How to begin your investment career

“Life's too short to hang out with people who aren't resourceful.” ~Jeff Bezos

In my opinion there are four key resources you need to get started investing on your own. They are:

• Time
• Credit
• Money
• Experience

If you want to be successful as an investor it helps to know where you stand in terms of each of these key resources. For example, do you have cash or liquid assets available to invest with? Do you know if you qualify for financing? Have you assembled your team—agents, brokers, mentors, partners—anyone you may need to help you put together good investment deals?

 I wrote each of these resources down on a piece of paper and next to each resource I wrote either my name if I had the resource or the name of someone I knew that had access to that particular resource. If I did not have the resource, then it became my job to find someone I know that had the resource and convince them to get on my team.  For example, while I had some experience, I was able to find a mentor that had more experience and get him on my team. There is no time like the present to get started investing in real estate. Don’t let lack of resources slow you down. Take some time to catalog your resources. Then, work on the areas where you see room to improve.

Here’s a "worksheet" you can use for resource alignment.

Resource Inventory

Here you want to list every available resource that relates to one of the four key resources as well as who has access to the resource (you, or someone in your network).