Do you always follow the Majority?

Following the Majority can really pay off, but does it always? The Weekend East Coast snow storm has hit VA hard and as I stepped outside I was greeted by 18 inches of it! This was definitely expected and people were talking about it all week. Last night there were Extremely long lines at the gas stations and even at the Grocery Stores.

When Following The Majority makes sense

Short sales and REOs are at an all time high due to job losses and the mortgage crisis. Investors have been very adamant about learning these strategies in order to cash in on these opportunities, while helping home owners and banks in distress. In any business, you want to go where the money is going when it comes to people’s buying habits. That is where the money is made. Think about it! All year around, there are department stores and even grocery stores that adjust to our buying habits. They sell bathing suits in the summer, turkey and eggnog during Thanksgiving, and they even have special Christmas Sales around December. All they’re doing is “Following The Money”. They look at the market conditions and safely predict what opportunities are worth going after.

This is an obvious decision for any business to make. The upside to “following the money” is that as you learn to do Short Sales and/or REOs and take action on the upcoming opportunities, you’ll make money and become well rounded by adding another strategy to your business. The downside is that you have to get over the learning curve and it may take some time because it will be new to you. Therefore, it’s best to partner with someone who has more experience than you and leverage their experience in order to “speed up” the process.

When Following the Majority doesn’t make sense

I talked to a friend of mine earlier today and he told me that when he was at the Grocery Store, the lines were backed up all the way to the back of the store. He said the “15 items or less” lane had 59 people total. All the lanes were stacked with carts…..except one.

One lane sitting there… The light was on.. and not one person got in the line. Yes, it was definitely open!

However, people began following what everyone else was doing and were completely blind to the lane that had no customers. So my friend kept peaking over, wondering why this lane was empty, and he decided to head over there. His wife urged him to just stay in the line, but he was adamant on finding out if this lane was really open.

As he went over to the lane, he discovered that it was in fact open and his wife quickly rushed over to check out. The funny part to this story was that there was another husband and wife bickering back and forth, saying…”I told you it was open”…”Just Shut up!”…lol

And of course, once we got in line, people started flocking to the lane.

The reason I tell you this story is because there will be many cases where you see other real estate investors or agents doing business a certain way. Regardless of the opportunities that are around them, they simply put their blinders on and do what everyone else is doing. Now if it’s working for them, then so be it. However, you need to be open to other opportunities in order to get the most out of your business growth potential.

Majority doesn’t always rule in my opinion!

To Your Success,

J. Lamar Ferren

Ps. What situation did it make sense for you to follow or not to follow the majority? I can already tell you that there is a clear reason that 3% of our population is considered wealthy. (according to the statistics)

pps. Sorry this was late. I was stuck in the snow storm. Can you cut me a little slack? 😛

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.