When Tyler Weinrich scored his dream job at a software company he had no way of predicting that in just one year his career would veer into investment real estate. Yet life doesn’t always go as planned and when the company announced they were downsizing, Weinrich discovered he was laid off.
About a year before the layoffs Weinrich volunteered to get his real estate license as the company needed a staff member who was an official real estate agent. He had planned to make real estate a side gig, but when he found himself without a job he turned to it full time.
“I originally started where most people do: helping folks buy and sell homes,” he said.
There was just one problem: he found this kind of work extremely overwhelming. “I couldn’t figure out how to generate business. I didn’t want to call people on the phones to prospect for leads. I had no idea how to convince someone to let me help them sell their home,” he said.
Weinrich discovered what many new agents do: “The big commission checks I expected were not as easy to come by.”
That’s when he got into real estate investment, a niche which has lead him to more than double his earnings at the job he had before he was laid off. Five years into his real estate career and he’s not looking back.
We asked Weinrich to share his best advice on real estate investment and the business in general. Here’s what he had to say.
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Getting laid off isn’t fun — how’d you bounce back and jump into real estate?
I had dabbled in real estate on the side while I still had my nine-to-five job. I didn’t put enough energy into it to really make something of real estate but I did get to screw up and make mistakes while still having a regular income. That helped when the time came to go full-time into real estate because I had a little more confidence in what I was doing and the direction I was going. I’m also a pretty conservative spender. So I had some money saved up which helped, but there was definitely a finite amount of runway to get the plane off the ground.
How did you first discover investment real estate?
What concrete steps did you take to build a niche?
I looked at what I thought I was good at, what situations I was familiar with, and what niche had a least a moderate barrier to entry. To give you an example, I work with a lot of folks who inherit properties when someone passes away. I’ve been in that situation with my dad. I understand the legal process. I’m comfortable talking about that situation and respectful of people’s feelings. That niche just made sense for me to get into among other other niches. Also, I had a bunch of investor friends who kept complaining about how they couldn’t find good deals on houses to buy. So, I became that person that found the deals and that put me in the center of it.
How did you improve your marketing and sales techniques?
How can you get started in investment real estate with little to no cash?
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