Real Estate Investing 101 | Real Estate Elevated

You’re looking for better investments that will multiply your money. The financial markets have some power, but you know they can’t be the whole story. They’re too volatile. Someone you know saw her 401(k) value cut in half—or maybe it was your own.

Adding real estate to your portfolio can give it greater stability, earning power, and protection against dips in the financial market. It can give you more direct control over the money you make. 

Also, in real estate investing, you’re building a valuable set of skills. You’re not just picking mutual funds. You’re learning to bring quality housing to the people who need it. And you’re learning real estate techniques most people will never know.

Below, Real Estate Elevated reviews the basic concepts that make real estate investing so appealing.

You Can Ride the Real Estate Trends 

There are different types of real estate investing. For example, you could buy properties to rent out. But the type we focus on is called house flipping. It’s exciting work. You get to fix up houses and see them get to happy buyers who need them. 

We love house flipping because of the strong upward trend in the real estate market, which has continued for decades, even with the subprime crisis. You can put your money (or the bank’s money) into a property and get it all back with a profit within several months or less! 

To be successful, though, you have to follow the trends in your local real estate market and use them to your advantage. Some investors even flip properties without improving them, focusing just on finding hidden profits in certain deals. But fixing up houses can be even more satisfying. 

Use the Power of Financial Leverage

Another exciting reason Real Estate Elevated advocates real estate investing is that you can borrow money to do it. With good funding sources, you can pay very little down to own a property—as little as 5%. 

Once you acquire a property, you’ll need to plan repairs, work on the property, and find a buyer willing to pay the right amount to make you a profit. Even if this process takes a few months, the right funding sources can carry you through that time. 

However, this business comes with no guarantees. It takes guts, but most of all, it takes knowledge and experience to buy investments safely. 

Build an Ultra-Valuable Skill

People will always need places to live. By building a set of skills in finding houses, improving them, and offering them to people who need them, you improve your value to others for the rest of your life. Contrast that with picking a 401k once!

There are many different parts to this skillset. You can learn how to: 

• Calculate the potential profit from a house before buying it
• Research a target market
• Find funding sources
• Work with real estate agents
• Find potential deals
• Make good offers, which include contingencies for backing out
• Negotiate through counter-offers
• Work with an escrow company or attorney
• Get houses inspected to detect problems
• Form a team of contractors
• Oversee renovations
• Pay the bills during the rehab
• Stage a property to sell
• Negotiate with buyers
• Finish the sale the right way

Most people in the world are never going to learn these and the other skills it takes to be a good house flipper. Once you master house flipping, you’ll be in an elite group.

Are you interested in building these skills? To get some of the greatest real estate investing advice available, sign up for a Real Estate Elevated event today. Learn the secrets of famous and experienced investors Tarek and Christina. 

Real Estate Elevated Reviews: The Power of Setting Goals

Almost nothing important is accomplished without someone setting a goal first. Goal setting is crucial in real estate investing. Responsible business owners don’t start work without a business plan—especially with thousands of dollars on the line. 

And a business plan is just a major goal broken into subgoals and steps on how to reach them. If you’re running a series of house flips, you shouldn’t be less well-prepared. You should set goals that: 

• Give you motivation and purpose
• Will give structure to your days, weeks, and months
• Are really big but can be broken down into small objectives and actions
• Are easy to track and finish

If your New Year’s resolutions hardly ever work out, how can you set better goals? Real Estate Elevated reviews the steps below that have worked for us. 

Set Goals that Excite You

Do you find yourself thinking “should” a lot about your goals or tasks? The word “should” is a clue that you’re not interested in what you’re doing. You need to instead set goals that are truly important to you.  

Business educator Marie Forleo advises using this two-step process for setting better goals: 

1. Brainstorm

First, write down everything you want to experience or accomplish in the next 12 months. Use the following categories to help you think of ideas: 

• Growing your skills
• Improving your finances
• Relationships with business partners and vendors (contractors, etc.)
• Improving your renovations
• Upgrading your team
• Networking
• Building your portfolio of projects

Write down every possible idea without criticizing any of them. Just get them out onto a piece of paper or into a document. 

2. Prioritize

The way to achieve excellence is to focus your time and energy on just one or a small handful of goals. That’s why your next task is to decide which goals will give you the greatest rewards and to prioritize those. 

For each goal, ask yourself these questions: 

• What benefit will it eventually bring to this business?
• How will it improve my relationships with my team, family, vendors, etc.?
• What skills and habits will I have to learn in order to accomplish it?
• If I could only accomplish this one goal, would I be truly excited about it?
• Am I interested in the process of accomplishing this goal, not just getting it over with? 
• Is finishing this goal important to me personally, or do I want to satisfy someone else’s agenda?

If any goal doesn’t seem worth it after these questions, delete it or put it off for later. Try to find the smallest number of goals you can accomplish with full attention, rather than trying to work on as many as possible. 

How to Use Your Real Estate Investing Goals

Goals are only valuable if you act on them. With your highest-priority goals, your final task is to plan your next year. You’ll need to: 

• Split those goals into 12 objectives (one for each month).
• Write each objective in a different month on a yearly planner. 
• Divide each monthly objective into weekly and daily goals (starting with just the next month or two).
• Put your goals and subgoals up somewhere you can’t miss them.
• Refer to your goals constantly.
• Take daily or weekly action to advance your highest-priority objectives.

Also, you can adjust your goals if feedback from your actions suggests it.

Learn more about how to set goals, renovate homes, and build a real estate investing business. Register for a Real Estate Elevated event to learn from the principles of Tarek and Christina.