Week 1 | Advice is important

Wow!! I've made it to a second blog posting. I really hope I can keep this up. 

So this week’s been a wild one for sure. Much lessons and much traction. To preface this blog, I must say that I’ve been on BP for possibly three months now. Can’t really find anywhere on the site that states my membership date. Oh well! Probably around three months though. Anyway, it’s worth noting that this thing has been phenomenal. I’ve enjoyed the podcasts and the webinars (I can’t attend the webinars live because of schedule conflicts Wednesday nights, so I hope Brandon is okay with me registering, and not attending. Lol!). I listen to the replay of the webinars on Thursdays. I digress…. This platform has been very helpful. I’ve gotten only halfway through the beginners guide because 1) I’m a mega slow reader and 2) there have been so many other great articles distracting me. Good stuff!

This week has been pretty good. I’ve finally gotten a weekly flow going. About a month ago I went to a Fortune Builders 3-day course (Guru alert). I did it because I wanted my wife to get a solid break down of RE investing. It did serve its purpose. Moreso, it got her thinking of how to set up systems in her career. Than Merrill is big on systems. So when Brandon Turner started talking earlier this month about having a weekly process, the lights went on. I say all this because, I needed to have a weekly process / system.  This week has been the first full week of implementing a weekly process of educating myself and analyzing deals.

Even though I didn’t move on to the $50K Fortune Builders training, I did learn the importance of systems. I’m realizing how important it is to learn from others in this business. I would say the theme of this week is “seeking advice.” A couple really cool things happened this week in this regard. Firstly, after joining the local real estate investors association. I decided to go to one of their Intown rehabber sub-groups. I’m not interested yet in flipping, but I knew other investors would be there. It was the coolest thing. Of course you have these big-wig investors conversing about their recent purchase of an abandoned school and their plans to convert it into multi-function retail space. Then you had guys like me just standing and nodding. Hahaha! It was cool to hear the investor explain her rehab project and be able to ask questions, but the highlight was chatting with Parth and Mike about their 4 or 5 properties and their plans for this year. I was able to ask tons of questions and get some good advice on managing tenants and sifting through contractors. Got their numbers and you can bet that I’ll be contacting them.

Secondly, I officially found an amazing real estate agent. Renee is an old friend. After reading up on how to find a good “investor-friendly” RE agent, I was surprised to find out that I had one right under my nose. Some things that I learned about finding this type of agent was to find one who’ve not only worked with investors, but also have a few properties themselves. It’s kinda like me working at Chick-fil-A and not ever eating a sandwich. What!! Okay, it’s not completely like that. Crucial to me though was her ability to return calls/emails quickly. Renee is just that. I approached our first meeting this week to just learn from her and get some advice. She shared a lot of her experience with rentals as well as the purchasing process. I left confident that this is someone I can rely on for some sound counsel.

There’s a proverb in the Bible that says “plans fail for lack of counsel.” I want to make sure that as I develop my RE investing plans, I have great people around me to counsel me. I’m naturally a person who likes to do things on his own, mostly to prove that I can, but I’m realizing that in this business I have to change some of those habits. Next step is to meet with a general contractor/ investor who I met at church. I’ve had his number since Sunday but hadn’t called him yet. Get on it Pierre!!