You Are Not Prepared If.....

Hello To All:
I have been here off and on alot lately. I read all the posts and all the replies. I confess, I am not an expert on every aspect.

However, what I am writing about today is something painfully evident, atleast that I see and I am sure all the veterans see it as well.

Some of you are in no way prepared to do this as a business, let alone a hobby. You are fooling yourself if you think you are.

Some people read bits and pieces of Dean's books, understand barely half of what is said here and that's after you ask for advice.

Your running out and putting offers in on properties than wondering where your going to get the money. You come here and ask where you find funding, where do you find buyers, how do you write offers properly.

You need to understand that you are headed down a one way street in the direction of hurting yourself financially, hurting your reputatation before you even get going.

Here is what you need to do and I would read this thoroughly...

1. Build a buyers list, and a buyers list filled with people who have cash money for your deals.

2. Understand what dictates a great deal. A good deal is not good enough.

3. Understand that your not paying retail for properties. If a seller is asking $100,000.00 for a $100,000.00 home, that is retail pricing. If they ask $110,000.00 to $125,000.00 for a $100,000.00 property, that is not a great deal and not even a good deal and certainly not one worth spending your time, especially if you are working a full time job and doing this at night.

4. Establish relationships with lenders and funders after you understand what each type of funding is and what it involves. Example, hard money. Don't say to yourself, oh I am going to get hard money for my deal because Dean says so or someone I met suggested it.

5. Have a realistic plan. Write down your goals and make them real goals. I am sorry but writing down on a piece of paper that you will become a millionaire by the middle of 2010 or the beginning of 2011, is not real and in fact it is defeating.

6. Understand that you don't use real estate as a reason for quitting that job you haven't liked since 1985, when you have not made one cent from this.

What does it take to make $250,000.00 a year in real estate? five fifty thousand dollar deals or ten twenty five thousand dollar deals and that is in your pocket, in cash.

If you are just starting, stop with the mindset that you have to succeed and succeed now and adopt the mindset that you can succeed with the right plan of action and a huge effort. Stop fixating on the big dollars and focus on just getting the first deal done, learn from it.

Learn how to write offers that get deals done, how to complete a loan application or structure a private money deal that actually works, learn how to establish relationships that lead to success and begin building a reputation that people will help you capitalize on.

How successful am I to be saying these things? I have purchased four deals in the last 32 days and will have quick turned two of those in the next 30 days.

I locate distressed apartment buildings and commercial properties for a successful group of investors and have two deals closing.

I am a successful hard money broker and dealmaker for transactional funder opportunities.

I have made alot of mistakes, such as running out and putting offers in on deals I had no business being in, because I was not prepared.

I had one deal actually refused by a lender because the contract was not completed right. The seller and I agreed to zero earnest money and we were told I needed to put money up. This was a long time ago but a lesson well learned.

I hope this helps atleast one person.