First Rental Property

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

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FT7hMK8Z9O8[/youtube]

A common term that is used with real estate investors is ’emotional investing’

Emotional investing (in relation to real estate investing) can be defined as making an investment decision based solely on your current feeling, and not based on the financial analysis of a rental property. When a real estate investor purchases a rental property through emotional investing, they are not paying close attention to the analysis of the property. They might not analyze the rental property carefully in order to determine if it cash flows. Emotional investing can often ruin wannabe real estate investors. If a real estate investor tries to expand their real estate portfolio aggressively by purchasing many rental properties with emotional investing, they can get wiped out easily. If they are continuing to purchase rental properties, without analyzing them thoroughly, it will only be a matter of time until they cannot financially afford to maintain their real estate portfolio.

My fellow real estate blogger and REIN member, Chris Davies, discussed the emotional response experienced by some investors in his article, Four Steps For Better Real Estate Investing.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsnyaElu5nI[/youtube]

For example, let’s say that a real estate investor purchases 5 rental properties over 5 years. Let’s also assume that each property that they purchase does not cash flow. In fact, each property is a negative cash flow property. This means that the monthly expenses on each rental property are greater than the monthly revenue from the property. In this example, let’s pretend that each property is negative cash flow, $500/month. Therefore if this investor owns 5 properties, this means that each month the investor is taking $2,500/month out of his or her pocket in order to feed these properties. There is only a certain amount of time that an investor can keep this up, before they start to run out of money. Sooner or later, when they run out of money, they could find themselves in a position where they will be forced to sell one or multiple properties. Feeding negative cash flow properties is especially dangerous for a couple of reasons. As mentioned previously, the real estate investor will eventually run out of money to put into these properties. In addition, since the properties are not in a positive cash flow position, there will be no change to replenish the repairs and maintenance budget, vacancy allowance, or reserve fund for the properties. As a result, if a property requires a big repair or if it goes vacant for a couple of months, there is no money to cover these expenses.

Emotional investing can be deadly, and has forced many wanna be real estae investors out of real estate investing entirely. Here is an exercise that you can use in order to detect if you are emotionally investing.

When you are excited about the prospect of purchasing a rental property, take a few moments, slow down and ask yourself this one simple question, “Does the property cash flow?” If it does not cash flow, based upon your analysis, and you feel that you are still attracted to this property for some reason, you are letting your emotions influence your judgment here. This could be due to the fact that you personally like the neighbourhood, city or town that the property is located. If the property does not cash flow, don’t even consider purchasing it, just move on to the next prospective property, and begin to analyze that property.

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I first became interested in real estate investment around the year 2003, just after I graduated from The University of Western Ontario.

Before, I begin my story, I would like to thank Stephani Davis for giving me the idea to write this article. Stephani wrote a similar article on the premier real estate social networking site, BiggerPockets.com. I really encourage you to read her article as well.

I made a lot of mistakes when I purchased my first rental property. However, looking back upon my experience I have learned from these mistakes. So much so, that I feel that I will never make these same mistakes again.

Mistake #1

I did not know why I was buying the rental property

When I purchased my first rental property in May of 2005, I did not know why I was purchasing it. I did not know if I was going to live in the property as my principal residence, or if I was going to rent it out. Not being clear on this caused mistake Number #2 to occur.

Mistake #2

I wasn’t sure if the property was going to cash flow

Because I did not have a focus, I had no idea if the property was going to cash flow if I decided to rent it out. I was just so excited at the fact that I was buying a property, that I did not even do my due diligence. At the end of the day, I figured that if it did not cash flow, the worst case scenario would be that I would live in the property for a set period of time and then sell it and buy another property. In my mind, I had things ‘planned’ out. However, as time passed and as I gained more experience and knowledge, I realized that it was not a very good plan.

Mistake #3

I was speculating, not investing

I purchased the property with the hope that the property would go up in value. It was my plan that the property would go up in value, and that I would be able to sell it shortly thereafter in order to make a profit. There is no guarantee that a property will go up in value.

Mistake #4

I took the wrong amortization period

When I purchased this property, I took an amortization period of 25 years. I should have taken an amortization period of 35 years, which was the highest amortization period available in Canada at that time. If I took a 35 year amortization period, this would have resulted in my mortgage payments being much less.

Mistake #5

I got my mortgage through a bank, instead of a mortgage broker

Knowing what I know now, if I could go back in time, I would have got my first mortgage on my rental property through a mortgage broker as opposed to a bank.

The reason for this is because…

…I could have obtained a lower interest rate on my mortgage. Since mortgage brokers deal with many different lenders, they have a variety of interest rates and mortgage terms to chose from. By getting a mortgage from a bank, I was forced to taking the interest rate and the terms of the mortgage from that particular bank.

Despite making these 5 huge blunders, my first rental property has turned out to be the strongest performing property in my portfolio of rental properties.

In 2008, I had a bank appraisal completed, and the value of the rental property came in at $315,000. Bank appraisals are extremely conservative. As such bank appraisals come in well under the market value of what a property would sell for on the market.

As an example, in 2009, there were some comparable homes sold for between $330,000 to $350,000.

I always like to be conservative with my estimates, so even if we assume that the value of the property today is $315,000 as per the bank appraisal, that means that the property has appreciated approximately $65,000 in less than 5 years. If we take a look at what the market value of the property would be as opposed to the appraised value, then the appreciation level would be much higher.

I ended up renting this property out shortly after I took possession of it. For the first 3 years or so, it was a negative cash flow property. In 2008, I re-negotiated the terms of the mortgage. As such, the monthly cash flow on the rental property increased dramatically. This small change enabled me to move forward and purchase additional rental properties. I was able to do this thanks to the great advice of an outstanding mortgage broker, and friend, Kevin Boughen. Kevin specializes in investor mortgages, and works with real estate investors all across Canada.

Here is a short video, and quick tour of my first rental property taken in December 2009.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__fESpm7HAw[/youtube]

Social proof is a very powerful marketing concept that is used by many Internet marketers and bloggers.

I have been reading about this concept recently, and I am finding it to be a very interesting marketing tool.

In a nutshell, the most powerful influence over a person is other people. People often act like sheep. In the sense that they adopt a herd mentality, and always follow what others are doing.

Internet marketers and bloggers, who employ the concept of social proof effectively are easily able to influence their audience into doing something.

For example, there is a good chance that you have seen Feedburner feedcount chicklets on other blogs before.

Many bloggers and Internet marketers use these tools in order to increase the amount of subscribers they have to their blog.

Besides being a cool little graphic often in the top right hand corner of a blog, the Feedburner feedcount chicklet also serves as a social proof and credibility tool.

There is a good example of this social proofing tool on Yaro Starak’s blog
www.entrepreneurs-journey.com. Yaro is by far the best blog teacher, who instructs people how to build successful blogs. He has built an incredible blog with very valuable content and a large and loyal readership. I owe him a lot for the development of my own blog.

It is a common practice that many bloggers do not display publicly the Feedburner feedcount chicklet until they have reached a certain amount of subscribers. Once a blogger has reached a certain amount of subscribers, they begin to publicly advertise via this chicklet the exact number of subscribers that they have. The reason for this again is because…

The most powerful influence over a person is other people.

If a web surfer randomly comes across a blog while surfing the web and they notice that a blog has 500, 5,000, or 50,000 subscribers, they will perceive this blog to be of value, and they will be more likely to subscribe themselves.

On the flip side, if someone comes across a blog and they see that there are only 2, 3, or 4 subscribers to a blog, they will be less likely to subscribe themselves as they will perceive that the blog does not have value, although the blog could in fact be very valuable.

In essence, the feedcount chicklet is a social proof tool.

Remember that social proof is a marketing concept that takes into account that the most powerful influence over someone is other people.

Now, here is a real life example of social proof at work.

Yesterday was a very snowy day in Toronto Canada. There was a lot of snowfall on the ground just before the rush hour traffic hit the roads. As a result, when I was driving to work the salting trucks and snowplough machines were out in full force. It was also a very cloudy day yesterday, and with all of the salt on the roads, my car became very dirty on the drive into and out of work. At the end of the day, the car was a mess. It looked terrible.

Today was a sunny day. A sunny day during the wintertime is often a time in which people get their car washed in a drive through car wash. I went to the gas station to fill up some gas in my car. At this gas station there was an adjoining car wash. I looked at the adjoining car wash and I noticed that there was a long time up of cars waiting to get washed.

Seeing the incredibly long line up, I thought to myself that I would come back at a later time to get my car washed, as I did not want to wait in line.

I went into the gas station to pay for my gas, and when I came out of the gas station, the line up to the car wash was even longer, which meant, an even longer wait had I decided to join the line.

It was at this time that I realized that the line up of cars at the car wash, represented social proof. The fact that there were so many dirty cars already in line made other people feel that it was a good idea to get a car wash at that time as well. Everyone’s car was equally dirty due to the snowfall from the day before.

As a result, I decided that I would get my car washed as well, and I got in line. I fully realized that social proof had just affected me. It was also at this time that I knew I was going to write about this experience.

This example goes to show that just like the Feedburner feedcount chicklet…

…the more people are doing something, the more likely you will do it yourself. This is a classical example of social proof.

When we take a look at real estate investing, I can tell you with certainty that social proofing applies here as well.

Often times groups of real estate investors will be investing in certain geographical areas. In addition, within these geographical areas, these same real estate investors will be investing in certain types of rental properties.

I have seen many novice investors begin to invest in these same geographical areas as the veteran real estate investors. Novice investors do this because they see that veteran investors are already invested in a particular region. As a result, the novice investors perceive that, the geographical area must be good because people are already invested there.

This again is an example of social proof. Social proof examples come up everywhere. Keep a look out, and you will notice social proof in your daily life.

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Are you a sincere person, or are you as phony as they come?

Most people are pretty good at detecting if someone is genuine or if they are a ‘fake’ person. On the whole, I think that women are better than men at detecting whether someone is genuine or insincere.

In the above paragraph when I use the word, ‘fake’, I mean it in the context that someone is behaving very differently than how they would naturally behave. These fake people often tend to do this in social situations, where they want to project to their audience a sense of enthusiasm. Or, this phony act can be used in an attempt to impress an audience as well.

Unfortunately, the phony person does not realize that most people have the ability to detect this fake behaviour.

Now I could stand to be corrected here, and I would appreciate your comments if you see things differently. I say in the above paragraph that, ‘most people have the ability to detect…fake behaviour.’ I have always been able to detect insincere people, so perhaps it is not ‘most’ people who are able to detect it, rather, ‘some’ people. Either way, I would appreciate some thoughts on this in the comment section at the end of the article.

Since I consider myself to be a very sincere person, and I appreciate the sincerity of others, I have listed below some key points one can adopt in order to become more genuine.

1) Be Real

This is quite simple to do, but many people fail at it. When you are being real, you are behaving exactly how you would normally behave and you are not altering your behaviour in any way. For example, I am a very honest person. When I speak to people I tell them the truth if they ask me a question. I am especially honest if the question is unexpected. This sometimes shocks people, as they cannot believe the answer that I gave them. This is an example of me being real. Me being real here helps to contribute to my genuine nature. If I was being fake here, when a person asks me a question that I don’t really want to tell the truth about, I could lie. Lying in this scenario is NOT how I would normally behave. As a result, people can detect when I am lying here, and at this point, I would come off as very insincere. My honesty in this situation creates a sense of sincerity.

2) When you ask someone, ‘How are you?’ Be TRULY interested in their response

During the course of a single day, have you ever counted how many times you have asked someone, “How are you doing?” If you work with people, then perhaps you ask this question multiple times a day. If you don’t work with people, then perhaps you only ask this question of loved ones and/or family members.

This activity will only work with people that do not know if you are a genuine or insincere person.

When you ask someone how he or she is doing, instead of just ‘going through the motions’ of asking the question, take a different approach this time.

Listen for their response. Keep eye contact with the person. Let them tell you how they are feeling. Process their response.

Then ask yourself, “What sort of energy did that person just project towards me with their response?” Was it a positive, warm energy? Were they upbeat and smiling when they responded, or did they project a negative, cold vibration toward you with their response?

By taking some time to process the energy or lack thereof that they projected towards you, you will now be adequately equipped to respond accordingly.

When I respond to someone, after I ask the question, ‘How are you doing?’, I match the energy, and the energy level that they have projected towards me.

The benefit of doing this is to make the other person feel that you are truly interested in how they are feeling. It makes a big difference, if you take the time to practice this.

Here is an example:

I was out to lunch today with a co-worker of mine. We were at a local pizza parlor, and it was packed full of people! There was a huge lineup to order and the lady working at the cash register looked tired and unhappy with the current state of the restaurant. When we approached the cash register, I simply asked the lady how she was doing. In a quiet, defeated voice, she said, ‘Okay’. At this point, I almost got ahead of myself, and forgot to take the time to listen carefully for her response, and interpret her energy level. I had my mind on ordering my pizza to be frank!

After she responded with the answer of, ‘Okay’ to my question, I took a few seconds, looked at her and said, ‘That is good to hear.’ I didn’t just say this, but I meant it. She could tell that I meant it as well. This brightened her mood and after my co-worker and I placed our orders, she began to talk to and joke around with us, as we waited for our pizza. Her change in mood was significant from the moment we first approached her.

Clearly, by taking a few extra seconds, and listening to her, and matching her energy level, I was able in my mind to project a degree of sincerity, which she appreciated.

Here is the best YouTube clip on ‘being genuine’. This is brought to you by Russ Small, a Calgary Alberta Life Coach. Check him out.

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

So, how does this all relate to the topic of real estate investment?

I was asking myself this same question, the moment I thought of this article topic.

There is a strong connection between being genuine and real estate investment.

It all comes into play when, as a new real estate investor, you are looking to build your network of professionals around you.

In order to be successful with real estate investment, you need to associate yourself with a number of key people such as a real estate agent, mortgage broker, real estate lawyer and home inspector, just to name a few.

The laws of attraction would believe that you would attract to you those professionals that are similar to you in nature. As such, this could mean that you are drawn towards a real estate agent, mortgage broker, or real estate lawyer with the same values or beliefs that you have. You will be attracted to work with people that you are similar to you in some regard. In addition, you will be repelled away from those professionals that are fundamentally different from you.

So, by being real, as mentioned above, you will project to people the exact type of person that you are. As a result, those professionals that you are compatible to work with will begin to surround themselves around you, and you will begin to seek out those professionals as well.

If you liked this article and are also interested in the topic of real estate, subscribe to my blog. 

Best Regards,

Neil Uttamsingh.

In the words of the Great Vince Lombardi:

“Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.’

In 1959 at the age of 45 years old Vince Lombardi accepted the position of Head Coach and General Manager of the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League. In the previous season in 1958, Green Bay had lost all but 2 of it’s 12 games (with one tie and one loss).

Lombardi created an absolutely punishing training regime and demanded absolute dedication from his players. As a result of this change, the 1959 Green Bay team was a significant improvement finishing with a 7-5 record. 7 wins and 5 losses.

In his second year, Lombardi led the 1960 Green Bay team to the NFL Championship game against the Philadelphia Eagles. However, in this big game Lombardi’s team came up short within the final minutes of the game, and ended up losing to The Eagles.

Lombardi was outraged at the defeat and vowed that this would never happen again under his command. This turned out to be Lombardi’s first and only loss in the post season.

Lombardi went on to accomplish an incredible record of 105 wins, 35 losses, and 6 ties as a head coach, while never suffering a losing season. This equated to a .750 winning percentage.

Lombardi led his Green Bay team to a still unmatched 3 consecutive National Football League Championships in 1965, 1966, and 1967, winning the first 2 SuperBowls and solidifying himself as arguably the all time greatest NFL coach in history.

Players under Lombardi’s command became winners primarily due to two reasons.

1) They had a strategy

Lombardi taught his players to start thinking like winners. In order to reach the next level as a Football team, the players needed to start thinking differently and start behaving differently. Lombardi taught that winners have a strategy and don’t get distracted by things that are unimportant. Part of a winning strategy is the dedication to always hone one’s skills, Lombardi would teach.

In addition to teaching the importance of having a strategy, Lombardi also spoke of:

2) Being consistent

Winners consistently execute towards their strategy. Practicing the same tasks and the same drills over, and over, and over again is what helps to create a winning mentality. Winners never lose sight of their objective because they are constantly focused on it. Consistency is the key to success.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4kWiRjLbGQ[/youtube]

As an aspiring real estate investor, it is vitally important that you as well have a strategy and that you are consistent.

Your strategy can simply consist of a time line that you have committed to yourself in which you are going to buy your first rental property.

If you have committed this, you then have to be consistent in executing towards this strategy.

Consistent execution can consist of things such as building your team of professionals around you that will be helping you with the purchase of your first rental property.

Consistently work towards finding a suitable Realtor, Mortgage Broker, Real Estate Lawyer, or Real Estate Mentor.

Have a strategy and be consistent. If you do this, you are setting yourself up for success!