Well, there are many things. But I want to talk about two specific skills that will remain \u201cevergreen\u201d when it comes to achieving success in real estate investing. By learning these things, you can make money in an up or down market. Every investor needs to master (or have someone on their team who has mastered) these talents, but the fact is many big developers and investors haven\u2019t spent enough time working on these crucial components of long-term success.<\/p>\n
Which Are the Most Essential Skills to Achieving Success as a Real Estate Investor?<\/h2>\n
In all honesty, I didn\u2019t develop these skills for my own business until I was several years into my investing career. This caused me to lose tens of thousands of dollars, do deals I shouldn\u2019t have, and put myself at risk of losing everything.<\/p>\n
So, to what am I referring? Drumroll… The skills are tracking down off-market deals <\/em>and mastering <\/em>direct-to-seller marketing.<\/em><\/p>\n I\u2019m going to advise you to pursue this in a more aggressive way than most investors do. By adding these skills to your toolbox, you\u2019ll have the potential to make way more money, own equity in the deals you find, and position yourself to become an active investor as soon as you build up a little war chest of cash. It won’t be easy and it won’t be glamorous, but the returns can truly be spectacular!<\/p>\n Here are the basic steps.<\/p>\n This involves two basic parts:<\/em><\/p>\n These two things together essentially involve being willing to Google and keep digging until you have good information. The ability to do so is insanely valuable. Most of this research will have a \u201ccounty specific\u201d component to it, so get familiar with relevant counties where people are buying or looking for deals<\/a>.<\/p>\n Get comfortable digging through corporate records, finding company representatives, and identifying registered agents\u2014and be persistent!<\/p>\n Forget the small-time investors who are all looking at the same single family deal. Developers or investors who are looking to do much bigger deals are significantly better candidates for this sort of thing. Why?<\/p>\n Here are a few reasons:<\/em><\/p>\n Finding these types of deals is where you want to spend your time in real estate anyway, so perfect this skill before doing the small-time stuff.<\/p>\n I\u2019m a partner in an investment and development company based in San Antonio. We invest all over the state, and I have built an acquisition team that WANTS to do bigger deals\u2014they just don\u2019t have the capital, team, or time to put a $5MM-plus investment together.<\/p>\n This creates the perfect partnership! They perform a valuable skill that I need, and in return, they get ownership in deals they could never do with their current experience level or access to funds.<\/p>\n Related:<\/em><\/strong> 6 Steps to Finding Amazing Deals \u2014 Even When They\u2019re Scarce<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n Here\u2019s an example:<\/em><\/p>\n We recently purchased a piece of land for $830,000. We will be doing a $6.5MM development on the property that we will sell for around $9.2MM total. Our projected profit is $2.3MM.<\/p>\n Our acquisitions guy gets a finder\u2019s fee (2 to 5 percent), plus a profit share and ownership of the final product. His total compensation for this ONE deal will likely be over six figures\u2014all for tracking down a great opportunity!<\/p>\n It wouldn’t take too many of these before he’d be able to take down his own [insert what you want to invest in here].<\/p>\n If the first investors you approach won\u2019t give you equity in the deal, keep searching until you find someone who will. They must value having more good deals than hoarding all the equity for themselves.<\/p>\n Another thing I like about this type of opportunity is you can know exactly what you should be looking for. My goal in real estate is to find niches that everyone else isn\u2019t mining. When you know what your investors want, you can go deeper when searching for\u00a0exactly<\/em> these types of deals instead of blasting anything and everything that may look like an opportunity.<\/p>\n Go property by property, street by street, through deals that make sense. Build a database of these types of properties, and stay in touch with the owner. They WILL sell eventually, and you\u2019ll be first in line.<\/p>\n Like I said, it’s not glamorous, but it is effective.<\/p>\n The importance of these steps can\u2019t be overstated! When you are looking for specific types of deals, many may not be ready to sell right away. This is where the successful and non-successful investors differentiate themselves. Build your list of properties, and then don\u2019t stop following up until you acquire the asset.<\/p>\n![\"Businessman](\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/find-main-702x336.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\nHow to Track Down Off-Market Deals and Master Direct-to-Seller Marketing<\/h3>\n
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