I just finished teaching a real estate investing class in Sonoma County California. The class was an intimate class of 20 or so would be real estate investors.

After the class a student approached me and said that she is so frustrated with this whole real estate game because she is so overwhelmed with the process that she doesn't know where to start, or what she should be doing day by day. All she knows is that she really wants to do a deal. She is obsessed with the whole real estate game. She is buying book after book after tape and now is willing to pay me to mentor her because she HAS TO MAKE THIS WORK! She knows it can be done but for some reason she just can't connect the dots. She just can't make it click!

I told her the same thing that I am about to tell you....

Stop trying to be a real estate investor.

It seems that "Sarah" (we'll call her) is too busy trying to be what she thinks a real estate investor should be and look like. She's driving neighborhoods and doing pretend cash flow analyses and running scenario after scenario in her mind and on paper. She is spinning her wheels!

If this is you, STOP! Stop trying to BE a real estate investor. You won't be one until you do your first deal.

Instead, All of your focus, all of your effort and all of your discipline should be finding someone who is motivated enough to sell you their property in a way that makes sence for you to buy it. You need to be looking for PEOPLE and not real estate per se.

Yes you will more than likely find the people who you should be dealing with by finding properties that smell distressed, but even the stinkiest property may be owned by someone who is not motivated to sell it.

You see, there are only 2 (two) acquisition techniques:

Price
Terms

That's it! Then there are a plethora of options on how to satisfy both.

So why are so many people OBSESSED with crunching the numbers on a property that they have not even made an offer on? It's only Price or Terms that you need to figure AFTER you find your motivated seller!

There are HUNDREDS of ways to find someone who is motivated to sell. So start focusing on that!

Here is what I want you to do to from now on:

Stop obsessing about getting your first deal under your belt. It will just overwhelm you. Instead, go through your day looking for clues that point to a motivated seller.

Quick list:
Boarded up homes
"Motivated Seller" in the MLS description
FSBO's
Ugly home in nice neighborhood
Etc...

Then the most important part: Ask!

IF you don't ask if they are motivated to sell how will you know? If they are GREAT! If not? NEXT!

Does this make sense? Lower your shoulders and exhale!

Your deal of the century will only come as fast as you can find a motivated seller. If it takes you 2 years to find this deal, so what! If the deal has a $200k profit for you, do you care that it took you two years to find it? That's $100K/year. NOT BAD!

The game is soooo not stressful! It's a joy! My family and I will be going to Texas at the end of this month for about a week for vacation. While there, we plan to look at property. We will hopefully find a property to purchase on Lake Travis in Austin. I will also bring my "Equity Purchase Agreement" with me. If I smell distress, I am making an offer! I don't know the market nor do I know what stuff sells for. Does that matter?

NO!

Why?

Because I am not looking for property, I am looking for someone who is motivated. Once I find them, get them under contract, I can, with a few phone calls, find out what stuff sells for, how much fix up is going to cost me, How much my holding costs are going to be, how much my selling costs are going to be and how much I will need to reduce my offer price.

If I can't find anyone motivated enough to sell their property to me in a way that makes sense for me to purchase it, then I will sit back by the pool at the hotel and sip my Lone Star Beer with my wife and son; without another thought about it.

Remember:

Keep your eyes open
Cary with you at all times a stack of blank post cards and a pen. If you see a property that smells good (or bad depending on how you read this), leave your desires to purchase and your contact info on that card and leave that card on the front door. Then follow up.

No stress here at all!

If you are just someone who needs stressin their life, there will be plenty of it to go around once you have them under contract!

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