In the picture below, I'm doing a real estate investing deal. You might not realize it because it LOOKS like I'm sitting at a bar in with Deena.
The DM & Deena in Naples, Florida. The words above the bar say is perfectly!
Although you can't tell from picture, I just closed a deal worth thousands and the paperwork is on its way to the seller. And now we're just about to check out some of the shops in the market along the beach, and head to a restaurant for supper with Deenas family.
Compare this to the life of other real estate investors – ones who are sitting at a desk all day long, going through stacks of paper… with a phone stuck to their ear; or ones who drive from one rehab to another with a hammer in their hand… and a phone stuck to their ear.
So why does my picture above look so different than the common picture of other real estate investors?
Because of one simple truth that you might not realize if I didn't tell you:
Being Virtual is a decision.
Running a virtual real estate investing business will only work if you DECIDE to run a virtual real estate investing business. Keep reading and I'll explain what I mean.
The big mistake that many real estate investors make (which can cost them money and time!)
People who decide to become real estate investors define "real estate investing" as their measure of success. So they'll do whatever needs to be done to do real estate deals. That SOUNDS good but it's not, because one of the most common (and most televised) paths is to start rehabbing. Rehabbing is a time-intensive, money-intensive, and effort-intensive business that can require you to show up at the worksite and work there from early morning to late at night (and on weekends and holidays).
So the person who just defines "real estate investing" as their measure of success thinks that they are being successful if they are rehabbing twenty-four hours a day, 7 days a week.
I used to do the same thing. That's how I got started in real estate investing. And although I was successful by some measures (I made a lot of money), I wasn't happy because I didn't have the TIME freedom to go along with all that money.
The problem was: I had achieved the goal of real estate investing but it wasn't the right goal! I should have made the goal that I wanted to do deals without having to put in the time and effort to show up and work such long hours.
In other words, I needed to change my measure of success from "real estate investor" to something else.
So I reset my thinking. I decided that I didn't just want to be a real estate investing deal maker… I wanted to be a VIRTUAL real estate investing deal maker. I made the decision to add "virtual" to my measure of success.
Instead of being stuck at a desk or at a rehab with the phone stuck to my ear, I measured my success by whether or not I was running a virtual real estate investing business. I even went so far as to do a trial run in December 2005 of moving to South Beach, Florida to "trial run" my virtual business for a month. My plan was: To force myself to run a virtual real estate investing business. If it worked, great! If it didn't, I would re-evaluate and decide how to move forward (and get a 30 day vacation out of it).
As you know, that one-month virtual trial was a success. I discovered that I could run a VIRTUAL real estate investing business, I travelled the world for 2.5 years for the first run and now I’m on a 5 year trip around the world. I've never wanted to return to that tied-to-my-phone lifestyle.
How do you define success?
If you are a real estate investor who feels stuck in the day-to-day grind of long hours, maybe you need to make the simple switch of redefining what you mean when you want to be a successful real estate investor.
If you haven't done any deals yet, think about how you want to spend your time. Do you want to be a real estate investor? A virtual real estate investor? Or something else?
Then take massive action toward whatever SPECIFIC goal you have.
When I decided to redefine my work from real estate deal-maker to virtual real estate deal-maker, I took massive action by finding and implementing the tools and technology and team that could make it happen.
I studied how some of the most successful people in the world ran their empires from around the globe. I learned even more about websites and autoresponders and list-building. This wasn’t easy as I’m not computer inclined at all. But (I had already been using these tools and technology for a while but then I studied how I could do them as a virtual deal-maker). I experimented with systems and ideas that could work for what I wanted to do virtually. I listed the obstacles I would face as a virtual deal-maker and I figured out how to overcome them.
Why I went virtual and why you should too
I went virtual because I wanted to travel around the world. But not everyone does. Virtual real estate investing allows you to do real estate deals from anywhere… but that doesn’t mean you have to do them from the most exotic places on earth. Becoming a virtual real estate investor means that you have the freedom to run your real estate business while you do anything YOU want to do. Being virtual is about having freedom (time freedom and money freedom). You don't have to go to the far corners of the earth; you can be virtual at home... it just means you're not tied to your office or your phone and can instead focus on the things you want to do in life.
Virtual is a decision. When you decide to be virtual, you redefine how you want to succeed.
Your virtual friend and mentor,
Mark Evans DM,DN
PS, not sure how to run a virtual real estate investing business? I just published a book called Virtual Real Estate Investing Made Easy. It shows you step-by-step how you can run a virtual real estate business while achieving the freedom you deserve.
Click here to learn more about Virtual Real Estate Investing Made Easy