The Psychology Of Real Estate Investing

In the 1980s, if you were going to go on a diet, magazines would tell you to ?think thin.? They never actually explained what that meant, but everyone knew they were supposed to do it. Adopt the psychology of the thin person, whatever that was. It follows that, in order to become rich, you should be able to accomplish that by adopting the psychology of the rich, right? Actually, it does. Specifically, you should adopt the mindset of the successful real estate investor.

Successful real estate investors are opportunists. They always have their antennae up and ready. They put themselves in the way of information. They ?live the life? of the real estate investor, so to speak. And because of all this, they notice things.

Ken McElroy, author of ?The ABCs of Real Estate Investing,? which is part of the Rich Dad series, says it’s all about patterns. If you look at enough properties, study enough areas, talk to enough people, he said, you will start to see these patterns. Then things will start to happen. You may start to seem lucky. And, McElroy says, it may be luck, but it is a sort of luck, that comes from being prepared.

Remember: ?Fortune favors the prepared mind.? Opportunity is all around us, but if we are blind to it, it will be as though it doesn’t exist. The prepared mind recognizes opportunity.

McElroy emphasizes over and over again that being successful in real estate is a process. It isn’t just something that happens one day, as in one day we’re suddenly successful. It is something that you do every day. Eventually things begin to happen for you.

Someone who is successful focuses on doing a little at a time, on learning this or that thing, or making this particular deal. It’s a ?walk before you can crawl? proposition.

For instance, McElroy says, if you have found a good deal, you can get funding for it because other people will want a piece of the action. It isn’t about negotiation skills necessarily, he said. Of course, those skills can get you an even better deal at times, but you shouldn’t fret over whether you are good at the negotiation table. Just look for good deals.

Although they are always evaluating risk, always aware of it, successful investors are not frightened away by it. They determine whether the risk seems reasonable. If the numbers add up, McElroy says, then it is a good deal. If it is a good deal, the savvy investor goes for it.

Simple.

People who don’t know how to properly evaluate risk may think everything is too risky. They assume, for instance, that a larger deal may be too risky for a beginner to deal with. They assume that because they think the investor is sinking a lot of personal cash into it when, in truth, a larger deal stands to make a larger sum for the participants. Therefore you may be able to get more backers for a deal like that. In the end, you may put up less personal money than you would have on a smaller deal.

Real estate investment is just like anything else you want to learn how to do. Well, for one thing, you have to learn how to do it. And you learn by doing. Get out there and look at properties. Visit cities as though you were intending to buy. Go online and read about areas. See what other people have to say about the real estate in a particular area. Get to know people. Before long, you will know enough to begin thinking about actually making a move. You don’t have to have a wad of cash in hand before you start playing the game. Just get out there and enjoy yourself. The rest will come.

About the Author:

Alex Anderson is a Minneapolis Realtor Specializing In Minnesota Investment Properties and Buying Investment Property

How A Real Estate Investing Club Can Help You Make Your Fortune

Being a member of a real estate investment club definitely has its perks.

Since most people do real estate investing individually, the opportunity to interact with peers doesn?t present itself very often. When you are a member of a real estate investment club, you are given the opportunity to network with people who have been involved with real estate investing for years.

Here are some tips for how you can benefit from being a member of a real estate investment club.

Whenever you attend a real estate investment club meeting you should keep in mind that these events are usually not for profit and under funded. You may notice that many of the speakers seem to be trying to sell you something.

Remember that speakers at the real estate investment club meetings aren?t getting paid to present. So the speaker uses the opportunity to sell his or her services. These services might be in the form of a video, mentoring, or a tape set. Learn to look beyond these sales tactics to hear what the presenter is trying to teach you.

Listen to what each speaker has to say, regardless of what he is trying to sell, and try to learn something from the speech.

Make sure to have respect for the time of the veterans that you meet in your real estate investment club. Often investing newcomers think they can simply take a veteran out to lunch in exchange for some tips to use in real estate investing. As a new investor, it is important to understand that few people give away valuable knowledge for free.

This is especially true of veteran real estate investors. Unless you are bringing some deals to the table, you shouldn?t expect for a veteran to just hand over education.

You should also keep in mind that these veterans have spent years of money and time taking courses and going to seminars to learn the real estate business. It is very unlikely that they will pass along this knowledge for steak and potatoes. This doesn?t mean that you can?t ask a veteran for advice, but that you should make it worth his while to teach you the tricks of the trade.

Use the real estate investment club to network and meet other people. When you go to meetings don?t sit alone in the corner then quietly duck out minutes before the meeting has ended. Use these real estate investment club meetings to your advantage.

Let the other club members know who you are and why you are there. If the club doesn?t have name tags, bring flyers. If flyers are against the rules bring business cards.

The most important thing is to make sure the other real estate investment club members know who you are and what you can bring to the table. This let?s them know that you are serious about real estate investing and, in turn, makes them more willing to help you.

If you have some experience or can help other members they will be more likely to help you.

One of the most important things you can do to benefit from the real estate investment club is to become a member. Of course you will need to pay a fee upfront, but the fee will seem like pennies compared to the benefits you will receive from being a member of the real estate investment club. In your real estate investment endeavors you will need many resources along the way, what better way to get the help you need than from your fellow real estate investment club members.

About the Author:

Claim a free e-book that will show you a system used to control $4.1million worth of real estate for just $22 - and you can follow this system to do the same. Comes with resale rights from: Free Real Estate Fortunes Ebook

How A Real Estate Investing Course Can Help You

Most people who want to be successful in real estate investing realize that some kind of education on the subject is necessary. This will help give more knowledge and improve your confidence.

Taking a real estate investing course is the best way to get the education you need to be successful in real estate investing. Of course, you can always learn through trial and error, but most people don?t have the time or money to waste in this method.

When you take a real estate investing course, you want to get as much as you can from it. How much you get out of the real estate investing course will determine your success in real estate investing. Ultimately, it will determine your life.

Before the start of the real estate investing course, you should read over all the materials for the course. This includes the syllabus and suggested readings. In most cases, the course instructors jump right in.

It will be important for you to be up to speed on all the real estate investing course pre-requisites so you have full understanding of what is going on in the course. If you fall behind early in the real estate investing course, you may never catch up.

Be sure that you purchase any textbooks or materials prior to the real estate investing course. Most students find that when they purchase these materials up front, they are better prepared for success in the real estate investing course.

It would be unfortunate to have the instructor focus on something from the textbook and you not have it. The best practice is to purchase all necessary materials before the course begins.

Use the real estate investing course as an opportunity to network with your classmates and even your instructor. You never know who can be a resource for you later in your investing endeavors. Even before that, these people can help you throughout the real estate investing course.

If there are areas of the course that you do not understand, your classmates and instructor are the best people to go to for help.

If you have homework as part of your course, make sure you do it as you go along. Procrastinating on the work only causes you to stress out later on. To keep yourself from feeling overwhelmed, you it is best to keep up with assignments as they are given to you. Not only does this help with your grade, it will also help in preparation for the exam.

Always prepare for exams at least a week in advance. This is true whether you are attending the real estate investing course in person or if you are taking it online. Preparing for the test ensures a better grade. Avoiding cramming as much as necessary. When you cram for an exam, you don?t retain the information as well as if you prepare well in advance.

Since real estate investing is a subject for which your retention of the subject really counts, preparation for exams should be a priority for you.

Some of the same techniques will work for you in a real estate investing course as those that worked for you in other courses. You should pay slightly more attention to the real estate investing course since it has such emphasis on your success in investing.

About the Author:

Did you know there are an estimated 8 million plots of unclaimed land and real estate in this country? Download a free ebook, that shows you how to claim your share here: http:Claim Free Land & Property Ebook

A Real Estate Investing Opportunity

Homes with extra lots may present a real estate investing opportunity. They may provide a way to reduce the cost of a rental home you want to buy, or just a way to make a profit buying and selling. Of course, this can be tricky if you don’t know the rules.

Typically when a city was platted, the residents proceeded to build a home on each lot. Of course, some built on two lots. This is why even in regularly spaced homes there will often be house or two that has a larger yard than the rest. If these homes, along with their garages and other out-buildings sit properly on one of the two lots - meaning they are set far enough from the lot line to comply with city regulations - the extra lot can be sold.

Usually, even if the property has been combined into one tax parcel, you can split off the other lot, get a new tax number for it and sell it. Why is this significant? Because the value of the home on one lot plus the value of the other lot sold separately is often much higher in total than the house will originally cost with both lots.

I first heard about this idea from a real estate agent who had done this in a small town in Northern Michigan. He had noticed that many homes in one area had two lots, but the houses were sitting squarely on just one of them. The lots in that area could be sold for $45,000, yet the homes with the extra lots only sold for about $20,000 more. People will only pay just so much extra for what appears to be just a large yard.

The obvious plan for an investor was to buy the home, sell the lot and then sell the home -which is what he did. Of course a big chunk of that potential $25,000 profit was eaten up by the transaction and holding costs. Ideally, then, you want to combine this strategy with a low offer so you get the home for a little under market as well.

There is another way to use this strategy. If you were looking for a rental home as an investment, and homes with extra lots are similarly under-valued in your area, take a look! You might pay $20,000 more, but if you sell the lot for $45,000 and have just $5,000 in costs associated with doing that, you net $20,000.

This might be tough if you financed the deal, but the bank may allow you to sell the lot if the proceeds are applied to the mortgage loan. In that case, you lowered your cost for that rental home by $20,000 when compared to other homes. Refinance, and that could be enough to turn a negative cash flow rental into a positive one.

Apart from being a real estate investing opportunity, you could do this when you buy your own home as well. If you really don’t want to mow a large lawn, buy a home with an extra lot and sell that lot. If you can get the seller to agree to selling it as two pieces of property, you could pay cash for the lot, and so be free to sell it without getting approval from your lender.

Mastering One Of The Hardest Parts Of Real Estate Investing - Getting The Great Deal

Real estate investing has become a very ?in? thing for most people to do because it makes so much sense. As a result of this demand, there are dozens of real estate books and courses for new and existing real estate investors to study.

Most of the real estate investing techniques do work well and many folks have been very, very successful executing real estate transactions practically every day. It is true that real estate investing is a wonderful opportunity where great success can be yours.

But just in case your incoming home seller leads for your real estate business are fewer than you?d prefer, don?t be discouraged and don?t blame yourself. You may just be a ?normal? real estate investor.

For one thing, you should be aware that you might be part of the current real estate investor ?herd?. That statement may sound a little strange but it?s meant to make you think about what may be going on around you.

For example, do you ever feel like you?re using the same prospecting strategies as other real estate investors, facing the same struggles as other real estate investors, and making the same limited progress as many other real estate investors?

Perhaps it?s because there are so many real estate investors trying to get ahead by ?getting the great deal? but ironically that same group of investors are using the exact same strategies to get that great deal.

Whenever you have a large group of people “into” a certain opportunity, like real estate investing, you must find an ?opposite? way to approach it.

In the beginning of my real estate investing career, I went from seminar to seminar, looking for that “magic formula” that was really going to increase my business. I learned a lot about the mechanics of real estate deals just like I learned a lot of theory in college. But I never really learned ?how? to get the deals to come to me.

To remedy this problem, I studied aggressive marketing and business strategies for about two years. As a result, one giant discovery that I made was the absolute need to separate myself from the real estate investor ?herd? in every possible way.

Meaning, eliminate the competition for deals between me and the other real estate investors around me. I did this easier than you may think just by changing my ?positioning?.

Your positioning involves what level of control you have on your incoming business, and that largely determines your success. For example, can you control how many deals come your way? Do you have people calling you or contacting you through your various lead generating ?funnels?? Do you have influence on this process or not? If you?re like a large percentage of investors, you?re probably always chasing down the deals instead of having the deals come to you.

When you have control of your lead generating process and it produces leads for you, you can then position yourself to take advantage of this new incoming business. If you don?t have your lead generating process doing this, make it your # 1 focus until it works for you. Then you?ll have the ability to go to step # 2 which involves choosing exactly what to do with all your leads.

There are many real estate investors who literally have their phones ringing off the hook with sellers calling them and then there are the ?investors? buying overpriced homes just because they?re not educated on how to get good leads. Which one do you want to be?

A Real Estate Investing Opportunity

Homes with extra lots may present a real estate investing opportunity. They may provide a way to reduce the cost of a rental home you want to buy, or just a way to make a profit buying and selling. Of course, this can be tricky if you don’t know the rules.

Typically when a city was platted, the residents proceeded to build a home on each lot. Of course, some built on two lots. This is why even in regularly spaced homes there will often be house or two that has a larger yard than the rest. If these homes, along with their garages and other out-buildings sit properly on one of the two lots - meaning they are set far enough from the lot line to comply with city regulations - the extra lot can be sold.

Usually, even if the property has been combined into one tax parcel, you can split off the other lot, get a new tax number for it and sell it. Why is this significant? Because the value of the home on one lot plus the value of the other lot sold separately is often much higher in total than the house will originally cost with both lots.

I first heard about this idea from a real estate agent who had done this in a small town in Northern Michigan. He had noticed that many homes in one area had two lots, but the houses were sitting squarely on just one of them. The lots in that area could be sold for $45,000, yet the homes with the extra lots only sold for about $20,000 more. People will only pay just so much extra for what appears to be just a large yard.

The obvious plan for an investor was to buy the home, sell the lot and then sell the home -which is what he did. Of course a big chunk of that potential $25,000 profit was eaten up by the transaction and holding costs. Ideally, then, you want to combine this strategy with a low offer so you get the home for a little under market as well.

There is another way to use this strategy. If you were looking for a rental home as an investment, and homes with extra lots are similarly under-valued in your area, take a look! You might pay $20,000 more, but if you sell the lot for $45,000 and have just $5,000 in costs associated with doing that, you net $20,000.

This might be tough if you financed the deal, but the bank may allow you to sell the lot if the proceeds are applied to the mortgage loan. In that case, you lowered your cost for that rental home by $20,000 when compared to other homes. Refinance, and that could be enough to turn a negative cash flow rental into a positive one.

Apart from being a real estate investing opportunity, you could do this when you buy your own home as well. If you really don’t want to mow a large lawn, buy a home with an extra lot and sell that lot. If you can get the seller to agree to selling it as two pieces of property, you could pay cash for the lot, and so be free to sell it without getting approval from your lender.

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