OfflineHello To All:
Everyday, there is a new group of community members here. They come here as a result of becoming a student, buying one of Deans books in a book store or just by accident, but they arrive here. Welcome and enjoy the ride here.
I am sitting in New Orleans, Louisiana tonight. I have been in town for about three days. I went back to work at my trucking job because of circumstances, and I am okay with being a W-2 guy again.
When I dropped off my freight at the New Orleans Arena, I did not just call it a day. I picked up the newspaper and a few of those real estate for sale books at a grocery store. I immediately went through each listing and looked for properties that fit my acquisition plan and I begun making phone calls.
Here is what I did. I introduced myself as a real estate investor and I indicated that I buy single family homes in blue to white collar neighborhoods, where the properties need minor rehab to no rehab.
I also told them that I like to buy at a good price to be able to give my buyers a great deal.
The first real estate agent said to me and this was funny, "So your a Dean Guy". I knew where he was going. I said well if you are referring to Dean Graziosi, yes I am and proud to be. He said what makes me think that I can just come into his town and take advantage of his fellow New Orleanites.
I said well if you are feeling like the fact that I can pay cash at closing, get a seller who has maybe been trying to sell out from under a minor to major headache and get on with their lives as someone who is taking advantage of one of your fellow New Orleanites, than perhaps you are in a better position to help them.
He said ok, fair enough, how do you pay cash at closing. I went into detail about how I use transactional funding and that if that realtor brings me other transactional funding clients who close deals, I split my commission with them.
The end result was that I only had to call one realtor out of the probable eight I would have had to call and in three days, I have looked at seven properties and made offers on three. I also made contact with two buyers who for being the most active in this area, had never seen any of these deals and if it goes well, we will do alot of business.
Here is what I wanted to get to here. This works if you work. You have to sit down and figure out what types of properties you want to deal with, what price ranges and also build a buyers list.
This is a simple business if you keep it simple. The best way to begin is by establishing relationships with cash buyers and find deals that meet their needs and then look for only those types of deals.
If you do that and only that, then you stand a good chance of making money in the next 30 to 45 days. This is called finding a need and filling it.
Most investors are out there just finding deals all the time. They tell everyoen how great their deals are, how they have thirty deals right now, when the reality is that yes they may have thirty deals but they have thirty deals that are not going anywhere.
Once again, keep it simple by doing the following:
1. Talk to cash buyers, and find out where they buy, what they buy, what price ranges, do they do rehab or not, do they even look at properties that need work and what their exit strategy is. Properties that they lease to own will be different than those where they would wholesale them out.
2. Begin building reelationships with realtors and explain what you are looking for, and use the buyers criteria.
3. Find deals, and get it over to the buyer and just keep repeating this.
If I am a buyer of single family homes in Miami, $100,000.00 and under and I show proof of my ability to buy, are you going to look at any other kinds of deals for me? if you said yes, then welcome to the spinning wheels for nothing club.
This is what I meant by find a need and fill it. Do not get discouraged. This is a business that takes time to get going.
Those who are here who have been successful and are successful, became so, because they kept it simple.
If you think that your going to read a book and all of a sudden your going to get rich, then your living in a dream that you need to get out of. The books are just words on paper. They only come alive when action is driving those words and techniques.
The one thing that keeps a dream from happening is when you waste time on things that don't take you straight to the dream.
Once again, follow this simple concept...Find a buyer and determin his/her needs.
Find deals that meet those needs and present it.
Continue looking for deals and if you do it right, then you will make money. If you do it wrong, you will get nowhere fast.
Great post James. I needed that. Sometimes I get stuck. I am member of the academy and still reviewing my lessons as well as actively looking for deals. Concentrating on assignments at the moment, although I want to go in every direction after learning more every day! I have one property owner that I am about to submit a contract to for them to sign and begin moving forward on the sale. There is something to be learned here: A book is only words and it means nothing if you do not take action on what you learned in order to be successful. For example, I recently posted an ad on CL looking for a buyer for a SFH, got a bite, and began going back and forth with a gentlemen who was interested. To make a long story short, he ends up being a local guy who owns a contstruction company and has his own properties as well! perfect another investor as well as someone who I could possibly partner up with. Upon further discussions, I learned what he likes to buy, how much he is willing to spend and he clearly stated that he is buying now as there are too many deals to pass up. After reading your post I will take action and finally talk to an agent THIS WEEK and build one more part of my power team. I will have that agent search expired listing as I will explain what our goal should be by working together. Again, thanks for the kick in the @ss!