I am often asked what is the secret to success in real estate investing? What do I need to do?
Then the questions get more specific…how do I find a great property? How do I find a good agent that understands investors? How do I find a Private Lender? How do I find great contractors?
Don’t shoot me for this. The answer is incredibly simple, yet very powerful.
The secret idea to solve all of these questions is: “activity”.
Now before you get mad and say to yourself that this article is waste of time…hear me out.
Granted, maybe this wasn’t necessarily a “secret”, but it really is what makes a difference.
So often we look for the home run…what is the one thing that I can do that will bring ultimate success. The truth is there is NO ONE THING to do. It is the blend of continuous activity…small little steps that make the difference.
There is no one place to locate properties. There is no one place to find a great Realtor. There is no one great place to find a true Private Lender.
All of these are a result of the linking of activities. For instance, and this is what made me think to write this article…
I recently went out to see a house. The lead came from a Flyer I had out in a pak-n’ship store (who would have thought a dinky unsophisticated flyer would get me a lead?
As I was driving the neighborhood after visiting the house, I saw a run-down house for sale. I took a picture of the sign and called when I got home.
The house was over-priced for my needs, but the Realtor specializes in working with investors and immediately sent me some houses – one of which it looks like we’ll buy.
Where does the Private Money come from? Well the lender I’ll use actually came to me, BECAUSE she heard me talking about real estate investing, wanted to learn more, then said how about if I just let you use my money!
How did we find our contractors? Literally by asking in hardware stores (the smaller ones); chasing down work trucks with signs; talking to contractors we notice eating at a restaurant. And with each, we also ask if they know of any other great trades people. And they usually do.
The point here is that there is no ONE thing you can do. No ONE place you can go. You just have to have continuous activity. Some will say that everything that I described in this article happened by luck. I say, it happened because I was active.
You decide.
Expect abundance,
Lou Castillo
