Tick Tock Tick Tock Tick Tock
The white office clock on the wall continues rattling off, annoying and persistent as if to mock you in your now miserable existence. Do you wonder what went wrong?
You poured so much time and effort to study in the best engineering school sold on the promise of exploits, thrills, and adventures that filled the life of an engineer. When you finally stepped off that decorated platform diploma in hand and an undoubtedly impressive report card marking your trail, the world opened its arms to you. Companies hired you left and right and the financial flower path was laid out before you. This was it. This was the life.
However, you could not have anticipated the slow, burning pain that the comfort would become for you in the years that followed. Days and days had passed so similarly to this one. Days that found you in a bland office cubicle with papers littered across your desk that served no real purpose, at least not to you) and that you’d much rather shred in the machine.
Where was the adventure? Where was the engineering of towering infrastructures that would leave people in an awed stupor? This was indeed comfort but this was not life at all.
Tick Tock Tick Tock Tick Tock 730 lifeless days of this and counting. Tick Tock Tick Tock Tick Tock 730 miserable days and who knows how many more of which you know you would not survive without going crazy. Tick Tock Tick Tock Tick Tock As if a wire stretched far too thin, something finally snaps within you and you grab your stuff and bolt out the door. You don’t know where you’re going or what you plan to do but you know that the thumping in your heart is your long-dormant thirst for adventure now flickering slowly to life. |  |
 | This story is one that is not entirely unfamiliar to many in the engineering field (or any corporate career in that manner), Mike Dehaan being one of them. Mike was a corporate engineer who after some years working in a job environment that filled his wallet but not his soul realized he wanted to do more with his life. He was an electrical engineer who earned a 6-figure salary in reputable companies but found his work did not make him as happy and as satisfied as he had hoped. After making the decision to leave it all behind he tried his hand at coding being self-taught and tech startups. |
Reading entrepreneurial books such as “The 4-Hour Work Week” and “The Millionaire Fastlane” sparked his interest and started him on his search for the passive income that would grant that promise of a balanced life between work and play, adventure and sustainability. It was on this path that Mike came across real-estate investing as a sideline but then soon realized its income potential and decided to invest much more into it. Liquidating his 401k, paying massive fees and all, he bought his first property in June 2018. He bought another property at the end of the year and has since then caught the REI bug.
He now owns tri-plex, duplexes, single families, and more and has taken off in the off-market investing space with his unconventional transactional methods.
In this episode of Real Estate Runway, Mike shares some tips and valuable lessons learned along the way. Mike mentioned that the key with real estate investing or any business, in general, is having leads for customers. In real estate, you make your money when you buy the leads.
Mike decided to apply basic marketing strategies like cold-calling and sending out postcards, and just like many others Mike initially believed that it might not work at all but was surprised to find that those methods indeed yielded amazing results.
Knowing how much a lead costs and how much it can generate can help you project how to scale your leads and gives you more space to pour into marketing. Mike’s unconventional methods lay in how he handles these leads.
According to Mike, anyone can generate leads which are awesome but the difference between people who generate leads and waste and bunch of money and the people who generate leads and make a bunch of money is the sales process- learning how to solve people’s problems and how to recognize opportunities when they come up. That’s what matters.
Mike feels that has been the biggest differentiator for them, diving into leads with those issues.
Mike and his team go above and beyond than just simple exchanging of papers in a transaction but have taken to really diving deep into the needs of his clients, willing to assist and support them throughout the selling process. His team’s willingness to do things such as helping people move, helping people who have bad credit figure out how to get into an apartment complex, helping out with their divorce issues or probates, and really getting into the nitty-gritty in order to meet the needs of clients have proven to be immensely beneficial. Though not many people are willing to go that extra mile Mike believes it is key and it has worked incredibly well for him so far.
As a person relatively new to the value add real-estate investing scene, Mike was only able to set up his business model in the way he did which gained the fruits it had in the time that it did because he had a Mastermind that guided him throughout the process step-by-step. Mike does believe that the value of a good coaching processor or mastermind is impossible to really emphasize. Rather than just a quick online course what him and his team bought into was a community of experienced coaches who provided a step-by-step guide process tested and proven which not only allowed them to have a bigger picture of how to build a brand and do it sustainably but also gave them accountability, driving forward together through the good and the bad. |  |
For Mike, having an experienced coach to guide you through situations that on your own could be interpreted as futile and damaging but having them teach you to pick yourself up and learn from the mistakes is tremendously assuring and invaluable.
More than a few would agree that you cannot put a price on a good education, camaraderie, and accountability that comes from learning from the right people.
Mike’s slightly different business model has proved incredibly effective so far in the know-how of performing value adds deals, sourcing leads, and hesolving someone’s problems to help the sale go through and get a hold of that property.
Mike has learned that the best deals are found when you’re willing to do something no one else is willing to do.
For Mike, his superpower is finding opportunities where other people don’t whether that is in creatively modifying an apartment or whether it is in working with people through situations that are overly complex. He has made it a point to find value where others miss it.
Mike says that one of the biggest mistakes he went through taught him really valuable lessons such as the importance of doing your own due diligence and really choosing carefully the people whom you trust.
Mike who’s doing a slightly different and a little more creative take on value add real-estate has truly been blazing through the off-market investing space.
We really learned so much from our interview with this amazing individual.
If you would like to connect with Mike Dehaan through his Instagram, click here https://www.instagram.com/mike_invests/?hl=en
You can also reach him through his email at mikeinvestsrei@gmail.com.
Mike does have a gift for you, our readers. If you go to his website at mikeinvest.com you will find his 5-step process on how to generate off-market leads and all the software and applications they use all free and downloadable.