In this episode of the Alchemist Nation Real Estate Podcast, I talk to Eric Counts who is a great real estate investor who provides great information on credit repair. I wanted to know how Eric got into credit repair in the first place. He says that he was poor and he had a friend at the time who was a realtor that did real estate and he would tell him how he did $100 for just tearing the tile out of the kitchen. His friend would tell him that let’s go out and celebrate because he had sold a house, made $40,000 on it. He then got tired of looking at everybody else and a person came in the area looking for someone who would do credit repair sales then he started selling the product where he worked for one of those companies we all need to look out for and when he was 3 – 4 months in, he realized that everybody was getting ripped off, they weren’t doing anything, they were taking all the money upfront. He called everybody that he could find, explaining how they have been ripped off and he wouldn’t have their money back because he had just made a 50 dollar commission and couldn’t give it back to them due to the fact that he had bills to pay. He told them that he had learned a lot and he could help them legally and effectively redo what they were promised by the company. He then started getting phone calls of helping people with credit because he had done it for their friends. At that point in his life when he started out in 2008, he didn’t have business sales and they would just call him and he would just go. He got a phone call about credit repair where the client asked him how much would it cost. It is from then where he figured out a legal, compliant way of running a business where they actually helped a lot of people. Since then, they had a lot of clients, all 50 states with about 30,000 clients.
To listen to Eric Counts’ Alchemist Nation Real Estate Podcast on Anchor: #104 Alchemist Nation Real Estate Podcast – Eric Counts The Creator of Credit Nerds.
Since Eric is also in real estate, I ask him how he got into real estate. He says that he was asked to speak about credit for a real estate group and he has always tried to be transparent with himself. As far as being a real estate investor, he and his wife have 7 properties, they are not brand new and he won’t like the this is how you invest. He is also trying to be a student himself where he believes that he can learn something from the Alchemist Nation Real Estate Podcast listeners. When he was asked to speak for a real estate group about credit and it was a different type of group according to him that he really enjoyed speaking to them where he was even asked to be a real estate credit instructor for that group. Being constantly around a group of real estate investors really helped him shift his mindset because he was raised in a trailer in Arkansas. When he and his wife made money, all of it was spent and now he looks at it a lot differently by understanding that there is a tomorrow. His phrase goes like if you’re worried about today’s money, probably you’re worried about yesterday’s bills, so focus on tomorrow’s money because today’s bills are paid.
I further ask Eric about what free tips does he have for somebody looking to clean up his/her credit. Nobody has a credit score and you should stop thinking like that. Credit scores have credit reports and credit scores exist when the credit report is there. And there are hundreds of score models out there. When you go to one bank, get a credit score pulled, you can literally go across the street and get a different credit score. You have to stop thinking that your credit score keeps going up and down. So there are some of the ways you can raise your scores across the board and next time you get it pulled, it will be better. 1) Pay your bills on time, what that means is within 30 days of the due date for your personal bills and before the due date for business bills. 2) Keep balances low on your credit cards. 3) If you pay your bills before your statement date, you can use it all month, you pay it and get your statement.
I also ask Eric what is his sure fire strategy for increasing credit on a business line. He says that when you use personal credit to build your business credit which is totally fine though the only difference is that you need to be sure that you’re using non-reporting business lines, non-reporting blocks.
Eric offers 3 pieces of advice to a 20-year-old self on how to be successful.
1) – Worry about tomorrow’s money. Don’t make decisions out of character that you wouldn’t normally make because you’re trying to make a few extra dollars today.
2) – It is more important than you realize
3) – Have some fun.
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To get in touch with Eric, visit https://creditnerds.com/
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