SIMPLE Steps To Get Started In Real Estate Investing

Step 1: Self-Assess - Defining Your Value Proposition

To get going in real estate, the first step is to do a self-assessment and assess your finances, skills, schedule, and goals, so you can understand what resources you have. So I think having an actual assessment of your finances, and improving your credit, you want to see where you are as an individual. So when you're going into a bank or going into a partnership, you gotta know, “Hey, this is who I am, this is what I'm bringing to the table.”

Step 2: Know Your Business Model - Understanding Your Lifestyle

There are a lot of different real estate investment strategies out there. However, I tell my coaching students, “Hey, you got to understand your lifestyle.” Whatever you do in real estate, you want it to fit within your lifestyle. If it's not integrating well, with everything else you have going on in your life, it's gonna be hard to be consistent.

So here are some strategies to consider:

1. Fix and flip
2. Turnkey 
3. BRRR method 
4. Buy notes 

Step 3: Aim Your Target Market

Oh, the third one, you got to pick a target market. I think this is a big one, where a lot of times, people are held back - because they may be in San Diego or LA or New York, a super expensive market that they can't invest in, or they feel like they can't invest in. This step is super important - “Where is it?” So you're not looking all over different zip codes. Narrow in and figure out, “Hey, this is my niche and I want to come into this area and farm this area in order to find my next deal.”

Step 4: Solidify Your Buying Criteria

What are you looking for? Single-family homes, condos, townhouses, apartments, duplexes, triplex? Are you looking for older homes built before 1950, or newer built after 1980? Do you want to look at houses under 2000 square feet or everything under 1500 square feet? Does it need to be on a slab or can have a crawl space underneath? Do you want to stay away from projects that need rewiring and plumbing, or do you want to just look for cosmetic-type flips?

Step 5: Build Your Team

You don’t have to be an expert on everything…

That's how you become wealthy - by being able to leverage other people's money and leverage other people's time. Where if you have a team, you don't have to be an expert contractor, you don't have to be an expert underwriter, you don't have to be an expert deal finder, and you don't have to be an expert real estate agent to sell houses. You just have to be the one that can orchestrate and put the deals together and lead and lean on other people's expertise in order to make you successful.

Step 6: Get Your Financing Options Ready

Get multiple financing options - have at least three lenders on your team. They don't have to be traditional banks, they could be credit unions. Eventually, if you got money and done enough deals, you're gonna run out of money. Projects may take longer - it could go five to six months to go the full cycle. Then, you may have a great deal that comes up before you even finish.

Step 7: Raise Capital - Finding Investors

Bring people in to buy into your vision for your company and what you're doing. If you're not raising money, then you're really being selfish. There are so many people who need help with getting a better return on their money. They got lazy money sitting in the bank and they need a real estate investor like you. Somebody who sees and is doing deals, whom they can invest their money with. Someone who wants to diversify from the stock market and their portfolio overall. Also, now they can get the gains that are backed by real estate. It's gonna help you at the same time.

Step 8: Finding Deals

Plan on how to find your deals. Get good at marketing - consider connecting with brand realtors and wholesalers to bring you deals. However, to get really good deals - going direct-to-owner makes a huge difference in the profit spread. Whereas now, the middle man gets it, they mark it up as much as $20,000. If you go directly to the owner, you just made an additional $20,000 on a deal. There are different ways to get direct to motivated sellers- like:

• sending text messages
• cold calling
• sending direct mail
• door knocking
• bandit signs
• etc. 

Whatever the marketing sources that you choose to use, the goal is to get in front of motivated sellers who have properties to get deals done.

Step 9: Take Action

The last point here is to take action - as you get all the information. By watching videos, going to seminars and conferences, reading books, reading blogs, listening to podcasts, and taking in all this content. Go to networking events and meet in person, and get off the sidelines. You have everything that you need inside of you, right now, to be successful in real estate. People that are doing it have thousands and thousands of units. They're no smarter than you. The only difference is they got a little more information and then they took action. At some point in time, they started right where you are now, and where I was years ago. They started taking action and continuing to build. You have everything you need right now. You just got to believe and have faith in yourself - get the right information and start executing.

Since I started my career and knowing hindsight is 2020, the #1 piece of advice I would tell myself is to get the knowledge - which is now what I share with you now. I wrote the book, “Millionaire Real Estate Success Strategies: What They Forgot to Teach You in School”. They don't teach you these things in school - about real estate investing. You just have to get it from somewhere. Luckily, I found it after I had started my career in the military as an engineer.