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How To Take Your House Flipping Education To The Next Level

Danny Johnson
4 min read

Last week, in my BiggerPockets podcast interview (which I thoroughly enjoyed doing), I mentioned something that I thought about for days after. The more I thought about it, the more profound it really was.

What was mentioned was that it is time for many people to step away from the computer and take their education to the next level. That’s accomplished by getting out into the real world and taking action.

It doesn’t have to be huge action. You might still be in the beginning stages of getting educated, so it obviously wouldn’t be wise to go out and buy a house without having a well thought out game plan.

Too Many People Stay Where They Are Comfortable

The reality is that too many people stay right where they are because it is comfortable. You might find yourself wanting to learn, learn, learn, without any real guidance or ideas of what exactly needs to be learned.

Sometimes we have an idea, no matter how vague, of what we need to learn and set out to learn it. We read (most of us actually devour because we are so fired up to get into flipping houses) everything we can find on the subject matter on the internet, in books, in courses…and all places we are comfortable looking for the answers.

There’s not a problem with that. The problem lies in our constantly thinking we’ve learned something because we’ve read about it. We might learn it to some extent, but the retention of the ideas or at least some of the ideas is not even close to being good.

We learn what we think we need to learn and the next logical step is to use what we’ve learned. But NO, we couldn’t do that. That would be uncomfortable, at least to most of us. It much easier to just assume there is more to be learned on the subject or something else that we need to learn to make sure our education is well rounded.

It’s just easier to do that, but we’re not accomplishing what we really want to be accomplishing.

We want to become successful real estate investors, not just students.

Everybody has heard of the people who never seem to make up their mind on what they want to do and just continues to collect college degrees. They’re called “career students”.

I think when it comes to really making a go of this business, the majority of people actually become this “career student”.

I’m sure you’ve heard of (and maybe you’ve done it) people that have paid upwards of $20,000, even $50,000 on education to learn how to flip houses!

Maybe they feel that if they spend that kind of money it will make them work harder at it. But alas, it is just to allow them to stay in their comfort zone for even longer.

Here’s How To Fix The Problem

Step away from the computer.

Click the mouse a few times and hit the power button. Push your chair back and stand up. Walk away.

Get a snack and grab your keys. Get outside!

Yes, that place that everyone is saying kids don’t venture into anymore. That place where people are making things happen. Where people are hustling and taking massive action.

You might feel like an odd ball and that you don’t know what the heck you are doing, but I guarantee you that if you force yourself out there you will start to see everything come together.

Don’t worry, I’ll talk about where you should go shortly. Don’t want you just going to a bar or something. 🙂

There will be clarity.

Where To Go, What To Do

Find investors that are actively flipping houses. Take them to lunch. Enjoy their company and make sure they enjoy yours.

Please, whatever you do, DO NOT go begging successful investors to help you.

We are busy people and most of us don’t want to share our trade secrets. You have to build relationships and you don’t do that by asking people to give you stuff (whether that be advice, ideas, help, whatever).

The goal is to just befriend them.

The best way to get a serious investor to take notice and want to work with you, is to attract them. You attract them by showing that you are a hustler. You aren’t like the others that just stay behind their computer and want people to give them the keys to success without putting in the work.

And regardless of what so many will have you believe, there is a lot of work involved.

We tend to see and hear about success stories and just assume that it happened quickly. We don’t know about the hundreds and thousands of steps the people have taken to get to where they are.

Where To Find Successful, Local Investors and Other Things To Do

Finding and getting to know serious, active investors should be a top priority, but isn’t the only one as you venture out into the real world of house flipping.

Here are some other things you should do (and some are great places to find these serious investors):

  • Visit local Real Estate Investor Association meetings
  • Drive through different areas of town and look for rehabs (roll-off dumpsters are usually dead giveaways)
  • Try to determine which areas you want to invest in
  • Stop at rehabs and talk to the contractors, look at the work being done
  • Stop at rehabs and get contact information for the investor that owns the house
  • Go to the big box stores and make lists of expensive, yet nice materials to use for your flips
  • Make some calls to local real estate agents and find some that work with investors – take them to lunch
  • Talk to other investors and find out who they use to close their deals, go and talk with them (learn the process)
  • Talk to some hard money lenders and find out what terms they want
  • Schedule to go and look at some bank-owned foreclosures (try to see the ones in the worst shape)

Conclusion

Don’t become stuck behind the computer. Get outside and make connections. Get out there and discover your farm area and meet the people that will make up your team. Build to where you are getting actual things done instead of just learning things that will soon be forgotten because you aren’t implementing them.

One last note: Don’t let worry and fear stop you from getting out there. Don’t let your fear convince you that there is more to be learned first. You don’t have to know anything about the business to get out there and start talking to people and looking at houses.

Please share any other ideas of things you can do outdoors with regards to taking action and getting a real education. You can share them in the comments below. Every one left is much appreciated, not just by me, but everyone that is planning to do the right thing and head out there, into the wild.

Photo: Luigi Crespo

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