The Second Most Valuable Skill In Real Estate Today

There is one essential skill that many real estate investors and companies are lacking today. What is it? How can you get more of it?

Being good at analyzing the data and making good investment decisions is arguably the first and most valuable skill in real estate today. That applies whether you are buying a house to live in for yourself and your family, if you are looking for flip deals or rental properties, or are investing in mortgage loan notes. However, this has become much easier today. There are many calculators and sets of data at our fingertips that allow us to filter out a lot of good and bad deals in minutes. It does still really take a pro to accurately read that data, interpret it correctly, and make the best decisions. Yet, this is not where most are getting stuck. Still, it is a close tie with a second skill, because everything relies on it.

This second skill we are talking about is sales. You’ve got to have strong sales skills to do well in this business. The truth is that it really doesn’t matter how great an asset, house, or opportunity is, if you can’t sell it.

In real estate, you have to have some sales skills to negotiate the buying of a property or note. You have to work with various contractors and vendors, and negotiate good deals and terms with them. Then you need to market and secure renters, to market and sell a loan note or the property itself.

If you are relying on others for these steps then you really need to look hard, and find Realtors, attorneys, property managers, and asset managers with great sales skills.

If you’ll be doing these tasks yourself, then you’ll want to build those skills. You can do this by working for someone who is an excellent salesperson or has a training plan, learning and studying through courses and books, or as Mark Cuban recommends - get a job in sales, for hands on training, and staying sharp.

Sales skills will only become more important in the next phases of the real estate market. The best will excel and gain more market share, or will be able to get the best deals on homes, and exit when needed. The majority may find it very challenging if they don’t have a great team in place.

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