Episode 3:
Mitch Stephen has been a self-employed real estate investor for 22+ years. His real estate investing career started at the age of 23 when he read “Nothing Down” by Robert Allen.
Through their company, Independence Day, Inc., Mitch, together with his wife, Tommi, and his daughter, Shannon have bought and sold over 1,500 properties in and around San Antonio, TX since 1996. Their company specializes in buying distressed properties with other people’s money and selling those properties with owner financing.
The Stephen family built wealth by purchasing homes, selling them for double the cost, and owner financing the sale by creating a note to their buyer. In 1991 the family made plans to keep their wealth and create what Mitch calls, “forever money” by acquiring self-storage and boat storage facilities primarily around Canyon Lake, TX. They started with 13 boat storages around the lake, and the storage business has grown to over 1,100 storage doors in 16 locations.
Mitch is the author 3 books, “Failing Forward to Financial Freedom,” “200+ Ways to Find Bargain Properties,” and “The Art of Owner Financing.”
Mitch, now semi-retired, is a prolific coach and educator who takes a personalized approach to his network of students. Mitch’s personal expertise includes raising private money, finding bargain properties, negotiating favorable terms, dealing with renovations and contractors, selling houses, selling notes with little to no discount, and helping others deal with the every day throws of life in business.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- Why storage is a great alternative if you don’t want to evict families from their homes
- Financial freedom: why you don’t have to be a millionaire to be financially free
- Mitch’s breaking point that pushed him into real estate success
- An early deal where Mitch took on a lot of debt and almost got a divorce — but ended up making $30k
- The strategy Mitch loves: buying houses with other people’s money and using owner financing to have people pay him back
- Why long-term cash flow beats short-term capital gain
- How Mitch finds the houses he buys
- Getting good deals on houses by finding the owners of abandoned houses
- Mitch’s ingenious strategy for getting owners of houses to call him
- Books Mitch recommends
- Why you absolutely must get a coach who you agree with who is where you want to be
- How to improve if you’re already successful
Resources:
I’ve learned a ton from Ron LeGrand; then and now! I credit him, in large part, for my success early on. Today I consider him a personal friend. He is quite a man with quite an illustrious history in the creative real estate investing industry. He is an original!
—Mitch—