Eight Tips for Getting Started in Real Estate Investing

Introduction

This
article is just the basics for getting started in real estate
investing. This is not a how to article but an article that gives you
some information about things to do to get started. Everything in this
article is tools that can be applied to helping anyone get started in
real estate investing. I am going to give you my eight keys to getting
started. Nothing is right or wrong but reflects the point of view of the
author. Laws and legal practices vary from state to state, and laws can
change over time. The author does not vouch for the legality of his
opinions, nor is there any intent to supply legal advice. The author
strongly encourages the reader to consult with professionals and an
attorney prior to entering in any real estate transaction or contract.
The author is not a writer but he is a real estate investor. There will
be grammar mistakes and errors, so don’t be too critical of the grammar
but focus your energy on what is being said. With that said prepare
yourself to think a little differently and expand your mind. Let’s get
started on an amazing adventure.

The Eight Tips are as follows

1. Desire

2. Goal Setting

3. Learning What To Do

4. Attending a Real Estate Investing Seminar

5. The Billings Montana Market

6. Finding a Mentor

7. Your Real Estate Team

8. Just Do IT

1. Desire

Before we get in to the bolts
and nails of real estate investing in I want to talk to you about
desire. If you are going to be successful at anything in life including
real estate investing you have to have the desire to do it. Desire is
defined as longing or craving, as for something that brings satisfaction
or enjoyment. Desire stresses the strength of feeling and often implies
strong intention or aim. In real estate investing if you don’t have a
desire to learn and grow as a human being and really get satisfaction
out of it, then real estate investing is going to be hard to do. When I
go out and look at a property it brings me a lot of enjoyment. Every
aspect brings me joy from talking to home owners, figuring out how I can
make a deal work, to buying the house and to finding a good homeowner
or tenant for the house. Real estate investing may not be for everyone
but real estate investing can offer anyone the financial freedom we all
crave for. If you do not have the desire for real estate investing that
is ok, it can still help you to live your dreams and help you to get
where you want to go in the future.

Why is real estate investing
an amazing avenue for anyone to live out all of their dreams? Let me ask
you a few questions. Do you have enough money to do anything you want?
Do you have everything you want? No debt? A nice house? Great Marriage?
The freedom to do anything regardless of how much it costs and the time
it takes? If you have all of these things then you are one of the few
people in America who does. Most people may be working fifty hours a
week and making just enough to pay their bills. In today’s day and age
most people are living pay check to pay check never really knowing if
they will make enough to pay the bills that just keep piling up. If you
cannot keep up with your monthly bills how are you going to plan for
retirement or send your kids to college or have time to enjoy life. The
answer to all of these questions is becoming financially free. Now it’s
not going to be easy everyone will have to get off the couch and out of
their comfort zone. Real estate is proven to be one of the fastest ways
to get your out of the rat race of the nine to five and begin living the
life you deserve to live. Everyone wants something different out of
their life. Some dream of traveling the world, spending more time with
family, volunteering, golfing, laying on a beach, giving back to the
community, or anything that will make them happy. There are thousands of
things that make people happy.

Making it in real estate takes a
person who has a strong desire to change their lives for the better and
think big. Anyone can become a great real estate investor. It is going
to take a lot of work and can be a struggle at times but in the end it
will be the most amazing feeling ever. The people that make it in real
estate investing all have a few things in common. First they run their
real estate investing business like any other business out there. Second
they get out there and network with anyone and everyone. Some people
might be like me and have a hard time talking to other people. If you
are that is ok, anyone can learn how to become a people person, it just
takes hard daily work. You have to push yourself past your comfort zone.
The third thing is that you cannot be afraid to fail. Everyone has
failed at something but the most successful people out their learn from
their failures. The fourth thing is that you have to put a good team
together. I will go into putting a team together in a later chapter. The
concept of putting a team together is so that when you don’t know
something you have team members that know what to do and can help you
with questions. The can also make sure that you are not working yourself
to death. You do not want to be the person doing everything in your
business. Doing everything is a receipt for failure. You have to put
together good people who you can trust and rely on. The fifth thing is
that you need a mentor. Sixth and final is the desire to do it. No one
can become successful at something if they don’t want to do it and don’t
get satisfaction out of what they are doing.

2. Setting Goals

Having
goals is one of the most important aspects of achieving what you want
in life. You don’t want to just have your goals up in your head you want
to write them down and past what you have wrote on the wall somewhere
or in the bathroom mirror. You want to review your goals daily and read
them out loud to yourself. This way you remind yourself everyday why you
are building your business.

How should you start to write down
you goals? First off you should think big, and by big I mean HUGE. If
your goals are too small you will easily achieve them and have nothing
else to look forward too. You should start off by asking yourself the
question if I had all the money and time in the world what would I do,
what would I buy, how would I spend my time, and how would I spend my
energy. Are you starting to write these down? Well you should be. Think
about what you want, spending time with family, traveling the world, the
best cars, a castle, owning a small country, running for president,
having the biggest real estate investing business in your area or in the
country. Whatever your dreams and what you want out of your life, write
it down. Some of my goals are becoming free, traveling the world,
having a Ferrari, having 10 vacation homes all over the world. Right now
I am just trying to get you out of your comfort zone of thinking and
let your imagination run.

There are several ways to set goals. I
have learned a lot of ways you can set you goals and there is no right
or wrong way. The best ways that I have found to set your goals is to
break them up into two categories. First your short term goals. This
should be goals from a month out to around a year. The second is your
long term goals these goals are you think big goals and what you see for
your future.

For year one I like to first make a list of what I
want to achieve this year and I will give you an example of how to do
that. For year one you want to be very specific first you want to list
what you want your income to be at the end of the year, next how much
cash in the bank you want (this is money in your checking account, not
assets). Next you want to list how much you are going to give. Giving is
a very important, this can be giving to charity, giving of gifts to
friends and family, giving to your school or anything you can dream of.
As long as what you give brings joy to others who need it more than you.
Next list what bad habits you have that you want to eliminate. Weather
is be quitting smoking, spending too much on junk, drinking too much,
working too much, not spending enough time with family, too much TV, not
exercising and many more. We all have bad habits that need to be
changed in order for use to grow as human beings. Under each of these
bad habits list out some steps that you can take in order to quit them.
If you bad habit is being lazy and not exercising enough what can you do
to change that. Well you can get a gym membership or a home work out
program. Commit yourself you following through with a plan to work out
3-5 days a week. For you to change these bad habits you have to be
totally committed and follow through with a detailed plan you set for
yourself. After you have your plans in place you should start listing
several things you want to achieve or do in the next year. This can be
start a successful business, spend time with family, travel to 2-5
places and so on. Now under each of these you should also write a
detailed plan on what you need and what you need to do in order to
achieve these goals. Finally you should take all of this information you
have a write on page on what you see your life being over the next
year. Doing this is a great exercise to really see what you want out of
life.

Goals Year One

This is what I am going To Do This Year

Income: $500,000

Cash: $100,000

Give: $20,000

Bad Habits that will be changes:

Over Sleeping 1. Go to bed at 11 p.m. 2. Use a timer and set it for 8 hours 3. Set the timer on the other side of the room

Buying
things that you don’t need: 1. Going out shopping less 2. If you have
the urge to buy something think to yourself is thing item going to help
me to achieve my goals of becoming financially free? 3. Tell friends
what you are doing, so they can help to stop you.

What I want to Achieve:

Start
a successful Real Estate Investing Business: (you should write a
detailed step by step plan of everything you need in order to achieve
your goal)

Travel: Where do I want to visit? 1. Gators football game (what I need to do it, money, etc)

And last your own page about what you want to achieve using words like I will and only positive words.

For
long term goals you don’t need to be as specific right now, but you
should list them and under them list a few steps or smaller goals that
need to be achieved before you are able to achieve them. With the long
term goals always think big. Another good exercise for long term goals
is to make a collage of you goals. Put pictures of the house you want on
it, places you want to travel, a picture of your family, a number of
what income you want in or anything you can think of.

3. Learn

Knowledge
builds confidence and destroys fear. If you are starting any kind of
business you need to learn the ins and outs of that business. The best
way I have found to learn about real estate investing is to read all
about it. But once you know it you have to apply what you have learned.
Learning and reading is just one step to take. There are thousands of
books on the market about real estate investing and everyone has
something you can learn from. You don’t just want to read real estate
investing books though. You also want to fill yourself with motivational
and leadership books. Every successful person that I know if a reader
and they all spend at least thirty minutes a day reading something that
will teach them about improving their business or helping themselves to
become a better person. Some of the best books that I would recommend
reading are listed below.

1. Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
(read this first and also ready everything in the rick dad poor dad
series, great books to start with and will expand you mind)

2. Be a Real Estate Millionaire by Dean Graziosi

3. Flip your way to financial freedom by Preston Ely (this is an E-Book)

4. Four hour work week by Timothy Ferriss

5. The Attractor Factor

6. Short Sale Pre-foreclosure Investing by Dwan Bent-twyford and Sharon Sestrepo

7. Keys to success, by Napoleon Hill

8. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

9. How to win friends and influence people

10. Any Book by John C. Maxwell (he has tons of amazing leadership books)

11. Getting Started in Real Estate Day Trading by Larry Goins

12. The E Myth by Michael Gerber

13. How to be a quick turn real estate millionaire by Ron Legrand

14. The Power of Full Engagement

15. The It Factor

16. Anything by Anthony Robins

There are tons more you can read but these will give
you a great start. You should also read books on negotiating, sales,
motivation, and biographies on American business people.

I hope
this list gives you the knowledge it has given me. If you learn and
apply what you have learned from these books there is no reason that you
should not become very successful.

4. Attend a Real Estate Investing Seminar

Attending
a Real Estate Investing Seminar can be one of the best places to learn
about real estate investing from some very well known experts. There are
several seminars going on all over the country every weekend. If you
live in a big city it will be very easy to find one. If you live in a
town like Billings Montana you might need to travel a little ways to
find one. Now most of the best meeting cost money to attend them. Some
range from five hundred dollars for three days and some can be up to
$20,000. There are a few that I would recommend. Than Merrill is a great
speaker to go hear. I have learned a ton from him. You can find his
company online by Google searching him. Also rich dad poor dad has
seminars all over the country. I attended one of their seminars in
Billings Montana for only $500 dollars and learned a ton from it. There
is also Preston Ely, Larry Goins, and hundreds of speakers out there. If
you find a great book that you really enjoyed, then just simple search
for that person online and see if they are speaking somewhere or offer a
seminar close to you.

Another reason I recommend going to a
seminar is because they get you pumped up and motivated. I have not yet
found anything else that just gets you feeling like you can do anything.
When you get back from one of these seminars you will have tons of
energy and knowledge. Every time I get back from one all I want to do is
going out and do a deal or ten.

These seminars will also provide
you with several opportunities to purchase amazing real estate investing
tools, software or learning material at a fraction of the cost. Believe
me when I tell you all of the low priced seminars try to sell you
something. But a lot of times what they are trying to sell is some
really good stuff.

Another reason to attend a seminar is to
network with other investors and build relationships with them. You can
meet other investors who you can partner with on a deal, sell a deal
too, people who will provide you with deals and so on. You should have
hundreds of business cards made up and try to give them all out. You
never know how much one business card you hand out can make you.

5. Learn About the real estate market in your area

Most
real estate investors start their career off my investing around where
they live. This is why I do my real estate investing in Billings
Montana. You can venture out when you have more experience. The reason
behind this is because we feel more comfortable with the areas and know
the areas better. It is also easier to get local real estate information
that we need. Investing in your local market is also cheaper to start
out, there is less travel costs, you can see what you are buying and it
may give you a feeling a comfort.

First you have to decide which
part of town is the best place to invest in. This can be determined by
what kind of real estate investing you choose to do. I have not gone
over the types of real estate investing but some include rehabbing
(fixing up and selling), wholesaling (finding deals and selling them to
other investors), buying to rent, and there are a few others. These are
the real estate strategies that I use for the most part. When looking at
the market you need to see where other investors are buying their
houses. Most of the best deals will be found in low to middle class
neighbors hoods. By low I don’t mean drug infested war zones, what I
mean is blue collar safe neighbor hoods that might have somewhat older
houses and houses that are not on the higher end price side. Now you can
find deals in the higher priced neighbor hoods but most will be in the
low to middle income neighborhoods. When looking where others are buying
ask local realtors, other investors or appraisers.

When talking
with investors ask them several questions such as what neighborhoods
they prefer, what type of houses they buy (3 bed 2 bath), and what they
do (rehab, rent, wholesale). You should not look at other investors as
competition but try and work with them.

There are different types
of markets such as appreciating markets, flat markets, and deprecating
markets. Appreciating markets are markets that there is no enough houses
or a very high demand for houses which causes the price of houses to go
up. The reason there is a high demand for housing can be because of job
growth, a very appealing area, or several reason. Flat markets are
markets that have no or very little growth. This means that there is not
a lot of demand; buy just enough to fill every ones needs. Depreciating
markets are where there is a lot more houses than people to fill those
house. This causes house prices to start going down. This can be because
of a large employer leaving the area, a natural disaster or just over
building. There is an old saying buy in a bust and sell in a boom. In
depreciating markets you can pick up several deals, while in
appreciating the house prices are going to be much higher and harder to
find great deals. The deal will still be out there you just have to know
where to find them.

Learning your market is another key to
becoming successful. Real estate Brokers and experts in your area can be
the best source of information for you. Learn to use them to find out
what kind of market you are in. If you are in Billings Montana we are in
a pretty stable market. Billings Montana has not seen the ups and downs
that other markets have experienced. I will have to say that I have
been noticing a little bit of a downward trend but not much. Once the
first time home buyer credit is over with we might see a little more
decline. Every market can vary by neighborhood, so make sure you know
you market well. I have seen the same houses just one mile apart selling
for totally different prices.

6. Find a Mentor

Having a
mentor to help you can be your biggest learning experience. Mentors can
help you with any questions you may have, walk you step by step through
the investing process, give you moral support, you learn from their
proven system, and also network you with others in the business. Every
successful real estate investor that I know says they owe a lot of their
success to the mentors they have and had in their lives. I have had one
of the best mentors around, my father. He is teaching me something new
every day and pushing me to become successful.

When trying to find
a mentor I would suggest network with the investors at your local real
estate investors club meeting. There is a real estate investing club in
Billings Montana that meets once a month. You can find information about
real estate investing clubs in your area by searching for REA or real
estate investors club then your area in Google. When you go to the
meetings ask around who the biggest investors are. Then ask if you could
get together with them sometime and discuss real estate investing. Ask
them if they would consider working with you to get their career going.
Offer your services as a bird dog. Bird dogs are people who go out find
deals or leads about deals and give them to other investors. A bird dog
gets from $500 to $3000 dollars depending on the deal. Make sure that
you have a bird dog contract signed with the investors saying that if
you find them and deal and they buy it that you get paid a certain
amount of money. Being a bird dog helps you to build credibility with
the investor and they are more likely to mentor you if you have
something to offer them. If you would like to contact me with a question
go to my web site Big Sky Property Solutions LLC.

7. Your Real Estate Team

Building
an effective team can make your life as a real estate investor a lot
easier. You are only one person and cannot do everything or be an expert
in every aspect of real estate investing. Going at a project alone can
become one of the most frustrating experiences you will ever encounter.
Many people have become frustrated and quite real estate investing
because they try and juggle too many things. Make sure that when putting
a team together you provide everyone with win-win opportunities. When
someone knows that working with you is going to make them money they
will put you as a higher priority on their list. But you have to prove
it to them that you are the real deal.

People to have on your real estate investing team include

o Real Estate Agents ( find the top agent for volume of sales in your area and other agents who work with real estate investors)

o Real Estate appraisers (find an appraiser that has done a few
hundred jobs or more and make sure they carry errors and omissions
insurance)

o Real estate contractors (good rehab crews that can get the job
done in a timely manner, have 3-5 crews and on every deal get 3
estimates done. Ask for referrals from them and make sure they are
licensed)

o Real estate attorneys (every investor needs an attorney, they can
help to protect your assets, make sure you find one that works with
investors)

o A property management company (can manage your properties and will
give you leads on property they are managing that might come up for
sale)

o Title companies (take care of the legal process and make sure
there are no liens against the property you are buying, choose one that
does hundreds of closings a year)

o Home inspectors(charge about $400 but will give you a great inspection and could save you thousands in the long run)

o And your Mentor

All of these people can help you in various
aspects of real estate investing. You might find that there are a couple
others that are keys to your business but this is just a list of a few.

8. Just Do it

There
is no better phrase out there then JUST DO IT! Once you have learned
all you can networked with investors in Billings and learned real estate
investing strategies there is nothing left to do but get your feet wet.
There is no better learning tool out there then doing a deal. Once you
have completed that first deal you will know what to expect and find out
that it is not as hard as you thought it would be. You will have
learned what you did right and what was frustrating. Take that
experience and ask yourself what would have made it run smoother. Apply
that to your next deal. Then the next deal will be easier and it keeps
getting easier as you go. I will say that every deal is different from
the last but that what makes this business fun. You have to be creative
and always keep on learning and growing with your business.

The
average person never uses what they learn. Don’t be average apply your
knowledge. When going out and doing your first deal act like you have
done 1000’s of deals. The fastest way to change a habit is to act like
it is true.

Five keys for success

1. Specialized Knowledge

2. Tools of a professional

3. Have the mindset of a winner

4. Mentors

5. Money and the knowledge of leveraging it (you don’t have to have
millions to invest in real estate, there are many strategies out there
to use other people’s money, or no money at all)

This is going to
conclude this article about getting started in real estate investing. I
hope this gave you some ideas about how you can get started. I didn’t
give you any strategies at this point but look for some in upcoming
articles. These are simple steps you can use to get started. If you read
this article thank you for listening.