There are tons of experts, instructors, and gurus who promise to teach you real estate investing 101. Somehow, it’s all supposed to fit into a day-long seminar or an easily-digestible e-book. But they never get around to covering the “what ifs” that make investing so challenging. And, let’s be frank, most of the real estate investing process involves a degree of uncertainty. There’s no secret formula to becoming successful at it; it just takes a little bit of know-how, a whole lot of elbow grease, a strong desire to learn from your mistakes, and a way to generate leads.

Getting Started With Real Estate Investing 101

The first step in real estate investing is simply deciding to do it. Most potential real estate investors never make that first move beyond daydreaming or worrying. They get jittery and overthink the numbers. Or, they underestimate the “after repair” value and convince themselves that the returns aren’t worth it. This is where it’s helpful to have a solid strategy in place that you can use to invest with greater confidence.

When it comes down to it, there are four major components to real estate investing that you must master in order to find success: training, mentoring, marketing, and tools. Let’s take a look at each of them.

Training.

It’s difficult to trust some of the real estate investing training programs out there because so many are designed with a “take your money and run” approach. Their only real goal is to sell you the idea that you need to buy into even more of their training. So, you end up broke and at the end of the day, you never get the information that you need to actually go out and invest successfully.

HomeVestors® has a different approach, however. Each new independently owned and operated franchise owner attends an initial five-day Success System Training, a real estate investing training course that covers the nuts and bolts of effectively buying, rehabbing, and selling houses. Then, they offer ongoing training to help you refine your investing skills as you find and close deal after deal. You see, HomeVestors® is not motivated to plant some knowledge and leave you to figure out the rest on your own—they actually want you to become a successful investor.

Mentoring.

The “secret sauce” for real estate investing surrounds the creation of a solid network of mentors and networking connections whom you can turn to for advice. You’ll find lots of prospective coaches and mentors who are willing to accept you as a client—for a price. And, you’ll be surprised at how expensive their time is! You’d have to close a pretty good deal to actually make money in a real estate transaction after paying for their advice. And even worse, some of them actually want you to split the profits with them on your first deal. What’s more, many are not active investors. They make their money selling you training. In a rapidly evolving industry, this can be a major problem.

It can take some time to establish true mentor relationships through networking at local clubs and investment groups. That’s why many new investors choose the shorter path of becoming an independently owned and operated HomeVestors® franchisee with access to a dedicated and experienced Development Agent to offer advice and guidance.

Marketing.

You can’t close a deal until you find a deal, right? The trick is to find motivated sellers—without those dreadful lead lists. Many new real estate investors do buy lead lists and spend countless hours sorting the data to create direct mail campaigns or, worse yet, cold-calling prospective home sellers. Approaching distressed homeowners facing foreclosure requires a lot of sensitivity and tact. It’s much easier when the homeowners come to you when they are ready to sell. HomeVestors®’ strong national real estate investing brand, We Buy Ugly Houses®, is widely recognized and it can be pivotal in making that happen. That’s precisely where HomeVestors® provides its franchisees with a competitive advantage.

Tools.

Once you land a lead on a potential deal, you’ll need some kind of property valuation tool to analyze whether it holds the potential for returns. While some investors use old-fashioned pen and paper, most will use software. The problem is that most of the available software out there is either not specific to real estate investing or it tries to cover too many types of transactions, and you end up overloaded. With so much information, you get stuck trying to make sense of it all.

So, I’m going to tell you what I’ve learned over the years. Perhaps the most user-friendly real estate investment valuation and analysis tool is ValueChek™. It allows you to quickly and easily evaluate the potential after-repair value of a house and cost out any necessary repairs to help you make a fair, on-the-spot offer to the seller—no need for hemming and hawing about whether a deal is worthwhile.

Every new real estate investor must master these four core business elements to advance with a solid investment strategy effectively. It really is that simple.

Jump-starting Your Investing Success

Of course, putting all the pieces into place for your real estate investing business takes time. There are no shortcuts, but plenty of resources are available when you become a HomeVestors® franchisee with an independently owned and operated franchise. It’s time to close those deals and reach your investment goals. Contact HomeVestors® today to learn more about this opportunity.

Each franchise office is independently owned and operated.