How I Overcame Analysis Paralysis

I first ordered Carlton Sheets No Money Down seminar about 20 years ago and bought my first property less than a year ago. Yes, that equals 19 years of analysis paralysis...

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To be fair, the property that I bought last year was not really my first property. I inherited three run down rental properties in the late 90's and sold them off as fast as I could because they were not "ideal". I wouldn't even keep rental properties when they were GIVEN to me for free - tenants and all...now that's sad.

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We are closing on our third property in less than a year next week.

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So, what made me stop reading the 30-40 books that I had purchased and take action? Desperation - I did a calculation of our retirement income. While my husband and I both have very good jobs (I am a tax attorney and he is a corporate executive), we had both been through divorces later in life. At our current pace, we would not be able to retire without cutting our lifestyle significantly. So, it was now or never.

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I got serious in October of 2012 and we went to an in person real estate seminar where it was explained to me in no uncertain terms that I was a dumba** for not investing now. I was convinced but my husband wanted to wait until after year end and see what our tax liability would be....so I waited.

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During this time, the market was booming. By January of 2013, properties in our market were flying off MLS and the competition was stiff. We made offers on about 25 properties. After getting contracts on 3 properties, we backed out of all of them because problems came up during inspections. We could not find the perfect property described in all of those books - great equity capture, enormous cash flow in an ideal neighborhood that needed light rehab with an all in cost of 75% of ARV .

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Finally, it dawned on me. STOP LOOKING FOR THE PERFECT PROPERTY - Just find a good property and GET STARTED.

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Our fourth property that we put under contract in Summer of 2013 looked like a cash flow winner but was priced near market value and needed no rehab - good but not great. A few weeks later, I woke up early one morning and saw a new listing on MLS in the same neighborhood as the first. It was also near market value and needed little to no rehab, but had great cash flow. I submitted a contract sight unseen. By the end of the summer, we had two rentals. IT REALLY FELT GREAT!!!

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These "good" properties are cash flowing about $550/month and have each appreciated in less than a year about $20K each on purchase prices of about $96K and $111K respectively. Not a bad start.

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The moral of the story - STOP LOOKING FOR THE PERFECT DEAL AND JUST GET STARTED!