I went through as an investor. But he did it in a short period of time, like it took me years to get to where he’s at right now and amazing to watch unicorn, though. Not everybody’s like that.
Dave Dubeau [00:12:48] Oh, of course not. So you kind of wish you had turned on you back then when you’re getting started right?
Gualter Amarelo [00:12:53] What about all the time? Yeah.
Dave Dubeau [00:12:56] All right. Very cool. So we wrap it up. This time flies when we’re having fun here. Gaulter, what’s your position within the organization? What do you do, the president, are you what? What do you do within the?
Gualter Amarelo [00:13:10] So I think that Duncan calls me the face, you know, he says, Gaulter goes out there. He’s the rah guy. He gets everybody showing up. He gets everybody happy. Make sure that people understand what’s going on. You know, sometimes the speaker will come in and they need somebody to let them know who they are. Right? You know, the speaker, if they come in, they say, Hey, this is what I am. It’s not as powerful as somebody else validating beforehand. And that’s how I like to have a conversation. You probably have a pump, the tires man. And then after the close of the tire, deflates a little. I pump it back up. So just make sure that the speaker’s time was valuable and that the people in the room are getting the maximum out of what they came for. So it’s, you know, I’m the energy guy.
Dave Dubeau [00:13:50] That’s a perfect title. That’s wonderful. And how did the whole pandemic thing affect you and the club where you got the hell out of town? Did you guys switch do to Zoom meetings or what?
Gualter Amarelo [00:14:04] Yeah, we saw the national rehab put out this training on how to do Zoom meetings, and we jumped on it as soon as they put out that training. We all watched it multiple times and we said, we’re doing Zoom. We were we were cutting edge. We said, Yep, we’re going to do this. And fortunately, we did, and we got very good at it because Zoom became the thing for the next two years. It still in Boston. We’re not really allowed to do live events. We’re looking at maybe January at which case I’ll be flying back to Boston and I may move back, probably in the spring. So I love the city. It’s just you’ve got to you’ve got to accept that we’re in a virtual world and serve the community, and we started doing extra events. Instead of just doing the monthly event, we started doing more aggressive, Hey, let’s meet up next week. Let’s meet up next week and doing much smaller virtual events where it’s just, hey, ask questions. You know, I’ll jump in in the call and you ask questions.
Dave Dubeau [00:14:56] Smart, yeah. And I work pretty well. That keeps you connected with the with the membership. That’s fantastic. All right. So, Gaulter, it sounds like you’ve got a very successful, very, very vibrant club in Boston, and it sounds like it’s kind of expanded beyond the city limits. So if people want to find out more about you and about the club, is there a website they can check out?
Gualter Amarelo [00:15:18] Absolutely. If you go to Boston Red dot com Boston Real Estate Investors Association dot com or you can go to Goulter Amarillo Gqom if you can spell it. And either way, you’ve got links to get through our meeting every month. With the first Thursday of every month. We start at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time and we’re there to serve. We want to serve beginning investors and media area investors and the investors who are just looking to have other people do the work for them. So it’s we’re here to serve. We just want to make sure that people are getting financial freedom. We know that the wealth gap is growing. We understand that the middle class is getting destroyed and I think it’s our mission to bring back middle class.
Dave Dubeau [00:15:58] Errol Well-said, Well, thank you so much. There’s been a lot of fun and keep rocking and rolling with the club.
Gualter Amarelo [00:16:04] Thank you. Dave, I appreciate what you do, man. Keep spreading the word. Everybody needs to go to an event. Take action now, and speed to action is the key to success.
Dave Dubeau [00:16:13] Love it. All right. All right. Take care and we’ll talk to you on the next episode. Thanks for tuning into this special Spotlight episode. Now, if you’re a real estate investor and you’re looking to find private money partners and raise capital for your deals, then check out Money Partner Formula dot com. You get a free copy of my book. You can find out how to raise six figures or more in six weeks or less. Again, that’s money partner formula dot com