As you prepare to become a successful
real estate investor
, I encourage you to take the following tips into consideration. They have helped me greatly as I have navigated my way through the world of real estate--and life in general. I hope these tips will make just as big of an impact on your life as they have had on mine.
Tip #1: Create a game plan.
Decide what you want to accomplish and outline the steps that you must take to get there. Who will be involved? How will you meet them and gain their cooperation? How much time will it take? Where will you find this time? How much will it cost, and where will you get this money? What's the risk? How will you handle it?
This plan will serve as your guide each day, so you need to get it right. That brings us to the next tip...
Tip #2: Have an expert review your plan.
The first real estate investing plan I created involved me single-handedly buying 100 houses in a year. And it listed several different marketing strategies that were completely cost ineffective. I had a friend of mine (who isn't even involved in real estate) review the plan, and he said it looked good. How silly of me!
About eight months into working this over-reaching and misguided plan, I had an expert investor review it. He tore it apart, and together we reconstructed a better plan with more realistic goals (buy 12 houses, not 100) and a more effective marketing plan.
Shortly thereafter, I bought 6 houses, and I actually
felt good about my progress. Six out of twelve feels much better than six out of 100!
Tip #3: Don't give up.
The life of a new
real estate investor is filled with countless highs and lows. You're on a high when you think you have a property all locked up to purchase, and then you hit a low when it suddenly falls though at closing.
Or you're on a high when you finally do close on that house, but you hit a low when you hit a 3-week dry spell and it feels like you couldn't get a seller to agree to your price--even if you paid double.
I hit a personal low when I was jobless and $5,500 in debt from fruitless marketing attempts. But I got up early each morning and worked toward my goal of financial freedom. Even though a voice in my head told me to give up, I never did.
That's probably the #1 key to success:
Don't give up. Even someone who's as dumb as a box of rocks will eventually succeed if he doesn't give up.
Tip #4: Take baby steps.
When you break it all down, big goals, big dreams, and big plans are nothing more than a series of miniature action steps or "to do" items. When you dissect the daily life of a successful investor, you'll find that he or she does 8 to 12 things each day that are real estate related.
One item might be "Watch DVD #5 in the new investing course I bought." Another item might be "Call the title company about the name on the warranty deed" or "Meet the inspector at the house on Watson Street."
All of these little tasks each day add up to what is, or what eventually will be, a large and highly profitable real estate investing operation. So don't toss that "to do" list by the wayside, thinking that your small efforts today don't mean much. They mean everything.
Tip #5: Become comfortable with discomfort.
I was actually nervous at the first
real estate investing meeting that I attended. I was wondering if I would say something stupid or if I wouldn't fit in. After all, most of the investors in the room were 40 or 50 years old, and I was 22.
But by the third meeting I attended, I became comfortable with the crowd. Had I quit after the first meeting, I would have missed out on the very information that enabled me to buy so many properties.
I've learned that one of the biggest keys to success is persisting though uncomfortable situations
until they eventually become comfortable. This is where true growth occurs.
