A Reflection On What I Would Have Done Differently
Getting started in real estate investing can be hard, especially if you don’t know what you’re doing or have someone to show you the ropes. When I got started, I made a lot of people angry by making low ball, all-cash offers. I quickly realized that if you don’t know the numbers on a deal and you make an offer on it, you’re a fool. Throwing dollars at deals doesn’t guarantee you’ll make money.
People want to buy based on price but that’s a surefire way to a bad deal. You have to get face time with every seller and ask them the important questions about their property. You can do much better making creative offers to sellers that help them get what they want instead of just offering cash.
Not everybody has someone behind them that is willing to lend as much money as they need to make a deal happen, and it can actually make your deals worse. Solving the seller’s problems is a much better approach. You can make a lot more money by leveraging what you have and figuring out terms that work for both parties.
I see things totally different today. When you talk to a seller, learn what the seller wants and try to come up with several solutions to those problems. Always make an offer and don’t let the broker get in your way. Even for sellers that want all cash, there are strategies you can use where you don’t have to put the cash up front like writing a note for the property. There are creative ways to get a deal done that make everybody happy, you just have to think outside the traditional box.
Don’t make the mistakes I made, make your own mistakes. Even better, learn from the mistakes of others so you don’t have to learn things the hard way.
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