Ready to start investing in real estate, but not sure where to start?
Afraid of making a HUGE mistake?
Stuck with analysis paralysis???
You are not alone! Almost every real estate investor must have spent countless hours early in their investing career researching the different strategies to try and figure out where to start.
While there isn’t a right answer for everyone, there are three key questions every potential investor should ask:
1. How much TIME should I invest?
2. How much MONEY should I invest?
3. How fast do I want my business to grow?
A great way to start a business is to have an END goal in mind and then make a plan to get there! Even if you have to make changes along the way, what you will do, “getting there” is a big part of the fun.
Investing in real estate can do it all, from learning how to quickly put an EXTRA $5,000 in your pocket (in 30 days or less) each month, to fulfilling all your financial dreams with an annual income after million dollar tax. You really have to decide in advance, whether you are pursuing billionaire status or just putting money in your pocket to pay the bills.
Whatever your dreams and desires are, how you will use real estate investing to get where you want to go in life, we believe there are three essential rules you must follow if you want to be successful. Are here:
RULE NUMBER ONE IS: FOCUS-FOCUS-FOCUS
If you’re looking for a long-term commitment to this business, you need to establish from the start that you’ll need to set aside money from each of your trades/transactions to reinvest in your education, AND it’s likely in your It’s it’s in your best interest to start with one strategy and be prepared to move on to a different strategy once those goals are achieved.
For example, let’s say you finally want to be a developer (like Donald Trump, or Sam Zell, or Trammell Crow), but today you have a job and are $50,000 in debt. Your first step might be to generate cash quickly over the next year to pay off debt, and then halfway through (say month six) begin the process of implementing a strategy to generate enough revenue to from your real estate investment. job, after building a stable base (enough to pay the bills and more) from your investing business, to start a plan to become a developer. Taken together, this may require three different strategies.
A “classic” mistake that many novice investors make is to try all three strategies AT THE SAME TIME – DON’T DO THIS! It’s best to learn one strategy to get money fast, master it, then move on, then try to learn three strategies at once.
OLD AFRICAN PROVERB: “Whoever hunts two tigers in the end gets none”
Whatever the starting strategy, history has shown that people who FOCUS their time, energy and money are more likely to succeed than those who don’t. Be patient, be focused, start small, grow. RECAP: Rule number one is: FOCUS-FOCUS-FOCUS
RULE NUMBER TWO: LEARN BY DOING! The second important thing to know about real estate investing is that you learn by doing! We know there are a lot of late night infomercials that say “Come to our FREE seminar, spend $5,000 and tomorrow you’ll wake up a millionaire”, but the problem is we never found anyone who admits it’s really Plus, there are people who spend a lot of money going to college or college and studying how to “do real estate”, and that can usually work out, if you then commit to working for 25-40 years as an employee of a real estate company, making everyone else rich – if you’re lucky enough you may learn enough (in time) and then flourish on your own.
And yes, we all know people who buy all the books, all the tapes, and attend all the seminars, and become walking “Encyclopedias” of real estate investing – BUT NEVER DO ANYTHING WITH IT – BAD IDEA! Why, because if you never practice what you read or hear, you’ll end up convincing yourself that “that real estate thing” doesn’t work. UNFORTUNATELY, history and Forbes magazine will prove him wrong.
