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Finding the Poison Ivy Real Estate of Your Investment Dreams

Jason Hanson
2 min read

I’m highly allergic to poison ivy and I get it about once a year. Here is how this yearly occurrence happens:

imagesEvery day, I take my lazy dog Toby for a walk in the woods behind my house. Once summer comes around, I take him on a walk wearing shorts and get poison ivy all over my legs. I promise myself that I will not wear shorts again, and for the rest of the summer I wear long pants. Well, another summer rolls around and I haven’t had poison ivy for a year and I tell myself that I won’t get it again. I take Toby for a walk in shorts, get poison ivy on my legs, and I wear long pants for the rest of the summer. This is pretty much my yearly poison ivy occurrence (I never said I was the smartest guy in the world…hey, I went to college for the social life, not to learn how to work for somebody else).

Anyway, I recently got my yearly poison ivy and now my legs are covered in it. I have had it about a week, hoping it would go away, but it hasn’t. So finally I broke down and went to CVS ready to buy anything that would ease the pain. I ended up buying a $20.00 bar of soap that is supposed to be some super-duper soap that has a special chemical which washes the ivy away. Yes…..I spent $20.00 on a bar of soap. Why did I do that? Because I was motivated to ease the pain of my poison ivy. I didn’t care about price, I cared about itch relief (prepare for cool metaphor, simile, analogy….whatever the heck it is).

New investors are always in disbelief that a seller would sell their house for 65 cents on the dollar. Or that a seller would let you take their loan subject-to or do a lease option. They don’t end up doing deals because they have the wrong mindset and think none of the creative stuff works.

So why does a seller sell for 65% or why do they let you take over a loan for no money down? Because they want to get rid of their “poison ivy”. The name of the game is motivated sellers and they will do anything to get rid of their property problems (they just want relief from their pain). This is where new investors make mistakes. If the seller is not motivated, move on. You cannot force someone to be motivated, so don’t waste your time. When you are screening a seller, the first thing you need to determine is motivation, because it is the most important aspect of real estate investing. And don’t forget it!

Alright, last week’s post was on lease options and all of my loyal fans (if I am my only fan, does that still count?) requested more info about how to do this method better and make more dineros. Over the next several weeks I am going to go over the nitty gritty details from A-Z of everything you have ever wanted to know about lease options.

Next week, I will show you the three best marketing methods to find lease option candidates and the crucial paperwork needed between you and the seller. Also, please respond to this post with any other questions you would like me to cover over the next few weeks about lease options (I first started out wholesaling, then became a lease option machine, so the method is near and dear to my heart……….I want to show you how to become a “player” with this method and use none of your own money or credit). So you better send me some good questions! And remember, there are no stupid questions, only stupid people.

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.