Entries from July 2008 ↓

There are 26 different reasons I can give you to as to why real estate investing is the IDEAL business for you. In fact, the word “ideal” is actually an acronym for the top 5 reasons why real estate investing is an excellent way to create ultimate wealth and freedom – unfortunately, I can’t claim that I came up with the acronym because I heard this from another great real estate investor, but it’s so good, I want to share it with you.

I – Income: You can earn a full time corporate salary in just one or two deals.
Interestingly enough, I learned this powerful principle when I did my first deal…all told I spent less than six hours looking for an investment property, contracting and closing on it, and had an immediate equity position that rivaled more than half of my corporate salary.   The message was clear; I was going to be investing in real estate full time no matter what it took.

D – Deductions: This is the only business in the U.S. and Canada that affords you to take advantage of the highest business deductions, personal deductions, and real property tax breaks and deductions available by either government.
Just imagine…you live a nearly tax free life (completely legit!).

E – Equity: Build $ value into the assets that you own, and take advantage of time value of money.

A – Appreciation: Law of Supply & Demand.  With the world population doubling in the next half-century, and no more real estate being made (except in Dubai), price (demand) will outstrip supply.
Regardless of how things may look in your market, today, over the long term, real estate always goes up in value.

L – Leverage: This is the secret that the Wealthy use.  If you’re a real estate investing syndicator, applying leverage in all scenarios (OPM, OPK, OPR, OPT) is what it’s all about.

There’s a poster on the wall at McDonald’s headquarters in Illinois which outlines their corporate mandate, “We Sell Hamburgers To Buy Real Estate”.

Since before the invention of the bread slicer, real estate has always been around…and unless you live in Dubai, they aren’t making anymore of it.  With the earth’s population expected to double in the next half-century, real estate is going to be at a premium.

What’s great about real estate is it’s one of the Essential Items for Survival:

1.    Water
2.    Food
3.    Clothing
4.    Shelter (e.g. real estate)

Which means, everyone needs a piece of real estate to live in, work in, shop in, be entertained in.  It’s diverse in its application to the individual: be it a home to reside in and utilize as a primary investment, or where people can learn how to build a real estate business altogether.

Moreover, it’s a fact that real estate has been the investment vehicle that has created more wealth than any other financial instrument in the history of humankind.  In the United States alone real estate accounts for enabling the largest political action committee and lobby group to exist – the National Association of Realtors (NAR).  NAR’s one million plus strong membership of Realtor’s nationwide aim to represent the buying and selling real estate needs of residential homeowners, investor buyers, real estate developers, and commercial property syndicates throughout America.

From my corporate background, I recognized there were 6 Pillars of Successful Businesses that all had to be in place in order for someone to succeed.  They are:

1)    Vision & Planning
2)    Specialized Knowledge
3)    Applied Strategy
4)    Mentorship & Advisors
5)    Strategic Partners
6)    Systems & Processes

I’m sure this looks daunting to you, yet if you chunk down these 6 Pillars into bite-sized chunks, within two weeks you’ll have the strategic elements in place to go out and dominate in your marketplace.  Because in order to build a real estate business that succeeds, and scales exponentially, these elements are critical and imperative to helping you generate a 6 figure bank account and realizing 7 figure gains in as little as 7 months, part time.

It’s not exactly easy learning how to build a real estate business, but the rewards can be tremendous.  Life changing.  Wealth altering.   One of the common problems faced by entrepreneurs looking to build a real estate business is figuring out the “how”…perhaps it’s more better described in terms of “how” do you do it, followed up by “what” do you do to build a real estate business.

In that regard, there’s a few relatively simple steps to follow that first starts out with a question.   Precisely “WHY” do you want to learn how to build a real estate business?

If you come up empty-handed – or worse still, say you just want to get rich quick – then go elsewhere…because the reality is that if you don’t know why, you don’t have enough “chutzpah” to cut it whenever a challenge arises.   These types of people when faced with a potential obstacle get easily frustrated, then cut bait and run.

So how to build a real estate business that dominates and crushes your competition?  It first begins with an understanding of what is a real estate investor, and what investing in real estate really means.

Since there’s no dictionary definition for this one, I’ll give you my interpretation.  A Real Estate Investor essentially is a problem solver.  This is an individual – or group of individuals – seeking to solve the real estate needs of others, in a courteous, respectable, and enlightened manner.  As a result of successfully solving the issues at hand, the real estate investor profits both within their heart and with their wallet.

Now we’re well beyond your Power Team in terms of additional hard and soft resources you’ll require.  For example, do you have an investment advisor or real estate mentor to guide you through the growth of your business?  Do you need websites and marketing systems to promote your business?

How much money do you expect to generate in the next three months?  What do you need to generate a 6 figure bank account and 7 figure real estate gains within 7 months?   This final section of your real estate investing business plan shows your existing resource constraints, and profit targets – both short and long term – and how you arrived at these conclusions.