Getting To A Yes

One of the things that I have noticed between successful Real Estate Investors compared to those who don’t succeed is their ability to get to a yes. They continue to persist and persist until they get to an outcome that they are happy with.

Many who invest in real estate accept what they’re told and stop growing their portfolio or get sidetracked on problems that they have, rather than looking at the problem as an opportunity to grow in a different direction.

Sometimes new real estate investors are told of caps on the number of properties that people can purchase. For example, I have had real estate investors come up to me at DurhamREI Meetings and tell me that they are only capable of purchasing five properties on their own and proceed to ask me how I have been able to do what I do. When I ask them where they got that information from, they often tell me that they heard it from a mortgage agent or from a bank mobile mortgage specialist, who was helping them get their pre-approval on their investment property purchase.

These new real estate investors want more, but they have internalized this number and accepted it as truth because a professional told them so. Successful real estate investors ask, how can I do this thing I want to do.

Now the financial professionals who are giving the new real estate investors the advice may believe that that is the case, because they only understand the financing sandbox that they work in.

Who you should be asking is the successful real estate investor who has been able to obtain 10, 20, or 30 mortgages, rather than going to the banker or the mortgage broker who knows how to get you financing on 5 properties. The difference is that you are going to the person who is actually doing the purchases not the person who is giving you the financing. You need to find people who have already got to where you want to go, in order to help you to get there. These successful real estate investors could point you in the direction of a mortgage agent or mobile mortgage specialist who aren’t limited in the same way because they have different experiences. There’s a big difference!

I know that it can be a real challenge to get financing when you have a large portfolio of properties. I remember at one time being turned down by at least a dozen different financial institutions in a 6 month period. But through persistence and not accepting no, over time I was able to come up with four unique and different ways to get financing – mortgage qualifiers, private lenders, joint venture partners and a commercial lender that continues to help me to build my real estate portfolio.

If I just accepted what these and other professionals told me, I would never have been able to achieve what I’ve been able to do over the last 10 years.

Another example is when you are in the midst of a renovation and the building inspector tells you that you need to do something in a specific way. This could add tens of thousands of dollars to your renovation cost. If you just listen to what the building inspector directed you to do, then you would end up getting it done but at a high cost.

The difference is leveraging your relationships with different contractors, talking to the building department, and using other real estate investors experience to help you to avoid these additional costs by figuring out how they were able to avoid making the changes that the building inspector suggested.

If you don’t accept what is being told to you as the only solution then you open yourself up to the possibility of multiple solutions. This will help you to grow in all types of situations. Having this mindset will help you to take your real estate investing business in new directions.