On today’s Best Deals episode of The Real Estate Nerds Podcast, we hear from investors and Special Forces veteran Edwin Epperson Some of you may know Edwin already from his podcast, Can Investors Save The World? Spoiler alert: we totally can. Today, Edwin shares how his real estate journey has evolved, as well as some of the ways he has implemented the lessons he learned from his military experience in his real estate investing life.Tune in to Episode 48 of The Real Estate Nerds Podcast now to hear the full conversation.Listen To Episode 48 of The Real Estate Nerds Podcast NowEdwin Epperson on The Beauty of Being The “Bank,” The Value of Clear Expectations, & Investing Lessons From the MilitaryOur host and attorney Scott Smith welcomes investor and decorated combat veteran Edwin Epperson onto the show. The two investors chat about Edwin’s background and his life and mindset going into his best deal.[1:00] Edwin got into real estate with the plan to buy homes, fix and flip them. He was in the military in a Special Forces unit, training to become a Green Beret. He joined a club in Fayetteville, NC and found a money lender at one of these meetings. The lender told him he wouldn’t make him a loan, which shocked Ed. [2:30] Ed admits that at the time, “I didn’t have the knowledge or experience to be successful at real estate investing.” His lender friend advised him to carve out time to gain the knowledge he would need. Ed followed this advice and stuck around at the meetings, where the same lender asked him if he’d considered becoming the “bank.” Ed found five mentors. He spent the next couple of years learning about investing from a lender’s perspective.[4:10] “I fell in love with the idea of shifting the risk to someone else while also mitigating that risk,” Ed explains. Around this time, he was deployed but continued to study his plan to become the bank. [5:30] By 2014, Ed was redeployed to Afghanistan and had gotten some of his fellow service members interested in becoming involved with these real estate projects. By late spring, he received an offer and began analyzing the relevant figures. He agreed to help an investor make a purchase while he was still overseas. He ended up making his first real estate loan admidst this deployment. He got the copies of all of his confirmation documents just as he was preparing to go out to mission: “I did my first real estate loan while in Afghanistan.”[8:04] “I fell in love with the idea of not being geographically restricted,” Ed explains. For this reason, he thinks being the bank is a great way to become involved in real estate. [9:20] Despite his love for Special Forces work, Ed decided not to re-enlist and instead went into real estate full time. He wanted to be home for his family, and realized he could use his tools to build a network and keep using this business model.[11:00] Ed explains why he believes most Ponzi schemes start with the best of intentions, and how he avoided that. So rather than actually handling another person’s money, he used a servicing company: “I had professionals who were there as a buffer between me and anything that might cause a problem.” This helped his credibility, as did his track record. Ed elaborates: “Word of mouth is huge. My business has grown largely by word of mouth.”[Tweet "“Every business is a learning experience.” - Edwin Epperson, Episode 48 of The Real Estate Nerds Podcast"][13:00] Ed started out by leveraging his own network of family and friends. Rather than providing formal plans such as a PPM, he would simply share his personal guidelines and checklist that he would use to evaluate loan opportunities. He also developed hard limits for his company as well, in terms of which loan-to-value ratios he was seeking. By presenting himself and his plan in this way, he was able to expand his network.[15:50] Scott points out that some of his military friends operate the same way, with highly accurate approaches. He feels operating based on a plan is stronger than operating on hype alone.[17:40] Ed shares a bit about how military processes, such as “After Action Reviews” following missions, can actually be adapted for investing strategy. He shares how these reviews allowed him to make tweaks to their plans and procedures. Ed believes that implementing this type of process could help any investor (or any business person at all) evaluate what works and what doesn’t, then adjust accordingly.[21:00] Scott wonders whether Ed’s strategy of showing investors the plan is also a way to recruit them into investing with you. Scott wonders whether this encourages higher levels of personal responsibility. “Every business is a learning experience,” Ed explains: “I’ve got three core values: 1. Communication, 2. Extreme Ownership, and 3. Giving Back. Those are the three things I really focus on.” The second value comes from a book of the same name, authored by a Navy Seal, that both Scott and Ed recommend.[23:00] For Ed, “Setting expectations is absolutely critical.” Keeping expectations clear keeps all parties accountable and leaves no room for assumptions. He shares about how expectations he has set on himself and investors have worked both in his favor and against him, when not done properly. Ed explains how his failure to set expectations has created miscommunications between him and his investors.[26:50] Scott points out that “It doesn’t even matter what the expectations are, so long as you meet them.”Lessons Learned From Edwin’s Story and ExperienceScott and Edwin each share their top take-aways for our listeners.[28:00] Scott thinks there’s a major lesson in how Ed shared his processes to gain trust. He also was struck by how Ed’s military experience has informed his investing in specific ways. These items go hand-in-hand: “How can an investor be pissed at you if they bought into your process?[30:00] Edwin’s take-away is even simpler: “Never compromise your guidelines. When you start looking to the almighty dollar, you will make mistakes.”[17:00] Scott and Dave share about BiggerPockets, and the tools this online community offers investors. Scott regularly contributes asset protection content to BiggerPockets.[18:43] On the topic of asset protection and long term real estate success, Dave comments: “Having great people on your team is so huge.”

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