Lesson 2: Your Real Estate Investing Strategy
Your strategy for real estate investing should naturally reflect who you are “now” and where you want to be in the “future”. The results of your efforts will largely depend on one key factor, which is your effort. Although certain simple factors must be taken into consideration when plotting your course. Realty investing is a profession that includes managing your desire to be wealthy, knowing what your specific plan is, and what motivates you to stay committed to your short-term and long-term goals. Part of this will be to develop a millionaire mindset and then put your plan to paper, sticking to it, and knowing how to stay on course, and how to deal with unforeseen obstacles.
Motivation & Commitment
As you probably know, most folks work just enough to get by, which means keeping their jobs, and paying their bills. These types of people will do very little beyond what they absolutely have to for regular every day living. Why you may ask? Why do these people ONLY do what they have to? Sometimes its because they are lazy, but many times the answer is something else, and that is “Fear”. This emotion is a basic instinct that causes us to take action or not to take action. Most folks stay complacent because of “fear”, as they handle fear by doing nothing at all. They figure if they don’t do anything or don’t take any chances, they can’t get hurt, and every thing will be OK.
Maybe some of these people lack self-esteem, so they are scared to take a chance. Maybe they are afraid of change … so there are scared to move forward … Maybe they feel hopeless, and afraid to take a shot on something that will change their life … Whatever the reason, one facts remains, “they found a reason NOT to try to make a change”… Now, you can do the same thing in the opposite way “you can find a reason TO make a change”… and that my friend is the one word that eats “Fear” … and that word is, “Motivation”…
To push past fear or any other obstacle you only need “Motivation”, Come on say the word out load , right now – “Motivation”. Say it again …”Motivation” and say it one more time…”Moottivaaation. Being afraid is ok, it will keep you “alert” while “motivation” carries you across the finish line to success. Once you achieve what your looking for people may become jealous of you or they may admire you, they may ask how you did it, they may even want to be like you, but all that doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is, “you made it” and no one will be able to take that from you. If you are motivated enough you can push past any boundary or any limit whether its imposed by you or others. If you are motivated you can be a millionaires Real Estate Investor. There is an old saying that I hold dear:
“Don’t be afraid to go out on a limb, because that is where the fruit is”
If you want to stay motivated to reach your goals you must stay committed to them. “Motivation” is the key to your success, but “commitment” is what keeps you motivated. Do not waiver from your vision of success, but be willing to change it where and when needed, and never-ever dismiss the dreams that you want for yourself and family. Pay attention to your inner most desire, be sure to pay attention to that little voice that says, “You are are meant for more”. If you didn’t think you were meant for something better, you would never have bought this course. You would have sat in your chair in front of the TV, ordered a pizza, and said to yourself that you weren’t meant to do damn thing in this life that was - above and beyond; but you didn’t. So lets get started.
Develop a Millionaire Mindset
Before you do anything else you need to set your course, identify the steps to get there, and begin moving in your new direction. In order to guide your journey, you need to program your mind. For the purposes of achieving these new and amazing results in your life, your past failures should no longer matter to you. Only the financial future that you create for yourself and your family should count as you reach your destination. Take a look at the following steps to help develop the mind set that you need to become a millionaire, and you will become one my friend...and, don’t let anything ever stop you!
1- Focus On What You Want – And Take It! -
People who focus on what they want get what they want.
2- Be Goal-Orientated -
You can not get what you want with out setting goals.
3- Invest money - Don't Spend It -
Find ways to pay yourself first by saving money to invest on properties.
4- Keep Learning -
Find new ways to learn about real estate investing...don’t ever stop.
5- See the BIG picture -
Keep you vision of owning a portfolio of multiple properties.
6- Think Smart and avoid mistakes
Always make informed decisions in order to rescue the chances of failure.
7- Don’t lose your momentum —
Once you eat started its easy to stop...pace your self and keep moving.
A very successful sports coach once said,
“a person accelerates the most by perfecting their own vision rather than emulating a type”....
Your approach to real estate investing is no different with respect to the fact that you should develop your style. This means that you should focus on what you do best as an investor. You can develop your now style of researching potential investment properties, focus on your approach to making offers to sellers, your own techniques to creatively finance homes, and of course your way to mana get the properties your own and the tenants that rent from you.
When starting out its good to stick to the basics but as you grow, you can play the game harder. Perhaps you will only buy a house if the seller pays all of your closing costs, or maybe you will only buy houses that will reduce their price buy 10% for you. The secret will always to make a lot of offers, some sellers will say “no”, but you want the one person that says “yes” because that’s where you more money.
As you come to understand the fundamentals of real estate investing you will quickly see that you can write your ticket. Albeit, whatever you do you want to avoid mistakes, and build a clean portfolio of properties that are in good areas with strong rental markets, occupied by quality tenants, and good physical condition. Any one can set their goals to buy any numbers of properties, but if you properties do not have the aforementioned basic characteristic you will run into problems that will cost a lot of time, money, and aggravation.
Realistic Goal Setting
Real Estate Investing can improve your income and net worth very quickly. Although you must take the time to understand every step that you must complete in order to acquire each property that you add to your portfolio in a safe and logical manner. Your role as a leader in what is truly your own real estate business is to be brutally honest about what is achievable given the resources that you have. You want to always set goals that are reasonably achievable. That said, the sky is still the limit, and you can grow your wealth to an unlimited amount over time with hard work and dedication to real estate investing, but you want to to this smartly, and reduce your risks as much as possible by using the right real estate professional to support you to ensure as much success as possible.
You may aspire to owning a portfolio of many rental homes, apartment complexes, commercial properties or even more, but this does not mean that you should buy them all at once or even one after the other. Taking your time to add quality properties that you purchase for the right price, that are in good physical condition, and that are located in good locations with strong economies is very important.
There is saying that states:
“It is better to avoid mistakes than it is to make gains”.
These are wise words, mistakes can set you make for years to come. You do not want to make a mistake at any point in your real estate investing career. With the right preparation, and adequate attention to what makes a rental property successful and profitable, you will always have options to deal with issues as they arise. This is why it is important to understand what makes the most ideal property to purchase for your portfolio before you set any goals at all. This is not to say that any properly that you may own can’t be rented, but some types of properties rent better than others. And some types of properties will sell quicker in the market place in case you decide to liquidate.
Pro-tip: Likewise some properties in certain areas are less prone to larger price fluctuations than others. For example, condominiums have been notorious for huge price fluctuations when the demand for real estate changes. Personally I have seen condos rise to 2-3 times there base or nominal value and decrease 4-5 times in value from their highest values. Condominiums also carry very large and ever increasing maintenance fees, and they are subject to special assessments.
Keep Your Future in Mind
A lot of folks think in the “Now”, this is not entirely unhealthy, but when it comes to your financial future you have to think of the the future. There are no longer retirement plans, there are now longer pensions for your hard work, and there is certainly no longer any job security for anyone. So thinking about the back-end of your life when its not going to be so easy to get out of bed in the morning, work all day, and balance the rest of your personal life. With this in mind you can see how important it is not only plan, but to take action. This very, very important.
As a result, creating a stream of income that you can depend on without having to go to a 9-5 job every day, should be one of your highest priorities. You should be doing anything you possibly can to plan this “now” rather than later. Real estate investing is one of the only ways to accomplish this type of goal in a fairly safe part time effort, provided you follow the steps in the publication and continue to seek and learn all the information that is available on this amazing subject.
Think about the idea that if you buy a properties and rent it to someone they are in turn paying off the home for you. The money they pay you each and every month will pay off the mortgage and put positive cash flow in your packet for spendable cash. this prey can be jaded to make car payments, start college savings plans for your children, buy new cloths and take the vacations that you’ve always wanted.