😎 Buying real estate with commissions, new sales voicemail alpha, how Belfort is "selling the pen" in 2025

In partnership with

Learn to Build Business Ownership in 3 Days

“Almost no one in the history of the Forbes list has gotten there with a salary. You get rich by owning things.” –Sam Altman

If you’re tired of inflation eating your paycheck and AI eyeing your role, this is for you.

Main Street Millionaire Live is a 3-day virtual crash course where real operators will walk you through buying and running real businesses.

It’s live deep dives, fireside chats, and practical workshops, and you’ll leave with a plan of action across deal sourcing, financing, negotiation, scaling: the whole ownership stack.

Plus, you’ll get $1k+ worth of digital products, just for showing up. We probably should’ve charged a lot more for this… Too late now.

Grab Your Ticket Here

SELLER’S SECRETS

Who is Ward Mahoney, and what is he up to?

Ward Mahoney is a 28-year-old real estate investor, realtor, online coach, and brokerage founder from Boston, now based in Austin. He helps high‑earning professionals and investors leverage the various opportunities within real estate to scale their cashflow and wealth.

Check out Ward’s full interview on Youtube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.

Ward’s come up (in 10 bullet points)

• Graduated college with computer science major, business minor.

• Bought 4‑5 properties within first two years after college.

• Joined a real estate coaching community (run by his now-partner)

• Built RE lead generation business scaling from ~$20K to ~$160K MRR

• Leaned heavily on systems & marketing (ads + content) for scaling.

• Decided to commit his focus into a more optimal business

• Co-founded FI Investors, a community & coaching for RE pros

• Integrated brokerage model to further serve their community.

• Built and manages the sales team for FI Investors, in addition to a lot more

• Bought properties, made mistakes; learned to be risk‑aware. Now growing.

Ward’s sales alpha and best practices

1. Leverage case studies as/and hooks in ad creatives

Ward emphasizes testing many ad hooks and angles, especially those built around strong case studies. He uses short, sharp ad copy with a standout result to pull people in. Then content or customized follow‑ups (DMs, value adds) are used to warm them. This approach makes conversions earlier in the funnel much more probable.

What’s “boring” or “standard” content won’t cut it; you need to make someone stop mid‑scroll with a promise you can fulfill + social proof.

2. Dialed setter + group call invitation = revenue recovered

One of Ward’s biggest levers is his DM appointment setter. Someone who can triage, follow up, and maintain high engagement with prospective buyers. He built out a strong follow‑up cadence (value drop, content, reminders) so that promising leads don’t fall through the cracks.

In addition to this, they’ll sometimes invite prospects into community calls for a little extra nudge. They makes sure people show up, feel valued, connect to stories, then follow up ASAP to enroll. This layered value + human touch + urgency stack is potent for their offer.

3. Adoption of a smart RE strategy and following the RE tax code

Ward doesn’t just invest; he watches macro trends. He uses metrics like DSCR (debt service coverage ratio) to assess opportunities before committing. He advocates for house‑hacking (duplex, triplex, quadplex) to lower living costs, build cash flow, and learn the ropes with low exposure.

Also important: structuring realtors as real estate professionals under IRS guidelines, using cost segregation, depreciation, etc., to offset taxable income.

Don’t be fooled, mistakes happen when you’re overly bullish without considering macro oversupply or market shifts.

4 tips, 4 steps to implement ‘em

Start wealth building early with a low-downpayment house hack

• Use 3.5% down FHA loan (or VA loan if eligible)

• Target duplex/triplex/quadplex, live in one unit

• Rent others to cover mortgage or cashflow

• Learn management, maintenance, and rent collection with low risk

Build a safety net first, then take your swings

• Ward’s goal: $5K–$7K/month in cashflow before quitting

• Use that to buy time, explore bigger plays in RE or outside of it

• Prolong exiting your main income tif you don’t need to

• Build real equity before betting on volatile upsides

Reframe setbacks as “slower gains”

• Ward's worst RE deal loses $700/month, but he still holds it

• Avoid panic-selling, seek to turn the opportunity around

• His plan? Recoup on equity and appreciation later

• Build cashflow in other positions to subsidize the rare weak deals

Choose DSCR over optimism when assessing buys

• DSCR = Net income / debt payments

• Target 1.5–2.0 minimum DSCR

• Use base-case rental income, not hopeful projections

• Reject deals that don’t cashflow today

Connect with Ward

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wmahoney24/?hl=en

Work with Ward: https://thefiinvestors.com/