Steps To Building A Successful Real Estate Investing Business
The first step is to have a dream about what it is that you want to create and achieve. “Dream!” Let it become wild. Really see it. Touch it. Taste it. Be able to really envision what it is that you want to happen. If you don’t have a dream then you don’t have passion. If you don’t have passion then you are not going to be able to do anything. Why is it that you are even interested in real estate?
Number two in the steps to a successful business is to have vision. You have to be able to take that dream and turn it into reality! What is it that you see for your business coming up? Not just in 2008 but for the years to come. What is it that you are looking to build?
The third step is that you have to have strength of that conviction. Many people have dreams and they have visions but they don’t have strength of their convictions so they can’t make it happen and they let the naysayers bring them down. They let a little obstacle stop them from going forward. Here is an example, have you ever had that really great idea and then somebody else puts it out there on the market. You see it out there on the market and you say “Wait a minute that was my idea!” You had an idea but you didn’t have the strength of conviction to make it happen. Somebody else had that same great idea and got it all the way to the market and now they are making a fortune off of it. You have to have the strength see your vision all the way through. No matter what there are going to be people telling you that it can’t be done. In fact, the better the idea, the more out of the box the idea, the more resistance it is going to be met with. Other people are used to operating within their comfort zone. Great ideas are something that is outside the comfort zone. You are even going to meet with resistance in your own mind. You have to have the strength of conviction to know that this is the right thing to do.
The fourth step is to have foresight. Be able to drive your business in the right direction based on what’s happening in the environment. An example would be with the foreclosures and what I see happening over the next year. Why’d I give you that? To start giving you some foresight into your business and start getting you prepared for what you have to do with your business. What should you be doing right now? You should be really entrenching yourself out there to find as many deals as you can.
If you are in a position to hold onto some of those deals as rentals and lease options, that’s great because you know that going into 2009 they are really going to start to appreciate. You can pick up a lot of deals right now. You can wholesale those deals and make a ton of money because you are going to be able to buy property well under market value. I guarantee that in another couple of years everybody is going to be talking about it.
You have to continually change your direction based on what is happening in the marketplace. Right now it is a true buyer’s market. Well then become a buyer and look for really great deals. Don’t let excuses put you down, but do have that foresight to see what is happening in the environment and how you can take advantage of it.
Step five is get Information about your market place, about your business, and about different strategies. Go out there and get educated. Find out who has the right programs for what you need. Network with other people, not just with other people in the real estate industry but with other people in the community so that you learn what’s going on. Read the local business journals of whatever marketplace you are dealing with. Get involved in organizations and in the community so that you can be in the know staying on top of what is happening.
Number six is to understand what makes you different. Why should anybody do business with you? What makes you better than the next guy? If you are buying houses why should a seller deal with you? What’s going to be better about dealing with you than the guy down the street? Why shouldn’t they call the other person and deal with them? If you can’t identify what it is that makes you unique then you can’t convey that to your sellers so there won’t be any reason for them to do business with you. I guarantee you that your competition will be able to tell them why they should be able to do business with them. If you are a wholesaler, why should your investor buyers buy from you? What makes you the right person to do business with? Give that question some thought. Come up with your USP, what we call your Unique Selling Proposition that makes you stand out from the competition.
Number seven is to lay out a plan. You have a dream. You have turned that into a vision. You have the foresight to see what is happening in the marketplace. You’ve gotten information. You know what’s changing. You know what’s happening. You know what’s happening in your local marketplace and national marketplace. You know what makes you different. Lay all that into a plan. Translate all of that information and knowledge into a step by step plan. Set dates and action items so you can make sure that things are happening. More importantly you can track it and see how you are doing according to your plan. If everything is just grandiose ideas but it is never laid out into a plan nothing is going to happen. You know you don’t want to get to December of 2008 and say “wow, I had all these dreams and ideas for this year but I didn’t accomplish 25 % of them”.
Number eight is to execute your plan. It’s taking action. Give yourself permission to be slower in the beginning and to pick up speed as you get more and more experienced. The important thing is that you take action, that you are constantly executing your plan. I will tell you from experience that when you have a plan and certain action dates, it’s going to motive you. I want to be ahead of my plan so I get things done faster and it generates momentum. You are going to see how opportunities are just going to flow towards you.
Number nine is to track your results. You laid out a plan, you executed it, and now what type of results are you getting? Make sure that you have reporting on it so that you know what is happening. No more shooting blanks in the dark. You are actually seeing the results of your plan.
Ten is comparing the results over time. If I say that I generated twenty leads so what. If I say in January I was able to generate ten leads. In February I was able to generate fifteen leads. In March I was able to generate twenty leads. You have a trend and it is moving upwards. The steps are gaining momentum toward a successful business.
Item number eleven is improvement. If you have tracked results, you’ve reviewed them; you’ve seen what’s happening. Now make improvements. What’s working? What’s not working? If I got twenty leads in March how can I get to thirty leads in April? What do I have to do different? Is the plan working the way it should? Maybe I laid out this plan but there needs to be some changes to it. Until you start tracking it and you know what is actually happening it’s going to be more difficult to come up with beneficial changes.
Then repeat the whole process all over again. Keep going back to your dreams. After you start to implement and you get to a new plateau, you will have new dreams, new visions, and then you have to have new strength of conviction.
Follow the same dozen steps and your business is not only going to be successful it is going to continue to grow over time.
Lou Castillo is a national real estate investing expert and mentor to thousands of successful investors.
Lou specializes in creating powerful systems that allow investors to work less and earn more using the power of the internet in the real estate investing business.
To get more information or get Investing tips straight from Lou, visit: http://www.FreeRealEstateStrategies.com
Steps To Building A Successful Real Estate Investing Business / Author: Lou Castillo
