I see it every day: budding entrepreneurs who have the EDUCATION to get going and (at least say they have) the MOTIVATION to get going but don't do anything today, tomorrow, or the next day that's likely to GET them going. It's a brain lock that we ALL get about certain things at a particular time, and it's about the fact that creating an entire real estate business from scratch is just too overwhelming to deal with.

     I ran across this article that I want you to read if I just described YOU...I think if you follow the advice here, you can get over that hump and on to the job of getting successful, one day at a time.

     It's called "How to Actually Execute Your To-Do List, or Why Writing it Down Doesn't Get it Done." http://zenhabits.net/how-to-actually-execute-your-to-do-list-or-why-writing-it-down-doesnt-actually-get-it-done/

     What do you think? How do you motivate yourself to do boring, difficult, overwhelming, unpleasant things?

One of the critical questions that beginning  and intermediate-level real estate entrepreneurs struggle with is, “How do I know when it’s the right time to hire help?”

I’m not talking about VA-type help here; your lowest-level administrative work (sorting lists, looking up names in the public record, etc.) and your high-skill but non-real estate work (designing logos, creating websites) can be quickly, easily, and above all CHEAPLY farmed out to VAs practically as soon as you understand what that “work” is.

I’m talking about “inside team”—people who work with you on a day-to-day basis, who understand your business more deeply than an outside team member like a VA, who may, by necessity, be ACTUAL rather than VIRTUAL employees.

THIS decision—bringing actual “staff aboard” is always challenging. It seems as if the point at which your business grows to where it’s difficult (or impossible) for you to keep up with the day-to-day activities does NOT usually coincide with the availability of a ton of extra income to pay an employee.

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Do you ever get confused by how one self-proclaimed expert can swear up and down that the best, or even ONLY, way to do a certain strategy is to [fill in opinion here], while another guru, who seems just as successful and passionate, says that the truth is just the opposite?

I did, too, back when I was just getting started and thought that there must be an exact right way to do any given thing in real estate.

But as it turns out, with wisdom and experience comes the realization that they’re all right and all wrong.

Because the TRUTH is, we often become convinced that certain things work and don’t work because we already believed that it would or wouldn’t work, and that becomes a limiting thought that actually predicts the outcome.

In other words, the guy who swears up and down that his experience is that you MUST tell sellers that you can do ‘X,’ or they won’t accept your offer, is telling the absolute truth. HIS EXPERIENCE is that sellers won’t accept an offer without ‘X’ because he believes that they won’t, and thus they never do.

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Ya'll do realize the irony of asking the question, “I know you’re in a hurry, but is there any quick advice you can give me about how to get started?”, right?

Because I get asked some version of that question at least 100 times a year, always by a newer investor hoping that there's some wisdom I can drop on them in the time it takes to get from the elevator to my car when I'm running from one event to another. Wisdom, preferably, that will make their entry into the business rapid, painless, and above all profitable.

The irony is that there IS no single answer to the question, "How do I get started?".

In order to properly get into that topic, I'd need to know about you: your goals, resources, preferences, exit strategies, needs, wants, and and and...and in no circumstance would that be "quick" advice.

If there were such a thing as "quick" advice, there would be no need for coaching programs like Express Success. Or, for that matter, for workshops, REIA groups, or any of the other support systems to which we are all so devoted.

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You and I both know that you aren’t gonna be reading and digesting a long business article at this time of year, so we’ll keep it light this week.

Don’t ask me why, but I have, over the years, accumulated an enormous amount of real estate poetry. The muse usually strikes me around Christmas time, which explains the “Night Before Christmas Meets Dr. Seuss” nature of a lot of this. Anyway, it amuses me—hopefully, it will give you a little smile, too.

Ode to Holyoke Lane by Vena Jones-Cox

‘Tis the night before Christmas

And I bring a tale

Of five hard-learned lessons

From one little sale.

It’s a story of heartache,

Of trouble, of loss,

Of hassle and torment

And headache and cost

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When I was 2 or 3 years old, my mother took me on trips to the library almost every week. While she checked out the latest mystery novels, I always went to the same shelf in the children’s section and pulled down the same worn, tea-colored book called “I Can’t, Said the Ant.” I must have made my mom check that book out 50 times. I had every word memorized, every illustration emblazoned on my brain, and every character befriended in my daydreams.

In case you missed out on this epic, the basic plot is that a teapot falls off the counter and breaks its spout, and if it isn’t put back up, it will die some horrible teapot death. All of the denizens of the kitchen—from the dinner bell to the pie to the pot—beg the (oddly, single) ant in the kitchen to get the teapot back to the counter and repair the broken spout.

Much rhyming ensues (“I can’t bear it, said the carrot” is one that still sticks with me), and ultimately, the ant, who initially, as you might guess from the title, doesn’t see how he can manage it, rounds up a work crew of insects and rescues the unlucky teapot from the floor. Read More...

There’s an old piece of advice generally given to husbands regarding arguing with their wives that goes, “Do you want to be right, or do you want to be happy?”.

And the longer I’m in the wholesaling business, the more I realize that nearly the same advice applies to negotiating with sellers—only it’s, “Do you want to be right, or do you want to get the deal?”

Don’t get me wrong: I have more than my fair share of gotta-be-right-ness. In my younger days, I often found myself debating with sellers about the “facts”—how much their house would sell for fixed up, how much their neighbor’s house sold for last week, what it would really cost to re-do the roof and gutters, and on and on.

Back in those days, I think I had some of the same psychology I see in you folks when you say to me, “I’m afraid to talk to sellers because I’m afraid they’ll be able to tell that I don’t know what I’m doing, and I’ll lose all credibility.”

This assumption that sellers sell to you because you’re intelligent, experienced, or a bigger expert than they are about houses in their neighborhood is just dead wrong.

Sellers sell to you (at the crazy prices and terms that you offer) because

1. Your offer solves wha
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          The thing is, there’s a major question that most people never deal with because it’s not as fun or inspiring as thinking about goals. Yet, unless it’s resolved, it will continue to be nearly impossible for you to reach any of those great goals you’ve set for yourself. And the question is:

          Are there any “messes” that need to be cleaned up before you can really be effective in your real estate endeavors?

          Most of us have one or more of these: they’re like walls that we have to scale every time we try to do anything else. Often, they’re so overwhelming that we have a hard time even looking closely at them, but they’re always at the edges of our consciousness, distracting us, making us feel hopeless and helpless, and making it very difficult to move forward. Examples might include:

• Bad books that keep us from understanding what we’re really making on deals, from balancing our accounts, from filing taxes on time, and so on
• Loans that are about to balloon or have already ballooned, and we have no exit strategy from that loan
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         …is in the 5” or so between your ears.

        For real, people, if you want to know the difference between the people around you who are “killing it” in wholesaling or retailing or notes or income properties or, heck, pig farming or app development or whatever and those who have the same access to the same education and the same resources but never make any money, it all lies there.

        After 30 years of hanging around real estate associations as a newbie, board member, experienced investor, and coach and educator, I’ve watched thousands of people come and go. Some meet every goal they set out to complete.

        Most don’t.

        And they don’t because they believe that if they learn what to do, then all they have to do is do those things, and riches/security/freedom will follow.

        That would be 100% correct if not for, you know…LIFE. Life has a way of getting in your way. Whether your goal is building wealth, losing 40 pounds, or learning to
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         …is in the 5” or so between your ears.

        For real, people, if you want to know the difference between the people around you who are “killing it” in wholesaling or retailing or notes or income properties or, heck, pig farming or app development or whatever and those who have the same access to the same education and the same resources but never make any money, it all lies there.

        After 30 years of hanging around real estate associations as a newbie, board member, experienced investor, and coach and educator, I’ve watched thousands of people come and go. Some meet every goal they set out to complete.

        Most don’t.

        And they don’t because they believe that if they learn what to do, then all they have to do is do those things, and riches/security/freedom will follow.

        That would be 100% correct if not for, you know…LIFE. Life has a way of getting in your way. Whether your goal is building wealth, losing 40 pounds, or learning to
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