CFD 531 – Cliff Hayden On Building Systems To Create The Lifestyle You Want

April 11th, 2019

Cliff Hayden is a real estate investor, broker-owner of Altec Properties, and founder of ShowMeTheRental.com, a unique online service that automates the most difficult part of property management: finding and screening qualified tenants.

Cliff knows the importance of finding the right balance of priorities in life, especially as a business owner. This quest for a more abundant life inspired Cliff to walk away from his fruitful career and into the often-chaotic world of real estate investing. After quitting his day job to pursue real estate investing as a career, Cliff found himself overwhelmed by the responsibilities of managing multiple properties, keeping the business running smoothly, and finding time for his family. As someone who’s personally struggled with this juggling act, Cliff knows the emotional, mental, and physical toll it can take on realestate investors, property managers, or landlords — whether it’s their full-time career or side hustle.

This struggle was Cliff’s impetus to develop ShowMeTheRental.com, which screened all his leads so he didn’t have to. ShowMeTheRental.com takes all leads (phone, email, or text) and pre-screens them with customized questions, then arrange for qualified leads to see the home, follows up with these leads, and even takes care of the application process — leaving more time for property managers to work on the things that matter most, like spending quality time with their loved ones or growing their business.

Podcast Highlights

  • Who is Cliff Hayden?

Cliff Hayden is a happily married man with five kids who is focused on spending as much time with his family as he can. He’s automated the majority of his real estate business and reorganized his priorities so now he’s very mobile and enjoys meeting new people and doing new things.

Cliff started out working a regular job as a construction worker, he transitioned to real estate while he was still working his job. He realized that the corporate life wasn’t everything he thought it would be so he wanted to find a way out. His brother was really into Robert Kiyosaki and when he came back from the military he introduced Cliff to the Cashflow game which was a complete eye opener for him. Cliff joined a real estate club and found a mentor, then he started buying real estate with the money he had saved up. The moment he realized that it was time to quit was when he had earned his entire salary in a fourth month period.

Cliff’s first day as a full-time real estate entrepreneur was very exciting. He got into the office earlier than anybody else and left after everyone else. Financially he was doing very well but his family life was suffering due to him not being very present when he was home. Cliff joined a mastermind group and had a major realization that something had to change. He began to focus on building systems and putting them in place to allow him to be mobile and put his life and family first.

  • Building Systems

It comes down to what you want for your life and what lifestyle you want. When people are on their deathbed, they never say they wished they made more money. The wished they spent more time with their family or did things differently. Cliff decided that building systems were going to be the only way he could achieve the lifestyle he wanted.

Cliff started to educate himself and found that when you don’t have a lot of debt, you don’t need a lot of money. He began to focus on paying off the majority of his houses and avoiding or selling the properties he owned that caused the majority of his headaches.

Once you get to a certain number of houses, you will always have to deal with turnover and issues that come up. Cliff knew that there must be a way to automate the process and started looking for it when he couldn’t find the solution he was looking for Cliff decided to create it himself. Showmetherental.com was born and is a system that makes finding tenants easy and automatic.

Property managers are key to taking care of the everyday tasks that need to get done. One of the tricks that Cliff has learned is to take a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle of it then list the things you do like to do and the things you don’t like to do, then go out and hire somebody to do the things you don’t like to do.

Finding a property manager can be very difficult because no one is going to care about your property as much as you do but it is essential. The best property manager is going to be yourself.

  • What are the top 3 questions for screening tenants?

Longevity is Cliff’s number one priority in a tenant. He doesn’t do one-year leases, his minimum commitment is three to five years. He wants somebody who is going to stay in the property long term. They should also have a consistent history with their job and an emergency fund set aside in their bank account. Cliff wants tenants one-year that are responsible and if something goes wrong in their life, they have the resources to survive.

  • Living The Life

Because of how much of his business is automated, Cliff has managed to go on a 40 day RV trip with his family this past summer. He also comes home at 3 o’clock every day to help them with their homework and spend time with them, and he spends a lot of time teaching them how to have an abundant life.

  • Cliff’s Takeaway

Anything worthwhile comes with risk, you’re going to fail and you just have to push through it. Persistence and the drive to never quit will serve you well. Once you fail, you’ll realize that it’s not actually all that bad. Have a plan and a vision, join some real estate clubs, and then start building systems that will help you achieve your vision.

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