This week I spoke with Alex Camacho about how to network like a pro in real estate for Episode #63 of The Morales Show. Camacho is easily one of the most social people I have met in this business -- he seems to know and get along with everyone -- and I thought it would be a good to talk to him about how he networks, what advantages social networking has, and how important networking can be for building your business. If you are new to real estate and wondering how to network like a pro, this episode is for you!
Importance of Having a Mentor
Camacho is a huge fan of mentorship. When he was young, he had started a real estate business with his brother and was making 6-figures by his mid-twenties, but his inexperience led to disaster when the market crashed and wiped him out. Though he built himself back up over the ensuing years, moving into real estate investing after seeing some flippers making $100,000 on a single deal, but he knew he needed more hands on experience before he would be able to do it himself.
In 2017 Camacho went to work for a real estate investor, being hired based on his previous experience. This mentorship would prove vital, giving him the experience of flipping 20-30 properties a year and the knowledge he would need later when running his own company. Soon after he was recruited by a larger company that did 200 deals a year, giving him a deeper understanding of how real estate investment businesses operate at scale. With these core competencies established, Camacho started his own company in 2019 which has been doing huge numbers ever since, even through the pandemic.
Should Money Play a Role in Selecting a Mentor?
While Camacho told me in no uncertain terms how much he values mentorship, he also stressed that he has always treated his on-the-job education as far more important than the salary he was collecting. The point, he said, is to learn beside a master every day until you are knowledgeable to go and do that work yourself.
Furthermore, he said that when finding a mentor it is important to understand that they are not going to simply train you out of the goodness of their heart: it is important that you bring something concrete to the table. When you start your journey to finding someone to guide you into this business, take an inventory of what skills you can offer; if you don’t have any, then you need to go get those skills first. Then, be prepared to take a reduced salary and to work constantly until your time is as valuable as your mentor’s -- because right now, it isn’t!
In fact, Camacho told me he still spends around $25,000 a year on education and 1-on-1 coaching sessions with highly successful individuals. Part of real estate investing is dedicating yourself to education and personal growth, and that means continually finding people who know things you don’t and doing whatever you can to take a few hours of their time to teach you something new.
How Important Is Social Media?
Yet Camacho’s ability to network like a pro in real estate goes beyond just mentorship. Camacho’s use of social media is something everyone in the industry should aspire to. “It’s a skill you need to develop, like anything else,” he told me.
Camacho posts regularly, day in and day out, to ensure that he is constantly in the feeds of his audience -- and he never wastes time with trivial posts, but tries to keep everything relevant to his network. In this way, he is passively developing a relationship with these connections, even if they have never spoken 1-on-1 before. He says this has led to a number of deals, as people have reached out to him with ideas and offers after something has brought his content to their mind.
Finally, Camacho made clear that he treats each platform differently. On Facebook, he likes to post more high-value content that veteran real estate agents, investors, and wholesalers will find informative or interesting. On Instagram, however, he finds that more frequent, bite-sized content does better for a younger audience who might reach out to him for help that will be mutually beneficial to the both of them. It’s all about audience!
Building Your Team
Finally, Camacho’s social skills that let him network like a pro in real estate have also proved a vital aspect of building out his team. Knowing and understanding people is vital for vetting potential hires and understanding peoples’ passion and dedication at a glance. Though this was a learning process like anything else -- Camacho’s first two hires didn’t pan out -- he did give me some advice about how to hire A-players.
First, to hire A-players you have to be an A-player. If you aren’t fully dedicated to your business, you will never attract and keep talent that is going to give it their all.
Second, you need to make sure that your team has a mutual alignment with your goals. If they aren’t getting value, why should they stay or put their all into their work?
Third, use virtual assistants where possible. They are cheaper than talent and can free up your A-team for more important work. However, do know that VAs can be management intensive and turnover can be high, so you need to create robust processes for on-boarding them. However, at as low as $3 an hour with hours and hours of time savings for you, hiring VAs is a no-brainer.
In talking to Alex Camacho, I was reminded of how deeply integrated networking is into every aspect of the real estate business, and I am definitely going to implement a few of his suggestions into my own business processes. If you want to reach out to this pro networker, you can contact alex on Instagram @alexcamachotv or email him at alex@cashofferoptions.com.
