Having the desire to be successful is only half the battle. Every investor wants to close as many deals as possible and make lots of money, but most don’t know what it takes to reach their goals. Whether you are just starting out or have an established business that you want to take to the next level, there are things you can do that can help you along the way. Real estate investing is largely a level playing field. There is not much that separates you from the next investor. It is often the little things and how motivated you are that makes all the difference. If you want to get the most out of your real estate business, there are a few things that you need to do to get you over the top:
Take Action: You can put yourself in the best possible position to succeed, but unless you take action you won’t get very far. Taking action means doing things that may not be entirely comfortable to you, but you do them anyway. It can mean reaching out to new contacts, networking in your community or something as simple as picking up your phone and making a call. The most successful investors are the ones that match their action with their determination. A large percentage of deals are gained by those investors who were willing to follow up on a lead or place a phone call to realtor. Deals and contacts will not just fall on your lap you need to go out and get them.
Become Passionate: If you are investing solely to make money, you may close an occasional deal or two. However, if there are changes to the market, you will be on the outside looking in. The most successful investors are those that have the passion to soak up everything they can find about the business. Their passion is infectious to everything they come in contact with and has a direct impact on business. People like working with others who enjoy what they are doing and are willing to go the extra mile. If you truly love the business, it will never feel like work to you. Even when you are down, you need to have the mindset that you can pull yourself out. There are plenty of deals that are there for the taking if you have the desire and passion to get them.
Work Hard: Regardless of where you are in the business, you will get deals if you outwork your competition. There are many things that you do that will seem tedious, but if you stick with them long enough you will start to see results. Being a successful investor is one of the best careers in the world, but it is also difficult to sustain if you don’t have the right frame of mind. There is nobody looking over you telling you what to do and when to do it. You are accountable to nobody but yourself and your family. The amount of work you do is solely based on your own personal goals and motivations. You need to maintain your level of hard work whether your pipeline is full or you are desperate for leads. There is a direct correlation between the work you put in and the success you have.
Persistence: It is easy to hang your head when things don’t go your way. One of the biggest mistakes that business owners make is gauging the success or failure of anything given only a small sample size. Any marketing you do you should commit to doing it at least four times before you decide if you want to continue. If you stop after the first or second mailing, you will not get the chance to see if it really works or not. The same is the case with everything you do. Going to one networking meeting and declaring there are no worthwhile contacts there is foolish. You need to be willing to stick with your plan regardless of whatever else is going on, regardless of your previous outcomes. Persistence pays off if you are willing to commit to it.
Know your business: There is no license or certificate needed to start investing. That being said you should have a basic understand of what your business. It can be very overwhelming trying to know all of the many terms and scenarios involved in each deal. Instead of trying to learn them all at once pick up one new thing every month. The time you spend online or on your phone could be spent researching tax lien auctions or understanding the short sale process. If you immerse yourself in the business you can talk about it better and gain valuable contacts. When you spend money or time on education it is the best investment you can make.
All of these items require no formal education or training. The only thing that is needed is you. While these seem easy enough, there are many investors who fail to do these basic tasks. Without them you will never have the investing success that you are looking for. You can be like other investors in your area and wait for deals to come to you, or you can put work in every day and go after them.
