The 3 Things That are Keeping You from Raising Private Money with Dave Dubeau

Today's Guest: Dave Dubeau

Dave is a real estate investor and the founder of The Money Partner Formula, which has helped 100's of real estate investors across North America (and even as far away as Australia, the U.K., and Korea) to quickly launch their capital-raising processes. His proprietary process lets you focus on taking care of your portfolio, finding great new deals, and meeting prospective investors while he works behind the scenes with his team as your capital-raising marketing department. Dave has shared the stage with people like Robert Kiyosaki, George Foreman, Robert Herjavek, Arlene Dickinson, Ted Thomas, and many more. He has been interviewed on over 50 different podcasts, including: "The Best Ever Real Estate Show" with Joe Fairless, and many others. Dave has also spoken for numerous Real Estate Investment Clubs, organizations, and groups.

Highlights From The Show:

We begin the episode with Dave sharing his background story and how he ended up in real estate. Dave shares that he is a Canadian but lived in Costa Rica for a decade, and that's where he started real estate investing with a couple of pre-foreclosure deals. However, Dave moved his family to Canada and sold his businesses in Costa Rica. He didn't have a lot of capital, had zero credit because he had been out of the country for so long, and had zero job opportunities because he had been self-employed for so long. Dave got into a course that assured him that he, too, could get rich with little or no money down. He did 18 deals for his first 18 months and got good at tracking motivated sellers. Dave shares that the strategy didn’t require much capital, but about 8 years later, when he was doing a different strategy that required coming up with a downpayment, he realized he really sucked at raising capital. He came up with The Money Partner Formula, which worked well for him.

We then discuss the common mistakes that people make when raising capital. Dave shares that the first mistake he made was following the guru saying, ‘find a good deal, and then money will find you.’ According to Dave, that is only true if you have a platform with a thousand followers. If you are a regular mom-and-pop investor, this is the worst advice. For Dave, when he first crashed and burned, he had self-financed his first few deals that required a downpayment and, like everybody else, ran out of cash and credit, and that was when the perfect deal landed on his lap. He had two weeks to find an investor. Dave was under a time crunch, desperate, and out of that, he repelled people with his capital-raising strategy. From his experience, Dave recommends that you get your money lined up first and then look for deals or, at the very least, do them at the same time. Don’t wait until you get a deal on the go to scramble trying to raise capital.

Dave shares that the second big mistake he sees people making all the time is when they are desperate, they figure that anybody with a checkbook could make a good potential investor. The big problem with going after strangers as investors is that it will be very challenging. If you are trying to get somebody to invest 50, 70, or 100 thousand with you, that person needs to know you, like you, and trust you with their money. Also, it is illegal for mom-and-pop investors to raise capital from the general public unless we’re licensed or set up with expensive entities or exemptions. Thinking of strangers as potential investors is a big mistake. Instead, focus on people that you already have a pre-existing relationship with.

Dave shares that the third big mistake most people make is rushing in like the proverbial bull in a china shop. He shares that when he was trying to raise capital, he had an amazing deal with a two weeks time frame to close on it. Dave tried cold calling, but it didn't work for him. Networking also didn’t work for him because he was trying to raise money from strangers. The other thing that Dave did was to put together a list of 200 people and a one-page pdf overview of the deal. He thought the deal would sell itself if enough people saw it because it was awesome. Dave sent the pdf to all the 200 people on his list, and the response he got from people he had not talked to for even 18 years was not cool. The deal crashed and burned, but he had to figure out a better way to raise capital for his future deals. He knew there was a better way, and he was right.

Lastly, we talk about the right way to raise money for your deals and get people to pay attention to your deals and write checks. Dave shares that you have to be a little bit more strategic about things. You don’t want to wait until you desperately need the capital to start the whole process. Start by coming up with a large list of potential investors you have a connection with, and instead of charging in and trying to get money out of them, be a little classier about it. Reconnect with them on a personal level first before you start talking about business. This is a warm-up campaign, and it’s very simple. Start by sending out three emails over a week-long period, such as on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The goal of the warm-up campaign is to reconnect, catch up with people, get some back and forth, and set the stage to prime the pump for what will be coming down the pipeline with your regular marketing.

Make sure you don’t miss another amazing episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast with Dave Dubeau and get valuable information on the three things that are keeping you from raising private money!

Notable Quotes:

“Get your money lined up first, and then look for deals. Don’t wait until you get a deal and have to scramble to raise capital.”

Dave Dubeau

“Crashing and burning is a great way to learn but hearing about people's mistakes allows you not to crash and burn and also shortens your learning curve.”

Mike Simmons

“Thinking of strangers as potential investors is a big mistake. Instead, leverage your network, get the low-hanging fruit, and squeeze all the juice out of the contacts you already have.”