2. When beginning as a real estate investor, you
must create a basic plan and processes for
your business. Unfortunately, many new real
estate investors fail to view or treat their
career as an investor as a business; rather
they treat it like a hobby. Such a detrimental
attitude will cause you to lose many
potentially profitable deals! So creating a plan
of action is imperative.
3. Locating attractive investment properties is
the first step in growing your business. There
are several ways to find properties. The two
most successful for me have been 1)
connecting with real estate professionals or
bird dogs and 2) Farming an area. Building a
network of property finders is essential so
motivated sellers can find you. It is also
important to have a Realtor with access to
comps on your team as well.
4. Analyze the deal & explore various
investment strategies. Successful investors
don't just have a plan A; they have plans B-Z!
Education is key; the more exit strategies you
know, the more good deals you will be able
to create! Many beginning investors may want
to start with only 1 strategy, like wholesaling.
5. Once you make the decision to acquire the
property, you need to formalize the offer. At
the minimum, submit a basic Letter of Intent
LOI). The LOI is a non binding agreement that
states the minimum basics of an offer, such
as location, price, terms, inspection period, &
date of closing.
6. Once acquired, the next step is to track
income, expenses, and your TIME. Nowadays,
it is an essentially absolute rule that you must
have some type of software package in place.
I was looking at a 14 plex in Phoenix, AZ,
where the owner just had a receipt book to
prove rent rolls.
7. Establish a way to have your network know
about properties for rent or sale. A
professional flyer is an effective
communication tool. So are web sites and
other tools on the internet! But probably the
most powerful is word of mouth.
8. Give a quick elevator speech to summarize
what you are about, who you are looking for,
and why you are a great solution. Keep this
pitch between 30 seconds and 2 minutes.
Exchange phone numbers or business cards
9. Suggest a meeting, luncheon, or golf outing
(some place where you have time to go over
the details of your business
Look for mutual benefits
10. In conclusion, you must have a plan,
processes, and procedures in place on finding
properties, software & criteria on how to
analyze properties, created documents and
systems to allow you to quickly acquire
properties, software and resources to
accurately track property performance, and
ways to promote your business.
