The Importance Of Adding To Your Real Estate Investment Group

But teacher, the computer gremlins ate my homework!!!!! Unfortunately, that is what happened to my well crafted article for last week, right before I left to teach classes at the Learning Annex in New York.

The good news is that after being in NYC, I can now give a really strong example about today's topic which covers what to do once you have found ( or created) a great real estate investment group. What MOST people do from human is exactly opposite of what it takes to be a part of a real estate investment group that yields outstanding investments time after time.

It is human nature to believe that if you have something good, you don't share it with others for fear of not having enough to go around. Psychologists call this a "SCARCITY" model were people believe that there is only a finite supply of anything worthwhile. Coming from a very conservative background, where I grew up the son of a college professor, I was cursed with this scarcity belief.

As I started to gain more and more success, the more I realized that many successful people believed exactly the opposite of me: that is, they believed that by working together and sharing, you could produce an INFINITE supply of whatever was wanted. This is what experts refer to as an ABUNDANCE model.

So how does that apply to us? Let me give you the example from the Learning Annex. During our last night, we had a person in attendance that has been with our group for some time and has participated in multiple projects. This person is a full time real estate investor, is very savvy in her choices, and it's a big believer in the power of real estate investment groups.

Afterwards, we got talking about how she might be interested in purchasing multiple units in our N. Tampa project and probably would also know others that were interested. To her credit, she did not want to "hog" too many units for either herself or others outside of the GetPreconstructionDeals.com real estate investment group.

In my opinion, this person could SUBSTANTIALLY INCREASE the ability of others in our real estate investment group by telling others now. Yes, we may run out on "this project" but now let's look complete the chain of events:

1. Some people cannot get into the project because it is sold out;

2. Because it is sold out, several developers take notice and want to offer special incentives to the real estate investment group;

3. Another good project is offered and because of more people are around, a substantial number of properties are consumed, some of them by people who could not get in last time.

4. In turn, this continued activity attracts even better opportunities by developers

5. Because the opportunities are continuing to flow, more and more people are attracted to the real estate investment group;

6. The process simply continues providing an ABUNDANCE of opportunities for all.

Now, suppose you do the opposite and individuals decide that it is a bad idea to grow the real estate investment group. Now what happens?

1. First project, everybody gets to participate and is very happy;

2. Developer's notice what occurred and want to work with the real estate investment group;

3. Next project is offered but VERY FEW people participate because they are personally tapped out since many in the group only want about 1 investment per year;

4. The real estate investment group now has difficulties getting good projects in the future since developer's don't know if it will work.

Let's do a real life, current day example. Right now, we are in discussions with a mid-size developer for getting access to about 40 units of a project that we think will truly be awesome. But what this developer NEEDS our real estate investment group to do is take 40 units VERY QUICKLY to greatly assist in their financing program.

For our real estate investment group, if we can solve the developer's problem and get good investments for ourselves, they have another 160 units coming several months behind this project; i.e., increasing opportunity for EVERYONE. It is our personal stance that by feeding the below cycle, EVERYBODY in the real estate investment group wins over the long term.

For this reason, regardless of if you have your own real estate investment group or if you are a GetPreconstructionDeals.com member, we hope you will keep growing your group by telling people what you do and how they can participate.

This is the last in our series about real estate investment groups and how to get the most out of them. In March, we start our next series talking about the a number of real estate investments and how we see them fare in 2006 and beyond.

Real Estate Investment Groups: "Get 'er Done"

Have your heard there is a new real estate investment guru in the marketplace? At night, he has a part time job as a national stand up comedian and without the audience even knowing, he gives them fantastic real estate investment advice. His name is Larry The Cable Guy, and these days he performs to packed audiences purely because of his real estate advice, I am sure. So what is his secret advice to getting good real estate investments? GET 'ER DONE!

In all seriousness, I don't think the Cable Guy is actually giving real estate investment advice but he should. If you will remember his famous "Get 'er done" phrase, it will serve you well in the real estate investment. Early in my real estate investment career, I bought single family houses and then turned around and resold with owner-financing in place. As I was beginning this activity, the HARDEST part was finding good investments on a consistent basis. Why? Because I had no track record and thus nobody would help.

When I approached realtors for help, they would be friendly but rarely brought any good projects. I didn't understand why because I KNEW I was very serious about buying. However, most realtors really doubted that I would buy the houses if they brought them to me. Having been in the real estate investment business for a while now, I certainly don't blame them. What realtors rapidly learn is that 90% of investors will back out when it actually comes time to close. So they do all this work and don't get paid.

But like many things, after you struggle through your first couple of real estate investment deals, then you start to gather a reputation of actually getting deals done. Before long, there was a couple of realtors who figured out I could "Get 'er done" and started to bring me more opportunities than I could handle. This was a HUGE turning point because now people call me, tell me about a real estate investment deal, and ask if interested. All of this required ZERO work from me! Today, I still occasionally pick up houses and primarily use one realtor who knows that if I give her the go ahead to look, then she will get an immediate pay day if she brings something that meets my criterion.

As I got more and more into preconstruction real estate investments, I got another rude awakening. Even though I was serious about finding investments and had decent connections, as a single individual, I was pretty much irrelevant to developers and major brokers with large preconstruction projects. Why? I was buying 1 unit and they might have 400 to sell. While they were happy to get my purchase, they would not go out of their way to find me other good projects and deals.... It was like I had to beg to get in.

Over time, there was a small group of us that formed that had more power but still, had almost no ability to interact with developers and get better real estate investments. As time moved forward, GetPreconstructionDeals.com was formed with the idea that by surrounding ourselves with a group of investors, we could now enjoy some of the perks of being able to "Get 'er done" on a larger scale. Today, with that ability, we get to look at a lot of projects and opportunities that most outside investors never even know about.

This month, we will run a series of articles on take full advantage of investing "with the power of thousands". With a strong group of "Get 'er done" investors, it really becomes amazing at the real estate investment opportunities that arise; and this is true if the real estate market is booming, flat, or declining.

We will also use this article series to introduce a major new feature to GetPreconstructionDeals.com: an real estate investment open forum and "town hall meetings" to help investors group into smaller, more common interest areas. At our web site, we obviously introduce a wide range of projects from preconstruction condos, town homes, mountain and coastal property, condo conversions, international and domestic, etc.

We will be taking steps to help gather "Get 'er done" investors into smaller, real estate investment interest groups with a tight focus on the types of projects they desire. The real advantage for you is that if you are looking for a specific investment type (or even location) and there are others that share your interest, we can then really help these groups find the types of projects meeting their needs. We believe this will be a tremendous benefit to not only investors but developers as well.

So we hope you will join us this month as we really outline the steps for you to achieve your real estate investing goals, regardless of market conditions.