Be the Best at the Basics

The one who can master and become the best at the simple stuff always wins.  We all get caught up with trying to use advanced strategies in our real estate investing business and end up over complicating things that don’t really need to be complicated at all.

I regularly share the story about one of the best MMA and hall of fame fighters named BJ Penn. This guy gives himself a lot of credit for being the best at the basics. He’s mastered the basic strategies of MMA instead of doing some crazy advanced techniques like many of his competitors do. He has a few go to moves that are basic, but he does them the best, and he has mastered these techniques which has made him one of the best in the world.

There are a lot of things we can relate this to in business. Marketing, for example, can be extremely complicated and very overwhelming. Especially if you’re new to marketing for real estate deals you aren't sure what do first... Direct mail, bandit signs, internet marketing, etc.... Where should I start?.. Facebook, Google Adwords, do I test all these marketing campaigns? Do I do this thing or that thing?”... Before your head explodes... Yes, you should be familiar and do them all (eventually) BUT only do the basics first and really master them.

Over the last 10 years in our business I have devoted a lot of time to marketing because I strongly understand the importance of having consistent deal flow. We’re not doing anything revolutionary but we are good at the basics. If we wanted we could over do it and could hire six figure a year employees to do one small segment of one niche marketing campaign over and over and than over analyze the results to over complicated a crazy sophisticated marketing campaign... But we choose to stick to the basics and we do them very well.

In real estate investing, you hear about reverse backflips, triple wholesaling and other shiny objects and crazy strategies that grab your attention. Don’t get me wrong, I do believe that some advanced strategies work at the right time for the right investors—but most successful real estate investors just stick to the basics.

Think about things inside your business that you have never done because you’re overwhelmed due to having a complicated approach to them that’s not worth the time and you struggle because it’s too complicated.

Stick to the basics. Be the best at the basics. Master the basic things and you will be extremely successful.