Learn by Doing, 6 exercises to learn real estate fast!!

It is easy to read or listen to theory and understand. But knowledge is internalized by applying. The best way to learn is by doing. Here are 6 exercises that are a must for beginner real estate investors to gain the hands on knowledge they need to be successful in real estate the fastest. Investors of all kinds can benefit from these exercises.

  1. Buy Right – Buy something on craigslist for 50% of its value. Find a motivated seller, negotiate down and play the numbers game until you find that diamond in the rough. This is exactly how you need to buy investment real estate.
  2. Sell Right – Sell something on craigslist for more than its value, fast. Write a great ad, with good pictures, invoke a response, create competition and bid up the price for a fast sale. Do not sell until you get over your asking price and negotiate so they come pick it up fast. This is exactly how you need to sell property, get people emotional and fighting for it.
  3. Automate your marketing plan – Get lists of motivated sellers such as foreclosure/default, probate, absentee owners, expired listings, etc. If you can’t find these take to your real estate club members, local investors, agents, title, escrow, county recorder’s office, etc. Create a postcard with Problem-Agitate-Solution message on click2mail or another service. Automate your plan to get motivated seller to contact you.
  4. Tasks, Teams and Systems – Write down every task needed for you to be successful in your business. Next to each one, put a Yes or No on whether you absolutely 100% positively have to do this task yourself. If you do not have around 80% NOs, be more entrepreneurial and go back through and figure out how to delegate more tasks. Delegate these tasks to team members, good team members. Sometimes in business team members do not perform so make sure you have backups and can replace them. Create systems to automate and make your business effective and efficient.
  5. Create a Business Plan – Focus on one strategy and become a master. Document a business plan. This is crucial for your success as not having a plan is planning to fail.
  6. Network – Create an elevator speech and go to networking meetings. Invoke curiousity and get them salivating over more info on what you do. Raise private money and create strong win-win relationships at these meetings.

M

Great stuff. I really love what you said regarding:
Stick to one strategy and become a master.

That’s a big problem for newbie investors. They go from guru to guru, course to course - know a ton of strategies a 1000 ways to WOK your dog etc, but when it’s all said and done- when asked how many deals they have done- they say I’m still working on it, still taking classes, and researching.

Here’s the deal: Being successful in this biz is not about who has taken the most classes. It’s in the application.

It’s who is willing to step outside of their comfort zone and make it happen. Make a fool out of themselves in order to learn what really works in the real world.

It takes guts to make an offer and get turned down. It takes guts to call someone on the phone and ask them why their house is vacant and ugly and if you can buy it from them.

But it’s the folks that are willing to go through this baptism by fire that separate themselves from career REI students.

Dennis

You said it perfectly Dennis. They say that 4% of people actually apply what they learn from seminars and all the learning they do for years. I not only notice this, but that was me for a couple years until I started my baptism by fire. All education could use hands on exercises of the material where they learn by applying. I am writing articles on my blog on all of these exercises and I am getting really good feedback. Most of all, I am excited to see how others did with the exercise as it will be extremely rewarding when it helps. Thanks for the comment!

thanks Ryan,

great info…simple and right to the point, real effective.

I especially agree with the ‘creating urgency’ when selling & the elevator speech…those are both a must have.

Thanks Michael, glad the exercises are helpful.