A few weeks ago I posted up a two part interview with my new (at the time) acquisitions manager, Kale. During that interview we mentioned an email that I had sent to Kale before he was working for me where I laid out all of the expectations that I had if he wanted to work for me. (Actually, it was more like my attempt to convince him how difficult it would be! lol. 
)
A few people asked about this letter and wanted to see it for themselves, so I thought it would be helpful to share it here.
Now, before we get in to the meat of it, a few important things to keep in mind:
Just the raw text
This is just the raw text. The only things I changed were the dollar amounts of what Kale would be paid. But all of the typos, misspellings, grammar mistakes and other fun, head-scratching uses of the English language are still intact. So, keep that in mind as you read it — it’s rough.
But this actually illustrates an important point. You don’t have to aim for perfection in this business — you just have to get things done and take action. Could I have spent another hour going over this email and fine-tuning it? Sure. Would that have helped? Not really. So, don’t get mired in the details. Instead, focus on taking action and getting things done!
The Main Purpose
As you’ll see from this email, I’m really painting a rather difficult picture for Kale. I am not just trying to be honest with him (which I am) but I’m trying to almost convince him that this might not be the job for him. Why? Because I know just how frustrating and discouraging it can be to try and find properties or deals, and I want him to enter this situation with a full realization of his upcoming challenges.
It does neither of us any good to sugar-coat the work he’s going to be doing. It will be tough and frustrating and he’ll probably want to pull his hair out on more than one occasion. But if he knows that going in, and if I tell him all of this right off the bat, then there is really nothing he can complain about when those things happen. There is no “but you didn’t tell me it would be so hard!” in the future, because I am making sure in this letter to be explicit with that information.
When he took the position I knew that he was completely aware of how hard I expected him to work for me. And that expectation right off the bat has made a big difference in how we work together.
Okay, so here is the letter in all it’s intense glory.
Hey Kale,
Nice talking to you. I am going to try to throw this together as fast as I can and I will probably add to it over time but I know you are in a rush with your current situation. Most of this we have talked about but I just want to make sure it is written.
$
XX,XXXX
a year and starting out full time is more than I normally would want to commit to right off the bat but once again I know this is what you need so I am going to try to make it work but just like we talked about you will have a pretty high expectation to live up to for this to work in the months to come.
I’m not going to give you EXACT hours right now that you need to work. We can discuss this but just to give you an idea I imagine something like starting every day at around 7:00 and being done at around 6:00 (with a 30-40 min lunch break) with putting in a few hours on Saturday (Maybe 4-5 hrs or so) and Sundays completely off. I think I mentioned that Vanessa no longer works with a schedule, but that is bc she just does WHATEVER it takes and actually probably puts in a little more time than this even sometimes working most of Saturday. On the “flip” side I really don’t want you working from like 5:00 am to 11:00 at night and all day sat etc. I think a little balance is important but I just want to be clear that there will be a lot expected with a starting salary like this, and this is not just a 9:00-5:00 type job.
Something else we discussed is that although as of right now I imagine your #1 focus will be on buying houses (or trying to put houses under contract) I will probably have you do ALL kinds of things and even your focus could totally change! This might range from helping with other aspects of the house flipping business including rehabs, working on financing (including working with banks to get capital or raising from others etc etc) selling houses, working with tenants to get them out of houses, going to look at houses, etc. or it might include my online business and helping in any aspect there from marketing, or seminars and product sales etc. to whatever! lol
Then like I mentioned I might even at times need you to help me do other random more personal things like sell my VW bus (I am actually pretty sure I will have you do this like next week lol) to cleaning out my garage and getting surf racks, and other more personal items. I think you even mentioned watching kids while we go to Hawaii? hmm I like the sound of that as well! So basically you could and will probably be like a personal assistant as well.
As of right now some of the main things I imagine we will have you do are things like cold calling to agents, and other potential sellers. Like contacting 100 agents a day or 100 potential sellers on craig’s list, or 100 For sale by owner’s, or any other way we can think of, knocking doors, putting up bandit signs, or any other crazy out there not very fun thing you can think of. There will probably seriously be times when you get SOO much rejection you will hate your job and come home and cry to your wife and kids about how miserable your life it! (still sure you want to work for me?…ok keep reading lol)
3 year agreement-Ok like we discussed you would need to agree to a 3 year non compete agreement. This means that you agree to work for me for 3 years without doing anything else on your own, or for anyone else. I need you to be 100% focused on what we are doing together, and know that we won’t be basically paying to train you to go work on your own or for someone else. In the future as we discuss any possible bonuses or potential raises extending this agreement may be part of the agreement. So basically you are agreeing that worse case scenario you are good with making $
XX,XXX
for 3 years. Now just to be clear this is not my intention and I really do like seeing my employees excel and I would want you to make more and work together for years to come but just want to make sure that I don’t hear from you after like a year and you aren’t making what you “thought” you would be and go off and do your own thing. My goal is to give you all the ability and resources you need to help the company excel without holding back so I need to know we are on the same page here.
Any relationships in regards to potential money investors, agents, wholesalers, other investors, banks, bird dogs, marketing systems, or other sellers belong to the company, so it needs to be clear that that is what you are getting paid to build up. The knowledge you gain is invaluable but the relationships built while working here belong to the company.
I know I already mentioned that you are good with $
XX
k a year but for the record as of now I envision you getting paid the $
X,XXX
a month right now and in 6 months (assuming you are still around by then) we start do discuss some kind of bonus structure. Don’t expect much especially at the beginning. Maybe a coupe hundred dollars for each property you buy. Could be more but it really depends how we are structured at that time and I want to set a low expectation.
Other expectations-I know we already talked about this as well but I really would need to see some direct revenue coming in from you pretty quickly. Going a few months without getting a deal just isn’t going to work, and we would probably have to let you go. You might end up hating me and your job before that but if you did make it that long it wouldn’t make sense to keep you on. Yes that is even with me having you clean my garage and sell my car so no excuses!
Did I mention I may have you contacting out of state agents and wholesalers and flying to new areas to check them out, go to local (and maybe not so local) real estate investment clubs (which take place in the evenings) and get up in front of the room and let them know we are interested in buying houses, put together a “bank book” and call and set up meeting with local banks to see if we can get financing and LOC’s?
I know we already discussed the working from where thing. I’m not saying it will totally come out of your compensation but the truth is there is a certain cost to bring you on so if we have to rent out a space that adds to that cost. If we have a contact and have to get additional services and equipment even worse. I like that idea you mentioned about the office that you could use for 2-3 months. Where are they located? Is that for sure? That could give us an option until we figure something else out. I would love to find someone with an extra room (office) room they aren’t using that they would rent for like $350 a month that already has everything we need. Or like you mentioned maybe someone else who is older or gone during the day or something. But we can discuss this later.
So basically your salary would be $
XX,XXX
a year or $
X,XXX
a month. I believe we pay bi monthly. I’ll need to check with Tara or my mom but I think it is on like the 1st and 15th or something like that…so you would be getting $
X,XXX
every other month. All my “employees” are actually currently independent contractors so you would be responsible for paying your own taxes etc. I imagine this is what you are doing now so shouldn’t change? Also this doesn’t include any other benefits like insurance, phone etc. It is my understanding that you pretty much have everything you need in this regard. Also as far as gas goes I will pay for the cost of gas but don’t cover the additional for wear and tear or whatever it is that the “going rate is” pre mile so keep that in mind. I think it usually ends up being around like .20 a mile that we cover.
We discussed this before but my goal is to invest in things, marketing or people who will make me and my company a LOT of money! I want to be sure you understand completely that this is my 100% intention, bc I have heard of people complain about how much money they made their boss while he just went golfing or did whatever he wanted. I don’t think I need to nor is is necessary to go through everything we have sacrificed to get to where we are and the risk we still currently take but just want to make sure that you have no problem with me being on vacation for months at a time, or hanging out at the beach or doing whatever I want while you are working your butt off!
We’ve mentioned this as well but one of my #1 things is working with someone who is willing to take constructive criticism, so just know you will probably get offended just about everyday for as long as you are working with us. We try to be very direct and if we don’t like something we will let you know. I might yell at you (ok I just speak loud) I am pretty sarcastic at times (most of the time) Like I told you I have made my own mother cry on more than one occasion (she works for me) and even Mark (my web guy) had a hard time at first (he’s warming up)
I know you listen to my podcasts and although I try to be real as I can you might see me as a little more “perfect” than I am. The truth is I am totally human and don’t really know much about anything at all. I make both huge and small mistakes on a regular basis. You may not even like me when/if you get to know me. You will probably have times where you think I don’t even know what I am talking about. It might feel different than how you think you know me through the podcast. You will probably think I am unfair and don’t know what I am talking about and you will probably be right! Just wanted to put that out there.
Ok let’s see what else…I know this isn’t well organized but want to make sure we cover as much as we can. Just be aware that we are a small business and things can change a lot, so we just need you to be open to that. There was something else I was going to write but Vanessa just called me and I forgot what it was. I’m sure I will think of several other things I think of through out the day and the days to come (did I mention potentially doing some online marketing?) so don’t look at this as an all inclusive agreement.
Ok was I able to talk you out of it? Have you changed your mind yet? I’m totally ok if you don’t ever want to talk to me at church again but just know that this will probably be the hardest thing you ever do! Make sure your wife knows as well bc I don’t want to get blamed for you hating life
Ok if you are still in let me know, and we will get rocking. Study all of the information on the mastermind site especially the comping and analyzing properties. Then on Monday we will have you sell our bus and start calling sellers!
So, there you have it. Was I a bit harsh? Probably. But that was sort of the idea. It is all about managing expectations, because the expectations we have for a situation will determine our success/failure or enjoyment/disappointment.
If you are in the process of bringing on an assistant or member of your team, I don’t recommend using this email as it is. But you can definitely look at this to give you some ideas of how to present your business to those who are interested in working with you. Of course, you should always put things in your own words and make sure that it matches your methods.
How about you? Have you recently hired someone? How did you set their expectations? What did you tell them or write for them to let them know what they’ll be doing? I’d love to hear your feedback! Just post it up in the comments below.
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