How to Get What You Really Want From Real Estate Investing

It was exhilarating when I first got the thought in my brain that I wanted to try real estate investing. I didn’t know about wholesaling or the many other types such as lease options or even probate. What got me excited was the thought of Money and Freedom.

The other day I got an email from Todd Heitner. He has been reading my blog for a while and wanted to offer his words of wisdom on how he has achieved his real estate goals. It’s a great post that lays out a framework on setting the right goals and having the right mindset. You’ll enjoy this post for sure!

In just a moment I’ll show you the 5 specific action items you need to take to get what you want.

But first we need to establish, what exactly do you want to get out of real estate investing?

Most people would say “to make money”. But you can make money working at a job. So why do you really want to be a real estate investor? Maybe now you’re thinking, “to make A LOT of money.” OK, fair enough. Real estate investing is a great way to make lots of money. But what does making a lot of money mean for you? What do you want to do with the money?

Or maybe for you it’s more about freedom. You don’t want someone else making all the decisions, telling you when you have to work and when you can go home. You don’t want someone else to be able to say ‘No, you can’t have time off right now.’ You want to have more time for your family or hobbies or just the freedom to choose how your time is spent.

Maybe it’s about security. You don’t want the fear of walking in one day and finding out you’ve been laid off or fired.

More than likely, it’s a combination of all those things. Who doesn’t want more money, freedom and security?

The problem is, most people don’t get those things. In fact…

According to the Social Security Administration, at the age of retirement only 5% of the population will be wealthy or financially secure. The other 95% will be either: forced to keep working, dead, or broke and dependent on others to take care of them financially.

Why do 95% of people not get what they want?

Well, it’s been said that 97% of Americans don’t set goals for themselves. While it would be hard to know a number like that accurately, you and I both know that most people don’t have any goals or a plan to achieve them.

It’s easy to fool ourselves into thinking that setting goals isn’t important. I know I resisted it for years. I thought, “I don’t need to write it down, I know what I want.”

If I asked you right now what your #1 goal with real estate investing is, what would be your answer?

If your answer is, “To make more money,” I’ve got news for you: that’s not a goal!

Or if your answer is “To spend more time with my family,” again… not a goal. Why not?

According to BusinessDictionary.com, a goal is defined as: An observable and measurable end result having one or more objectives to be achieved within a more or less fixed timeframe.

2 important words from that definition

So, for example, let’s say what you want is to make more money. Let’s work together to turn that into a goal.

First off, we have to know clearly what “more” means. In other words, it needs to be a number.

If you want to make “more” money, you first need to know exactly how much you make right now.

If you get a steady paycheck, that’s pretty easy to figure out. If you’re already self-employed, that’s a little tougher. You’ll want to look at bank statements and add up how much money is coming in each month. Add it up for 3-6 months and divide by however many months it is to get an average. There’s your starting point.

Now, how much do you want to make?

In the past, when I wanted to set an income goal I just pulled some big number out of thin air because it sounded good. That’s OK, but it’s also pretty meaningless.

To really know how much you want to make, first you need to clearly define what you want your lifestyle to look like. After all, money is just paper and numbers. The paper doesn’t enrich your life in any way. So what do you want to do with the money?

In his book, “The 4-Hour Workweek,” Tim Ferris talks about creating a “dreamline” where you write down what things you want for yourself, divided into 3 categories: things you want to have (for example, a certain car, a certain number of investment properties, a virtual assistant, etc.), things you want to be (such as being more physically fit, to be able to speak a foreign language, to be a good husband/father, etc.), and things you want to do (such as traveling to certain countries, do $1,000,000 in deals, build your dream house, etc.).

After you have your lists of items you want to have, be and do, next you need to assign dollar amounts to what it would take to achieve each of those things. Calculate what the monthly expense would be for each of those things. For example, for having a certain car, maybe it’s what the monthly payment would be. If it’s taking a trip to Scotland, figure out how much the trip will cost and divide by 12.

Next, you need to know your monthly expenses. Look at what you’ve been spending for the past months and, if you’re just getting started with real estate investing, add in a marketing budget that will allow you to do enough deals to support your business. If you’ll need to hire help, include that. Be sure to also account for taxes. After adding up your monthly expenses, Tim Ferris suggests multiplying it by 1.3 to allow for savings and a buffer.

So add up these numbers: Your monthly expenses x 1.3 + the monthly cost of your ideal lifestyle. What did you end up with?

Now you know how much you need to make each month. Let’s say the number you come up with is $10,000. Maybe that will include having a part-time assistant, a modest marketing budget, and putting something back for taxes and savings, along with a certain amount of travel and other things you want to do, have or be.

What do you need to do in order to consistently make $10,000 per month? How long would it take you, realistically, to get to that point?

Let’s say you determine that it would take you 6 months to get to the point that you can make $10,000/month consistently. OK, now we’re getting somewhere. Now you have a goal:

“Goals that are not written down are just wishes.” Unknown

It can help to set some kind of consequences for either reaching the goal or failing to. It needs to be significant. For example, let’s say if you reach your goal, you’ll reward yourself by taking a vacation to some place you always wanted to go. But what will happen if you fail? It can also be a strong motivation to have a strong consequence for failing to reach your goal. At the end of this post I’ll give you the link to another post where I shared a powerful example of this from my own business.

“Goals are dreams with deadlines.”Diana Scharf Hunt

Some people are more motivated by positive things that they want, whereas others are more motivated by moving away from things they don’t want. To really make it powerful, use both.

Now it’s time for a plan. What do you need to do between now and then to reach that goal?

Get a whiteboard or poster board and make a timeline. Write each month and what things need to happen each month.

“Without goals, and plans to reach them, you are like a ship that has set sail with no destination.”Fitzhugh Dodson

Estimate what your expenses will be for each stage of the process. For example, what will you spend on marketing? Will you need to hire a coach who has already done what you’re trying to do? Write it all down.

Put this timeline in a prominent place where you’ll see it every day and can see where you’re at and if you’re on track, getting behind, or ahead of schedule.

Now you know where you’re going and how you’re going to get there.

But there’s one other vital ingredient. You need some way to stay on track. Most people will fail to carry out the plan and still not reach their goal.

It’s easy at first when you’re excited about it, but along the way you start running into obstacles, you get discouraged, your friends or family tell you it’s not going to work… That’s when it really gets hard. That’s when you need something in place to remind you of why you’re doing this and get you back on track.

“If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.”Frank A. Clark

The more things you can have in place for this, the better. I wrote a free resource called “5 Actions to Guarantee Your Success” that covers 5 specific things you can do that will make it harder to give up than to stay on track. I’d really suggest reading that for details about putting Step #5 in place. I’ll share the link at the bottom of this post.

By default, things are kind of stacked against our success as entrepreneurs. Putting these things in action will tip the scales in your favor and make it easier to succeed than to fail. For myself, that was what was missing for a big part of my entrepreneurial journey and it has made all the difference.

Now you know where you’re going and how you’re going to get there.

But there’s one other vital ingredient. You need some way to stay on track. Most people will fail to carry out the plan and still not reach their goal.

How do you get what you want from real estate investing?

Todd Heitner has been helping real estate investors for over a decade, especially with their mindset and marketing. Todd specializes in helping investors establish their online presence with professionally-designed websites. Now he’s even giving away free websites to his readers. Claim your free website at DoneDealWebsite.com.