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Real Estate is Tough

published April 12, 2019

These days everyone wants to be a real estate investor. No problem. The only thing is that real estate is tough. It takes lots of education, hard work and dedication.

Really any job, hobby, or money making venture is going to be tough. Real Estate is no exception. Lets start with education.

Education

You need to know what is what in your area that you are going to focus on. If you are thinking about real estate, do you know what a deed is?? How about a deed of trust?? Who is the grantor and the grantee in a transaction?? What is the fair market value(FMV) of a property?? What is the after repair value(ARV)??

This is just one little area of real estate. There are also legal matters that come into play when dealing with people who are trying to sell Mom and Dads property who passed away. There are affadavits of heirship, wills, probate, letters testimentary and all kinds of other things that you will eventually need to know.

Your education is the foundation that you need to start your real estate career. Whether you are a realtor that sells properties to other people or you are an investor yourself, you need to have some of the basic knowledge to get going. I must say that you do not need to know everything to get started, but have a good grasp of the basics.

It can cost you lots of money and time if you dont have the knowledge in how to find a deal or to get the deal closed. You could even get sued if you do things wrong or unintentionally harm someone in your dealings.

Please seek out the knowledge whether it is from a mentor that you pay, from friends who are already in real estate or from a real estate school for realtors. Nowadays there are so many free online youtube videos that give out a bunch of information. Just be careful that the free stuff does not suck you into paying $1000s for the next better course to learn even more.

Hard Work

Everyone says that real estate is easy. I just bought a house and did a few repairs and made 60k in a few months. Buy a house every month and you are making over half a $$million$$ a year. Anybody can do this. I WISH IT WERE THAT EASY!!!

It does take plenty of hard work. You have to talk with lots and lots of people. Some are interested in selling and some want market price. They will tell you how great their property is and why you should buy it. Wrong way to go.

For about every 20 people that I talk with, I will buy 1 house. Since I talk with a bunch of people about their houses that translates into about a house a month. I have to literally talk with about 50 people to get to the 20 who might want to sell. Those 20 want to sell but for some reason or another are not at the point to where they need to sell.

They might want market price. If that is the case, I get my trusty real estate agent, Simon Arcos, to give them a call and see if he can help them. He usually can. If he can not help them, he will probably refer them to someone who can help.

After you talk with all these people, refer some, spend countless hours on the phone, you will get a deal. And that is only on the buying side of the equation. Once you buy the property, you have to rehab it.

Dealing with contractors is another whole headache in itself. You have to manage different contractors in the house at the same time, scheduling them can be a nightmare also. Picking out light fixtures, plumbing fixtures, door hardware, counter tops, flooring, etc. is very time consuming.

Then you have to make sure that everything is done right. Not only done right, but so that other people like your style and color choices.

Bottom line: Lots of hard work.

Dedication

As I mentioned you will talk with lots of people. That is plenty of hard work in itself. The truly had part is hearing how and why people got into bad situations. You might talk with people who are behind on their taxes for 4 or 5 years. You might meet someone who is 8 or 10 payments behind on their mortgage and is about to become homeless.

I have heard so many tough stories from people in my 15 years of being a real estate investor and let me tell you, real estate is tough. You really have to have the dedication to help people with their problems. People have problems in their life that cause them to make bad decisions. Those bad decisions cause all kinds of other issues in their life.

One of those bad decisions is the decision to do nothing.

 

There are countless reasons why someone might not want to sell. They may be too “Attached” to the property, they may owe too much in taxes and feel that they are not going to clear enough. They might have some siblings who want to sell while others DONT want to sell.

Sometimes the seller has a house that has been sitting for years without anyone living in it. They will not do anything to the house because they dont know what to do. Instead of doing something, they do nothing. These people are the ones that kill me. I ask them why they dont do anything. They usually say, “I dont know” or “The house has been in the family for years” or “I grew up in the house and I hate to sell it”.

I hate to see the people pay taxes for years and years on a vacant house only to neglect a home and then they can only get 30k for it instead of 100k if they would have had someone living there taking care of it.

Another situation that comes up often is one where parents have passed away and one of the children is living in the house, rent free, but can not pay the taxes. Taxes end up being $10,000 before long. The other siblings want to sell so that they can get something, but the one living for free will get kicked out of their free house.

Everyone feels bad for the one getting kicked out and ends up losing the house. Nobody gets anything AND the one in the house still gets kicked out. Now they have no house AND no money. At least all the siblings would have some money if they sold.

I really cant force you to “Care” or have dedication even though it is really needed in real estate. Also, I can not make you work hard. That has to come from within. Only you know that you have to work hard to succeed in any business that you are in.

What I can help you with is Education.

Education is important when you start on your real estate journey.

This is one of the reasons why I started writing this blog is to help educate people about real estate and all the ups and downs that it has. I take a bunch of calls every month from people who want to know a little more about this magic thing called real estate.

Seriously, there is no magic. All it takes is getting some knowledge, working hard and having dedication to helping people. I try to give of myself as much as possible and this is what makes me successful.

One thing that I do for people who are a little more serious about getting some foundational knowledge in real estate is that I teach a class. It is a class that I charge $499. It is an all day class and lunch is even included.

I teach the basics of transactions and even how to find deals. Since it is an all day class there is plenty of time to talk directly with me and get all kinds of questions answered.

The classes are 3 to 4 times a year. Classes are usually small so that we can talk on a more personal basis. They are to help the people who are serious about getting started in investing. If you are interested in taking the class, please go to the CLASS tab above and register online.

After taking the class, I have partnered with students on deals where we both made some good money. Like I said before, I can help you with the knowledge. If you can put in the hard work and dedication, you will be on your way to success in real estate.

I hope I can help you further your real estate investing career whether is be through this blog, my facebook posts, through partnering on a deal, by taking my class or a combination of all of the above. I love to partner on deals the most so call me up and let get a deal done!!

Again I have to tell you that real estate is tough. It is not something that you just do real quick and make a bunch of money. It is definitely NOT a get rich quick scheme. What it can do is give you some freedom in your life over time.