welcome...
People ask me every single day: "How did you get started in real estate?"

Well, over the next few weeks, you'll hear all the nitty gritty details. I'll share with you the good, the bad, and the ugly experiences! But rest assured... you're not alone and everything that you are going through (or about to go through ;-) is completely natural and to be expected!

feature article ...
Getting Focused

Before we get into the nuts and bolts of your real estate investing business, it's important to start with some basic goal setting! Yes, I know that it's no fun but it will help with your mindset and will get you focused on the right track.

Let me guess, you've read a book, bought a home study course (or 2, or 3 or even more!), or just got back from a 3 day "bootcamp". Your mind is spinning with ideas and you want to do everything and you want to do it right away. I can relate. I left my first training years ago and wanted to:

• Work the foreclosure market
• Rehab
• Broker private mortgage notes
• Wholesale junkers
• Send direct mail letters and postcards
• And just about everything else that I heard

I got home and tried to do all of these things all at once. I sent letters to people in foreclosure. I bought a subscription to a data service to market to private mortgage holders. I drove through neighborhoods looking for abandoned homes. I worked morning, noon and night and ran from house to house chasing anything and everything. I desperately wanted this to work and I desperately needed a real estate deal ASAP!

After a few months of running around like a crazy person, I learned what might be the most important lesson of my entire real estate investing career! FOCUS

I did some deals, but I didn't really have a focus. And if you can relate to the bullet points above, you are confusing 3 components that work together!

Here are some simple tips for getting focused and getting your real estate investing on track.

1. Determine what you need RIGHT now
   If you're on your last dollar and hardly have two nickels to rub, then you should not be looking at rentals or lease options, generally speaking. You are looking for quick-turn deals. More likely than not, you're looking to wholesale your first deal.
   
   Bottom line... you need to decide what your immediate cash needs are and go from there! This will help you decide if your first real estate investment is going to be a wholesale deal, rehab, rental, lease option, etc. This is what your "exit strategy" will be. Then, you'll decide where you'll find the deals (see step# 2)
   
   
2. Choose your target market
   Here's your marketing 101 lesson for today! Your target market is the "type" of seller you are going to focus on. For instance, if you are trying to wholesale a deal quickly, you may want to focus on pre-foreclosures. If you are wanting to build your wealth through rentals, you may consider "absentee owners". You see, there are certain types of sellers that will be more likely to have deals that meet certain criteria. Of course, there are often a lot of opportunities with any market.
   
   
3. Choose your communication method
   Now that you've decided on what your exit strategy needs to be and what target market you'd like to reach, you can move on to your "communication method". This is how you reach your market. If you're marketing to foreclosures, then perhaps you might engage in some door knocking! If you're working with absentee owners, then you might consider direct mail. Just a bit of common sense will help you figure this out.

Then... WORK THE MARKET AND STICK WITH IT. Don't give up if you get to the second week and don't have a deal. You will need to practice overcoming objections, negotiating with the seller, evaluating the deal, etc. Each type of seller, each type of exit strategy and every single real estate deal is going to be different. You need to really get one down pat before you move on to the next!

the blog corner...
What's A Blog?

From time to time, I'll recommend some blogs that I think are valuable tools. I'll also be introducing my own blogs that include things like:

Don't know what a blog is? Blog is short for weblog. A weblog is a journal (or newsletter available on the web) that is frequently updated and intended for general public consumption. Blogs generally represent the personality of the author or the Web site.

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