My Recipe How I Made It

How To: Become A Successful Real Estate Investor

I started With Wholesaling!

To anyone that wants to to be successful investing in real estate here are my tips that caused me to break through all the clutter and be one of the few of many that are making it. This is a no fluff straight to the point guide for you to follow!

I started as a wholesaler. I struggled because I listened to al the people here on BP. Some had great advice, most gave advice without knowing what they are talking about and without really being a wholesaler themselves. So I wasted a lot of time, had a lot of headaches till I decided to stop listening to people and follow my own logic!

I have written every step I took in my private blog, mistakes and all in a diary form. But in case you do not want to read my Real Estate Investing Diary about wholesaling, ... fair enough. Here are the things I did omitting all the mistakes.

0. Get Your Education Get Your Inspiration.

(See what I did there? It rymes. How AWESOME AM I?!) Ahem...This is a dangerous one. Absolutely get an education but know when you know enough to start. This analysis paralysis, is really dangerous. I was stuck in this purgatory for a YEAR!!!

My Education:

 I bought Cody Sperber's package. I liked it because this dang goofball made learning not so intimidating.

FINE PRINT: You do not NEEEEED to buy education. Everything can be found online for free. Why did I pay for mine? Very important: Would you fly in an airplane you built? Would you rather fly in an airplane some engineering entity you don't know built? I would chose the latter. You just have the impression that the "other" people, know what they are doing and thus is saver. Yes I could have found all the info myself. But how do I know I didn't miss something? You need to know enough about this to know you are missing something, and I didn't. True or false, buying an education package gave me the confidence that once I am through with the course I have all the knowledge I need to do this. For that reason alone it was worth it to me.

Here is the trick. Know the overall procedure of wholesaling (or what ever niche you want to dive into). Then learn how to do the first step in that process. You do not need to know how to do the second step. Just figure out how to do that first step. I promise you by the time you are done with the first step, you know how to do the second and third. And lucky for you,  you have it easy. I already have written all the steps you need to take in this post. (And this will constantly be updated).

As for my inspiration.

Brandon you silly little Turner you! That book .. I have no idea how or why, but every time I read it, I drool a little. I am not into buy and hold, I do flips, but this GREATLY inspired me and keeps me motivated. It is so doable!

1. Get A Website

This is the one thing that was a direct cause of my success as a real estate investor. Yes get a website but not just any website. Investor Carrot is the hosting to choose.

In theory you could get any website that is fast, comes optimized for mobile devices, that is optimized for conversion (people filling in your forms), that is optimized for SSL, easy to edit that has the tools and features to leverage what you know and what you do not know about SEO. But why reinvent the wheel when it is all done for you out of the box? Yes it is more expensive than a free wordpress or wix site. I have tried the free and cheaper ones and I lost time and money. I got a deal within a month of switching to Investor carrot and I made $14,000.00. As you can see, you can either be cheap, and struggle, or determine for once and for all that you will not work for the man anymore and step up, be a serious player. Be all in or go home! It is up to you. If you are serious about making it, like I did, get an investor carrot site and work it.

I have written an elaborate and detailed step by step instruction set how to buy a domain name, and get your site set up with Investor Carrot.

2. Work On Your SEO

Getting a website is not enough. Buying a shovel is not going to get your landscape project done. You need to do the work. I do not want to get too detailed making this post. I just want to share with you what you have to do as a simple step by step recipe to make it. Making this too technical will take away from the simplicity of this recipe. This will not give you instant results. But please do not let this turn you off. This is the best thing you can do for your long term success. Here focus both on on-page SEO and off-page SEO.

This is important because this will take a lot of time to do, and a lot of time before you see any results, and that is why you should do it NOW! Don't think, don't argue, you want to make it? Then do it!.

However, you can break up the work so that you can instantly benefit from your SEO work. Start by making your page credible. That will take but a few days and then you can devote more effort on SEO, on and off page. Why? Read the next point.

3. Work On Your Credibility

Credibility equals conversion! You need to be credible for people to have enough faith in you to fill in the form on your site. 

I keep saying this over and over again. To make it, you need the right traffic to your website and your website needs to be optimized for conversion. You get traffic by optimizing your SEO efforts. Once traffic reaches your site, you need to be sure you are credible so people are convinced you can solve their problem!

So although SEO takes time, work, and patience before you see results organically, you can still benefit from credibility instantly right now! I will talk about how in the next point, but for now just do what I tell you dang it!

So how do you become credible?

Just answer the question "How can I show my visitors I am real, legit, Devilishly Handsome, an actual person, and not a scam?" (Did I mention unnaturally handsome?)

1. Include a decent "About Us" section.
2. Include plenty of testimonials. If you have not yet made a deal include testimonials from friends describing what kind of person you are.
3. Include pictures of you. Get rid of all generic pictures! They do more harm than good.

Come up with clever and original ways to establish credibility. Be original, don't copy others, and definitely do not copy me!

4. Drive Traffic To Your Site Now!

Although SEO takes time this doesn't mean you can't make deals right now with your website. Once your website is fine tuned for conversion (which can be done right now), you can manually drive traffic to your site (while you keep working on SEO to eventually drive traffic to your site without any effort). There are plenty of ways to drive traffic to your site manually. Some methods are free, others are not.

Free Traffic To Your Site:

Here are a bunch of free craigslist ads you can place to drive motivated seller or eager cash buyers to your site:

These ads are free for you to use provided by Investor Carrot. The trick is to consistently post adds at specific times of the day. Do a bit of research what the best times are to place ads and keep it up for the next few weeks. Experiment which ads work best and at what times and you will be getting site conversions in no time!

This step will grow your buyers list (in case you want to wholesale) and sent potential leads to your site.

Paid Traffic:

• Direct Mail Marketing.

Buy a list, and send mailers to your list. Be sure to send your mail recipients to your website. This helps for SEO (somewhat) and it helps your credibility (Conversion). 

This is how I made my first deal within 3 months of starting.

• Facebook Ads: 

Do some research on How to do this. I have never done this so I wouldn't know.

• PPC

Also never done this before. The trick here is to calculate the cost per deal, and make sure you allocate enough budget to afford that cost per deal, otherwise you are throwing money away.

In all honesty, I do not think you need any of this. I did it simply by sending out postcards and it worked great.

As this is not a general educational post on how you CAN make it, but how I did it, I will just give some pointers on Direct Mail Marketing.

I tried yellow letters, they don't work (for me), and for obvious reasons. You come across as an amature without  funds to even buy a printer, or clean white printer paper. I have tried everything and postcards were my winner. Easy to do, cheapest of them all and the least amount of effort. 

My words of wisdom are as follows. 

It is not the mailer that seals the deal, its the impression people get from what the mailer says and the image you show your recipients of you.

5. Always Be Honest, Transparent and Genuine.

The number one reason I have noticed why investors (especially wholesalers) do not make it is due to lack of transparency and honesty. Do not tell anyone you will buy their house if you have no intention to buy their house. Explain to your seller what wholesaling is and explain the benefits and drawbacks. Believe me there are more benefits than drawbacks and there is no reason why a seller wouldn't want to have 300 buyers instantly be notified of a house they have for sale. Be Honest!

6. Get A Solid Contract

Get a contract that works for you. Make sure you have an escape clause but be sure to never use it. To pull out of the contract is not a big deal if you have been honest with the seller in the first place (again in case of wholesaling).

7. Find A Savvy Investor Friendly Attorney.

Interview your attorney to make sure they know more than you do! sk them if they know what a double closing is. Ask them if they have other investor clients. Make sure they are aggressive and sharp. You need someone that is a shark to represent you in legal matters! You are now ready to make your first couple of deals. Congrats you are ready. Once you have 2 or 3 deals under your belt it is time to step it up.

8. Find A Real Estate Investor Friendly Agent.

I keep seeing many investors having such a hard time finding an agent to partner with. Again, being honest and upfront will solve many issues. If you are going to be dishonest,then no, no one will see value in partnering up with you. My agent loves me because my website is getting a ton of views, and following my advice, you also will eventually get a ton of views. Why is having a ton of views so important teaming up with an agent? Well, a ton of view (from the right people mean getting a ton of opt-ins. People filling out your form. You will eventually notice that most of the lead coming in are better suited for agents. People that want a great offer on their house when there is nothing wrong with their house. These leads give to your agent freely. They will love you and they will want to stick with you.

9. Get A Legal Entity.

Get an LLC (or what ever you think is better suited for your business). You are now one of the serious players. Look and Act like one!

10. Repeat And Systemize Your Model Ohh yeah.. and Network Constantly

This is the last part for now. You now know how it all works. Every phase of the process now needs to be made efficient and translated into a mini system. Scale up, work on SEO so that you no longer need to drive traffic manually to your site.

It looks simple doesn't it? In all honesty it is. What makes it hard is fear, doubt, lack of confidence and most importantly, lack of transparency and honesty. Conquer this and you will be a force to be reckoned with!

The last thing you need to do is keep the ego in check, and network. Always improve on your systems. The best way to do this is be active on the Bigger Pockets forums. Learn from others mistakes and let the success stories inspire and drive you!

Good luck! See you on the filthy (rich) side! I will be waiting for you there!

Wondering if these tips work? Shame on you. Yes Duhh of course it works. I made $14,000 doing this.

About The Author:

Jerryll often referred to as: "MSOOTKAUG" (My Supreme Overlord Of The Known And Unknown Galaxy) is a bonafide nut case. His closest friends (and he has not many) think working with NASA has fried his brain.When he is not offering Goats and Chickens for houses,he is often seen in the jungles with his laptop up-side-down in a tree working on his newest SEO strategies. Although often he smells funny, he is handsome beyond comprehension. Google thinks he is the sexiest thing since Backlinks.And yes he sips and gulps honey straight out of the bottle.