Ten Top Elements to Being a successful Real Estate Investor – Part I

For years, I have been asked what makes a successful real estate investor.  I do believe there are key things that one must do to achieve success no matter the goal, some tangible and others intangible. However, motivation is one of the key factors and can range from making big money, to flexibility or improving the community. Your motivation can push you to success in the important items on the list that follows.

I’m a big fan of top ten lists. They are a simple way of qualifying a topic. This top ten list was easy to put together.

Diana’s top ten things needed to be a successful real estate investor:

• Have a Plan: ‘If You Fail to Plan, You Plan to Fail,’ Benjamin Franklin. Here at OTA Real Estate, we insist our students create a plan for their real estate investing.  A main element of that plan is the amount of time an investor can dedicate to investing.  It doesn’t matter if an investor has 5 hours a week or 40; success can be achieved with the right plan. It also helps to have a step by step process tailored to meet individual goals.

• Be Consistent: It all starts with the plan, but the plan can’t implement itself. So, more important than the plan is the investor’s ability to work the plan with consistency. I’ve seen investors who one week will spend 40 hours working on their plan and the following week zero hours. This lack of consistency will have limited results, as compared to an investor who consistently spends five hours per week on their plan, week in and week out. The RECC (Real Estate Coaching Center) offered by OTA Real Estate helps the investor with accountability and consistency.

• Location: You’ve heard the saying that real estate is all about Location, Location, Location. Well, more importantly than the location is the investors understanding of the location. That understanding needs to range from comps to having a large pool of cash buyers. OTA Real Estate has developed a quick way to scout any location for profit potential.
  
  

• Find Off Market Deals: If you are looking for deals on Zillow or some other third-party website, you are looking for a needle in a hay stack. A professional investor finds properties that haven’t reached the market yet. This can be done with a variety of acquisition strategies.  An investor can’t expect to get extraordinary results by using ordinary strategies.  OTA Real Estate’s Deal Board makes finding off market deals quick and easy.

• Find the Win Win: When acquiring off market properties, investors are usually working with sellers that are in some form of distress. Some could look at these situations and say that the investor is taking advantage of the seller’s bad fortune or bad choices. However, if the investor knows how to solve the issue, this helps the seller to move on.  We call this a win win.  Personally, I believe that doing the right thing always pays off.

Next month we will conclude my top ten list. If you are interested in finding out more about the real estate programs OTA offers, contact your local center.

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