Do You Buy Houses or Do You Invest in Real Estate?

This might sound funny. They are one and the same, right?

Not even close. They are worlds apart when it comes to getting private money.

"How can this be true?" you're wondering.

Let me tell you; if I had a dime for every time a real estate investor told me they "buy houses" or they "buy apartments" or they "buy notes" I would be writing this from my private vacation home in Fiji. Being in the house buying, apartment buying or note buying business is fine - except when you are talking to private investors.

Most private investors don't know what you do or think the same way you do about real estate investing. They won't immediately be able to connect the dots to see that what you really do

(when it comes to private money) is invest in real estate.

This may seem like a subtle distinction, but I assure you it is not.

One implies that you have an overarching reason for using their money and one does not.

The next time you meet or talk with a prospective private investors, Instead of: "I buy houses", try "I own a real estate investment company."

Investment implies opportunity for the private money investor. After all, some people aren't going to want to invest in houses with you, they will want to participate in the market turnaround, hedge their dollars from inflation and get a good return on their money. Houses, note, apartment, mobile home parks, etc. are just ways of doing that - through your company.

Real estate investors that want to raise private money should know that they are in the investment opportunity business, not the home buying/note buying business.

This is another one of those scenarios where putting yourself in the investors shoes is very beneficial. Consider if you were a wealthy individual. Someone  approached you to invest money into a "home buying business" or a "real estate investment company" which would sound more appealing to you? The home buying business doesn't leave the investor any time to picture big things in their mind as they process the information you tell them.

If the private investor looks at you from the beginning of the relationship in terms of an investment opportunity (and not the same way they would look at a dry cleaners) your chances of getting the money multiply by a factor of 10.