How to Use Credit Cards to Fund Real Estate Deal Scotty Tregellas
All right, Science Flipping podcast listeners, as always in this episode is brought to you by Rocketly.ai if you’re looking for a seller, lead generating system that has automation in AI Bot and has sellers coming to you, then Rocketly.ai is your choice. Make sure you head over to the website, fill out an application and schedule a demo now to see the power of Rocketly.ai. What is up? Science Flipping Family, welcome back to another incredible episode of the Science of Flipping with an incredible guest. Scotty t is in the house. He is someone who I look to for credit advice. He has built an incredible business in real estate using leverage, understanding credit, understanding credit cards, lines of credit, etc, and so I’m super excited to have him here on the episode. What’s up, dude?
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Scotty: Thanks for having me Justin.
Justin: Yeah, man, this is this is gonna be fun, because you are new to me, but you’re not new to real estate. You’re not new to a lot of my friends and colleagues, and you are the man when it comes to credit cards, lines of credit financing your real estate business. You yourself are a real estate investor and have been for a long time. So let’s dive right in. Credit cards, good or bad?
Scotty: Good, (All right). Good. So funny people think they’re bad. They’re not scary. Dave Ramsey, Grant, Cardone, whatever perspective that you want to have, credit cards are good, credit cards are bad. It’s all about like, how are you manage debt? Are you using the credit cards to create a profit and leverage that? Then that’s great. It’s good debt. So of course, they’re good.
Justin: So you out of the gate. Got me set up. You said these are the 9, 12 how many cards did you say I need to go get?
Scotty: I think the first stack was around nine. Yeah, nine cards.
Justin: And what cards did you give me? Because I can remember off the top my head looking at the list, the premium Chase Premiere.
Scotty: Yeah, so it wasn’t the premiere, because that’s just another charge card. It’s like the twin brother to the Amex platinum. It’s valuable, but it’s a charge card. You got to pay it off every month. So, I think the ones that I recommended you were a couple personal cards, because, of course, like me, likes to travel, (Yeah). So, working towards that goal, I think it was Chase out by a reason you and that’s life, (Yeah). And then, of course, a few more business credit cards that focus more of more rewards geared towards the spin that you’re using, like most marketing, right? So like Amex gold, the Chase Ink, preferred, and then, okay, you want 0% there’s the Chase Ink, unlimited, right? So it’s like you kind of gave me a direction on what you wanted out of the credit cards, and then I just gave you a list of credit cards to go out and apply for, and there we are.
Justin: Yeah, so I want to jump directly into how does this affect real estate investors? How can real estate investors? And I’m telling all of you to go find him on Instagram, Youtube. Scotty T, Tregellas is his last name, but I think it’s easiest if you do. Scotty T.
Scotty: Yeah, you can just search S, C, O, T, T, Y, T and I’m usually the first one that pops up in Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, anything. I’m the verified one, so you can follow me and find me there. But yeah, no, with real estate that I used credit to get into real estate. I would have never been able to even get started with wholesaling if I did not first master the credit. You know, I feel like I’ve repeated this story so many times, and I hate saying it, because I don’t want any sympathy, but I was actually very homeless when I closed my very first wholesale deal, and I was in really bad motorcycle accident in 2015 wrecked at like 130 mile an hour. I’m blessed to be alive, but I couldn’t walk or work for about a year. Completely destroyed my life. And then I had someone approach me wanting to basically get into real estate. And I grew up watching my dad build custom homes all over the country, and so I had this, like, passion and love for real estate, but didn’t know anything about it. And so, I was like, Yeah, I want to get in real estate. He’s like, Well, you need to fix your credit. So, I paid a guy, and I got ripped off. Of course, like, we all know, like the credit industry is very sketch. It’s very hard to trust people in the credit world. That’s why I hate it, (Yeah), but of course, I got ripped off. I actually sold my very last gun. I’m from Kansas, so, you know, we all got guns there, sold my very last gun, paid this guy to repair my credit and nothing. But I don’t have that, like, oh, well, I guess I don’t get to invest in a real estate. There goes my dreams. This guy took advantage. I mean, no, I don’t have that kind of mindset. So I started YouTube University and figured out how to start like disputing, and in two months, I went from a 531 with tens of thousands of medical debt and collections on my credit to a 741 and literally less than two months, I’m like, whoa, okay. 2 Months.
Justin: You’re able to move your needle that fast in two months?
Scotty: Oh, yeah, and now I can do that in less than five days.
Justin: Five days. Yeah, move your needle. 200 points
Scotty: Oh yeah. And we’ll get there. Okay, we’ll get there.
Justin: We’re gonna stay tuned, because you and I need to know how he’s gonna do that. Yeah, go ahead.
Scotty: I will give you guys the exact blueprint. So if you hang out and watch this full episode, there’s gonna be a QR code somewhere where you can download this exact blueprint on how to be able to do that in five days. (There you go). So anyways, so went to 741 I’m like, okay, cool. And then I got access to a couple credit cards. And I think this was back in like 2017 back when Cody Sperber was huge on YouTube, sure. So, I maxed out two personal credit cards. Don’t max out personal credit cards, guys. I paid 10 grand for his mentorship program. Invested another thousand dollars in direct mail marketing in Tulsa, Oklahoma, so direct mail thousand bucks closed 80 grand next month. So, my very first wholesale deal was 60,000.
Justin: Now why did you say don’t max out your personal credit cards?
Scotty: Because if you’re maxing out your personal credit yes, it benefited me, but if you max out your personal credit cards, utilization is going to skyrocket and your scores are going to drop drastically, because utilization is 30% of your overall score factor. It’s 35% is on time payments.
Justin: So, our utilization, just for those is like, what percentage of available credit that you have… (That you’ve used) Yeah, just so make sure.
Scotty: Easy numbers, you got $10,000 in credit. You’re using 3000 of it. That’s 30% if you’re at that 30% threshold, you’re gonna see your scores drop drastically.
Justin: Okay, so with that being said, as someone literally, I told you when I took you on, I went and paid off all my credit cards, whether I needed to or not I just did it because I could. But in your example, I would make the argument what you did was smart, still to this day, (Absolutely) right? Like you leveraged credit so you could go find $80,000 of wholesale fees. So if you do that for 60 days, get your 80 grand just because closing times, etc, pay it off, does it still really hurt you? And if so, how long does it hurt you? What does that look like?
Scotty: Absolutely not so. Of course, it was a sacrifice I made back then. Of course, it turned out in my favor, but it will only hurt you temporarily, because if you were to pay off those credit cards, just like you did recently, that utilization is going to drop and your scores are going to rise. So as long as you’re paying those cards down before the statement date, your scores will reflect that.
Justin: So, giving that in real estate, I’m more like, I support you. This is why we’re going to do a lot of cool stuff together. Like I do want people to use leverage when correct, right? Because it’s an investment in their business if done correctly, buying this watch or buying that watch, dumb, paying for coaching, investing in coaching, investing in marketing, investing in the business, smart, right? (Absolutely). So, keep going along your journey, because what I want people to understand as real estate investors, there is good credit, there’s bad credit, and there’s good debt, there’s bad debt. How would you suggest people to look at this for themselves? Obviously, again, kind of as always, like, I don’t want you to have to sell yourself. I know I work with them. I know what he’s already doing, and his team’s doing for me. So, look them up, get them on Instagram, Youtube, scottytregellas, but what is your first piece of advice? Like you’re speaking of my mastermind tomorrow, (Yeah). What are the first pieces of advice you’re gonna go tell that room.
Scotty: Stop leveraging personal credit for business. Okay, that’s the first thing that I want everyone to stop doing. Of course, I did it and it was it worked out in my favor. But if you do it too long, you will really restrict your entire like, livelihood and business. You’re going to restrict it because it’s going to restrict getting access to more and more capital right? Then you can have, you know, amazing credit when it’s paid off 800 or you can be in, you know the six hundreds, if you have maxed out personal credit, and if you’re in that range of six hundreds, you’ll get denied for everything, (Yeah) but if you have those credit cards paid off, you’ll get approved for everything. So that’s just the biggest difference from using personal credit and not so. Of course, use it if that’s your only option, but temporarily. You really want to shift your focus over to business credit, because the way business credit is scored, it’s only based off of one thing, on time payments. So as long as you’re never late, you’ve got a good score (Yeah). So, you have a Chase Sapphire reserve card on the personal side, it’s going to report the balance of your personal credit. But if you have a Chase Ink preferred on a business credit card, it’s not going to report that balance to your personal credit. You can max that sucker out, yeah, and it will never punish you, as long as you’re never late. So the the focus should be, stop leveraging personal credit. Get access to business credit as quickly as possible, because also, if you can get approved for $10,000 on personal you can get approved for $100,000 on business, right? So having good personal credit and established business credit, you can really see three to 5 extra the credit card limit.
Justin: Someone doesn’t know, first of all, I would tell most people don’t try to do this alone, like anything else, like go get a hold of Scotty, because you might just think you’re getting a good credit card. Because he said, Go get a business credit card. So you go to Wells Fargo and get a business credit card. Don’t do that, because it’s probably not the right card. But if someone’s sitting here saying, I want to start getting business credit cards, I have five personal cards, what do I do? What do they do? Besides come to you, which is what I want them to do, because otherwise they’re because otherwise they’re gonna go to Wells Fargo or Chase and just get the generic card. (Yeah). What can they do?
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Scotty: Man, I see so many people, you know, big players in our industry, either not using credit or (Kinda crazy to me). And if they are, they’re doing it completely wrong, (Right) and I can circle back to that, but I mean, the first thing that you want to do is really build relationships with banks. Okay, so you’ve got all the top tier banks, like Chase, Bank of America, US bank and then, of course, Amex, which isn’t really a bank, but you want to build a relationship with them, and if you have to do so on the personal credit side, great, go after personal credit cards with them, or and, or go open up a business and a personal checking account with those banks, because if you have a relationship with those banks, they’re willing To give you money if they know who you are, right? If you didn’t know me, you wouldn’t lend me money, right? But if we had a relationship, you’d be more optim to lend me money. If we had a really good relationship, you might give me a lot of money. (Yeah). So that’s the goal. The banks work the same way. They want to know who you are. They want to know that you’re credible. Go establish that relationship, okay, of course, maintain good personal credit. Don’t have any derogatories or anything like that. My goal for everyone that I work with, I want to see you above 740 across the board, and then from there, with as far as business credit, at least three to five trade lines. So that’s an 80 paid X score. Okay? And once you’re done.
Justin: What’s a trade line?
Scotty: A trade line is really just a an account that’s reporting to the business credit bureaus.
Justin. Like Home Depot, buy, Best Buy.
Scotty: Like Home Depot, Best Buy Yep, yep, yep, office supply or anything.
Justin: So how many trade lines? Three to five you want three to five trade lines reporting to Dun and Bradstreet and Experian. So three will establish you an 80 paid X score with Dun and Bradstreet, and that’s considered like a perfect, you know, business credit score. It scored from zero to 100, 80 is on time anything above that is you pay it early, so you only need three, and once you have three, you don’t ever have to go back. Those will stay on there forever (Yeah). So just get those three, knock them out and move on.
Justin: By the way, what if you have, like, for me, I have four different charge cards, right? You know that (Yep), effectively the same thing or no?
Scotty: Nope, absolutely not. Good question. Because, very good question. Because a lot of people think, Hey, I have this business credit card. There’s my business trade line. Like, no, no, no, no, those credit cards do not report to Dun and Bradstreet, Experian or Equifax of business credit they do not report. So you have to go and get trade lines that actually report to those bureaus in order to establish a score credit cards don’t.
Justin: Charge cards, even Amex platinum. So where can people go? So you said, Office Depot.
Scotty: Yeah. I mean, there’s, there’s ULINE, Grainger, office supplies. I mean, we literally have a list of hundred like, hundreds of them (Yeah). And you know, Tier one is just simple net 30s, where you just go make an account. You can get approved as long as you have your like, business foundation set up correctly. Like, address, everything’s reporting consistently. Like, Secretary of State, IRS, your banks, everything is consistent. Create an account. One of these, like Grainger, ULINE, Quill office, depot, right? Create an account, and then set up a net 30. So basically you’re buying something, and then you have 30 days to pay that off. Once you get that statement, you pay it off. And then they have, like, 30-45, days to report that. And then once it’s reported, boom, you’ve got one, (Yeah). Okay, you only need three. You’ve got your 80 paid X score, move on. So good personal credit 740 plus 80 paid X score, then the bank relationships. And once you have that, our data shows that you’re getting approved for three to 5x the credit card limits.
Justin: Wow. So how does someone break into the real estate space using credit cards to their advantage?
Scotty: Same way I did. Okay, I would not be here, and I’ve made millions of dollars in real estate all because I maxed out two credit cards. But it’s not a perfect story. As business owners, we know it’s a f***** roller coaster. Yeah, right, I’ve failed. I’ve succeeded, and I’ve failed over and over and over again. COVID killed me. I lost $2.4 million in May of what, 2019 COVID killed me, but because I had access to credit, I was able to restart right the interest rate spikes couple years ago killed a lot of people, knocked a lot of people out, out of the bar industry. But guess what? I had hundreds of thousands of dollars that I was able to fund my business and keep going on, right? So, the goal is just to have access to that, to be able to either start, scale or even buy a business.
Justin: I call it having runway, (Absolutely) right? And so I think out of the I think you said there was nine that you sent my way. I think there was four or so that were like, just get these because its a 0% interest rate right? And I think a lot of people don’t even realize it’s still a thing. It’s very much a thing (Yeah), right? I had one of our members of Science of Flipping just got $36,000 on a 0% interest rate credit card like last week. I know interest rates are up, but they gave it to them for 18 months (Yeah), right? I mean, that’s free money. (Yeah), that is the definition of it (Yeah). And if you need marketing runway, if you need just sustainability runway, because things are getting a little wobbly, that’s why you have some of these things. It’s not the perfect answer, but that’s a way to be able to have runway to get through a tough time or even to get ramped up.
Scotty: Right. So, this is how I like to compare it. So put me, or anybody me for an example. Back where I was, I was living in a camper in the middle of the woods in Southeast Kansas. (What the hell) Yeah, when I closed my first deal. Now tell me this and you you’re a mentor to several. I’m sure you’ve heard this. Oh, I’m going to wait to get started until I save up money (Of course), right? If I would have said that in the position I was in in 2016 would I be here today? No. (No chance). It’s way, way easier to get access to $250,000 in credit than it would be to save $250,000 to start your business.
Justin: So, say that louder for people in the back. But what I would say to that is, it is the common rebuttal a coach, a community leader like myself, gets is, I’m gonna wait because they’re short sighted. I mean, go get my first deal by watching YouTube University. From there, I’ll invest in coaching, (Right). Your argument, and you have nothing to make this argument for me for is to take the leap of faith, invest in the coaching so you can fast forward your line to success.
Scotty: Yep, I think the absolutely take the risk. (Right). I mean, it’s easy for me to say because I literally had nothing to lose.
Justin: You’re a proof of it. Yeah, I borrowed not from a credit card, because I couldn’t, because that was, you know? I lost my home foreclosure, repo man took my car, but I borrowed $25,000 from a friend. Same idea. Yeah, I’m about to shoot a private money lending fund your deal course. I’m actually gonna ask you to be a part of it, because it’s really about being able to fund your deal and get access to funding for all things marketing, deal flow, right? You know you can use some credit cards will give you cash advances. What’s your thoughts on that?
Justin: No need. No need. So the thing with cash advances, so for example, I just got approved for a card the other day, I’d get so many (That’s great). But let’s just use like I have a Chase Ink, unlimited, 0% interest for 12 months, the limit is $80,000 and the cash advance is something like seven grand (Okay). What is that seven grand gonna do for us when we’re spending 40 grand a month in PPC? (Nothing). Not much, right? But as soon as I take that cash advance out, one; I lose the 0% interest. Okay, (So that’d be dumb). That’d be dumb, and it’s seven grand is not much. What if they give you?
Justin: What about those credit cards? They give you a check that says here’s 0% interest percent interest check from the credit card that’s 0% interest.
Scotty: So, there is that route
Justin: Like Citizens Bank sends me those right?
Scotty: Yeah, Citizens banks. Awesome, awesome. I’m I don’t have access to Citizens Bank being in Vegas, but here in Florida, or if you’re really in the south southeast region of the country. Citizens Bank is a great one.
Justin: But anyways, so, but those are still 0% so for that example, it probably makes sense.
Scotty: So, what I suggest doing is liquidating, right? So let’s just go back to my Chase Ink unlimited 0% interest for 12 months, $80,000 we’re in real estate. So, let’s talk real estate. If I want to buy a house, can I go to the title company with credit card and swipe? (Nope) No. So if I had $0 but that is one hell of a deal, and I want to take it down. Okay, yeah, we can go get private money. We got to do the pitch. We got to do all this. But damn, and I have that 0% interest card, $80,000 how do I get that? Let’s liquidate it, turn that $80,000 into cash.
Justin: Does it stay 0% interest?
Scotty: 0% interest.
Justin: Is there something like secret sauce?
Scotty: Some secret sauce that you may not say, I have to say out loud, just shoot me a DM, yeah, now. DM, me liquidation, and we can get you that cash in a few days.
Justin: There you go. Good. So, there you go. So that whole 80 grand, though, yeah, you can liquidate all 80 grand at 0% interest, still, maybe some fees, maybe a couple, yeah, processing fees, sure, yeah. And any like crazy terms, like, it’s got to be back in 30 days or No, nothing. It’s the length of the same length of this you ran the credit card at Nordstroms
Scotty: Same.
Justin: Wow.
Scotty: So what you want? I mean, we can get into the secret sauce if you DM me, that’s liquidation. But we can even set it up to where the merchant that is taking that card is, you know, card specific. So for example, if they always do it on like, MX gold, right? I wouldn’t liquidate an Amex gold. I don’t recommend liquidation with AmEx, but if I was, I would want to be charged something with marketing so I can get 4x rewards. Yeah, since so it’s like, Great, I’m getting cash and I’m getting 4x rewards just because of this. So it’s like, double whammy.
Justin: So one of the things, I think there’s a lot of people that don’t even understand the points game. Let’s talk about that. I live. I did a video a long time on YouTube. Go check that out. I don’t even know the name is, but like I did a seven night stay at the Four Seasons in Maui, first class of the family, $0 right? People like want to brag about their lifestyle, but you have to understand sometimes, when you’re looking at that lifestyle, it doesn’t actually cost anything, because they know how to work the game, right? So let’s talk about some of the hacks that people should be doing, and then DM them to get the real knowledge. Go get my guy. But like, what are some of the hacks? I mean, I know a lot of them, but let’s talk about what people may not know.
Scotty: So, the biggest thing that I’m seeing people do when they think they’re travel hacking.
Justin: By the way, I didn’t want to bring up didn’t mean the cocktails and dinners and lunches and breakfasts were free fast. That still a boatload of money, (Those are pricey), but getting there and sleeping.
Scotty: But flying there first class, staying in the best room for free. We get to ball out a little bit more on those dinners and drinks.
Justin: Yeah, you can afford $48 eggs.
Scotty: Exactly. Welcome them out. (That’s right), Yeah. Well, so the biggest thing that I’m seeing people do, because I have some clients who are spending seven figures a month on credit cards, (Yeah) so they have a ton of points, and they think millions. So they think by just going to Amex portal and booking a flight with their points, that they’re travel hacking and saving money. Well, no, you’re not. You’re actually spending probably about three to 4x the points that you need to. So you’re not saving money at all, because how, like, the point system is scored, it’s one point per penny okay.
Justin: On Amex. If you run the AMEX.
Scotty: Really across the board everywhere, right? So if you booked it within the AMEX or anywhere it’s typically one point per penny, and we’ve gotten upwards to 52 cents per point, (So a lot better than a penny). Yeah. Let’s see. So I went to Norway, so, you know Robert Winsley? (Yeah). Okay, so every year we were somewhere in the world right for New Year’s and Christmas, and this, this past we went to Norway for a month. And so, my wife and I went from Vegas to Norway our flight just one way. We only book one way. There’s cash value was $29,800 just two tickets, first class, one way. I spent $101 now, the point guys out there who are using their they’re booking their flights with just points straight in the portal. They’re like, oh, you probably spent 800,000 points. No, 174,000 points.
Justin: Now, secret there. DM, you.
Scotty: DM me, (I like it), travel. DM, me travel.
Justin: There you go. Yeah, because I, I’m one of those guys. I mean, the reality is that story I just told you about the four seasons for class I did directly line to line through Amex. Yeah. I had 2 million Amex points. I think it cost me a million two or something like that to go do all that the first class of four seasons. But it was direct Amex. So I got, I thought I was like, bro, I got this. Yeah, so you’re saying Justin you…
Scotty: Oh, man, you probably could have went to Maui, like, three times, wow, taking that same vacation at least three times.
Justin: So you’re gonna, now that I’m already working with you, you’re gonna let me in on some of these secret, (Oh, absolutely). I actually have to book a flight to Kauai. Like, soon.
Scotty: I’ll do it for you while I’m here in Miami. (Done). Yeah, (Here), yeah. So, like, that’s actually something that Robert Winsley and I are partnering up on, is a Travel Concierge Service, (Yeah). You know, like, for the top investor lift clients, for our friends and colleagues that are traveling like me, I’m doing ton of traveling now domestic.
Justin: I think the rest of people can pay you, right?
Scotty: And, of course, yeah, hey, if you want to, you know, concierge, we’ll literally book everything for you, right? There are some qualifications as far as, like, spending credit cards credit you have to qualify for this service. But we will literally tell you, just like I did with you. Hey, you need these cards. Yeah, apply for these, this way. Once you have them, you need to spend them this way. Oh, you have a trip coming up. Great. You text this number. We’re called Alfred, like Batman, Batman, right? (I love that) So you’re gonna text Alfred, and then we’re just gonna send you back a whole itinerary of here’s your trip.
Justin: So, I give you like this is real time. I need to book a basically a week long stay in Kauai in November. I would tell you the dates, I would tell you what credit card points I have where, or even give you access to them.
Scotty: We’ll know all that. You don’t need to tell me anything except for the trip that you want to take, because it’s kind of a three step onboarding process. One, an application. Once you’re in, you’re in, and then two, is basically an onboarding we’ll have all your information. So, like, you’re we won’t have like, your bank account information. (Right). But like, Chase and AmEx, they have separate portals, right?
Justin: Of course. My bookkeeper has all the portals. He can see everything.
Scotty: So, we have that we know how many points you have, and we’ll be able to leverage everything. You just simply put in a travel request form. Say, Hey, Scotty, we want to go here for a week long. Here’s where our preference is, and then we book it. Send you back the itinerary.
Justin: This is great. So you will be able to help people actually understand the points game, because I think it’s underutilized, not just in real estate investors. I’m just saying in general, people don’t. They get credit cards because they just get credit cards right? In to some extent, I’m that guy, meaning I fly American a ton. So I have three different American Airlines credit cards because they kept giving me like, 60,000 free points. When you spend the first three grand, I’m like, I spend three grand a day, all right, so that’s done. So I just kept applying because I got free points. While there’s some goodness to that, you’re just saying it’s not really the right way to work this system, because I can get just a Chase card that’s not connected American. I get way more points. You’re able to use those points on different platforms, and I can get 4x what I would be doing, one for one on one.
Scotty: Exactly. So, I don’t have any airline cards, (Alright). So, I do have hotel. You don’t want to go after, like, airline and hotel until you’re chasing status, right? So, for example, like, we’ve got the platinum. Everyone really has the platinum, and they think it’s super baller having the platinum. And, like, I laugh when people throw that down on the table. It’s like, well, you know what? You’re getting one point for dollar. I’m throwing my gold where I’m getting four points, right? So, but with the travel cards, the way to travel hack is being able to, like, manipulate the points and send them out to, obviously get more value out of them, but with like, specific airline hotel cards, they’re locked in. So you have American you cannot use those American Airline points anywhere outside of American airlines, (That’s right), right? So, you’re kind of glued there. But if you used your gold, your Amex, and you had all those points within your you know your portal there. You can transfer those out to United, anywhere so.
Justin: Anywhere and to your point, I wouldn’t want to do it through American. I would do it in a different. I don’t know how you make all your magic work, but essentially you say, Justin, you have a million five Amex points. So, I think I’m somewhere around there. I don’t even know where I’m at. I’m gonna go book you on united to Kauai. Don’t worry about it, but it’s probably not going from Amex directly to United. Is that correct?
Scotty: It might. It might go to a partner. So for example, I have most of my status and relationship with United (Sure). So, my trip overseas was through United, but I flew with KLM so Air France (Got it. Yeah), right. So, it’s like they do partner, (Yep), yeah. And that’s another thing, is just being aware of transfer bonuses. So what is today? The first so yesterday was the very last day to be able to transfer Chase points to KLM, so Air France for 25% bonus. So, if you had 100,000 points in Chase, and you transfer them over to Air France, you would now have 125,000 points. Now remember mine and my wife’s trip flying KLM, 20 $30,000 flight was only 144,000 give or take, or 174 something like that. Something like that, right? So, there you go. You start to realize the value of the points when they’re transferred and manipulate.
Justin: So, when you can do that, now you’re really doing a second level of hacking, which is like there’s transfer bonuses that, if you know you’re going to Kauai and you would say, Justin, we have till the end of April, right? Today is May, 1 transfer this 100 grand over to KLM, because we’re gonna book you on KLM to Kauai. You’re gonna get for the 100 grand, you’re getting $125,000 or 125,000 points, yeah, knowing that kind of stuff, is a second level. And you would just tell your client, Justin, you got to do this now because this thing is…
Scotty: Yes, so real world scenario this is what I would do, and this is like what I did with my wife, because our next big month long vacation is going to be Switzerland.
Justin: Okay, can you go bring us back some watches? Please?
Scotty: Absolutely.
Justin: So hard to get out here.
Scotty: I know I know me.
Justin: Get me the damn new lemons I need it.
Scotty: Okay, I’m gonna go find the meteorite (Done). I’ll find yours.
Justin: You can get your meteorite. I’ll get the lemons.
Scotty: Say less (Done). Awesome. Yeah, Winsley and I have a little Switzerland date going on, so we’re gonna go buy watches together. I’ll pick yours up on a zero % interest card.
Justin: Yes, and then you’ll get the points, about the point in cash, yep, yep.
Scotty: Hacking guys, (Right) DM me, no, but so it’s like I said, Rachel, Hey, are we going to Switzerland this year? Because there’s this transfer bonus going on right now, and this is exactly what I would do with like my clients. So we had to sit down and talk. This is what I would do with you. Hey, because KLM there France, it’s good for like Europe or Middle East. (Okay). So, I’d say Justin, do you plan on going Middle East or anywhere in Europe at all this year? If not, then we’re gonna keep our points in Chase. If so, we’re gonna transfer these out for this bonus. You don’t have to plan a trip or anything, but we’re just going to park them over there for a 25% bonus. (That’s right). And with us, I was like, I’m traveling literally every other weekend for like events and stuff like that this year. Let’s not travel heavily out of the country. Let’s just focus on this this year. And so, we didn’t kind of transferring. Another thing, a lot of people are, I’m going to like a lot of events, and I have a clients like, hey, Scotty, will you? Will you book a trip from, you know, Houston to Cancun? I’m like, no, no. So, here’s what I do when I’m flying domestic. I pay for all my flights. Okay? So, if you’re flying domestic, fly with your preferred airline, right that way you’re stacking point and use the correct credit card. So for example, from Vegas to Miami, I flew American, (But you paid for it.) and I paid for it (With the right credit card because I’m probably getting 2, 3, 4X the points anyway). So 5x (Okay), I use the platinum my business card, Platinum within the portal. Okay, not in American Airlines, but within the Amex portal. Okay, so I log into the Amex postal. (Got it) Okay. Now you might see a little bit of $1 difference. It might be a little bit more expensive, maybe, you know, 40,50 bucks maybe 100 whatever. But outside of the portal, you’re getting 3x points. Inside of the portal, you’re getting 5x points for 40 more bucks, whatever, right?
Justin: Dude, there are so many hacks. This is wild. I thought I knew the game.
Scotty: So there’s just so many ways just continuously rack up points.
Justin: So kind of getting back to real estate, just because we could go in this deep dive, right? But if someone’s in real estate investing, or wants to or is aspiring, the first point you’d make is charges to the game and get a coach to teach you what really to do. (Yes). So you can get to the front of the line, so you can learn what really actually works to get a deal, versus trying to do it on YouTube University, use the right credit cards on something like that. But even then, if they don’t have a business credit card, would you make them go do that? Or could they go get a new personal credit card and you get 0% like when you want them to go get more cards, no matter what?
Scotty: Absolutely, absolutely because, I mean, I’ve got, I think now, over 70. 10 out of 28, yeah, and say, You, I doubt they have more than me, so I’m always going to encourage them to get more.
Justin: Is there a point of like it’s gonna hurt you?
Scotty: No, absolutely, not absolutely
Justin: Because the more credit lines, the better your credit profile.
Scotty: Absolutely.
Justin: When I was broke I had a credit coach, right? Because he had to get me back going. He’s like, what people underestimate is the credit profile. They care. They think the credit score is the best thing. But if you have no profile and you have an 800 credit score, people still, banks still won’t lend you money because you have no history of borrowing it or giving it back.
Scotty: Yep. We’re actually helping someone right now. He was using personal credit. We stopped him from that. His scores are around 760 now, and he’s still getting denied on business credit, because he only has one personal credit card, right? So it’s like, hey, we have to follow the process and the blueprint that I’ve laid down, and we have to slow down, to speed up and go focus on step one is, that’s your personal profile. There’s you, you the business owner, are the foundation of everything so.
Justin: So you cut a check to get a coach learn how to do it, go out there and do it. What are the reasons and what strategy should they be using with even like I know you told me to go into a certain bank here in Florida, open up a bank account. What strategies should aspiring real estate investors, or even active real estate investors, be doing with all of this?
Justin: So, I think the best strategy would be to not just like application, dump too many cards, because first, like you we could go out and get 20 cards right now, but we don’t need 20 cards (Right). The whole point of having credit is to have that, like risk tolerance, where it’s like, okay, if COVID happens again, do I have more available credit over here? And if not, can I go get access to that credit and it still be on 0% right? So, for example, if that $80,000 Chase Card is completely maxed out. Now the interest rate is over, it’s like, what do I do? Oh, no, what if I can’t pay that off? Well, guess what? I can go out and get access to more 0% interest and roll that balance over to that new 0% interest, right? So, everything can just continue rolling over to 0% so the strategy for real estate investors would be, obviously, stop using your personal credit, start leveraging business credit, but in a very strategic way. It’s, I think this is one of the most important things that people it’s really hard to see on the surface, is, if you apply out of order, then it can really restrict you on what you can get access one two years down the road. And that’s why it’s like, I built the perfect credit stacking blueprint, and I’m actually going to be sharing that tomorrow (Yeah). And if you’re you know, still around on this podcast, you can actually get access to that here.
Justin: Oh, they’re around. Awesome. Hit up Scotty. So first thing they need to do build business credit. First thing there is go get the line trade lines, which is the Best Buy, Home Depot, Quill, etc. Then what business credit cards or lines of credit should there be?
Scotty: So, the first one that I’d recommend going to is always build a relationship with Chase Bank. Chase first, okay, to me, they have the best credit cards out there. They may not be the best bank, but the best credit cards. Remember, we’re going after the record. That’s right, all right. So it depends, right? So for for someone in like our position, 0% may not be the focus, but someone just starting out 0% true, you have to make that decision. Do you want more rewards for what you’re already spending money on? Great. Marketing? Cool. Go get the ink preferred card. But if you are a 0% interest person right now, go after the ink unlimited card. But remember, there’s, there’s bank rules that you have to be aware of. For example, there’s three Chase credit cards. And of course, the premier, which is a charge card, just like a card, just like a platinum, but the three cards are the ink unlimited, ink preferred and the ink cash you Justin. Can only have two of those three, all right. So, you have to pick and choose between. Do you want more rewards on the marketing spend the preferred, or do you want the 0% interest? Okay, so you’ll pick one three months down the road you can go get that cash. That ink cash (So I get two of the three). You get two of the three. But if you had a wife that was equity partner or a business partner, let’s talk about double stacking. All right, so which car did you pick the unlimited or the preferred (Unlimited). Okay, so you’ve got the unlimited and the cash. All right, your partner is going to, it’s been PPC marketing. He’s gonna go get the preferred. Same day. (Yeah). Same business. Okay, so now you both literally just got the preferred and the unlimited.
Justin: I have my wife on my LLC, Docs,
Scotty: Boom! I’m thinking about adding mine too.
Justin: I don’t believe in it, but I might do that just for this one example.
Scotty: Yeah, yeah. So, okay, yeah, I’m a sole owner of all my companies, so it’s like, I get so excited when people have, like, their wives or business partners. I’m like, hell yeah, we’re literally going to double and triple the amount of funding we can get access to.
Justin: That’s insane. Yeah, this is wild dude. Here’s what I want. I want to stop here. Why? Because I want them to reach out to you. I want you guys to all go get him on Instagram. Scotty Tregellas, YouTube. Scotty Tregellas, he gave you some words to drop in his DMs. He has my business. I’m his client. If it’s good enough for me, he’s damn sure good enough for you guys. Appreciate you being here, man, let’s go. I’ve helped people understand credit in a bigger, much bigger way than they do now.
Scotty: Absolutely. Let’s do it.
Justin: All right, y’all that’s it for today. We will see. On the next episode, peace.