If you’re reading this because you think there’s some kind of “secret sauce” you can stop reading now.
Real estate investing isn’t a magic bullet to the life of your dreams. Can real estate investing get you to the life of your dreams… yes, absolutely. And there’s a good chance that it can get you there much faster than working a JOB.
In fact, you probably can’t have the life of your dreams while working a regular job.
But what most people tend to think is that real estate investing is going to be easy, and the truth is that for most people it’s far from easy. It’s lots, and lots of hard work!
Now if you’re not scared of some hard work, and really want to get to that dream life of yours, keep reading.
Here’s how I’d do it if I were starting over from scratch. If I were still living in New York City running my personal training business, but looking for something more. If I were still working long hours everyday without an end in sight.
I remember walking down the streets of NYC and feeling stuck in life. Like I knew people were living the good life, but I was so far away from knowing how to do that.
There were days when it was raining sideways, and my umbrella would barely keep the rain from hitting my face. My clothes were soaked. And I had hours of client work still ahead of me.
I kept thinking… there must be something better.
Find a way to learn real estate
The first thing that I did, and that I’d still recommend is finding a great real estate investing education company, or a great mentor. I somehow was lucky enough to get introduced to the FortuneBuilders real estate education company, and am still learning from them today.
You don’t have to pick the FortuneBuilders, but they are good. They provide you with education and mentors.
But… even with all of the FortuneBuilders help it still took me over a year before I did any kind of real estate deal.
It’s just really hard to go into an industry that you know nothing about and have success quickly. You really have to dive in. And I really did dive in, and it still took me a good year before I had any kind of success.
The hardest part of getting started was learning how to talk the language of real estate.
You have the tools, now what…?
If you get a good real estate education, and/or have a good mentor, now all you need to do is take action.
I feel like these days the phrase “take action” is so overused, but that’s really what it comes down to. I mean, me writing this blog post right now is a form of action that will get me some kind of result. Sometimes you don’t know what the result is that you’re going to get, but you need to take the action anyway.
Taking action as a real estate investor can come in many different forms…
– You can take action by having coffee with other real estate investors.
– You can take action by putting up bandit signs or sending out a piece of direct mail marketing.
– You can take action by cold calling other real estate investors to ask them what they’re up to.
– You can take action by contacting a hard money lender, and getting qualified.
– You can take action by going to real estate meet up groups and networking with people that have similar goals as you.
– You can take action by walking through open houses.
– You can take action by emailing Realtors, and asking them about finding you houses to buy fix and sell.
*Reading and learning is essential, but is not taking action*
Sorry, you need to read and learn. Just like you’re reading and learning from this blog post, but there has to be some action behind it. In fact, I think that the reason that we read and learn is for it to motivate us to take some kind of action.
Hopefully this blog post motivates you to take some action. I mean, if you simply emailed me and asked to have coffee that would be taking action.
Getting out of your comfort zone
A lot of times taking action can feel like it’s outside of your comfort zone, but let’s be clear here… if you want any kind of crazy awesome results… you’re going to have to get out of your comfort zone. But don’t worry, it only feels uncomfortable for a little bit.
After a while your comfort zone will expand to the point that it’s hard for you to get uncomfortable. And example of this in my life is public speaking. I’ve always wanted to be an influential person, and I knew I’d have to get good at public speaking, but it terrified me to death. Even though it terrified me I would throw myself onto stages, sweaty palms, dry mouth, and all, and I would see what happened. Sometimes I would end up feeling ok after a few minutes, and sometimes it was completely awful.
But, there was a point where it just became no big deal. And today I co-host a real estate networking group (the Seattle Investors Club), and speak in front of over 75 people every month. And guess what… I don’t even think a thing of it. I actually pinched myself last month and thought back to when I would have been scared shitless to be in front of that group. Now I run it!
So, get into some things that make you feel uncomfortable. Have some conversations that you don’t understand, and let people know that you don’t understand. You will put yourself into a learning situation, and be better for it.
How and when the success happens
This is really the meat and sweet potatoes, but you needed to read the above to get the most out of this post.
The success comes when you can figure out what is getting you results. The tricky part is that you might have to try things several times to see the results.
For example, direct mail marketing… sometimes you have to mail the same list 3 or more times to get a good response. And if you only mail to that list 1 time you’ll have zero results to show, but maybe the 3rd mailer had 5 deals in it.
You really have to go for it!
Then once you figure out what works for you, do it consistently. Another example, you send out the 4 mailers (2 weeks apart of course), and you get 5 deals in that last mailer. You are now busy with the 5 deals so you stop sending out mail. The 5 deals pay you well, but once you finish closing the 5th deal you have nothing left to do. Then you have to go back and start sending out mailers from scratch again.
FYI, all of these examples are mistakes that we have made… Now you don’t have to make them for yourself. You’re welcome! 😉
So, when your mailers work… keep sending mail, even if you find deals. This is how you’ll get busy, and make a lot of money. If you get too busy hire someone to help you. In the end you don’t want to be doing all the work yourself anyway, do you?
Hire
If fact, the conclusion to this post is to hire. As soon as you have some money, and figure out what someone else can do better than you can, or you find things that you don’t enjoy doing in the real estate business… hire someone to do those things for you.
Oh, and remember, hiring is a skill in and of itself. So, you might feel like you’re starting all over again, and you are. But don’t stop. Get good at hiring people because you’ll need some really good people around you to make your dreams come true.
Now go out and do it!
And let me know if you have any questions….
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