Do you know how to expand your investing network with reliable lenders and borrowers?
Some groups aim to connect lenders, entrepreneurs, borrowers, and investors, but many individuals struggle to find trustworthy and dependable connections through these communities.
Entrepreneur and real estate investor Eric Prescott is no stranger to these resources. He tried building his network through Facebook lending groups and in-person real estate investment networking events, but ultimately, he found it difficult to make lasting quality connections.
Fortunately, he discovered Private Money Club, an exceptional resource that connects private money borrowers and lenders. Since joining PMC, Eric has expanded his network while also making friends in the process.
In this article, you’ll learn helpful investing tips from Eric as well as some of PMC’s unique and personal networking benefits.
The Spirit of Entrepreneurship
Before Eric Prescott became a real estate investor, he already had a great deal of entrepreneurial and investing experience.
From a young age, Eric felt comfortable creating new connections and finding business opportunities. He grew up in a military family and often moved, making him no stranger to change and novel experiences.
As a young adult, he pursued exciting professional opportunities and embraced the entrepreneurial spirit. He became involved in the film industry by financing and sometimes filming low-budget projects, and he also started a nonprofit organization. Although he enjoyed his experiences working in film, he decided that he needed to move on to a new entrepreneurial endeavor.
“I shot a couple music videos. I went around the country shooting a documentary series, and that was all great. I enjoyed those things, but they weren’t gonna make my career or anything. And I finally settled down and thought, ‘Okay, I need to … figure out what I’m gonna do with myself.’ And the entrepreneurial spirit just continued.” – Eric Prescott
Around this time, Eric married his wife and moved from Southern California to Boston. While living in Boston, he became interested in financing a vegan pizzeria. Eric knew that the restaurant would likely not have a great deal of success, but he cared more about starting something new rather than money:
“I kind of manifest things, right? If something doesn’t exist that I think should exist, [I’m going to get involved]. Like, there’s not a vegan pizzeria — we should start [a] vegan pizzeria. … I’m not the follower-type where I’m like, ‘Well, I hope somebody starts something like that soon.’ … I’m gonna do it because it should exist, and I wanna be a part of it, and so I’m just gonna start it.” – Eric Prescott
Eric embodies the entrepreneurial spirit through his excitement at finding new business opportunities, and he enjoys creating and financing innovations.
Since starting a family, Eric has become less risk tolerant in his financing decisions, but he continues putting forth his entrepreneurial efforts into real estate. He offered excellent guidance for taking risks and finding new business opportunities:
“Ultimately, finding opportunities is sort of a way of life for me. The number one thing [to consider when evaluating an opportunity is:] … What is the worst possible outcome for this? Like, I knew that the [vegan pizzeria] was probably gonna fail because most restaurants do, and we still all wanted to do it anyway. … I began with the end in mind of like, ‘What do I want to get out of it?’” – Eric Prescott
When considering a decision in business, it’s important to recognize the potential negative outcomes, and you need to be willing to face those outcomes. Eric was willing to fail with the vegan pizzeria because his end goal was more about creating high-quality vegan pizzas than making money.
Taking Action and Overcoming Analysis Paralysis
Eric began making moves in real estate in 2022 and has four rental properties. He greatly surpassed his own expectations through his hard work and diligence in getting started.
“I started mid-year last year and my goal was to get three or four properties under management by the end of 2023. … I flatten learning curves pretty quickly because … I vacuum up knowledge through books and forums and podcasts, and I … basically turned it into my new part-time job.” – Eric Prescott
He immediately got to work learning everything he could about finding and closing desirable deals. Perhaps even more important than his learning and research was his commitment to putting in long hours to get started:
“I was tracking my real estate professional hours just to get in the habit. Even though I was starting mid-year, I still got like 600 hours between July or August and the end of the year. And it’s because I spent almost five hours a day every day steeping myself in this stuff. And then I just started at one point saying, ‘That’s a good deal. I should try to see if I can get that.’ And I started making deals and building teams.” – Eric Prescott
Eric’s diligence in getting started with real estate is impressive, to say the least, and he offered incredibly enlightening guidance for getting started today:
“I learned a lot more just by doing it. … I see this a lot where borrowers have that analysis paralysis, and they’ll wait like a year or two before they do anything. … [After getting started], I was just like, ‘I don’t know what else I can learn. I’m reading this … third book that says … the same thing [as the previous books I read about the subject.]’ At the end of the day, I’m not gonna learn anything new without actually making offers and [seeing] what it’s like to work with [real estate agents].” – Eric Prescott
You can only learn so much by reading and researching a topic — you need to take action and gain life experience to grow in your real estate business.
Learning from experience is especially important in real estate because every property is different. No book, podcast, or resource will teach you the ends and outs of finding good deals and evaluating properties accurately.
“No matter what book you read, until you actually start trying to do it, you’re not gonna get the feedback you need to help you actually develop the skill. … People are coming in having read all these books. … They have a specific idea of what [the housing market is] supposed to be like, [but they don’t] recognize that no two markets are exactly alike and no two properties are exactly alike.” – Eric Prescott
Although it’s important to learn the basics before starting in real estate, experience is by far the best education possible.
Forming Relationships
Eric Prescott joined Private Money Club to find new borrowing opportunities, and he also plans to start lending by the end of 2023. He first learned of the community through a professional acquaintance he met in a Facebook group. He’s immediately taken to the helpful platform because it enables private money borrowers and lenders to connect easily.
“This was just a great forum for [meeting people] because you can’t really [connect with] private money [borrowers and lenders] in a publicly-accessible forum. It’s created a sort of a sanctuary. The idea that really attracted me was the idea of building social capital.” – Eric Prescott
Eric observed that PMC enables private money lenders and borrowers to create long-lasting professional relationships. You build professional relationships based on trust as you fulfill more deals and work with the same lenders or borrowers over time.
“People who’ve been doing [PMC] longer … already have social capital. People wanna lend money to people [who have] already established themselves.” – Eric Prescott
Private Money Club offers an exceptional forum that connects reliable borrowers and lenders so that everyone involved in the transaction can rest easy. Eric noted that PMC is a far more effective way of meeting other investors than online and in-person alternatives:
“It’s better than being out in the wild, wild west and going to networking events. … Some of [the networking events] have been good, [but] some of them have not been so good. There’s a lot of hot air. … The problem is I don’t meet a lot of lenders there, or if I do, they’re hard money lenders who call themselves private money lenders.” – Eric Prescott
With Private Money Club, Eric gets to communicate and close deals with people he actually knows. Rather than dealing with banks and corporate-backed lenders, he can form personal relationships built on trust. He views fulfilling a private money deal as a more significant personal responsibility because he’s guaranteeing the money based on social capital.
“When I have another person at the other end of the deal who I know as a person and not just an institution, I do feel [more] conscientious about returning people’s principle and the interest that I said to return at the end of the day.” – Eric Prescott
When working with real people rather than banks and institutions, borrowers are more earnest about paying back money.
“For me, it’s really about making the other person whole. [It’s about] not getting into the deal unless you … personally guarantee a loan. … You wanna make sure that you’re doing right by the people you’re working with [because] you wanna work with them over and over again.” – Eric Prescott
Private Money Club enables investors to form strong professional relationships that then lead to future reliable deals.
Expanding Your Network
Another tremendous benefit Eric gained from Private Money Club is access to a quality network of lenders and borrowers. Not only did Eric have the chance to connect with other members — he also gained the opportunity to form friendships with knowledgeable and professional individuals:
“I have noticed a difference between the caliber of person that I’m meeting on Facebook groups versus the caliber of people I’m meeting [in] Private Money Club. … Like, I haven’t met anybody through PMC [who] I feel like is all business, all money, [or has the mentality of] ‘I’m gonna get what’s mine.’ … I just don’t get that vibe from anybody I’ve met through Private Money Club.” – Eric Prescott
Eric described that in other investment groups, he’s noticed more cut-throat behaviors amongst the pack and a willingness to cut corners to save money. He discovered an incredibly different and more positive atmosphere in PMC’s Money Club Mondays, where people coach one another and discuss lending and borrowing. He noted that the group allows you to connect with others beyond a transactional level.
“The biggest part of it is the fact that I feel like when you have these meetings, people speak and you get to kind of know their operations and what they’re up to. … [You can] become friends with them, … [and] it’s not transactional. Like, … I’m never gonna borrow money from them. Maybe someday I’ll lend money to them, … but I just like them, and I like what they’re doing. … Maybe one day, I’ll pick their brain about something if I [have] a question that they [can] answer.” – Eric Prescott
In Eric’s experience, Private Money Club does far more than just connect lenders and borrowers — it also allows him to engage with a community of members to learn from them and build friendships. He can also educate others with his own professional experiences.
Additionally, Private Money Club is a great resource for people like Eric to make friendly and professional connections. Although Eric doesn’t yet have a great deal of experience with real estate, he’s still incredibly knowledgeable in business dealings, thanks to his entrepreneurial background. He can discuss his professional experiences and demonstrate that he’s a dependable borrower in order to secure financing from lenders.
Learn More About Building Your Professional Network Through Private Money Club
Eric Prescott’s tremendous diligence and effort in getting started in real estate are truly inspiring, and he’s now making long-lasting professional connections in Private Money Club that will enable him to have visibility in more properties.
In addition to quality connections, PMC provides edifying educational resources for becoming a more effective borrower or lender.
Ready to connect with reliable private money lenders and borrowers? Visit the Private Money Club website to get started today!