Real Estate Investing is simple, but not necessarily easy!

You see, people can complicate anything! It’s like telling someone how to drive a car. It’s not complicated at all. Just open the door. Sit down. Turn the car on and put it into drive. But, people always make things harder than they need to be… They start asking thinks like “which door should I open… the left or the right?” or “Do I unlock it with a key or click the button” and on and on we go. Twenty minutes later, we’ve still not even been able to get into the car.

I liked that analogy because it applies to real estate. There are really 5 things you need to know – or steps – when it comes to real estate.

Here are your Top 5 Real Estate Investing Tips!

Tip #1: Find a Motivated Seller

Stop wasting your time trying to make deals out of deals that aren’t there. Sellers are motivated to sell a piece of real estate by only 3 things:

Change in personal situation. Sellers become very motivated to sell their properties when things in their personal lives change and they can no longer afford the home or there is an emotional reason for selling. Personal reasons for selling a home are: job loss, divorce, relocation, illness, etc.

Tip #2: Evaluate the Deal

Once you’ve found a motivated seller, it’s time to decide if the deal is going to work. Real estate investing comes down to the numbers. There are 5 factors to consider in order to decide whether or not to invest in a property.

Location. If real estate is located in an area that is full of abandoned properties and rundown houses, the score will be lower than if the house was located in a prime location, close to all of the area amenities.

Condition. The better the condition of the property, the higher the score will be. For instance, a brand new home is going to have a substantially higher score than a property that’s rundown and needs major repairs.

Price. The lower the price, the better! The goal is to purchase real estate for as little as possible. 30% or more below market value will score much higher than when the seller is asking for market value or better.

Financing. Real estate comes down to the numbers. If the seller is willing to give you financing with flexible terms and low interest rates and you don’t have to come out with any of your own money, it’s better than when the seller needs all cash up front.

Seller’s Motivation. On a scale of 1 to 10, how motivated is the seller to sell his/her property? The more urgent their situation is, the higher the motivation score.

Tip #3: Write an Offer

After you’ve done your homework and looked at the numbers, it’s time to put the pen to the paper. But before you write your offer, make sure you have 2 exit strategies in place. This way, you’re not stuck holding onto a piece of real estate that you can’t rent or sell. Many people are losing their shirts in real estate because they jumped in on pre-construction and hoped to “get rich quick”. Consider submitting 3 contracts on the same property with different prices and terms and let the seller decide what works best for his/her situation. For instance, you may have a wholesale offer at 50% of market value, a seller financed alternative that you might use for a rental, and a lease option which you might do a sandwich lease-option.

Tip #4: Line Up Your Financing

Once the seller has agreed to one of your offers, it’s time to get the deal closed. If you’re wholesaling the property, find your investor-buyer. If you’re going to close on it yourself, line up the financing via a conventional lender, hard money lender or line of credit. Also start looking for a tenant or tenant-buyer if you’re goal is to build a long term real estate portfolio. The key is to get your financing lined up in accordance to your exit strategy and begin moving immediately.

Tip #5: Follow Through with Your Plan

Many real estate investors purchase a piece of property with one plan, buy-fix-sell. They write the offer based on a certain sale price and with a specific plan to renovate. Then, once they close on the home, they over-improve and try to sell it for more than it’s worth or use a hard money lender and then decide they want to rent it.

If you follow these steps and remember the tips, then you will make money in real estate. If you deviate from the plan, then your chances of running into problems increase. You wind up with the wrong type of financing, you can’t find tenants, the holding costs eat the profits, etc.

Remember, real estate investing is like driving a car. It’s simple. Get in, turn the key, put it in drive, and go!

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You need 3 things to become a successful real estate investor.

The first thing you need is a “Motivated Seller”

Any and all creative real estate courses hinge on you finding the “Motivated Seller”

The good news for the creative real estate investor is that because of the current “Buyers Market” that we find ourselves in and the “Sub Prime Mortgage Meltdown” finding a Motivated Seller is not a challenge.

Plus, with the internet, it really has given the creative real estate investor an “Unfair Advantage”

Everyone is at our fingertips!

In minutes I can find out how much someone paid for their home, comps and a wealth of information that will empower me to get the very best deal I can.

Which leads me to the second thing you need to become a successul real estate investor.

You need the right specialized knowledge so you know what do do with all of that information that you found on the internet.

Easier said then done.

Most folks go on information overload simply cannot decide “what they want to be when they grow up!”

One week, they are going to be the Short Sale King or Queen and the next week foreclosures are goign to be their ticket until they see one of those rehabber shows on Sat night( Hey I love them too) and then they going into rehabbing!

Remeber this and never forget it.. a confused mind always says no and is always busted, disgusted and can’t be trusted.

One real estate deal can change your life but most quit before they get their first deal because they get bogged done on the highway of being a “jack of all trades” and a master of none.

I am here to tell you that you do not need 100 ways to invest in real estate to become super successful, all you need is one!

Stop the madness and pick one way that will work for you and work it!

This leads me to the final thing that is needed to start living life on your terms on not someone elses.

Your going to need committment!

As I said earlier, so many fall short becuase they give up before their first deal.

Hey, I have been there and realize how frustrating that creative real estate investing can be,especially when you first start out but you are going to have to become committed to seeing this thru until you get that first deal done.

I have had students ask me how loing does it take to get your first deal and my response is always the same, “As long as it takes..The better you get the easier this gets”

Who cares if it takes you 7 days 7 weeks or 7 months to get your first deal?

The goal is to get the first deal because then you are no longer “walking by faith” but you know that you know that this thing called Creative Real Estate Investing does work and can allow you to truly live a life of your dreams and a life on your terms and not someone elses.

Committ yourself to doing “Whatever it takes” to get your first deal.

Become committed , I mean truly commited and watch the clouds part and divine providence move on your behalf!

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Generating leads for real estate is one of the many stages needed before a real estate agent gets a sale; a successful client. But even for the moment of having all the leads in your hands, regardless if there are thousands of them; when reality starts to kick in that there could be a lot of rejected leads, those that are not just interested to get any service from any real estate agent just yet or it could simply become a lead that doesn’t respond back to any of the contacts that you have made.

Setting your focus on what could happen in the real world is going to make the load lighter. Most real estate agents are already pleased by the number of leads that they get but the fact that these people have to be convinced and needs persuasion isn’t an easy job at all. There could be instances when there are leads that will correspond with your inquiry but there is still a possibility for them not to contact you back in anyway or anymore. These instances do happen and after a while, you’ll simply realize that out of the thousands of leads you have received, you can only count clients with your own fingers.

This is where filtering comes in. If you want to save on the money that you have paid lead generating companies, make sure that you do spend and check the leads you get. Chances are, these leads could be generated from other companies giving you duplicate leads which is not necessarily at all. This makes the lead generating companies that you trust a bad choice. But, of course, you have to assert and pro actively seek out the leads you get. If you are determined enough to reach these leads during their most comfortable time of the day, you will definitely get a good head start on lead marketing.

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I want to invest in real estate but want to protect my personal assets.

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I work at a dead end job. I want to quit and get into real estate. I know there is a lot of potential in that field. How does one get started? Is selling houses difficult? What are the requirements? What do real estate firms look for in a potential employee?

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Thank you all for responding so promptly to my question on obtaining a real estate license. Now I see and understand that I don’t need one to locate the apartment, but the obtaining the education would be beneficial to me. If I want to enter into a contract with an apartment complex do I need a license for that? I wouldn’t show the apartment to the renter, but I’d let them know where it was and all of the other fun stuff that comes along with the search.

Thank you all!

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I want to work in commercial real estate. I am working in Hotel Management at the moment, but think commercial real estate is interesting. Im young enough where a career change is not out of the question. What types of things do employers look for? Is there a high demand for people in commercial real estate?

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