The Three Critical Steps To Launching A Successful REI Business

In January of this year (2016) my wife and I decided to take the plunge into real estate investing. Although, we couldn't begin right away. I had to finish my commitment to my job at the time. You see, I was a youth soccer coach. The clear professional stepping stone to becoming a successful real estate investor.

So for everyone taking notes, step 1 to becoming a successful real estate investor is to be a slightly above average soccer player who spends hours a day listening to soccer moms explain how important it is that their six-year-old be on a team with Jackson, Ava, Eva, Evie, and Avery P. But that, [cough] Avery B [cough], should be on a different team because of some super complicated soccer mama drama involving someone bringing the wrong snack to school last fall.

So May rolls around, soccer season is over, and we pack our two-year-old, our seven-month-old, our crazy dog, our terrible cat and all of our stuff into a UHAUL and drove halfway across the country to start our investing adventure. Yep, we figured we would make the entire process as stressful and complicated as we could imagine.

In case you missed it, that was step 2. The only way to succeed at investing, after retiring early from your oh so promising soccer career is to move halfway across the country with some annoying pets and a young family. Did I mention we lived with my parents for the first three months? An entirely unnecessary addition to step 2, but we don't do anything halfway. Consider this step 2b, only for the super-serious among you.

Wait, did I mention that I was jumping into investing full-time? Welcome to step 3.

There was no 9-5. Nothing part-time. You must be saying to yourself, lucky guy; he has himself a sugar mama. No, There wasn't a wealthy heiress financing this adventure. My wife spends more time than I could ever begin to appreciate raising our kids and taking care of our family. But Congress still hasn't passed legislation to raise the minimum wage for stay-at-home moms. Let's check the lineup card. That is two unemployed adults, a toddler, an infant, a neurotic dog, and a smelly cat (I hate cats, FYI) living with family in a new place starting a new business.

Ready to start investing in real estate? Just make sure you follow those three steps, and you'll be sure to have grey hair and a major heart event in no less than 18 months...

Okay, okay, okay. Now it is time to shift gears and share some things that are slightly more helpful.

Step 1: It is true, I was a youth soccer coach. But surprisingly I picked up quite a few skills that have helped me launch my real estate business.

I grew a program from 150 kids to 1000 in less than five years (all thanks to some marketing magic). One of the biggest keys, so I have found, to being successful in this business is finding the deals. Having your own in-house marketing machine is the best way I have found to accomplish this.

Not only was my marketing background helpful, but I managed over 100 volunteers and 25 part-time employees. To be honest, I didn't coach very much at all. Managing all those overly emotional volunteers makes managing a team of 3-4 sub contractors feel like a walk in the park.

And let's not forget customer service. I wasn't kidding with the soccer mama drama I mentioned above. That's real stuff. One of the more challenging skills for me to acquire was finding resolutions to situations like I mentioned above. My natural instinct was to laugh. But after a dozen of those interactions, I realized the moms were serious. Laughter was not appreciated. I have quickly found that dealing with contractors, subs, sellers, and everyone in between has plenty of moments that my natural inclination is to laugh at the insanity of the situation. Thankfully I've developed the ability to bite my tongue, nod, and get through all the BS and find real solutions and move forward.

Another great asset I had was time. Once we decided to move on to investing, I spent over twenty hours a week researching how to start this business. For twenty weeks, I spent at least 400 hours studying this business.

The truth behind step 1 is that you probably already have a lot of the qualities needed to be successful as an investor. So the important thing for you to do is to begin learning. Welcome to BP!! What a perfect place to study up on what thousands of people out there who are better at this than you are are doing.

Step 2: Yes, I did move across the country to start this business. But that could be misleading if I didn't explain it more. The part of the country we were in was a bit small to start a large-scale house flipping business. Kansas City was a much better market to tackle. And on top of that, I grew up there. So I had a lot of connections, resources, and friends who were already having some success in Real Estate as agents.

It was difficult. Don't get me wrong. There were many sleepless nights filled with self-doubt. Heavy conversations with my wife and piercing questions that I didn't have all the answers to. But my fall back answer to those impossible questions was always work ethic. A work ethic fueled by the future of my family. Nothing makes me work harder. Nothing drives me to succeed more.

The crux of step 2 is moving; moving from a place of study and intellectual acquisition to the hustle. You have to get your feet on the ground and start moving towards your goal. Start putting your plans into place. I can promise you they will fail. It doesn't matter if you wait one week, one month, or 1 year, they will fail. So just get it out of the way so you can move on to new plans that will probably also fail.

Step 3: It takes a lot of help. Just like I had done over and over with the soccer players, I assembled a team. I started the business with a private investor, as well as a strong hard money lender in my area. We had the funds to go to work right away. My first day on the job was May 24th. On June 24th we closed on our first property, a rental. Since then we've acquired another rental and two flips.

I also got connected with a few friends who were agents in town. They were able to drastically reduce my learning curve on the prices in the KC market. I leaned on them for advice with my first three deals. I grilled them on what they felt a top-end house would be worth in the area. Their valuations helped me land a great rental and two solid flips.

I have relied heavily on my connections. And then on their connections. Without a team standing beside me, I wouldn't have been able to get things rolling so quickly.

So the sum all of this up, there isn't a defined prerequisite skill set to becoming an investor. You are more than qualified right now. You just need to tap into what your strengths are. Then look for help filling in the gaps. The final step is taking the leap. It won't be easy. It won't be a guaranteed success. There isn't a guru program out there with 100% success rate. I believe the winning formula involves working harder than everyone around you and remaining humble no matter what you may accomplish.