When talking money, I care about one thing: NET INCOME!

Queens, let's talk money.

REAL money. The money that matters. NET INCOME.

Once upon a time, I fell for the idea that the agents and the big teams selling the most homes every month were also the ones making the most money. 

I also thought they were the ones that HAD the most money in the bank! It certainly looked that way, anyway - with their designer bags and new luxury SUVs.

I thought this until I became a "top producer" and was invited to a mastermind meeting with other top agents. I was excited because I still felt like a smaller agent in comparison to these agents.

I went into the mastermind so excited, thinking we'd talk about growing wealth, passive income and investing.

You guys, I was SHOCKED at what was talked about at this meeting.

A few topics I remember specifically: credit card debt, being years behind on taxes, fear around high overhead expenses, and major scarcity around money.

I remember one agent said, "If you're a Realtor and you DON'T have back taxes, you're a hero."

I - obviously super clueless - said, "What are back taxes?"

The agent glared at me. Afterwards I had to google it and I remember talking to my husband about it - we honestly thought you'd go to jail or something if you didn't pay your taxes, so we always made it work (the first year we were married, we even took out a 0% interest credit card to pay them).

These agents DID make a lot of money, but after all of the expenses for the business and their lifestyle - not much was left. In fact, most shared that they were just about living closing to closing. 

I share this with you not to expose anyone, but to encourage you to focus on growing YOUR WEALTH. Don't get caught up in the appearance. 

From then on, I only care about NET INCOME. Net income is gross income (total income) minus the business expenses ( and I'm always interested in keeping lifestyle expenses low in creative ways too).

So for instance, let's say an agent is making $300,000/year and their business expenses are $200,000/year (business expenses would be like paying their assistants or team, paying for office space, facebook ads, zillow leads, realtor.com leads, website, CRM, etc. - not including taxes).

Their net income then is $100,000 year.

Now, if their lifestyle (house, clothes, cars, dinner, travel) costs them even $80,000/year - they only have $20,000 saved! That will MAYBE (but probably not!) cover taxes. So what's left? Anything for saving or investing?

As you can see, this was a HUGE wake up call for me. 

From that day on, I vowed to only care about NET income. (p.s. a lot of people don't count taxes when they count net income - I do! Especially because doing your taxes right and getting all the deductions you can is another wealth saving strategy!!) 

What is your takeaway after expenses?

How can you keep your expenses low for real estate?

How are you keeping your lifestyle expenses low?

What's in your savings?

What are you investing?

What's your passive income game?

How early do you plan to retire?

 I'm not here to make a lot of money and feel like I don't have any money.

You feel me???

So, before you wonder how those big agents do it - find out how to keep your expenses low first.

Full disclosure: my expenses are only about 15% of my income - and that's with me really trying to have write-offs, and my tax person still tries to tell me I need more write-offs. :)

I used to have a LOT more expenses when I paid for online leads, assistants that fielded the online leads, fancy crms, facebook leads, fancy websites, farming campaigns, etc.

Thankfully, I got rid of ALL of those.

My expenses now mainly consist of trainings, coaches, courses, advertising, gifts for clients and marketing for listings.

 You DO NOT need a lot of money to make money in real estate. You do not need to pay for leads. You do not need to pay for expensive programs that create email campaigns, make your facebook/instagram fancy or any of that!

I can tell you that because I AM LIVING PROOF! 

I got rid of all of the things that I paid for - all the leads, all the websites, all the crms, and I didn't even really post on social media. 

I became 100% referral based which leads to paying less money for business and working smarter because people are READY and MOTIVATED to work with you.

If you're having a cash flow problem, commit to getting rid of all of the things you THINK will get you business. 

There are so many FREE ways you can get business - and not just business - amazing, ideal clients that LOVE you and will respect you. 

I teach you all about HOW to do it in Six Figure Agent Academy.

It's tax deductible for real estate agents! and you'll be able to finally get rid of all of those expensive online leads, websites, CRM's, and whatever else was taking up so much of your profit!

Click here to learn more about Six Figure Agent Academy!