Last month Pine Financial Group hosted the 2020 Minnesota Real Estate Investor Success Summit, it was an amazing event and our best participation ever with over 215 registrants! I get to film action, which is always fun because deep down I feel like I'm a comedian. Ask my wife and she'll tell you there's nothing a wannabe comedian likes more than a new crowd! I thoroughly enjoy the opportunity to be in front of a crowd and provide them with tools to grow their business. At the pinnacle of success, I was especially excited and I offered any attendees the opportunity to schedule a call with me to help provide some guidance or feedback on their current strategy or goals. In 10 years of investing in real estate, I have been fortunate to be involved in thousands of deals as a lender, developer, owner, agent, flipper, etc. A founding investor was in the room that day, but I was alone with Mike presenting the opportunity. This is where the 2% comes in, only four people have taken me up on my offer. This may be evidence of my poor ability to “sell” the service, or I suspect it is indicative of the difference between the 2% and 98% of people who participate in real estate investment programs.
People in the office often have a hard time going to events we organize and saying, “Why are you here today?” Sure we laugh a bit, but what I really mean is that people who identify themselves as investors are willing to dedicate their evenings, weekends, to attending classes, seminars and webinars on an elusive subject like real estate investing. Give up free moments and sometimes money. That's why I ask the question: “Why are you here today?”
So what does it take to be 2% versus 98%? One of the many things I love about real estate investing is that almost anyone can do it. It depends on your skills and resources, or your ability to utilize the skills and resources of others, but the one thing that cannot be compromised is desire. This desire arises from an individual's vision, often referred to as the “big reason” and the beauty of it is that it varies from person to person! One person's goal in participating in a program may be to simply buy a home to live in, while others may be on their way to raising $100 million in multi-family investments. Most of them are looking to supplement or replace their existing income with an investment. The ability to implement a personal plan is due to the “why”, people go “to my family”, “to quit their job”, “to get rich”. Let's just analyze the family's answer, because to participate in all these events, attendees have to spend some time away from their families. If the goal of investing in real estate is to help your families –
Is it to generate extra income to cover an event like college or a wedding?
-
Is it to provide the income that will allow the family to afford a nicer house and better schools?
-
Is it to supplement income so the husband can stay home or to reduce the hours he spends with the family?
-
Is it to replace income so you are more inclined to be with your family?
Once you identify the real reason, you can reverse engineer things like number of flips, rents, wholesale deals, etc. needed to hit the target. This is a relatively simple process; However, throughout my time with real estate investors, I have found that it is a lack of foresight that leads to aimlessly attending one event after another, and hoping to find the topic that pops up at the next one. The bright object was presented last until visible.
The people who benefited had the same theme in the four phone calls I made, they just needed to hear from someone else. It's amazing how an objective third party's opinion can bring a plan into the future so quickly. Two guys were trying to figure out how to get into smaller multi-family properties with 20 to 50 units, but they both needed to take some very specific (though not obvious) steps to make it a reality. The other two needed to structure a smaller rental portfolio to provide sufficient monthly cash flow so they could retire more comfortably.
With 2020 in full swing, before you spend another evening or weekend away from your loved ones or pay to attend a “life-changing” event, I challenge us all to slow down and define That's “why we are here today”.
