Sep 21 '08, 11:49 PMMany newbies get caught in a paralyzing trap while attempting to become "Real Estate Investors", Instead they end up being an "InfoInvestors". Infoinvestors are newbies who never end up doing any real estate investing. Instead they invest all of their money into information about real estate investing. This would be similar to a person trying to travel across the America, but instead of buying a car with their $5,000, they buy $5,000 worth of maps. If this is you, your not alone in your struggle to find the "Answer" that will finally bring everything together for you. banghead
My first suggestion would be to start with a business plan that lays out exactly what direction you would like your real estate investing business to go. Real estate investing is such a broad topic, that confusion is a 100% guarantee if you don't narrow down exactly what it is that you want to do.
1.I would start by first accessing what tools you have at your disposal (Good credit, plenty of money, hard worker, great networker, etc). If your cash strapped and credit strapped then I would suggest starting out as a bird dog, or a real estate wholesaler. If you have plenty of money and great credit then long term holding properties may be for you. I would recommend that all investors start as wholesalers or bird dogs simply because neither require credit, cash, or risk. Perceived risk is what holds many newbies back from achieving anything great.
2.Find out where you would like to end up in the next 1, 2, 3, 5, 10 years with your investing business. You can change from 1 type of investing to another, but it is much easier to change PRIOR to buying homes that may not be a fit with your investing plans.
3.Break down your plan into small easily achievable steps. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time! Break down your large scale ten year plan into pieces starting with your 1st year plan, then 12 one month plans, then take your first month and break it into weekly plans, then take your first week plan and break it into daily goals. By breaking down your real estate investing plan into very small, easily achievable steps you can begin building momentum right from the start. Forward momentum is essential if you plan on achieveing success at any venture in life. Up until this point many of you have been using backward momentum. Backward momentum occurs when you build up a task or dutie in your head so big that eventually it feels like it's rolling backwards right after you.
4.Learn all you can for 1 week on the niche (exit strategy of your choice) that you choose to start in. Focus all of your effort on learning what to do at the beginning, and try to gain broad knowledge about the niche of your choice. By the end of the week you should have your first month in your specific niche laid out day by day.
5.Go cold turkey, your information diet should start the day after your first week of study has ended. Stay off the INTERNET unless you are reading ONLY on topics that are specific to the niche that you have chose to pursue. Give yourself at least the next 30 days to pursue your selected niche wholeheartedly. Don't be distracted by all the other money making opportunities that you come across. If you haven't learned by now, too many options can and will leave you paralyzed doing nothing.
I would study the forums as well. Forums such as this one are invaluable tools to get you on the fast track to investing success. Locate the people here who know about investing from first hand experience. Take advice from non investors with a grain of salt. I would say that about 70%-80% of the people in the RE forums have never done anything with real estate investing. Yes they know a lot about investing, but there is a huge gap between those "Who Know what to do, and those who do what they know".
I can't say whether you would be smart to buy investing courses or not. I can tell you that I have bought thousands of dollars in real estate investing courses and I don't regret a single purchase.
As far as real estate courses go, I would say the best course that i have ever bought covers every aspect and niche of investing including short sales, flipping, lease options, foreclosures, wholesaling, credit repair, and subject to plus includes all the forms for each....It cost me $47.00, I was BLOWN away.
Many of the "Guru's" have completely lost touch with the current state of real estate investing. Nevertheless, there is a ton of high quality information out there for well below $100.00. The low cost courses are hard to go wrong on and most offer a money back guarantee, so its next to impossible to lose. Just do your home work. Ebay is another great spot to find low cost investing courses. I have personally invested in quite a few courses that I picked up on ebay.
Lastly I will share with you 3 letters to keep in mind that I have shared with many of my coaching students. Those 3 letters are ACT.
Action
Compensates
Tremendously
Taking action will compensate for just about anything in your life that is burdening you or that you would like to achieve. More than likely if you don't achieve any level of success as an investor it will not be because of a lack of information, it will be because of a lack of action.
I would encourage other's who have achieved success in the investing world to add your own advice to my post.
Good luck
