July 2020

So you want to get into property investing. You’ve read all the books, you even have money saved up.

You see properties for sale and opportunities to make money on them everywhere you go. You see them while out driving. You see them online.

But for some reason you still haven’t pulled the trigger.

Maybe you know what good numbers are in your area. Maybe you are handy with a hammer. Maybe you’ve always been able to give great hospitality and so you think short term rentals would be good for you. Maybe you hear people around you talking about getting into or being in property investing.

But for some reason you just haven’t pulled the trigger yet.

Property investing is just like baking a cake. There are a bunch of ingredients that have to go into the pot and there are a bunch of steps that have to be done in the right order to bake a good cake.

It’s what you don’t know that you don’t know that will kill you.

If you miss one step while baking a cake then maybe you’ll have your trash filled with a chocolatey sludge or a funny smell in your kitchen.

In property investing, if you miss a crucial step you could have bankruptcies and foreclosures on your record for years and be out tens of thousands of dollars. 

You need the help to be able to know you have the right recipe and the accountability to follow through on your plan. 

Imagine going on a road trip and getting lost when you were 90% of the way there, not being able to find your destination and then giving up and turning around when you were so close!

Property investing is all about having the recipe, playing with it a little to suit your taste and then having the accountability and follow through to make it happen, protect your asset and take a profit.

There is so much information out there on property investing and the opportunities to make money are vast. So vast in fact I always get excited talking about it. Like, if done right, how can you NOT make money in property investing??

But the first time round you really do need all the help you can get. And when I say help, I mean you need guidance NOT more information.

That’s why you need a community of real estate investors around you.

You see everyone bangs on about finding a mentor but really, why just have one? Finding the ONE RIGHT MENTOR takes a lot of self awareness, relationship skills and a strong ability to manifest. But really meeting with multiple successful investors on a weekly basis is far more beneficial for you for your momentum and learning.

The benefits of communities are broad. They should be added to a learning plan alongside a variety of books, blogs, podcasts and should not be substituted for just one guru mentor:

• • Meet and learn from multiple successful investors at once.
  • If you don’t like something you don’t feel obligated to stick around. Use the rule of “two feet” and start walking. Go with your gut for congruence of your self. Not all money is good money. Find the right people and strategies that resonate with you by looking at multiple communities at once.
  • Find accountability buddies, investment service providers such as lenders, agents, brokers, contractors, managers etc.
  • Regular appearances will also give you momentum and start setting into motion a lot of little aspects of your self growth that you won’t even be aware of until months later.
  • Having regular events to show up to is beneficial because a meeting can remotivate you if you’re having a down day by reminding you of your potential future successes and your goals.
  • When you’re having a good day people will see your successes and want to get to know you too.

“When you’re having a bad day you need the meeting. When you’re having a good day the meeting needs you!” ~ Bob Snyder

I have checked out many different types of communities in all of the categories below and have found that, on your learning journey, it’s best to learn as much as you can from as many as you can.

Note: the ones I’ve included below are just places where you can have two way interactions with other investors and so have neglected books, audios and podcasts from this list as I feel that once you’ve read a few books, listened to some podcasts and are ready to make the step you need more face to face time with actual investors.

The Different Types of Communities:.

Online Communities

These communities are things like Facebook groups. They are easy to find if you have a social media account by simply searching any real estate term relevant to your area of focus in the search bar (such as “fix and flipping” or “buy and hold property investors”) along with your local city.

Also check out www.BiggerPockets.com as they have a great forum and resources.

Pros

A great place to start learning, and if you find a good one, these can be a great source of information.

Cons

Often because of the easy accessibility there are plenty of newbies on there doing the same things as you. As they say if it were easy everyone would be doing it. In this case, because it’s easy, everyone is doing it. 

There are also often plenty of sharks, sales people and spammers on these groups or sites with lots of noise and chaos without proper guidance as to what you’re looking at.

Good for…

Watch and learn. You’ll see a lot of movement hopefully with new language to learn which you can then quietly google when you don’t know something without embarassing yourself.

Keep trying to find the quality groups, the ones that best serve your needs, by leap frogging into other online groups or better still in-person communities in your city where you will meet real investors. Ask all the best questions you have!

Boot Camps

Often a free evening event for a couple of hours during which they will sell perhaps a weekend bootcamp. And during the bootcamp there will again be an upsell of some kind for a more expensive yearly mentoring program.

Pros

These can be a great path for you to take learning somebody else’s method that has worked for them.

Cons

Ok…where do I begin. I haven’t seen many good ones out there that are a good fit for me personally. They don’t give you much guidance in the free event, just lots of excitement enough to get you to buy their products at the next level. Even at the weekend bootcamp, you likely won’t get that much personal attention and any specific questions you have will be met with “oh, that’s really simple and we go into more detail in our mentoring program.” Another upsell. 

So by the time you are starting to see the value you want to see (and dollars over the line back to you as profit…if any) you will likely have sunk tens of thousands of dollars. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but a lot of gung-ho clueless newbies are sucked into the sales funnels of these guys as they start their investing journey (myself included).

Usually there will be only a couple of really successful investors in the room (if any) and they’ll be on stage with no time for you unless you pay money. Though there may be a few at the back helping out as they are a product of the product and believe in the system they are selling. Again they will likely direct you to buy from them. 

A large portion of the audience will be newbies like yourself with maybe one or two in the audience who are actually successful. They are there to keep updating their skills but the chance of you coming across them, or people of value to you on your journey, in the audience is somewhat slim I’ve found.

Good for…

Go to the free event for inspiration. If you are going to sign up make sure you are really going to follow through with their trainings all the way to the end. How far is that? How long? How much money? Will they hold your hand all the way? Or will they ditch you once you have paid the money? These are all questions you need to answer. How is their reputation in the investing community? (This can be hard to tell since good reviews can be faked and a couple of negative bitter reviews also may just be an anomaly.)

These groups are good for people with lots of personal responsibility and follow through (and trust), and who need just one system from somebody else to follow through on.

Meetups (Physical Gatherings)

These are local gatherings of real estate investors in your nearest major city, where the group sizes might be between 15-50 people. Usually these communities won’t be so heavy on the marketing like the bootcamps so you will have to go to them by finding them through searches on google, facebook or www.meetup.com . You can also find them through “communities of communities” like REIA ().

Pros

A great place to start learning, and if you find a good one in your area, these can be a great source of information. They will likely have mini-bootcamps, one day and evening workshops on a variety of topics to investing at reasonable prices (tens of dollars) depending on whether you have a membership or not. 

You will likely be surrounded by a mix of investors of a range of successes.

Cons

You will probably stand out as the newbie from the moment you walk in. Oftentimes, like other groups, it may seem that everyone is trying to sell you something, or that you are just in the way of what they are there for that day. Just roll with it. Know what you’re there for. Be humble, keep trying to talk with people sincerely and ask good questions.

Good for…

If you stick with it you’ll eventually meet good people who can help you. Brokers, agents, lenders and other investor service providers often hang out at these places, along with the successful investors themselves whom we are looking to meet. Eventually with time you’ll learn by doing, and meet and filter people that are in alignment with your values and strategies of investing…but it will take time and you must learn by being involved.

Also, look for accountability buddies in these groups. People who are equally as excited as you about getting into investing as you are. Note: I’m not suggesting you go into a deal with these people until you both have more experience. Just that you both should be able to keep each other fired up and on track toward your goals!

Invite Only 

These are the groups that you may find later on in your career. Often there is a bigger barrier to entry for these groups in the form of both a higher monthly payment and/or a higher level of experience. They want to know that you are going to bring quality products and services to their community without weighing it all down with poor deals.

Pros

Usually these groups are filled with just investors and service providers already vetted by a set of community standards, maybe around a particular niche in property investing or not. They’ve done deals and they have experience.

Cons

You need to know your level of skill, your preferred strategies, your limitations and the value you bring to a deal before getting involved. Not usually for the first time investor. 

Good for…

Making deals happen and kicking your financial goals.

There are others such as one-on-one coaching, mastermind groups and a variety of other hybrids of the above but I have found that the ones shared above are pretty universal.

The key to all of these though, before you go into them is:

1. Visit several of them regularly, keep working to find the best ones with successful like minded investors.
2. Know how you are going in.
3. Be ready to pivot your intentions along the way.

Once you start revisiting these over time, a momentum will start to happen. Your doubt will start turning to clarity and your confidence will grow along with your knowledge. All as you approach your first deal. 

Why is this blog here?

About 90% of people want to be either wealthy, financially free or rich.

X amount of people however end up dead, dead broke or on a pension.

Why is there such a difference?

The rich get richer and the poor get poorer and yet there is a large handful of us in the middle teetering on the balance with not much plan or guidance to improve our finances other than a sincere desire to do better. While often it may seem out of reach to get a millionaire mentor to teach us his ways, there are many of us each year making the leaping by buying our first and second investment properties hoping to become financially free. 

When you haven’t done it yet it can seem daunting and everyone will tell you to not do it because of their one friend who lost all his money last time the market crashed or because “tenants will destroy your house” but you still want to do it.

The millionaire property investor, while extremely well educated on the topic of investing, is like the racing car driver to us. Well trained, with the best resources and yet completely out of our league because it has been so long for him or her since they got their first investment property like we are trying to do now.

I started this blog as a sort of collection of diary entries on my journey as after I got a few properties, friends would start asking me about my thoughts or advice on investing.

Now, the question is Why are YOU here?

Maybe you’re done with having to work 9-5, maybe you know there’s a better way to make money, maybe you feel like you have a right to have wealth as much as the next person, maybe you feel your time would be better spent contributing to a different cause or you want to spend more time with family and friends.

Having started my journey, it’s now my intention that you will be able to start yours too.

If I can be of help, please let me know! Email me! Ask a question.

PS I promise not to try and sell you something. I have resources to share, some may cost money. But to be honest, I just like talking about property that’s why I do this.