What had to done to prepare or what qualifications did you have?
How long had you been learning about LO’s/REI?
Did you have a degree?
How old were you?
Just curious about this
I screwed around, telling myself and everyone I was preparing and studying, when in fact I was stalling due to fear. Finally decided t change things and worked with a guy who was already successful doing what I wanted to do. He took me from “studying” to actually doing deals. That was my break in this biz.
I’m not sure about anyone else, but for me, I really didn’t start actually doing deals until I was 32. Before this, I had lots of head knowledge, several years experience with hands-on property management, but not enough real practical knowledge to feel comfortable negotiating for deals, or actually buying property.
What I later, finally discovered, was that the knowledge of what actually to do, came after I started taking action. That is, the road became clear as I started walking. Before this time, I was waiting for the fog to clear, before I felt I could continue. The fog never really completely cleared before going into new territory for me.
It’s like reading about riding bicycles. We can learn about balancing, and rolling the bike forward to get momentum, leaning with the bike on turns, etc., but until we get on the thing and start pumping the pedals, we won’t actually “know” how to ride a bike.
So, it took me until I was 32 to buy my first house. The first purchase was exciting, but nerve racking. After that, each one became easier. However, I made lots of amateurish mistakes at the get-go. But I wouldn’t trade those mistakes for sitting safely on the sidelines for anything.
My mom was the one that really encouraged me to get into real estate. In fact she bought me several expensive RE courses, which I will be forever grateful for. She sowed some seed in me, that took a while to produce a harvest, but I was good soil.
Most times it’s a waste to buy real estate courses for someone else. It can be as welcome as an enema, if it’s not the recipient’s idea. However, I devoured those courses like I hadn’t eaten in weeks and was later able to negotiate my first income property successfully, because of what I learned in those courses. Each one had a nugget to offer. The most inspiring and helpful to me was Barney Zick.
I bought my first apartment building using a yellow note pad and a blue pen. I sat down with the seller, and asked for seller financing. He agreed. He wanted more than I had for a down payment, but I had faith I could find it. We negotiated the remaining terms on top of a picnic table in an outdoor market. After that we went to look at the property. To my delight the building was the nicest one on the block and by far the cheapest one I’m sure anyone had negotiated on that block since 1965. The terms were terrible, but the price made up for them.
Since then, I’ve learned that the more expensive a property is, the more people want to help you get the deal done…
Anyhoo, to answer the question, I learned it’s better to put your ego on hold, don’t get married to any one deal, there’s always another deal coming down the tracks, maintain a friendly persona, listen, look for solutions, don’t be afraid to ask for what you want, give the sellers what they need, and you take the rest.
:beer
Ha…you know any real estate post that has the word “enema” is going to be good!! HA!
I think that’s a good post though.
When people ask me about lease options, I tell them the MOST important thing with any venture is action. do something.
I think what prevents people from accomplishing things, whether it’s in real estate, or a business idea, or a dream they have, is they approach it from the perspective of designing and building the freeway, rather than from the perspective of the road trip. That’s what it is after all. When engineers design and build a freeway, they spend months studying and studying and designing and recalculating things as detailed as how much concrete to use on a bridge. That’s not how you start a business. A Business is the road TRIP. You know where you are starting from, and where you want to go, so you make some plans, and set out. There’s going to be road closures, traffic, potty breaks, flat tires, but if you keep asking yourself “what if this…” “what if that…” then you’ll never start out on the trip.
Janipa said “don’t get married to any one deal,” and that really struck home with me,my brother now sees how well real estate can work (I’m doing rentals) and wants to get into real estate, however there is a townhouse down the street from him, I wouldn’t touch it, but he has to offer the seller 30% below list, and of course get his offer rejected,now he thinks if he waits the seller will come down,while he is doing that much better deals are all around.
and again as he said,action,knowledge without action isn’t worth anything
javipa,
I give you the quote award of the week for:
THE ROAD BECAME CLEAR AS I STARTED WALKING.
Nice.
Furnishedowner
Thanks! Glad you liked it…
I just had lunch with an investor last Thursday that told me he had a March 1 deadline to buy an apartment building (have one under contract).
That is/was five weeks away! Talk about walking into the fog …on purpose! I’ve never seen anyone with less experience, with more clarity, if not more ambition in my life. Frankly, it’s fun to watch him move forward.
He asked for my help, after buying me ribs, and so I recommended that he start by immediately gathering operating data sheets to analyze. I told him that he would need to deeply analyze at least 50 operating statements just to get acquainted with the process. I gave him a hard copy of my analyzing scratch sheet.
He’s studied 30 data sheets as of yesterday, but has 20 more to go through. Then we start getting serious… I mention this, because he is walking down a road he’s never been down before. The fog is clearing as he plows through data sheets.
Meantime, he created a deadline for himself back in December 2009, and publicly declared his goal and commitment to his family. So, naturally he waited until a month before the deadline to start looking!
:banghead :biggrin
Normally, this would be so crazy to get involved with, that I would “get out of his way,” as you’ll understand in a second.
I was advised by a seasoned real estate investing veteran 25 years ago, that people will do two things when we commit to a goal; they’ll either help us, or get out of the way. I guess I’m in the “help us” category right now…
:help