Is your first real estate investing deal just not happening yet?
I talk to dozens of up-and-coming REIs every week, and I’ve started to notice a pattern with many of them.
The pattern is this: Lots of new investors are getting stuck in that critical phase right before they land their first deal.
Common Reasons for Getting Stuck
For most of these REIs, it’s usually easy to diagnose why they’re stuck.
The most common reasons for getting stuck are:
- Lack of access to funding
- Looking for properties in the wrong places
- Gaps in their REI knowledge
For investors with any of those problems listed above, it’s equally easy for me to know how to help them. I either get them access to all the funding they’ll ever need, or I get them into one of my real estate coaching programs to help fill in those key knowledge gaps.
The Stumpers
BUT then there’s this whole other throng of stuck investors who (as far as I can tell) have everything they need to move forward but are just treading water instead.
I’ve racked my brain to discover the reason for this, and I can’t find any evidence that anything concrete is missing from the strategies of these REIs.
Right before I was about to give up on solving this one (of course), I had an idea. What if there is nothing missing from their strategies?
What if the missing piece is something on the mental level?
Are You Really Really Ready for Your First Deal?
All my instincts are telling me that REIs who find themselves in this position only need to make one small change, a change on the inside of themselves.
To talk about that change, I’m first going to share two common principles that people often use as advice.
#1 The Snake Cage Principle
You’ve probably heard that a snake will only grow to the size of its cage, right?
Well, it turns out that “fact” is a complete myth (I Googled it). I gladly bow to science about the myth-status of this common saying.
Myth or not, I still LOVE this analogy because of what it says. It says that you can only grow within the limitations that you set for yourself. Remove your limitations, and your potential for growth is infinite.
Personally, I’ve found this principle to be true in almost every area of my life.
Hold on to that for a sec while we move on to the second principle.
#2 The Half-Empty Closet Principle
Advice givers who dish out counsel for finding “that special someone” often suggest that you can cause that person to appear into your life simply by making room for that person in advance.
The most common application of this principle that I’ve heard is to empty out half of your closet, the idea being that you’ve made a tangible, symbolic act that proves you are ready to share your life with someone else.
This advice falls in the vein of that Field of Dreams, “If you build it, they will come,” or “Thoughts become things” kind of stuff. Take your pick.
As dorky as it sounds, I happen to know someone who did this half-empty closet thing and guess what . . . it actually worked. After years of unwanted single life, he emptied his closet and had a great gal practically fall out of the sky in a matter of weeks. (Now he has a whole new set of problems. Haha.).
. . . Moving on to how to how to apply these principles to your REI start-up.
If You Fund It, Your Deal Will Come
Funding is by far the number one obstacle that new REIs face to make their first deal happen. If you’ve read this blog before even once, you’ve probably heard me say that.
I believe that REIs unconsciously hold themselves back because they anticipate this obstacle on some level.
So here’s my idea: Why not remove that mental obstacle completely?
The DoHardMoney website makes it easy to get pre-qualified for a loan, even if you don’t have a property under contract yet and even if you haven’t yet found the property you want to get under contract. All of the questions on our pre-qualification form ask you about the kind of property that you want to get under contract.
If your investing goals match up with our lending requirements, we send you a customized, no obligation pre-qualification letter that you can save electronically and print out any time you want.
From there, you can move forward with your investment strategy knowing that you’ve already tackled the hardest part of the funding process, starting a conversation with a lender.
With a pre-qualification letter in hand, I’d bet money that the power of that one symbolic financial action you take is enough to pull you out of the stuck phase for good. To see how this all works, register for our next webinar.
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