1st Line of Thought

Real estate is fun. Investing is challenging, but can be fun. I have always loved real estate. My eyes were opened when I was kid going to high school in downtown Atlanta and visiting all of my friends houses and seeing these incredible five thousand to six thousand square foot homes that were normal to see in real life but never in person. They were simply incredible and has someone from an upper middle class family which lived a more modest lifestyle I was always thrown to see what wealth could do in real estate and how some people were not shy to show off their wealth through their home. To me that was a foreign concept. Yet, real estate is part visualization and understanding of where the world can be opened to in terms of one of the core simple aspects of life in that everybody needs to call something or somewhere "home".

Many mavericks in real estate will try and sell their secret sauce- their differentiating equation between what makes them different when in reality all they are trying to do is to create another revenue stream. Nobody will ever say no to an opportunity to create more wealth, income, a safer financial future, or pure money which is why our natural instinct is to listen. Allow me to pull back the curtain a little bit and say that real estate is not about having thousands and thousands of dollars laying around- in reality far from it- I will not shy away from saying it helps and does makes things a little easier but real estate investing and being a genuinely successful real estate mogul in general is about finding the ever so delicate balance between the smartest person on the planet who is constantly pulling the right lever at the right time and being the shy cunning operative who knows when to strike and become aggressive when the moment is right.

I cannot stand get quick rich schemes in real estate- 2% work for 5% of the people who do them and most are legal pyramid schemes where the most important thing is to the be first one into the pool. I have been pitched, attended nearly every seminar, and sat with the best "coaches" all over the world over the past three years. Now some of these people mean incredibly well and are fortunate in realizing their success and are incredibly open about it, others are wise enough to share the sacrifices they have made to reach their level of success, and others just want to have their pile of cash be the one to do the talking for them. These are the people who actually without realizing it are doing the most harm in real estate education, but will never ever admit it.

First lesson is understanding that finding a deal is incredibly hard. The greatest myth cultivated in real estate investing has been born by people sitting at home on their couches watching it on TV where the deal seems to fall from the sky like rain on a sunny day. Yeah right. One, the average television show runtime is twenty two minutes so for the sake of dramatic effect only the best parts are shown and they are either created for appeal or cut out for time though mostly they are created for show and appeal. Knock on wood but I have never found something that is repair altering when I pulled back a wall or something budget shattering come out at the last possible second. Second, if the show showed the spent the time showing the number of phone calls, letter writing, emails, meetings taken, meetings cancelled, meetings no showed, paperwork, and every other mundane task toward the creation of the deal it would take up a whole season of television and be completely boring and uninteresting. If you want a real test of your skills do a phone dialing session calling leads and live stream it on any platform you have- watch the comments (if you even get any) it is an interesting lesson of the human experience.

Second, there are people out there who will fall and push each other over to fund a deal if one is presented. Here is where so many people get tripped up for one reason or another and for good reason. Some people flat out do not feel good about asking for others money. It is entirely a level of comfort thing, but when there are groups, people, companies, or organizations who sole purpose exists on funding other peoples real estate deals do not feel like a bad person for pitching a deal.

The ultimate danger is trying to find a shortcut between parts one and two. If someone else sells the deal to you, helps you find the deal, or is operating the deal the deal is too expensive and not worth it. The first three real estate investments I did are the three deals I learned the most from. First of all I found each of them on the open market which meant already I was paying anywhere from a four to seven percent premium. While at first glance that does not seem like a ton of money take five percent of three hundred thousand, and then take a second glance thinking about how much profit on a deal you would like to make. Second, I did not shop the deal around to various investors instead I went with the first person who would promise me funding. This was a crucial and pivotal mistake in that I was now paying out a ton of money in interest as high as eleven to fifteen percent on top of other fees. Already I am either fifteen to twenty percent in the hole, and I have not even take a hammer to a wall yet.

A good deal is like an open secret. Where the key is who to share it with and when to share it. You want to be the one to find it and you want to control who has access to it. For me this is where the joy is. I do not know why but my joy in real estate is what everybody hates. I like the calling, the letters, the emails, the mystery of trying to track down an owner. Everybody loves the commission or profit check at the end of it, but they do not love the effort. For me it is what is difficult that I love always have and I will always will. A great realtor or investor embraces the challenge and does not back down from wanting to find the next thing and measures themselves by their next deal. I closed my first million dollar investment deal within six months because I did not judge myself on a deal I judged myself on the next deal I did. Growth in this case should grow growth. 

The first investment deal I ever did was for a thousand square foot two bed one bath home in central Massachusetts. Was not the flashiest house, in fact far from it. It took me a full month just to find and close to seven hundred calls to find and countless trips to Staples, FedEx, and the post office to do mailers and other flyers. Ultimately it was another agent who knew I was calling around from someone else who had a former listing who sold it to me. He made off better than I did because he represented both himself and me in the sale. It took me a week to find funding and suddenly I have a quarter of a million dollar investment property on my hands. I sold it for just three hundred thousand and was left with a couple grand left, three thousand tops, after all the bills were paid and interest was paid off. Of all the money I have made in real estate that three grand is the one I am most proud of because of the level of effort I put into it, and how good I felt afterward. It is hard to create a tangible feeling but holding that money in my hand felt pretty good and pretty close to it, and I knew I wanted more so for my next project I tried to grow a little more and began looking for a project with ten grand higher price point and each deal after that a little higher and higher and within the six months I had gone from selling a three hundred thousand to a four hundred and fifty thousand to six hundred thousand to a seven hundred thousand to a million dollar home. Yes the profits got better,  and yes I got wiser on every single deal and project.

For example to this day I credit every single contractor, laborer, and engineer I have ever worked with because I can count on my hands and fee the number of construction sights I have visited and I would have a toe or two left over. This is not to say I do not enjoy watching a project grow or morph into something new and beautiful, on the contrary I find great joy in that however my time is more valuable on the phone, evaluating a deal, and more importantly finding a deal. I know nothing about construction, I know how to hire a contractor, I know how to pay a contractor, and I know how to fire a contractor. I know real estate trends and what customer would be potentially looking for in a home when they see it but do I know how to tile a linoleum floor? Nope. I could try but my talents are best suited to be utilized elsewhere so I learned to stay in the lane where my strengths are.  

I look at having a deal in my pocket has both knowledge, power, and control all rapped into one and the one who understands the stick their holding is one who dictates the terms. A connection turns into a meeting, a meeting turns into an opportunity, an opportunity turns into a deal, and a deal turns into an investment. The chain of that train does not change, what does changes is the players in each car as you move through it with you being the constant above all. You made the connection, you made the meeting, you created the opportunity, you created the deal, and you created the investment. 

There is a painting in my office of a desk in front of a revolving door. It symbolizes how I often feel my business works. The door is constantly twirling around and someone new comes in whether it is someone who wants to introduce me to a new source of lead generation, have a hot tip for a lead, is an investor from within the fund, or some other source with a question, comment, or otherwise critique. That is the merry go around of real estate investment, everyone else should circle you. You found the deal you bring it to an investor and suddenly realize their terms are not that great? No problem there are others out there negotiate on your terms. Think about maybe wholesaling it. Never just have one methodology of ever walking away from a deal. 

Yes, okay the idea is to maximize the profit on a deal the minute after that point what comes next. There are close to perfect exits in real estate investing, and the best ones are judged by the profits one makes but after that one must wonder how perfect it has to be? 

Success will create noise. The best investors are ones who are able to mute the chaos around them and maintain a focus on what makes the successful. Others will want to bring you down because they either cannot comprehend your level success or do not want acknowledge success. Be the maker of your own success. Visualize what you wish. What works for one should not work for all. Find what your secret sauce is and ride it. Make your passion and turn it to success.