To the uninitiated, real estate may seem like a pretty complicated business. In reality, it’s extremely easy to get started in this business. There are actually only four important steps that you have to take to cross the threshold and get started. They are:
- Find your deal
- Construct your deal
- Put together a letter of intent
- Find a JV partner (or, wholesale your deal)
That’s it! That’s all there is to it. Oh wait, I did forget one very important “fifth” step: Collect your money!
When you’re getting into real estate, it’s important not to make it into a huge, difficult, insurmountable Mount Everest that you aren’t going to be able to conquer. (Well maybe you can climb that mountain, but it always looked a bit hard to tackle from my perspective!)
When you are just starting out, you’ll want to look at as many deals as possible to find the ones that cash flow well on paper. I personally put over 100 different opportunities into my cash flow analyzer before finding my first slam-dunk deal. You don’t need to look at nearly that many to find your diamond in the rough. When you get a great deal as your first deal you will ride that wave of a great deal and a great reputation from that point on. Even if you decide to flip the deal to another investor, only do so if you know it is a great deal. Find that first great deal and suddenly the deals will find you. Use my cash flow analyzer and they will quite literally analyze the deals for you. It’s an amazing analyzer that’s like having me over your shoulder with each of these deals! That advanced software analyzer is in my home study course Buying From Banks; REO’s Notes and Super Creative Deal Making!
While you are looking for deals and investing in mortgage notes and other lucrative real estate opportunities, you’ll want to set up your business in a way that separates these activities from your own personal finances and life. That means allocating some space in your home to these activities. A desk, phone, computer, and fax machine in the corner of the living room will do, or you may want more private space in a spare bedroom or in the cellar. But you can do this business from home in your pajamas with very little space. Of course later that will translate into on the beach at a resort….Wherever you want! What a business, huh?
You’ll also want to set up a separate bank account and accounting system for your new business, to make things easier at tax time. These are easy, early steps that you’ll need to take. Down the road your setup may become more complex, and may find your hiring assistants and establishing Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) for each of the properties you invest in (I get into this more depth in my home study course).
For now, it’s important that you think of your business as a separate entity. It’s not your life, and it’s not your family. It’s your revenue generation machine, and it deserves some dedicated space and equipment to get rolling!
The great thing about your new business is that getting it off the ground doesn’t require much investment at all. This is a networking business, which means that meeting as many people as you can, and telling each and every one of them about your business and what you are looking for, is the absolute best way to build your venture. It doesn’t take fancy equipment, expensive business cards or flashy marketing materials. It takes grassroots networking techniques that you can learn and use quickly and effectively.
Now, I offer all of the tools, tips, and techniques that you’ll need to get started. Like a lot of people say, including Warren Buffet, “You make your money when you buy.”
You make your money when you put your deal together. That is where the money is. This is a fantastic market to do it in, with notes and REOs being two of the best vehicles to use. Add some creative financing to the mix and you’ll be out there taking action in no time at all!
To Your Success! – Sue