While Deena and I were traveling through Southeast Asia earlier this year, I averaged multiple deals each month.
Of those deals, how many of them do you think were to repeat investor-buyers who wanted to do ANOTHER deal?
It's true, there were some repeat buyers, certainly. (Some of the investor-buyers I work with buy deal after deal after deal). But not all of them were repeat buyers. Some were first-time investor-buyers who did their very first deal with me. Some only do a deal once a month or once a quarter. It varies.
The DM and Deena in front of the famous Hindu temple, Ankor Wat. While this picture was taken, I was doing a deal
If you are a real estate wholesaler, some of your deals will be bought by investor-buyers who buy from you repeatedly BUT many of your deals will be bought by first time investor-buyers.
I'm telling you this because I want you to avoid a business-killing mistake that I see many brand new real estate investors make. (It's a mindset thing. So I'll explain what the mistake is and then I'll show you how to change your mindset... keep reading).
Avoid this business-killing mistake that brand new real estate investors make
Here's a mistake I see a lot of brand new real estate investors make: They start up their real estate investing business, they create a team, they build a buyer's list, they find deals. Good. Those are the right things to do.
But as soon as one deal is over and they've assigned the contract to the investor-buyer and they've collected their check, they stop until they want to do another deal. They don't find more investor-buyers. They don't look for deals. They don't stay in contact with their investor-buyers.
When they decide that it's time to do another deal, they find a new deal and present it to their investor-buyer's list... just as they know they should.
But no one buys. So they go out and find another deal and another one. But they struggle to do more deals. Ultimately they realize that something is broken.
Here's what is broken (and how to fix it)
Imagine two travelers who decide to go on a long trip. The amateur traveler is entirely focused on their destination. They get into their car and drive. The seasoned traveler knows their destination but plans the trip around gas stations... to make sure they have enough fuel in their car to get to their destination.
It's similar with real estate investors. If you could read the minds of real estate investors, you would notice a startling difference between brand new real estate investors and seasoned real estate investors:
Amateur real estate investors focus on the deal. They build their entire business around doing their first deal and then once that deal is done then they work on the next deal. Like the traveler I mentioned above, they are only focused on their destination.
Successful real estate investors focus on building a list of investor-buyers. They build many of their systems around always increasing their list of investor-buyers. Like the seasoned traveler, the successful real estate investor keeps their destination (the deal) in mind but they make sure they have gas in the tank (new investors in their list) to get there.
The difference is like night and day to a real estate investing business. The amateurs who focus on doing deals without putting more investor-buyers onto their list will waste a lot of time and effort because they keep marketing to the same old list... and that list might not ALWAYS be ready to do deal.
On the other hand, successful real estate investors know that if they keep adding more and more investor-buyers to their list, they'll likely find a few who are interested in doing almost any deal they present. Successful real estate investors make list-building their highest ongoing priority and the deals will happen almost automatically if that list is always growing.
I want to BEAT this into you... Always be building your list
I've said in the past that if everything in my real estate investing business was in one building and that building was burning to the ground, I would rush in and save only one thing: My investor-buyer list.
That list is something I always focus on. I'm always adding new investor-buyers to the list. The more people on the list (and the deeper the relationship I have with that list), the more successful I will be.
The same is true for any real estate investor. Building your list of investor-buyers should always be your first priority.
If you're just starting out in the business and aren't sure where to invest most of your time and effort and money (and I want to help you get started for the lesat amount possible) then you should focus on building an automated system that allows you to ALWAYS build your list of investor-buyers and develop a relationship with them.
Set up a website where investor-buyers can leave their email address so you can let them know about deals. Communicate with them regularly through email (I really like using this autoresponder system). Post deals on the web to attract investor-buyers to your list. Use search engine marketing to attract even more investor-buyers. (Stay tuned. My next blog post is about that very topic!). Offer reports and webinars to help establish your credibility and to get people excited about working with you. (That's a little more advanced but I'm mentioning it anyway to show you that there are lots of things you can do).
It's a mindset change
It's a mindset change that will take your real estate investing business from "new" to "awesome". The mindset is this: Stop focusing on the deals as the biggest and most important activity you do in the day. Instead, focus on ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS building your real estate investor buyers list. The deals will be wholesaled almost automatically after that... and THAT is how I do deals month after month even when I was traveling around Southeast Asia with Deena.
Your list-building friend and mentor,
Mark Evans DM,DN
PS, I've only scratched the surface when I mentioned above some of the ideas and techniques to build a list. There are MANY things you can do to grow that list of investor-buyers, and I talk about even more of them in my new book Virtual Real Estate Investing Made Easy. The key is to get started and then to keep going. Don't skip this critical task because I mentioned some advanced techniques that are unfamiliar to you. Start by doing things that you already know how to do to build your list. Just get started!