Hit the Jackpot, Strike it Rich in Real Estate, and Quit Your Job
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Are you ready to begin investing? Or, are you already investing some, and want to expand your holdings? Or, are you
investing a lot, but want to streamline your operation?
Let’s really hit the jackpot, strike it rich, and quit that day job!!!
As one of my professors use to say, "Let’s commence, to begin, to start, to get ready, to GO."
Do you bet on the lottery?
I am amazed at how many people throw their money away buying lottery tickets with such slim chances at winning!
At the start of 2004, Tennessee cranked up its new state lottery. The news media fanfare went on for months. Tennessee hired the lottery director from Louisiana to set up the state’s system, and this aired every night on the news. Finally, the kickoff. Within just weeks, the announcements aired that Tennessee had taken in $50 million in lottery sales, and then $100 million in lottery sales. Newscasters quietly mentioned that a whopping $50,000 had been paid out already in winnings. Wow! $50,000 in winnings compared to $50 million in ticket sales. What a windfall. (For the lottery, that is) Then came the subdued mention of some store owners shutting down their recently-opened outlets out of conscience at seeing their regular customers buy so many tickets who did not even have enough money to buy groceries. And all this ballyhoo was presented under the guise of lottery money to subsidize college scholarships.
Isn’t it great for kids to get a good education, and isn’t it greater that I can buy a lottery ticket - not to pay for my own kids?education - but to help other folks?kids get their education!
And in the meantime, I might strike it rich!!!
Come on. (Where is common sense logic?)
Fishing tales
I had some fishermen friends several years ago that liked to boast about how much money they spent every year on
lottery tickets in another state. When I pinned them down to their actual winnings, they admitted they spent over
$10,000 a year buying tickets, and they claimed they always made more in winnings than they spent for tickets.
Funny thing, however, they couldn’t show me a tally of their win-loss record!
If you are a gambler who wants to make it big in some game of chance, you need to visit Vegas instead of reading
this article.
But if you really want to win the big stakes without taking the big risks, real estate is a great game of chance!
Oh yeah, I’m a gambler, too, but I like REAL chances at winning. I want the stats on my side.
Twenty-five years ago I made one of the biggest gambles of my life by starting out with nothing and trying
to hit the jackpot in real estate. It was a gigantic gamble because I had no cash and no credit. I was able to scrape together a $10 bill and a real estate contract, and I started shooting craps.
No, people didn’t like my offers. Most threw the contracts back in my face. Success did not come easily. I was often
very discouraged and frustrated. I actually did not know at that time of anyone ever who had started investing with a
$10 bill, and I have never heard of anyone since (except those who use my investing package that explains how I did it).
But I never threw in the towel. And within a year, I had somehow bought almost one million dollars in rental properties!
That’s a gamble that paid off.
I like that kind of gamble.
Gamble when the odds are in your favor
But I could have lost everything if I had not managed it right.
That’s why I really believe in getting an education in real estate before getting started. If you make a wrong move in
buying, managing or selling your property, you can lose everything, and your efforts are flushed down the toilet. On the
other hand, if you have what I call know-how savvy, you can weather almost any of the financial storms which will
inevitably brew around your venture.
The critical essentials
Here are some of the critical essentials to make this gamble pay off.
Solid overview
1.You’ve got to have a solid overview of the business.
You just can’t go out and start making offers - even if you have some money. I guarantee you’ll lose your money if this is your approach.
Don’t think that fixing up houses is a piece of cake. You’ve got to know what you’re doing.
Good Contract
2.You’ve got to have a good contract.
Picking up a crinkled ole contract from your friendly real estate agent won’t cut it. Most contracts are NOT written to give you the slight edge.
Yes, I have taken home thousands and thousands of dollars from closings - up to $75,000 from my best closing on just a cheap little house - but the reward for using good contracts involves even more than walking out of a closing with a fistful of bills. You can get your seller to take care of some or all of your closing costs if you have a good contract. And you can avoid some of your usual part of the closing costs as a buyer if you have a good contract. But don’t try buying a cheap or expensive house without a good BUYER’S contract.
Good working model
3.You’ve gotta have a good working model as a pattern for your fix-up project.
If you have never tackled the job of remodeling or even fixing up a house, you don’t have any idea what needs to be done and what should NOT be done.
Let me tell you, you will be tempted to spend far more than necessary if you want the perfect house to sell. I know, because my wife is always suggesting what we need to do to our houses. Sometimes she is right, but often she wants to dress up a house with items that do not bring return on investment. It’s a very thin line of distinction.
Your analysis should establish a fix-up formula.
Let’s face it. You can spend a bank full of money in fixing up a cheap little house. And it’s easy to over-spend with money you will never get back. But, on the other hand, if you don’t spend the right money on the right things, no one will buy your house. The margin of difference is close.
The hat of a salesman
4.You have got to put on the hat of salesman when you get into this business.
Your remodeled house will not sell itself. You have to polish to a spit-shine, and make the finished appearance of your house come off as the most desirable house in the neighborhood.
Don’t fix up a cheap little house if you are unwilling to show it and sell it. You will lose a big chunk of your profit if you have to list it with a real estate agent.
But I’ve got to say, (and pardon me if you are a broker or agent), you don’t have to do much to outshine many real estate agents. There are some top agents and brokers across the country, and I’ve met and worked with lots of them. I have trained many of them. But so many found their way into the profession as an easy way to make a living. I have run across so many agents that promise the moon when listing, and perform so poorly at promotion. YOU can equal or better the job of most real estate agents in selling your own house.
But the key to your good job is in knowing what you are doing when you sell.
Treat it as a business
5.This is a business.
It’s not a hobby and it’s not a game. It is, however, a slam-dunk, dead-serious, rock-solid way of making money when you
learn the ropes. And it just may be the easiest way you have ever earned a living.
But you have to know what you’re doing.
You can make money if you decide to fix up cheap houses. But you must learn how to do it right.
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