How Long Did It Take You to Get Your First Real Estate Deal?

How long did it take you to get your first deal? It took me a little over four months. And an investor I know just got his first deal after almost a full-year. Also, this guy was actually doing marketing and trying to get a deal the entire time. But he is one of the unluckiest people I’ve ever met. He had deal after deal fall apart.

But, he now has his first lease option deal under his belt and usually after your first deal the “stars align” and a flood of deals come into your life. It happened to me and I’ve seen it happen to a number of other investors. I first learned about this “first deal phenomenon” in Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich. I read Think and Grow Rich every 6 months and I believe it’s the most important book any person who wants to be successful should read. Also, it really is a book you have to read at least 10 times before you fully absorb the importance of what you’re reading.

Important lessons from this book…

In the book, Mr. Hill talks about how people can struggle along for a seemingly long time and then all of the sudden money will flow into their lives in huge proportions. The reason for this is because as it appears you are “struggling” along, you are really learning and gaining valuable experience. And when opportunity knocks you will have that experience to take advantage of this opportunity and make a lot of money.

The investor who I mentioned above may only have one deal under his belt but he probably has more experience than 99% of investors out there. He’s excellent on the telephone, he knows how to present offers, structure deals and a take care of all the paperwork. For one reason or another he really was just unlucky. But his persistence paid off and now I excitedly look forward to all of the deals he’s going to get.

That brings me to the important point of persistence…

To be successful in real estate you have to market, see houses, etc. etc. etc. But anyone can do this. Yes, some people initially get luckier than others, but if you really want it you’ll eventually close a deal. When I first started in this business I set a goal for myself of the number of properties I wanted to own in my buy and hold portfolio. I set a 5-year time frame for myself.

And when I looked at that time frame I thought to myself, “I’m going to be 5 years older then anyway, so I might as well be 5 years older and own all of these houses which will eventually give me thousands of dollars in cash flow every month.” I accomplished my goal within 5 years and since then have made bigger goals. I think that’s one thing that too many people do, which is not make big enough goals. I did that at first but now I try and think as big as possible.

So… perhaps you haven’t gotten your first deal yet. Don’t give up — even if it takes you an entire year! Remember, the next 12 months are going to pass no matter what, so you might as well do something which is going to help out your financial future, because In today’s shaky economy, rental properties are one of the few investments which I believe are safe.

Related posts:

1. How to Complete Your First Real Estate Deal in 30 Days
2. Landlords: Here’s a Long, Long List of Tenant Rules
3. How To Make $70,000 Off A Real Estate Wholesale Deal
4. How Long Before Commercial Real Estate Recovers? Depends
5. The 3 Types of Real Estate Sellers and How To Deal With Them

Article Author: Jason Hanson

Jason has written 185 articles for us.
Visit Jason's Website: http://www.PrimoCoach.com

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Jason R. Hanson is the founder of National Real Estate Investor Month and the author of “How to Build a Real Estate Empire”. Jason specializes in purchasing properties “subject-to” and has purchased millions of dollars worth of property using none of his own cash or credit.