First Rental Property

Real Estate Investors, it is time to step up to the plate.

I have a call to action for you.

Your help is needed more than ever right now.

As you know, on January 12th 2010, Haiti was struck by it’s most powerful earthquake in 200 years.

Damaged communication channels have made it very difficult to know how many people have died. However, it is estimated that thousands of people have lost their lives.

3 million people have been affected by this devastating earthquake. This is one third of Haiti’s population.

Photographs and television coverage of the devastation have been seen around the world. The images are awful. We can see with our own eyes that homes and hospitals have been destroyed.

There is not enough fresh drinking water, food or medical supplies. Diseases like cholera are at risk of growing. Many children are especially vulnerable to these such diseases.

The Haitian People need our help more than ever right now. So, let’s put our best foot forward and help out in a big way.

Here is what I propose:

A large percentage of you that read this blog are real estate investors.
I challenge and encourage all real estate investors that own at least one rental property to donate:

One month’s worth of positive cash flow from one of your rental properties to The Haitian people.

For example, one of my rental properties cash flows $136/month. As a result, tonight, I donated $136 to a charity that is doing relief work in Haiti.

If every real estate investor that reads this blog post can do this, we will be able to raise a considerable amount of funds for The Haitian people.

Our goal is to raise $10,000 immediately.

I have full confidence that we can do this. This can be achieved by forwarding this blog post to all the real estate investors that you know, and ask them to make a donation.  Even if you have not purchased your first rental property, donate an amount that you think is reasonable.

Here is what we need to do in order to keep track of our efforts:

Once you have made a donation, post a comment in the comments section telling us that you have made a donation.

Since we will have no way of tracking the amounts that people donate, as people will be donating to different charities, post your amount in your comment if you are comfortable with this.

Post your name in the comments section.

My hope is that this blog post goes VIRAL and spreads throughout the online real estate community. There are enough people out there in the online world, that we should be able to hit this goal of raising $10,000.

I have posted my first comment in the comments section. Check it out.

Please donate. Share this blog post. Let’s raise $10,000 in support of Haiti.

Let’s make this blog post go VIRAL

Here are four links to charities that you can donate to online:

1) The Canadian Red Cross

2) World Vision Canada

3) American Red Cross

4) Emmanuel International Canada

After you donate, don’t forget to post your comment here!  🙂

Networking is an art that not all people can master.

If you are involved in real estate investment for any period of time, you will have to rely upon other people. These other people will be members of your real estate investment team.

In order to be a successful and effective real estate investor, you need a team of professionals behind you. These team members can include people such as real estate agents, mortgage brokers, and real estate lawyers, just to name a few.

Chances are that if you are somewhat serious about real estate investing, you are constantly networking in order to ensure that you have the best team of professionals working for you.

There are many factors to consider when selecting someone to be a part of your real estate investment team.

Experience and knowledge of the subject matter are two very important factors to consider when selecting professionals for your team.

Meeting these people through word of mouth or through networking events are two ways that I would recommend you build your team.

I caution you here, as some networking events don’t always live up to the hype.

There is nothing more funny to me, than meeting Googly Eyed people at networking events.

What is a Googly Eyed person?

A googly eyed person is someone that you meet at a networking event, however they have one distinguishing feature. You begin talking to them, as you normally would do with anyone that you meet at these such events. The characteristic that distinguishes this person is how incredibly shifty their eyes are when you are talking to them. Their eyes are so shifty, they look like googly eyes.

In my mind, it is clear why their eyes go googly.

They are not focused on the conversation with you. They are looking around the room, to see who else they can speak to next. They do not perceive you as being an ‘important’ person. They want to stop talking to you and move on to talk to someone more ‘important’.

I was at a networking event today. I walked into the room. With the first person that I made eye contact with, I walked over and introduced myself. As we both started talking, this person’s eyes started shifting all over the place. It was getting so distracting for me, I had to pause and wait for him to make eye contact with me again, so that I could continue my sentence. It was clear to me that this guy did not perceive me as being important. He was looking around the room to see who was entering into the room.

I believe that if you notice a person having googly eyes as they talk to you, it can serve as a clear indicator towards their character.

I continued my conversation with this guy for a few minutes longer. Just as I was wrapping up my conversation, his googly eyes made eye contact with another person that he knew that was standing close by. Once she walked over, I used this as my reason to exit the conversation.  I said goodbye and walked away.

After speaking to this guy for such a short period of time, I was able to read so much into his character.

My thoughts were that:

1) He was annoyed talking to me
2) He wanted to speak to someone more important
3) He found no value in our conversation

I could tell all of this, just by watching his googly eyes shoot all over the place as I was talking to him.

Later in the event, I was seated at a table with 6 other people. I was having a conversation with one gentlemen, who was very focused on our conversation. He consistently looked me in the eye, and did not shift his attention, despite numerous conversations happening around us. I could tell this guy was focused and locked into our conversation.

So what does all this mean?

Who cares if someone is googly eyed, or not?

I care, and I will tell you why.

As a real estate investor, when I am assembling a team of professionals to work with, I often find myself in networking situations.

When I am speaking to people in these environments, I want to only talk to and focus my time with those professionals that are focused 100% on our conversation.

I don’t like it when people are shifty eyed, because this tells me that they have some sort of other agenda, and that they don’t want to be talking to me.

As a result, I only focus my time talking to those people at networking events that are focused and passionate about the topic of the conversation.

You can tell a great deal about someone if they have googly eyes!

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A few days ago, I was approached by someone who was looking to raise joint venture money. I know this person through one of my real estate networking groups. He was looking at putting together a group of investors, raise a significant amount of capital, and buy into a large real estate deal.

The guy definitely had ambition and a vision. However, there was another thing that he had, and it was not a good thing. He also had what I like to call, ‘the creep factor’.

When he was pitching the deal, he came off as very creepy. As a result, I put my guard up, and mentally blocked out everything that he was saying.

There are a handful of reasons that I found this guy to be creepy. Unfortunately, I have come across quite a number of people that have this creep factor. The creep factor often displays itself when people are trying to pitch joint venture partnerships to potential money partners.

Here are some key things that you should AVOID when pitching to a potential money partner.

1) Don’t be insincere. Be honest, and tell the truth.

Generally speaking, people are not dumb. People know when they are being lied to. As a result, when you are speaking to a potential joint venture partner about a prospective deal, be straight up, tell the truth about your analysis of the project, and don’t lie. If you do lie, most people will notice this right away, and this will ruin your credibility.

No one trusts a liar.

2) Don’t be mysterious

Some people think that it is a good strategy to be somewhat mysterious about a potenail real estate deal. For instance they might tell a potential partner, “I have something that I want to talk to you about. You can make a lot of money, but I can’t tell you what’s it about. Trust me, it is a good investment, and you should invest with me.”

There is nothing more sketchy than the statement made above. If you seem like a sketchy character, people will not want to invest with you and they will not trust you. Again, be straight up with people and get right to the point. You can tell them,

“I am a professional real estate investor. I purchase positive cash flow properties with joint venture partners in (Insert you City here). We hold the properties for X years and then we sell them. The joint venture partner provides all of the funds required to purchase the property, and I do all of the work with the property. I search for properties that meet our investing criteria. When we find the property, I am involved with the negotiation of the purchase. Once purchased, I spearhead any repairs and maintenance that needs to be completed. I search for and place tenants into the property. I also manage the ongoing relationship with the tenants. When we are ready to sell the property, I take care of this as well. At the end of the holding period, the money partner first gets back all of their initial investment. We then split the profits 50/50. Also, throughout the time that we own the property, we also split the monthly cash flow 50/50.

This explanation above is straight to the point and it tells your potential money partner, what you are all about. This description is not confusing nor does is create a sense of mystery.  If you are more straight up with people, and you tell them the truth, you will not creep them out.

My fellow REIN member, Chris Davies is very knowledgeable regarding joint ventures.  I really liked this article that he wrote.  Check it out!

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I have met a lot of weirdos.

I started to meet some of these weirdos when I began investing in real estate almost 5 years ago.  Over this period of time, I have met a lot of real estate investors.  The personalities of these investors have been extremely varied.

I have met really nice and sincere investors, and on the flip side I have met insincere and disgruntled investors.  I have met veteran investors who are happy to mentor new investors, and I have met veteran investors who secretly hope that newer investors fail.

I have learned that just as real estate investor’s personalities differ, so too do the reasons that people invest in real estate.

I have listed 9 different reasons that I believe people invest in real estate.  Here they are in no particular order.

1) Status

I have seen some people invest in real estate, and continue to invest in real estate over many years, in order to ‘show off’.  They invest because they feel that the more properties they have, the more other people will be impressed.

This guy here is a show off…

2) Fear of Poverty

People invest in real estate because they are afraid of poverty.  They might be afraid that if they do not invest in real estate, that they will end up in a difficult financial situation down the road.  As a result, because they are afraid of poverty, this gives them the motivation to pull the trigger and invest in real estate.

3) Increased Net Worth

People invest in real estate because they want to increase their net worth.  Said differently, people invest in real estate because they want to become ‘rich’.

4)  They are opposed to the financial markets

I have seen some people that hate investing in the financial markets.  As a result, investing their money in real estate is the only other option for them. It is either real estate, or stuffing their money underneath their mattress.

5) People want to buy things

Some people are motivated to invest in real estate because they want to purchase material things.  The cash flow provided through real estate investment allows people to buy the things that they want.

6)  They want to go on vacation

Some real estate investors that I know are motivated to invest in real estate, because it allows them to go on regular vacations.  They use the cash flow, or the appreciation from properties to pay for their trips and vacations.

7)  Trying to find a sense of self worth

Some people do not know what their purpose is in life.  They feel that they have no direction, or no guidance.  As a result, I have seen some people invest in real estate, and obtain direction through these actions.  They have become more focused and they feel that they have a purpose in life.

8 ) A sense of competition

Some real estate investors have a competitive nature.  They invest in real estate, and try to acquire as many properties as they can, as a personal challenge.

9) Follow the crowd

People invest in real estate because they see others doing it.  They watch from a distance and come to the conclusion that it cannot be too difficult to do.  As a result, they jump feet first into the real estate investing game by watching others and just by simply following the crowd.

Catchy subject title, eh?

It is better than yesterday’s…I know.

Maximizing your profits with real estate investing is honestly, a very simple thing to do. However, it may not seem simple at first.

Possibly, you have heard about the concept I am about to describe in one way, shape or form. If so, fantastic. If not, no worries. I will explain the concept in detail and give you practical examples to further illustrate the concept.

The number one way in which you can maximize your profit with Real Estate is through:

The Principal of Progression

This is a very cool concept. Basically, this concept means that a house of lesser value, can be influenced by houses of greater value.

In English, this means, if you own the smallest house on a street, that is surrounded by other, bigger, nicer homes on the street, the value of your small house will be affected in an upward manner, and you will realize appreciation of this home as a result, through The Principal of Progression.

It is always a good idea to find the smallest house on a street, and buy it. However, don’t get fooled here, as you also have to be purchasing this home in an area where there is a demand for housing.

You don’t want to buy the biggest, nicest house on the street, as The Principal of Progression will not work here. Since this house is the biggest and the best already, there are no other homes in the immediate area, that will influence the upward trend in value of this home.

Here is a practical example of The Principal of Progression at work.

In one of my earlier articles, I talked about my first rental property, and all of the ‘mistakes’ that I had made with this particular purchase.

What I did not realize at the time, was that The Principal of Progression was dramatically influencing the value of this home.

This rental property of mine was a 1,400 square foot townhouse that was surrounded by semi detached and detached homes. I purchased this townhouse for $250,990 CAD straight off of the plans from the builder. The other, larger homes, surrounding my townhouse were selling for double the price. As such, there were many of these larger semi-detached and detached homes selling for $500,000 CAD.

Since my townhouse was of lesser value, but surrounded by more expensive, larger homes, it realized a healthy appreciation in price over a very short period of time. This is the principal of progression at work.

Today, I was visiting with a Condominium Builder as I am looking to trade up my principal residence. As such, when I was examining the floor plans and prices of the units available, I was only paying attention to the units of lesser value. In this particular condo project, there are units selling for 3 times the value of the least expensive units.

For example, the units that I was considering were valued at $245,000 CAD.
There are other units in the building selling today for $800,000 CAD.

There is no doubt in my mind that The Principal of Progression will be at work again here, and as a result, the units of lesser value will be worth more in a given period of time, as the higher priced units will bring up the value of the lower priced units.

When you are purchasing a home, whether it is your own home to live in or a rental property, keep in mind the principal of progression, and the effect that it can have on the value of your property.

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This is probably the worst blog subject title I have created in about a month. The creative juices for the subject heading just were not flowing today…

However, the content of this article, and especially the attached video is probably some of the best content I have created in about a month.

Once you have purchased a rental property, you must complete 3 important things.
On the day of your closing, you will get the keys to the rental property from your real estate lawyer. On that day, or the following day, you should go to your property and do a walk through. If your property is far from you geographically, then you can have a representative conduct the walk through on your behalf.

Here are the 3 things that you you should complete during your walk through.

1) Determine if there are working smoke detectors.

Take a look at and examine the existing smoke detectors. Determine if they are working, or if they need to be replaced. If they need to be replaced, make sure that you replace these ASAP and before anyone moves into the property. You can check to see if the smoke detectors are working by pressing the ‘test button’ on the smoke detector. If the smoke detector makes a ‘chirping’ noise, then it is working. With most smoke detectors, the chirping noise should stop after a few minutes, after you first press the test button.

2) Look for minor repairs

It is amazing what you notice on your walk through once you have taken possession of your new rental property. You notice things that you had not during your initial viewings of the property. I have noticed this happen a number of times to me. I figure this happens because during your own walk through, you are relaxed, and can take your time to look through and examine the entire house. Prior to this walk through, the previous times that you would have seen the property would have been during your viewings of the property with your Realtor, or during your home inspection with your Inspector.

3) Determine what needs to be cleaned up

It is amazing sometimes the different items that are left behind when people move houses. Sometimes people are very good, they clean the house up very well, and leave nothing behind for you. Other times, people are not very good, as they leave the house dirty, and they leave behind random items. My least favourite items left behind for me is garbage. My favourite item that has been left behind for me, intentionally, is a single beer in the fridge. I have had a bottle of Corona and a bottle of Heineken left behind for me on two different occasions.

Yesterday I took possession of another rental property in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. I completed my walk through of the property today. Check out the video, and please leave me your comments at the bottom of this article. What did you like about the video? Would you like to see more videos like these?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLChOxzge08[/youtube]

If you are interested in buying your first rental property and you do not have the funds that are required, you have to determine where you are going to find this money, if you want to eventually buy your first rental property.

One method of acquiring money is through finding a Joint Venture Partner.  In a classic joint venture partnership, the money partner provides all of the required capital, and the real estate expert does all of the work.  A fair trade off.

Many new investors tend to find it difficult to attract joint venture partners.  Often times new investors complain that they are having no success in finding joint venture partners.  New investors are often baffled at the ease at which experienced investors are able to secure joint venture capital.

The more experienced a real estate investor is, the more ease they have in attracting capital.

New investors should not sit on the sidelines and sulk because of this.  Rather, new investors need to study the principals that make experienced investors good at attracting partners.

My friends, it all comes down to one word:

CREDIBILITY

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAN7uRALf8M[/youtube]

People will invest in YOU if you demonstrate to them your credibility.

So what can make a new investor, who is struggling to find joint venture partners credible?

4 things can.

Here they are, in random order.

1)  Get some credentials

What makes you knowledgeable in real estate investment, other than you interest?  This is a valid question that many joint venture partners may ask you.  You need to demonstrate to your potential partners that you do have specialized knowledge in real estate investment.  This can be done by being an active member of real estate investment groups.  Many of these groups serve as tremendous information and networking centres.  Many real estate investors only become successful due to their association with these investment clubs.  Personally, my success in real estate investment has skyrocketed ever since I made the decision to join real estate investment networks.  The best Canadian real estate investment group is, The Real Estate Investment Network, REIN.

Once you are a member of a few of these investment groups, let it be known!  Put these credentials on your business cards, in your e-mail signature, and draw reference to your association within these groups when speaking to potential joint venture partners.

2)  Get published in a leading newspaper or real estate industry magazine

Increase your credibility by being published by the media.  Contact the editor of a newspaper or magazine and ask them if you can contribute to one of their upcoming editions.  Write about a topic, that people will be interested in reading about.  This topic that you chose should demonstrate that you have knowledge in real estate investment.  You can write about any topic that you want.  Remember, that you do not have to be a complete expert on this topic, you just need to know more than the general public about this topic.  If you know more than the general public, then you are coming from a position of expertise…because you know something that they do not.  You are sharing your knowledge with them. Sharing is caring.

If you are struggling to find a topic to write about, you can easily come up with a topic idea by doing the following…

3) Read at least 5 of the best selling books in the real estate industry

This point is crucially important, as this will help you to increase your knowledge.  Many of the leading minds in your industry wrote these books.  As a result, there is a wealth of knowledge in these books, and much that you can learn from them.

4)  Become a real estate speaker

Becoming a real estate speaker, can take your credibility through the roof.   Speakers generally have a noteworthy amount of knowledge on the given topic that they are speaking about.  When someone says that they are a real estate speaker, this carries a certain degree of weight and people respect this.  This shows that you are an action taker and a go getter.  Someone with knowledge, who is getting out there and sharing their own knowledge with others, who serve to benefit from this knowledge.

To demonstrate to you that I practice what I preach, as a real estate investor who is actively attracting joint venture partners, I am:

• A BRONZE Member of the Real Estate Investment Network, and co-organizer of the REIN Hamilton Mastermind Meetings
• I was featured in the October 2009 issue of The Canadian Real Estate Magazine

• My 5 favourite books on real estate investment and investing in general are:

1. 97 Tips For Canadian Real Estate Investors – Don R. Campbell
2. 51 Success Stories From Canadian Real Estate Investors – Don R. Campbell
3. Real Estate Investing in Canada: Creating Wealth With The ACRE System – Don R. Campbell
4. Investing In Rent-To-Own Property:  A Complete Guide For Canadian Real Estate Investors – Mark Loeffler
5. Rich Dad, Poor Dad – Robert Kiyosaki

• I am also a real estate video blogger, speaking in numerous short videos on YouTube.  You can check out my videos on my YouTube Channel.  My audience for these videos are novice real estate investors.

For my latest real estate speaking opportunity, I am presenting at a real estate investment conference for W & B Academy. I will be speaking alongside a Senior Market Analyst from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

If you do not know much about real estate investing, you are not alone.

There are many people out there that have grown up and lived their lives, not being taught how to properly invest their money.

If you have somewhat of an interest in investing, one thing that you will commonly hear is that it is a good idea to ‘diversify your investments’.

What exactly does this mean?

Diversification is the act of spreading one’s investment over a number of investment vehicles. These vehicles differ with respect to their risk level, whereas some vehicles are very risky and others are much more conservative.

The objective of diversifying is to mitigate your risk. As such, if one of your investment under performs, you will have other investments that will be performing better. As a result, the overall performance of your investments will not be significantly impacted in a negative manner, if a portion of the investment under performs. There will be other investments that you own that will be performing better, that will be able to pick up the slack.

The principle of diversification should always be used with real estate investment.

There are many hardcore real estate investors that only subscribe to one way of investing in real estate.

For instance some real estate investors live and die by the buy and hold strategy.

This strategy is where a real estate investor purchases a rental property, rents the property out to a tenant, holds it for a period of time, and then sells it for a profit.

Another common real estate investing strategy is Rent To Own. This is a strategy where a real estate investor acquires a home, and rents it out to tenant/buyers. The tenant/buyers rent the property from the investor with the option to purchase the property at a later, predetermined date, for a predetermined price.

The above 2 strategies are the ones I feel most comfortable speaking on, as I know about these strategies. There are many other strategies that are used by real estate investors. Investors also flip houses, rehab ugly looking houses, and wholesale houses as well.

I can confidently say that in Canada, wholesaling and rehabs are not as commonly done, as they are in the United States.

In Canada, the most popular real estate investment strategy that is used by individual investors is the buy and hold strategy.

Why Real Estate Diversification is important to you

Real Estate Diversification is important to you because through diversifying your real estate assets, you are able to learn which investment strategies you like the best, and which ones you least like.

If one investment strategy does not work for you, you will have other investment strategies to fall back on.

For example, flipping is an investment strategy that does not work well in all real estate markets. Sometimes investors participate in flips and end up breaking even on their funds invested, or even worse, they end up losing money. If at the same time this same investor held buy and hold properties in their portfolio, if they are strong cash flow properties, then these properties will continue to perform well, even though the flip just flopped!

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If you think that the claim that I am making in my title is impossible, you are wrong.

Anything is possible if you put your mind to it. You just have to find ways to get things done.

Unless someone has a very successful business that they own and run, or unless they invest in real estate, it would be quite difficult to save $450,000 in 10 years.

If someone made $45,000/year net, they would have to save their entire salary, without spending anything for 10 years straight.

Not going to happen!

The strategy that I am about to share with you is a strategy that is used by some people. However,the minority of people use this strategy, and as a result, it is the minority of people that are able to build this wealth.

I have personally witnessed people use this strategy with success.

If you want to use this strategy, all you have to do is the following.

1) Buy a new house before it is constructed (buy it off of the plans)
2) Wait for the house to be built
3) Live in the house for a while
4) Sell the house after it has gone up in value
5) Repeate

In Canada, you can sell the house that you live in, your principal residence and pay no tax to the government on the capital appreciation. This is by far the greatest aspect of home ownership in Canada, with respect to one’s principal residence.

In the 1990s, I had one neighbour that used this strategy. He bought a house in the neighbourhood at the time for around $200,000. He moved 4 times. He never spent more than 2 years in a single home. He had young children. His children were never displaced nor were they sad that they were moving, as they attended the same school. All of the moves occured within the neighbourhood, so they never ended up moving out of the school district. By the 4th move, I began to lose track of this person as we fell out of touch with him. At the time though, the house that he purchased was valued at $600,000, which was 3 times more expensive than house number 1 that he purchased.

Today, I was visiting with my real estate lawyer, Bob Rose. I was into see Bob as I was signing off on the paperwork for a new rental property purchase. Bob is an extremely knowledgeable real estate lawyer who has been servicing the Oakville, Ontario, Canada and Halton, Ontario, Canada area for many years.

Bob and I were discussing this very same strategy and he shared with me a couple of stories that have inspired me to really believe in this strategy and use it through out my life.

We were discussing the Oakville real estate market and the fact that Oakville is one of the remaining towns in the Greater Toronto Area, where there is still land to build homes. As a result, the demand for these homes is very high.

Bob said it best himself, “Oakville is home to Toronto Maple Leafs and Bank Executives.”

He shared with me a story of one of his clients. This client has moved homes 10 times in the past 14 years. During this time the client has bought all new homes, that have yet to be constructed. With each subsequent home, the client was able to make a profit on each home so that eventually, he had no mortgage at all on his current property, and the home that he was living in was valued at $1 million dollars.

Another story that he shared with me, reminded me of my neighbour from the 1990s. This particular client of Bob’s served as the inspiration for my title to this article.

Over 10 years, this particular client moved 3 times. He did not move far each time, in fact each time, he only moved to the next street over from his current one. He first purchased a new home in a new development. He lived in the home for a while, and then bought a new home off of the plans from the builder. While he waited for this newer home to be constructed, the value of his existing home that he was living in continued to rise. By the time the newer home was ready, he sold his existing home, and moved in just one street over. He did this a total of 3 times. Over these 10 years, he was able to make $450,000 tax free profit. Also, over these 10 years, because of his careful planning, his home was now free and clear with no mortgage.

If you have any comments or questions on this article, I welcome them. Please place them in the comments section, just below. Also, if you would like to subscribe to my blog, please do so by licking on the orange RSS button at the top right hand corner of this page.

I have met a lot of real estate investors over the years. The most successful of these investors have what I like to call The X Factor.

I have never met a real estate investor who is extremely successful, who does not have The X Factor. There are many, many real estate investors out there, but only a select few have this X Factor.

What is The X Factor?

I have come to realize through observation that The X Factor is twofold. The X Factor is:

1) Passion

Many real estate investors might say that they are passionate about real estate investment. However, I challenge all of these investors on this. Passion comes with different intensity levels. It is possible to be slightly passionate about something, and much more passionate about another thing.

I have witnessed a lot of real estate investors who own multiple rental properties, but who have lost the passion for what they do. It is almost like they are just going through the motions. They no longer have a passion which fuels them to continue to move forward, and purchase additional rental properties.

Once this passion diminishes, it becomes hard to stay motivated. When motivation declines, it is difficult to continue to execute against one’s goals. Once the passion leaves, the real estate investor’s spirits begin to diminish. As such, if you observe a lot of real estate investors, you see those that continue to purchase rental properties, and then those that stop acquiring at a certain number. Sure, the argument can be made that not all investors want to buy an unlimited amount of properties. However, I counter this argument by saying that all real estate investors truly want to buy an unlimited amount of properties. The ones that forge ahead and continue to purchase are those investors who have stayed passionate about their cause.

How you can bring your passion back!

This is simple to do, but it takes effort. When you feel that you are lacking passion in an area (real estate investment), you simply have to speak to and become encouraged again by people that are passionate. These people do not even have to be passionate about the same things as you are. However, they have to be very passionate about whatever it is that they do. When you speak to them, and as they encourage you, you will begin to rekindle the passion that you once had. Think of yourself as a rechargeable battery and think of other passionate people as the battery charger. The more time that you spend with other passionate people, the more ‘charged’ you will become. After you have spent sufficient time with other passionate people, you will be fully charged, passionate again, and ready to work towards achieving your goals.

The X Factor is also:

2) Confidence

Most people lack some degree of confidence in some area of their life. Just like ‘normal’ people, many real estate investors lack confidence. It is this lack of confidence that prevents many real estate investors from forging ahead and acquiring multiple rental properties. It is also this lack of confidence that makes certain real estate investors fearful from trying other investment strategies. It is also this lack of confidence that prevents these investors from coming out of their comfort zone. By not coming out of their comfort zone, they are not able to grow and develop as real estate investors.

How to bring your confidence back!

This is slightly harder to do than bringing your passion back. However, this can be done as well. Again, you have to surround yourself and talk to more confident people than you. These people should have high confidence in a number of areas of their life. Spend time with them and understand what makes them confident people. The more confident people you are around, the better chance you will have to figure out what you need to do to make yourself more confident again. For example, if 10 extremely confident people tell you ways in which you can become more confident, chances are that they have explained the same process to you in 10 different ways. Hearing this information in 10 different formats, makes the information more digestible to you. As a result, you are better able to utilize this advice, hearing it 10 times than if you only heard the advice once, and through only one person’s perspective.

By maintaining both Passion and Confidence, you will be a fearless real estate investor, afraid of nothing, and prepared to work towards achieving your goals.

Develop The X Factor and make sure that you never lose it. The X Factor is truly what makes the difference between good real estate investors and great real estate investors.

A very good example of a real estate investor who has The X Factor is Mr. Don R. Campbell. Don is the President of the Real Estate Investment Network, REIN. He is a person with great integrity and a clear vision.

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