BiggerPockets

Take this for what it is worth!

I am not a seasoned investor. In fact I started just last August. Since then I have rehabbed a house, have 2 rental units, and have wholesaled a handful of houses. I have an offer on a couple different REO's that I will rehab and sell, or rent now too, and a few promising leads for wholesaling. Needless to say I am starting to get busy, and it's great.

I say all that to say this. I notice there are a lot of people out there right on the cusp of investing. Making sure all your P's & Q's are in the right spot, dot the I's and cross the T's. Making sure the 6 P's are in order (Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance)

First off, there is nothing wrong with being educated before you do something. Planning and knowledge will help you succeed. But you can also get stuck planning and planning and planning, and never ever doing.

I know, I was there...

I bought some books, a couple courses, went to a few local boot camps, trainings, yada. They all helped, but I had become obsessed with making sure I was ready. Truth was, I had been ready.

Your going to make mistakes, and the best education is walking through the mistakes.

Get out there, make your first offers, stop doing nothing. Just like nike says, " Just Do It" . You will prepare yourself to death if you never budge. Make February your month to start, whether full time or part. The trick is to just get it done, if you never try, you'll never know. Many people will back out, simply because they never tried, and you will psyche yourself out, and just say its too hard.

It's not too hard, just get out there are do it already. No more excuses!!

I am the type to plan something out to the point of not doing anything, just planning. I was stuck for about a year where I had enough information and education that I could have started August of 06. Instead I was stuck in a rut of making sure I knew EVERYTHING before I got into it.

I go to some of my local REI clubs and see people exactly where I was. I see on here a lot of people just on the cusp, but not doing it yet.

I just wanted to give some encouragement to those people. I was there, but I finally stepped out and just went for it. You'll never have a perfect plan. Infact, I dont know who said this first, or if Ill quote it correctly but

" doing it, and doing it imperfectly, is much better than not doing it at all"

Jason...

P.S. Great Job!... You have already done more than most will ever do...

Your key turning point was the realization that you needed to get started... And as you described, that is what "did it" for you.

You now have the momentum... Keep it going!
You are on your way!

" Just Do It" is a good slogan for selling tennis shoes, but it is not good advice for starting a business. The truth is that the vast majority of people that start a business fail in a relatively short period of time. Real estate is a simple business, yet the vast majority still fail. In another post today on this forum, someone posted about buying a rental property where the mortgage payment and HOA fees were $50 more than the rent he collected. Unfortunately, he hadn't calculated the majority of the operating expenses and his loss over time will be ugly. In this case, just do it will cost this person thousands of dollars over time.

I'm not saying " never do it" or have a perfect plan, but you MUST have a better understanding of the business than the vast majority of newbies before you start or you will end up just like them - broke and out of business!

Good Luck,

Mike

I see lots of investment properties on the market in my area that are just sitting and when I researched them at the Court house I found out that they had the properties for 2-3 years and their mortgage(s) are at 100% of the price they paid for it and now they are trying to sell them for what they owe and no one is touching them because they are way over priced and not even close to cash flowing.

Has anyone ever bought a property from a person that was in this situation? I've thought about putting in offers at the cost I need to buy at just to see if they would take it and loose $100k.

In short do your homework so other investors don't start putting a target on your property as one they could get for cheap because your upside down in it.

Yes!! Just do it. Of course you have to know what you're going to do first, but after that " analysis paralysis" is a killer. Don't keep thinking that you don't know enough or that you're missing something. The real education and experience is earned on the job.
After the first deal, it gets easier and easier.

The " Planning Phase" is definitely a mindset that can be broken. Once a person sees that planning isn't creating the results he/she wants, action is just itching to be taken. For some people, it may take months, for some it takes years, but that person has to realize it. What I do when a person is too into a planning phase (for anything really), I ask them " What type of actions are you doing right now to specifically improve _____ ? " . That usually gets them to realize that action isn't being taken and they're really not improving. OR they've psyched themselves out into thinking they know a lot about something, when you know for a fact that what they're saying is straight from a book without experience. Of course, some people think they're taking the steps necessary to improve, so they keep reading and reading without even knowing they're not improving. Once that happens, they feel " ahhh what a hard day's work. I did a lot today" , when in actuality, they didn't do much in relation to reality. So I say a lot people do get caught up in this (just how long before the realization?)...

(Queue the violin)
:violin:
I was once in this phase. Now, I keep the time ratio of reading/action at least 2:1.

Get out there and talk to people, you'll at least know where you stand if you can't keep up.

:woohoo:

Before i started it took a long time to save up the initial capital. Did anyone here start real fast with no cash and all on credit?

Lack of funds can really be a roadblock...

I started with all cash and no credit. Kinda weird huh? I " just did it" to the tune of wasting $9,000 in advertising for leads, then when I got leads I didn't know how to figure out what was what. I eventually found my way in real estate but not before wasting time and money...

P.S. You should be proud! Most people at that point just run and never figure it out...

They are the ones that go around saying "that stuff doesn't work"!

Never, never, never give up!