It may be cold outside, but I’ve got a story that will light a fire of ambition in your belly. Just last weekend I spoke to a buddy of mine, Jake, who started investing in real estate 18 months ago. As we sat down to watch another forgettable Bears game, he told me how much he expects to make this year. I couldn’t believe it. This guy had no prior knowledge of the industry—none at all. It took me a lot longer to get where he was, and that was in a much less competitive environment. So I asked him his secret. And the answer was so obvious and straightforward that I just had to share it with you guys.

The Key: Finding a Chicago Real Estate Investing Partner

Jake found a real estate investing partner and that’s when things started to click for him. See the problem for Jake was that he had the capital and risk tolerance needed to thrive in this industry—but he didn’t have the knowledge. He didn’t understand how to find undervalued properties, assess their potential, or even how to sell for optimal returns.

By partnering with an experienced hand who knows the ins and outs of buying Chicagoland investment properties, Jake was able to leverage his capital for knowledge. In doing so, he leapfrogged other newbies wasting time and money reading investment books and attending seminars. He accelerated the learning curve of finding the best investment tools and resources and even continues to receive expert guidance on investment decisions. I just had one more question for Jake: how did you find real estate investing partners in Chicago?

If you were looking for a real estate investment partner in Chicago, you’d probably head to the nearest real estate investment club or networking event, right? That’s what Jake thought, too. He told me he spent months and a small fortune becoming a member of several Chicago real estate investment clubs and attending monthly networking events. In his words, he “learned little about the industry but even less about finding a partner.” The trouble was, all of the people he met at these events were like him, newbies with the cash but not the experience.

At one club he even was told a horror story about a couple of experienced investors who offered “mentoring” to industry newcomers in return for a rather large fee and a percentage of the profits. Apparently, the profits never came. When he heard this story, Jake was close to giving up.

Thankfully, he didn’t. You might think that Jake wasted several months attending all of these events and clubs but he would disagree. If he hadn’t gone to one Chicago real estate investment club in particular, he never would have considered becoming an independently owned and operated HomeVestors® franchisee. And it was with HomeVestors® that he finally found a partnership for building his real estate investing business.

Find Real Estate Investment Opportunities With HomeVestors®

See, when you become a HomeVestors® franchisee, you are assigned a seasoned Development Agent. This is someone with knowledge of your regional real estate market and a history of successfully investing there. Jake told me that his Development Agent had experience managing and converting leads on investment opportunities as well as the ability to successfully communicate with distressed homeowners in order to close a sale. I’m sure Jake was just being modest when he said his success can be attributed to his Development Agent. Jake is a smart investor and he still had to do a lot of work himself. But I do believe him when he said he wouldn’t be where he was today without the benefits of being an independently owned and operated franchisee with HomeVestors®.

So if you’re looking for a real estate investment opportunity in Chicago, take a leaf out of Jake’s book and speak to HomeVestors® today. Your new investment partner could be a phone call away.

Each franchise office is independently owned and operated.