Real Estate Investing: A Dream Come True?
The Las Vegas lifestyle. Can you picture yourself in your evening attire? You are all dolled up…and you smell smacking great! You let out a glib remark…”Bet it all on red.”
Living the 44,000 foot lifestyle…Hanging out by the pool, with the hottest people on the planet sipping down a bloody Mary with the perfect little umbrella.
The young/good-looking waitstaff comes by and with a smile asks you if you need anything else.
That’d be nice, right?
OK so I’m exaggerating on purpose and poking fun at the obvious.
If you are like me and most other people just making an extra $5,000 – $10,000 a month from home without having to bust your nalgas for somebody else that doesn’t appreciate you would be peeeeeeeerfect!
I mean becoming a MILLIONAIRE is great, but a HUNDREDTHOUSANDAIRE is decent too. (I ain’t complainin’.)
So let’s talk a little bit about making money from home by being your own boss.
The general allure of investing in real estate is basically to become your own boss, right?
At least that was what the deal was for me. I basically was sick and tired of traveling for a living. At the time I worked for a corporation that required a big “hefty” black bag load of travel.
It seriously sucked the sparkling spirit right out of me turning me into a corporate zombie corpse. I had to change things or die trying.
My brother had done some real estate investing and had managed to lose his “you know what” in the process.
-Truth be told (and this has often been my downfall) at the time I just thought I was -SMARTER- than he was. HE was a real estate agent and so he knew real estate pretty much inside and out. However, I figured I would be smarter. I would never be like my older brother. After all, I was the one that had to lend him money when he was in dire straits.
So I began researching and gathering my tools for the job ahead, CAUSE I am so Smart! LOL Genius… and I became a brilliant, broke, bankrupt Genius. LOL
All of us believe that we’re going to make it. However, if it were easy, everybody would be doing it. You really can’t lose sight of that. Real estate investing is definitely not for the faint of heart. It is just simply too complicated. It is really hard to wing when you don’t really know what you are doing.
I believe people can sense 2 things from about 100 miles away: 1. Desperation and 2. Stupidity (or for my scholars…lack of wisdom).
Ever bought something from a salesman who knew less about the product than you? You just stop asking questions, right? Then that inconsiderate, internal voice goes off in your head..”Dude, just shut up…shut up…spare me…OMG..somebody just pluck my eyes out! I know more about this than you do… stop trying to fake it.” But you don’t call him out.
-you say nothing smile, nod and say.. Thank you for your help.
Ok maybe that is just me. The people-pleaser in me shows up and I walk off.
Beginner’s Guide to Real Estate Investing: The Thundering Problem
Hey did you notice the 12,456 lb Neon and Blue Elephant in the Room?
I’ve gotta address something that nobody really talks about, and it baffles me.
Seriously, it blows my bean-head. Maybe it’s better to tell you in an illustration. It’s like I conversation with a client of mine yesterday.
(seems I have a knack for sh!t-stirring the pot.)
The conversation went something like this.
——————–
Me: did your web designer give you any push-back about throwing away your 14-year-old domain that is respected by the search engines and has a lot of authority on the web?
Michele: no, they said it was fine.
Me: (awkwardly) can I be honest with you? As a friend… that is the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. What you’re doing is essentially putting a “We’ve Relocated” sign on the door of your restaurant (located in a pristine area downtown in a big city). The sign reads, “Come to broaden your fine dining experience. We are now located in the bad part of town.”
The only reason this was so clear to me was that my coach, James, showed me exactly what to look for. He taught me everything, and this practice was about to make a huge mistake.
I was wondering why someone that knew this stuff would do such a thing to a client.
Only 2 possibilities: *The first… like Flash Gordon’s Lightning Bolt underwear, hit me in the face in a sudden moment of clarity. He’d do that because then the practice will have to pay him a bunch of benjamins to get them ranked. Can anyone say…long-term client? LOL The second possibility… he doesn’t know what he is doing.
I didn’t really want to mention anything because I was concerned that if I stir the pot too much let me know want to do business with me. But, that was a risk I was willing to take because they deserve know the truth.
-Just like you deserve to KNOW the truth about real estate investing.
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The Truth about Real Estate Investing for Beginners
I think the main reason why real estate investing attracts people is because the idea of being your own boss is where it’s at.
Seriously, it rocks!
Like me, my schedule is something like this.
I wake up (when I want) come down stairs.
Put some coffee on and get a little something to eat, bacon, eggs, cereal… (whatever I want)
While I prepare the food, I listen to some inspirational videos on youtube and work on my mindset.
This way my day starts with Mindset Magic. :-)
I liked the one I heard yesterday from Denzel Washington (Dream without Ceilings). He said,
“Dreams without goals remain dreams, just dreams and ultimately, fuel disappointment. Dreams without goals…lifetime goals, yearly goals, monthly goals, hourly goals, minute by minute goals remain just dreams.
They ultimately fuel disappointment. Goals on the road to achievement cannot be achieved without discipline and consistency, understand?….between goals and achievement are discipline and consistency.
I pray that you put your shoes far under the bed at night, so that you have to get on your knees to get them. And while you are down there thank God for grace and mercy…”
Bring in the Kingpin (Be Boss) . That was always my dream. A friend of mine who owns a medical company told me that nowadays to be successful it takes a lot of cash.
…and this is the over sized problem. (Das Elephant) Most people don’t have a lot of $$cash. That is why these seminars with great slogans like “no money down” or “cash free real estate riches” strike it big with people that are a bit down on their luck. It gets ’em dreaming again.
The biggest dilemma is that the money that you fuel into these seminars could actually go to buying a property. In many cases according to my research people spend upwards of $20,000 in order to get themselves educated to play in the real estate game.
But like I’ve stated before, the problem is you really don’t master real estate until you’ve done a lot of it.
You can sit in the board room or classroom until the chickens start wearing chap stick, but the real life experience of owning a problem property or a real estate deal that doesn’t go as planned is the only way that you can really learn what you need to know in order to be successful in this industry.
A stroll down the aisle over at Barnes & Nobles shows a heck of a lot of books on how to make it big in real estate.
I have always been a bit cynical when it came to the books. I reasoned that if somebody were so damn successful in real estate, why would they give all of their secrets away? It’s a bit counter intuitive, don’t you think?
The reason I put this blog together a simple.
I wanted to show people a different way. Yes, I stand to make a couple of bucks if you decide you want to do it, but the reality is I feel like I’m saving you tens of thousands of dollars. It’s the same kind of money I wish someone would’ve saved me a few years ago.
Sadly, I didn’t come across my own blog that warned me of all of the huge surprises waiting on the other side of Bob Barkers door number three when I bought my first ridiculously reckless real estate course.
It just doesn’t work out as planned. Even when I listen to podcasts that are available to us out there now, there seems to be a theme that runs through it. When they interview someone that is relatively new to real estate, the newbies always talk about the fact that they have a situation on their hands that didn’t go as planned.
The most recent one I listen to for the biggerpockets review features three guys that were relatively new to real estate. One guy had a negative cash flow on his first property the second guy got kind of lucky on his first property and made about $30,000. However, when the host asked him if he could do one of these a month, he just laughed like… (Hardly). He admitted that he kind of got lucky. He was not hopeful he would be able to repeat it with consistency. Finally the third guy went out and bought a big apartment community. He said he wasn’t making money hand over fist, but it was OK.
Let me ask you a question. Would you have invested in the course that marketed these stories to you?
No, you want to invest in the course that promotes the story about a man who was the produce manager at your local grocery store who started doing some real estate investing on the side and made $3 million his first year.
Remember, these companies always market with the exception to the rule, not the rule.
After listening to all three stories, it didn’t make me want to rush out and drop a wad of cash on the next get rich in real estate deal that came my way.
I guess overall I am a bit negative about real estate investing. I’m not negative about it because it’s a bad investment. I am negative about it because of the marketing that goes out to people like you and me who don’t have a clue.
We get into a deal and we realize we are way over our heads. It doesn’t take much to throw us off of our game either.
We study all the books and then show up at somebody’s house and try to negotiate a no cash deal. They ask us the first question that we don’t know the answer to, and we run like scared school kids from a pedophile.
You might be all for it, but I am out.
I realize now that all of these real estate gurus are making tons of money. How? they make money selling their information. That’s what I’m into. Sell the information. The heck with real estate. What works better?
Sell the pickaxes, shovels, and pans for the mighty old gold rush. Don’t go looking for gold, just sell information on how to look for gold. That’s what the gurus are doing. That’s where the money is at. Likewise, the money is in Internet marketing. You just need the right mentors. The internet has 2 things going for it right now. 1. It’s not going away. 2. Local businesses need to get found because nobody calls 411 anymore or thumbs through the phone directory. Everybody just Googles it. Here’s the secret sauce.
Now, I will be the first to admit that there are tons of scam and bullshit courses online. Truth be told, I bought a bunch of them when I get started. They promised the latest, greatest with a click of the mouse.
My recommendation is that if you are looking into a course that seems too good to be true for making money online. It probably is.
You got a remember there is always work involved. There is no such thing as push a button and make money. So avoid those and keep in mind. Why would anyone sell you their “secrets” to making money online if they were making tons of money online? Truth is they won’t unless of course one thing were true.
What is that one thing? Well… there would have to be a huge supply of business and no way that any one person could ever and I mean ever service all of it. That is what James showed me.
So, with that said I’ve got to introduce my mentor to you. James literally saved my life.
I know that sounds like strong words, but they’re not hype. You see making money online requires that somebody take an interest in you. You need somebody that’s genuine that has already done it and that’s willing to show you the ropes and be there when you fall off the wagon.
That’s the kind of support you need when you’re starting out in Internet marketing. Really it has become so easy to do Internet marketing because there’s no programming involved anymore. I mean there are programmers but all they do is programming so people like me don’t have to.
For the things that I do I don’t have to learn how to do any code.
Everything is plug-and-play.
I’m not saying it is simple, but it’s pretty easy. James came up with a program that showed me step-by-step how to make it online. I follow everything to a T and have become successful.
As a matter of fact, as I mentioned, I advised a medical practice yesterday on how to build out their online initiative. They listened to me as I were the beautiful Urban Decay rep at Macy’s. It is so funny what happens once you know the secret. The truth is they have no concept. But once you know, you can charge some pretty big bucks for it. Think high powered attorney type stuff.
Now I don’t want to brag, so I’m just not going to go there. But let me just leave you with this thought. James is a seven-figure income earner in Internet marketing. When was the last time a millionaire gave you his personal information to you so you could have direct access?
I’d say not too many. The other thing that James has taught me is how to get my mindset right. I’m not talking about pie-in-the-sky mindsets either. I’m talking about a realistic “can do” “take action” mindset.
He has helped me so much in this area and has helped me to change the way I think. One of the biggest indicators of what type of money you make (as Dave Ramsey puts it) is what your five closest friends make.
Chances are you make about the same amount as all of your five closest friends. If you want to become a millionaire, you better get some millionaire friends. That is not to say that your friends aren’t great friends. My point is simply that you have to surround yourself with people that are doing it so you can adapt the mindset to know how to do it yourself.
Shout out to Dr. James.
