I been studying REI 2yrs yada yada, tried looking for properties and doing the biz a year ago.... failed...willing to try again, I not yet come close in meeting with a seller, I look young for my age i`m 23 I look 17 or most people think at first time meeting, my question is how do i handle sellers from thinking I`m a joke or maybe look in experience, because I look so young, the investing i will be doing is flipping, sub2, L/O, wholesale.
First issue: the investing i will be doing is flipping, sub2, L/O, wholesale If that’s the way that you started the first time, then it’s probably also a good reason why it failed. Pick one and learn it. You cannot have a good business plan if you don’t know what you’re planning on doing with the properties that you acquire.
Second issue: The main way to handle sellers first impression of you is to create a good one. Sure, if you’re talking with a 50+ year old, then your youthful appearance may make them uneasy, but if you are confident about what you’re doing, then your “experience” will show. Also, as you develop your business, you can also have a “doc book” that backs you up. A Doc Book is simply a log book of the deals that you’ve closed, and testimonial letters from your buyers and sellers saying how good you are, how much you helped them, etc. etc.
Of course, you could always grow a beard!!
Third issue: reflect on why you failed the first time. What did you do? What did you NOT do? In short, what do you think caused the first failure and how can you change it so it won’t cause a second failure.
Raj
FLc83,
First off I feel your pain of looking to young to take serious. Although I am young and was a teen when I became a Realtor (r). I began to realize that if I dressed like a “professional” or “successful” it was a little bit easier for people to get past my age.
Thanks alot for giving me some idea`s on how to handle the young apperance, but one of the reasons why i failed at the time was I was a bashful person very shy back in high school, Real Estate Investing is a people business so I had to work on that alot and the fact Real Estate Investing was new to me. I was even bashful to talk on the phone to sellers when my phone rang i didn`t know what to say and sounded nervous, and didnt know what a good deal was either, but you learn thru trial and error.
Confidence and a professional apperance goes a very long way. If you portray doubt that you realize you are young and that sellers are not going to overlook that, or not take you seriously they won’t. Have self confidence that you belong. In a business like this shyness and a adolescent apperance won’t lead to much success.