How to Start Thinking Like a Big-Time Real Estate Investor

In the video below, investor Thach Nguyen reveals how he has successfully made a career of investing in real estate. He’s doing so well, in fact, we’re standing in front of a deal that he anticipates will positively cash flow around $240,000 a year—and that’s just one property he purchased from one single owner.

So, what’s the key to generating profits like Thach? Having the correct mindset.

The Mindset of a Big-Time Real Estate Investor

“If you were to simplify it—give me advice for any investor right now—tell me how do you look at deals differently?” I asked Thach. “How do you get focused on only one type of deal, and how do you broaden your mind to start looking at every possibility?”

Below he gives us a few pointers.

Related: 3 Ways to Develop a Winning Mindset

When I was starting, I started as a real estate agent. As a real estate agent, when you look down the road, the farthest you can think is listing this property. You can ever think beyond that.

If you’re a wholesaler, what would you think? The farthest you can think is you can wholesale or maybe you can flip it later. A flipper would think about flipping it. A builder would think about tearing [the existing property] down.

So, my tip for you guys is you have to start with 10, 20 years out and ask yourself what your lifestyle looks like.

How much money do you have coming in every single month? How many doors do you need?

From there, if you’re thinking long-term, when you think passive income, you find deals that match passive income. If you think wholesale, you find deals to match wholesale. You think flip, you find a house that might flip. You can never find a flip that gives you these types of return, because your mindset is thinking flip. Your mindset is thinking wholesale.

So, the tip I will tell people is if you want to find a better margin deal or deal like this, you’ve got to think like a long-term passive income investor.

Now, when I do this, I start my day thinking:

Can this property meet a BRRRR?

If it doesn’t meet a BRRRR, can I build on it?

If it isn’t something to build on, can it meet a flip?

If it doesn’t meet a flip, can I assign it?

If I can’t do that, can I just list it for the owner?

Back then, I started from the bottom up. And so what happened, is if you started up, you just stop wherever your mind can extend. So, the key for me now is that I stand from—every day I stand from—I’m an investor who wants to create passive income.

So, when I go out there and door knock and find property, the Law of Attraction will give me what I think about. That’s what I find all the time.

This is something I struggled with for many, many years. To sum up what Thach said, I only thought six months out all the time.

“I need to flip houses,” and that’s all I found. I found a ton of flips, and all I would do is flip. When I was a wholesaler, all I found was wholesale. So, it’s niching yourself.

Now, I do believe that at some point you’ve got to niche yourself, but Thach chose to do so at the top and then work back down.

“That’s right,” he said. “That’s the key.”

I think it’s a great point. So, I hope you guys get that and think long-term. I thought six months out forever; only the last few years of my life I’m actually thinking 10 years out. And it’s really challenging for me—still. But being able to do that, you start seeing so many other exit strategies.

Thach added:

Here’s the thing though, just because you think long-term doesn’t mean you’re going to stop wholesaling. It doesn’t mean you’re going to stop flipping.

So, when a deal comes to me, I can quickly analyze it and go, “BRRRR or new construction or flip.”

When working backward, I’m not telling people to stop flipping houses. I’m telling you when you stand over here, you’re clear on that you’re flipping this house for a specific reason—getting max for the flip.

So, you don’t stop doing it. You just have an end game in why you’re doing it.

Do you agree or disagree with this advice? If your strategy differs, do you think it’s superior to this one? Why?

Share your thoughts in the comment section below.