What do you advise?

First, I am not a seasoned RE investor (just have RE Investment #1 under my belt, acquired before even hearing of Dean! )

Back to the question:

For an hour to spare: tell him to get his pen and paper and write down your tips!

1) Order business cards (I have a point here, it takes a while to get them delivered, well the quality and professional looking ones! )

2) It is imperative for your friend to immerse himself in the book (Dean's book "30 days to RE Cash" is a very short but concise straight to the point and very structured book, I think it is also his latest book, not sure). I would advise, even before going to the site, to finish the book first, because it soooo easy to get lost here and get information overload (happened to me the first time)! The battle of the mind is for focus. Immersing oneself with the task at hand (finishing the book) will not leave any opportunity for distraction (like PMs or spam, LOL!).

3) By the time he has finished the book, when he is all "ready and excited" to go out there, his business cards would have arrived by then and he would be ready to hand them out everywhere! So when he goes and attends the local REI club meetings (which is advised in the book), he is ready to network with fellow local investors (and start building his buyer's list). I just think and believe that if one is to say they are in the business of RE investing, then they should at least be able to hand out an REI business card that looks professional. Basic marketing.

4) Make sure he does the 7 levels deep exercise (it is powerful and would be a good anchor, especially when he hits bumps or low points in the REI journey (like not finding "the right" re agent soon enough, or having a buyer back out, etc. the common newbie problems and issues). Today is THAT day for me, but I know tomorrow will be better. It happens.

5) I think it has to "click" for the person who would decide to go into this. There are some who talk the talk, but cannot walk the walk. Ask him to "qualify" the type of RE advice that he would listen to. (For me it was a process of elimination, people around us might be naysayers, or time-wasters or say you're falling into a scam, etc. etc." BUT, because of the 7 levels deep exercise, NOTHING, no obstacle can stop him from trying and reaching that REI goal. I now have perfected the line "I will only listen to REI advise from someone who is in the actual business of RE investing".. "I will only listen to REI advise from someone who is in the actual business of RE investing" ... Keeping my REI life simple!

7) In my own little REI experience (started the Dean REI journey end of January 2012), I found that joining the REI Club, meeting other local investors, and networking face to face created such a positive environment for me that I just kept on and keep on attending. I WILL eventually find that REI deal #2!

8 ) I would also s u g g est that you tell your friend to read YOUR own posts / forum threads. See if he would be willing to go through the challenges that you yourself as an RE investor have documented here as having had gone through. He should also watch Dean's Weekly Video Blogs - for regular and weekly REI morale booster from The REI Guru himself!

9) It has to "click" for him - if and when the message and the wisdom you share sinks in, he has to make that personal decision to do it! We all can only share information and plant good seeds of encouragement and motivation to others - it is up to them what they want to do with it.

10) You would also be a good example for him. It's easy to follow someone who has already succeeded at it!

Just my 2 cents worth of 10 things. Now this got too long! Sorry!

Good luck and happy investing!

Cris

Good stuff!

Is deal #2 in your sites?!

I like cris comments!!!
I would add Read 30 days to cash. OVER N OVER N OVER!!
Hang with YOU !!
Stay on here this Dg site
Tell EVERYONE you buy houses and if they need a house contact you
Put out bandit signs
BUILD A BUYERS LIST NOW
develop his MINDSET EVERY DAY
PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE talking to sellers, buyers and investors
Hang with you n this Dg site
Read ALL deans books
Repeat !!!
Repeat!!!
Repeat!!
))$))))$$$$$$$:))))))))$$$
then get on here n share all he has learned to others so they can succeed too !!

Just said!

To everything Jay and Lane just said!!

Andy Sager
DG's AndyS
CFIC member

ditto to all of the above...

and watch DG's blogs, every one of them! they are priceless!

I absolutely agree !!!! You said, "IF YOU HAD AN HOUR....", ok. I'd tell'em--"Go any where, for just 5 minutes- and listen, read, get motivated, get enthusiasm, get a family with this many members and, AND---- make more income than what that person has now AND MULTIPLY THAT BY AN HOUR.

The knowledge, the wisdom, the direction- the confidence.... (HUM ! WHERE HAVE I HEARD THAT, LOL)......begins here-- in the 1st- 5 minutes !!!!!!!It wouldn't take me an hour !!! I BELIEVE IN THIS, and if you do, people will see it, feel it, and follow it.

Best wishes to everybody, ERSIE

I wish deal #2 comes and closes soon! I am working at it every chance I get! (I've been giving away biz cards like crazy, too!) and doing a lot of multi-tasking! (I still do I.T. project work for another very demanding client - so I want to be in control and not be bouncing off the walls with worry! LOL! I am still currently bound by a contract with I.T. deliverables).

So checklists work and help me a lot but sometimes when something I am responsible for managing careens out of control, then common sense must be applied so I can make sound decisions and creative thinking to get the job done!

REI-wise, I have 5 properties that I am marketing (it's a co-wholesale with a fellow DGer). My plan was to buy, fix, and hold one of the properties hopefully with the buyer who also said they wanted to partner up on it, but unfortunately the couple had some emergency and they told me yesterday definitively that they cannot commit their funds to it (that was why it was another bad day for me!). So, hiccup hiccup for me too. And then issues with my IT project. Which I hope I can resolve with my Team whole day tomorrow.

Because tomorrow night, I am having a meeting with a Broker to pick and scrutinize which among the 5 properties would be the best one for me to invest money on if I was going to buy it myself. I met him through networking at my REI club and he was very friendly to new investors, he mentioned that he can also help me with getting it rented out and will manage it for me. (Longest time for rental houses here in our city, according to him is 30 days and the inventory of available houses is diminishing, so a lot of Investors are really buying whatever properties they could out here). I also have met with a lady who would connect me with a title company who would handle double closing - same day closing for me. So that was why I felt bad when the buyer-partner couldn't commit the funds (the original plan was to buy these 4 properties). I thought and planned - 4 properties to buy and sell (double close) to them would have allowed me to buy 1 property for me to buy and hold!

Oh, well.. next!!!

I posted them on the DG classifieds the same day I got authorization to start marketing them out (they are all former REOs and now investor-owned. sold as is). I also have them all on my website with pictures (and I am not posting my website out here yet (for fear of getting spammed! That Forum spam thread that I started here last 2/20/2012 was super distracting for me at that time, but it didn't really stop me from doing my REI related tasks that I have mapped out for myself). I had to be reminded by my I.T. colleagues that I needed to hang my I.T. Consultant hat when I go to the DG website, because when I am here, I am just an REI newbie! Point well taken because it's true!

Anyway, I still have a ton to learn about REI.. this one hiccup is a lesson learned. It's been challenging to be multi-tasking so I know that if REI gets my full undivided attention I could and I would get the results I am aiming for. But of course I have to be careful about my non-rei contracts that I am bound to deliver on. It's a balancing act!

I agree with everyone above! And I am also just a newbie, trying to find my way in the REI world!

Good luck on your next deals everyone!

Cris

Read the books and start taking action IMMEDIATELY. Don't get caught in analysis paralysis.

You will learn the contracts and the scary stuff as you DO it. Don't be afraid to make some mistakes. You will have deals fall through and things won't always go the way you want; get back up and keep pressing forward,

Post in CL, put out bandit signs, build a buyers list, admit you're new to this when talking on the phone and DO IT AFRAID. Post for buyers and post for sellers. Put the 2 together. JUST DO IT as Nike says. I and many others wasted a lot of time with FEAR and OVER ANALYZING. Learn from us, and as Carol says, DO IT AFRAID.

In IT huh? I have been in IT for 24 years now. I have never liked technology like most in the IT field. It just pays well and thats what the Marine Corps trained me to do, so I stuck with it. But I have always wanted to get into REI and messed around with a rental and building a spec house for a new builder, but once I saw Dean's program on TV a couple years back, I knew I needed to get moving. It took a while, I have the same excuses most have, I was to busy to do it when I first found Dean. I was at the REIA meeting tonight and there was a class on Wholesaling, nothing different then what I learned here and keep hearing about, but its good to get kicked in the tail once in a while and realize that I have allowed fear and laziness to creep in again and stop me from persuing wholesaling while flipping a house here and there. Anyway, point of the night is JUST DO IT! Do something everyday to build your business!

Yup, I.T. is like any other job I think.. there are good days and bad days! BUT REI provides a better ROI! (We all like that! LOL!) So I am doing this and carving out time to do this (I'm borrowing a lot right now from my sleep bank!!). The 2 cents - 10 things I wrote above? I did that, and I will follow, the advice of the others on your forum thread here - the "read the book over and over again" part by jbtoggs especially! Thanks for the extra push!

And some days, when it feels like nothing is going right, I always rest in the fact that, tomorrow will be another day - all these REI bumps that I seem to be hitting this early on, is "research and development"!

I have folded up my "7 levels deep sheet of paper" and kept it handy for me this past four days to help me keep going at this!

Good luck and happy investing!

Cris