Hi @Bret Rubash. I am new to BP, so I can't comment intelligently about the real estate, but your post inspired me to ensure you that you can go from nothing to something. What you lack, at the moment, is credibility. Just like you have a Credit Score, you have a Credibility Score. The difference being that you cant look up your Credibility Score. But in order to succeed in life, be it real estate, normal job, or anything in between, the higher your Credibility Score the farther you will go. Why do you need Credibility. At some point you will need to make a deal, talk to a bank, borrow money, or otherwise convince someone to take a chance on you. If you don't have Credibility, you don't have a deal, it is that simple.
So you say you want to "succeed" in real estate. You have to first decide what that means. You should never start a journey without a destination, and in this case your journey needs a definable goal. Is it cash flow above $10,000 a month? Is it net wealth about $1,000,000? I cant define that for you, you have to define that for yourself.
Next, you have to decide what you are willing to do to achieve your goal. What I am about to write below is a long hard trip. Because you start in a hole with several disadvantages (education, credit score, etc.) you have to realize that your journey will be harder than most. You know at the moment how hard you have to work to float along subsisting. To succeed you have to work much harder than that, because "work" is your number 1 asset. If you are willing to commit to that....for many years before you see a return on that work "investment" then read on.
Regardless of the goal, the first steps are most likely the same.
1. You need to stabilize your situation. You need to move into the cheapest place you can stomach. A spare room off craigslist, your families basement, etc. Whatever you can do to pay the least amount possible.
2. You create a budget and slash to the bone. No cable for you. You drive a $1000 beater car with no payments. Basically you have housing, transportation, internet, phone, food and clothes. You sell everything else and after you put away $1000 in an emergency fund you pay off debt and/or save for later. you need internet and phone because your goal of real estate requires them. probably a better than average clothes budget also because real estate is a "professional" job.
I would tell you your Credibility score is made up of different parts that add together. You have different levels of control over the different parts.
- Education/Knowledge/Experience: people with education have credibility. If I say "Harvard degree" to you in instantly puts your mind to smart and credible. If I say "30 years experience" it does the same thing.
- Wealth: People with wealth have instant credibility. They should not, but life is unfair, embrace the concept. If someone with a million dollars asks a bank for a loan, they get more consideration than someone with $10.
- Work: This is going to be your strong suit. People who work, have credibility. I had a floor supervisor tell me once that "If someone shows up on-time, sober, works hard and does not steal they are 80% of the way there" I thought it was really cynical at the time. Now I think it is more like 90% of the way there.
- Other: People can assign credibility for other reasons. Celebrity, ability to speak, personal friendship, race, class, sex, etc. Most of these will not be changeable by you, so you just need to work on the other areas. see above statement on fairness of life.
3. You said you don't have a formal education, so that does not add to your score. You need to gain knowledge and experience a different way. Here is 1 idea. You go to a large realtor office in your area, dress well, make an appointment with the office manager in advance. You make the following proposition.
"I want to change my life and I want to use real estate to do it. But I don't have knowledge. So I would like to make you the following proposition. I will work as an upaid intern in your office for 30 days. I will do whatever it takes to make your lives easier. In fact, I take this so seriously that I will even make getting rid of me easy. After 30 days I will leave, you don't have to say anything, unless you want me to stay. I will work whatever hours you like outside of my normal job."
People rarely pass up free help and you proactively addressed his number 1 concern which is if you don't work out, your are effectively "pre-fired". Now before you do this it would be ideal to get a job on 3rd shift or late night so you can work a bunch during normal working hours, but regardless, you give them as many hours as you can. You have 30 days to make yourself invaluable. You cheerfully perform all tasks, proactively look for ways to help, and passionately learn as you go. keep a journal you carry with you at all times. write down things you learn as you go, you will need to refer to this in the future so you might as well stay organized. You will learn how real estate works, about the people in your area, about reputation, about contacts, about everything. You are exchanging your labor (work) for education and experience.
You may need to do this more than once, but ideally, at 25-28 days you go to the office manager and remind him your last day is soon and thank him for his time. Tell him you learned so much and really like the office. Ask if he is convinced you are a positive asset to the team. If he thinks so, ask if he might consider a more permanent arrangement (i.e. a job). If not then rinse and repeat at a different real estate agency until they do.
Now if this was a movie, this is the part where they make a montage of you training. Like Rocky you get better and better as time goes on in your new job. The reason they show it as a montage in the movie is because it is critically important, but very boring. You will spend 2-3 years working to learn the business. Maybe earn your license, maybe not depending on your goal. All this time living like a monk, saving every cent. If you dont think about quitting this plan several times, you are probably not doing it right. But at the end of 2-3 years you now have experience and work and contacts and a starting pot of money. Simply put, you now have credibility.
Now you can get a loan, or negotiate with sellers, or understand how to evaluate properties. And as a bonus you have an in-depth knowledge of your area.
I dont know if this will help you. I hope some or all of it does. I wish you luck, but remember that the harder you work the less you need luck.
