Copyright © Lex Levinrad, The Distressed Real Estate Institute ™
I had an interesting observation last week at my Fixing and Flipping Inner Circle.
We were talking about investing in fixer uppers and fixing and flipping properties.
One of the students asked a question.
The question was “how do we find a good deal?”
I explained to the student that we will spend the next 3 days together learning how to find deals online and offline, analyze deals and identify which properties would have enough profit to be a good fix and flip
And then another student asked a question.
His question was “If we find a good deal, then what do we do with it?”
Which of those two questions do you think is a better one?
You see, the way that I see it, they both go hand in hand.
The first question is related to how to find a property (the opportunity).
Way too many of you focus on that. Just teach me how to find a property and I will do the rest.
Teach me how to find a good property to fix and flip.
Give me a good fix and flip
Let me know if you have a good fix and flip
Most students get hung up on this. If they could just find a good fix and flip then their problems would be solved (at least that is what they think).
However, I know that is not the case. Because their problems are in the second question.
The second question was what should we do if we find a property.
That is a much more interesting question.
My answer was not what the students at the Inner Circle were expecting.
Why?
Because if you read those two questions again.
You will see that they relate to almost everything in life (and in business).
And I am not just talking about investing in real estate.
How do I find a good partner?
And if I find a good partner what do I do next?
How do I find a good business?
And if I find a good business then what do I do next?
How do I get more clients?
And if I get more clients then what do I do next?
How do I find a good property to fix and flip?
And if I find one then what is the next step?
Let’s assume that I can teach you how to answer the first question on how to find properties (I have done so with thousands of students – so that is a given).
The second question (what you will do once you have identified a property) is a way more intriguing question.
And it is with the second question, (what you will do) that most students drop the ball big time.
You see,
I can teach you how to find and identify the opportunity.
In this case, I can teach you how to find a property that would be a good candidate for fixing and flipping.
I can provide you with tools like our Rehab Property Calculator which will help you analyze the numbers and calculate the potential profitability of a fix and flip.
I can show you which comparable sales service provider we use to estimate the ARV (After Repair Value).
I can let you watch how I search the MLS, the zip code, and the subdivision to understand the current inventory in your real estate market.
I can show you how to learn how to estimate what you can sell a property for.
And the potential profit that you would make.
I even have an app that you can use for that. You can download the Rehab Property Calculator and use it for free.
And I can show you will real life examples of current properties how in a rising market your numbers will probably be better than you anticipated when you first calculated since prices are moving up and it will take you 5 or 6 months to sell that property.
I can show and teach you all of that.
I can even put it up on the screen at a boot camp in front of 80 students and show you the comparable sales, show you the MLS, and offer to loan you the money to buy the house and even get you the contractors to fix the house.
But do you want to know what I cannot show you?
I cannot show you what to do – once you have identified a fix and flip
I can offer to loan you the money to do your first fix and flip with my own personal funds.
I can offer to help you with the crew that will do the rehab and repair the property.
I can review your material costs, which materials to use and which contractors to hire.
I can even visit the property with you and literally walk you through the house reviewing your repair estimate, labor and material costs.
But at the end of the day my friend,
The decision to make is yours.
Pull the trigger.
Or don’t.
Take that shot.
Or don’t.
I can tell you to “just do it”.
But if you push me hard to “guarantee you” that you will not lose money on this fix and flip or that “this house will definitely work” – well I am not going to do that. My attorney’s won’t let me.
Unless you pay me big money to be my coaching student.
Then I will be willing to do that.
Say what?
Why?
Because I want to see you get results. And I know that for most of you in order to do that I am going to need to push you way out of your comfort zone.
And pushing you way out of your comfort zone has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH BUYING REAL ESTATE.
I want to see you be successful. I want you to get a return on your money.
And I want your return to be an order of magnitude that is at least 100 times your investment (or way more).
This is what I do with coaching students that want to do their first fix and flip.
I help them find a property.
In most cases I find the property for them.
Then I help them with the rehab estimates (I do it for them).
I get them the money by putting my own personal funds on the line by giving them a mortgage loan.
And in many cases I even offer to provide a crew to help them fix up the house.
And then here is the best part:
I tell them “if at any point you want to back out, I will give you back 100% of your money including your purchase price, your closing costs, your points, your fees and your repair money”.
You can just walk away.
Without risking a dime.
At any time.
The risk is all on me.
And you know what happens when I say that?
The student says, “well if you are going to do that then I am in!”
Some ask for it in writing (I kid you not).
And so once we have their INNER FEARS out of the way, we proceed to the next step.
The first question.
Which is how to find a property to fix and flip.
And when we find one, the student learns how to analyze and calculate whether or not the house would be a good fix and flip.
And if it is, then the student moves forward and purchases the house (mostly with my money).
And the student fixes up the house (with my contractors).
And when it is all complete and ready to get listed on the MLS,
I turn to the student and I say, “how about I just cash you out right now?”
And they look at me and laugh uncomfortably and say, “but I am going to make a $30,000 profit”
To wish I reply, “how about I cash you out for $10,000 more than your cost?”
And they say NO.
They say NO every single time!
Fear has turned into greed.
Before they were afraid of what could go wrong.
Now they are sure that everything can go right.
I have turned them from a sheep into a lion.
And do you know what I teach them in this lesson?
I show them that FEAR and INDECISION and SKEPTICISM are their real enemies.
And those DEMONS are inside of you.
Some of us have demons that are obvious like a substance abuse problem or an alcohol problem.
And if we have those problems we know we do and are well aware of it.
But the real DEMONS are the ones that are inside our heads that we don’t know about.
The ones that we don’t know that we have.
And fear of failure is as much of a sickness as any other mental sickness
The only difference is ALMOST EVERY ONE HAS IT!
The thought patterns that we have learned since childhood.
The ones that we learn instinctively through nature to listen to.
The ones that say to us.
That whisper in our ear…
Careful now….
It can’t be that easy.
It must be harder than this!
And those thoughts – they put doubt in our heads.
They create doubt in our subconscious mind.
They make us afraid…..
And our little red flag alert goes up.
And we choose the safe path.
We choose the path of least resistance.
We choose to do nothing.
So, the big question is not how do you find a house to fix and flip.
The question is what are you going to do when you find one?
What would you do if I gave you one right now?
And that is the position I put my Inner Circle Students In.
I said Here You Go – Here is A House. Now Let’s See Who Has The Courage to Overcome Their Fears?
Are you going to move forward or are you going to let the fear of failure stop you?
The ghost of fear is inside of you my friend….
And it is real. It is so real that it is scary that you don’t see it or know that it exists.
Self made millionaires don’t have this fear.
But regular people who have jobs and savings accounts do.
So that means while you read this post (if you lasted this long) know that YOU HAVE THIS FEAR.
And that is why I drum into everyone’s heads at every single event that they need to read “Think and Grow Rich”.
The students want me to “just get on with the real estate teaching”.
But what they don’t get is before I can teach you a damn thing about real estate I need to CLEAR OUT YOUR HEAD.
And that is why I start every event with motivation. I give hope. I give aspiration. I bring students in that show you how it can be done.
I show you how the demons are really inside of you.
Some of you get it.
I see it in your eyes. When I look at you I see intensity and passion like I am looking into your soul.
But most of you don’t.
Most of you are too busy looking at your phone or playing on Facebook or checking your text messages to notice or see what happened.
To see how someone’s life just changed in a moment in an instant. I see it. I see the look on their face.
They are the ones that approach me on the break. While everyone is off chatting and having a cup of coffee.
And when they get the chance to speak to me what do they say to me?
Thank you for teaching me about real estate?
No. They say to me something like “I Feel Like A Blind Man That Can See”
I now understand why I have not made money before.
I understand that my way of thinking is what is keeping me from being rich.
And I know that for that individual – something changed.
Some would say I am obsessed with self help and motivation.
And they would be right.
Because in my experience, after training thousands of students,
That is where you need to start.
At the beginning.
By working on the WAY YOU THINK.
By understanding that the reason you are at my Inner Circle is because you want to learn how to make more money.
And the vehicle that you are choosing to use to make more money with is real estate.
The real estate is simply a tool to help you get to where you want to go.
And where is it that you want to go?
Financial Freedom.
Life on the other side.
The side where there is no worry and no bills and no stress and no fights.
Financial Freedom is most likely the thing that got you interested in real estate to begin with.
And if you want Financial Freedom,
If you want to make more money,
Then you need to clear up your head and change your way of thinking.
According to Napoleon Hill, the author of Think and Grow Rich, there are six basic fears that we all have.
He calls them the “Six Ghosts of Fear”.
The Six Ghosts of Fear are:
All six of these ghosts of fear, are directly related to what is stopping you from getting into the fixing and flipping houses business.
I will translate these ghosts of fear to show you what I mean. Replace the number 1 above with the number 1 below and so forth to see how each fear is related to fixing and flipping houses.
Now I could go into much more detail than the bullet points above.
For example, I could talk about the second ‘ghost of fear” and translate it like this:
OR
How about I rephrase “ghost number two” into self-doubt questions?
You see, what is stopping you from learning how to invest in real estate is FEAR
Will you make a lot of money on every fix and flip?
Of course not.
Can you lose money?
Absolutely yes you can.
But I don’t recommend that you lose money.
Warren Buffett says rule number one is don’t lose any money.
I like that rule.
And I follow it very closely. I have never lost money on a fix and flip.
Because I analyze the crap out of each and every deal I get into, before I put any money up
But is there risk?
Of course there is risk and yes, you can lose money.
But does that mean you should just sit back on the couch and watch another episode of your favorite show on Netflix?
Hell No!
Instead, start out by listening to self-help books every single day on Audible while you drive to work.
Listen to podcasts every day while you are in the shower, while you are cooking dinner, while you are shaving or doing whatever you normally do on a daily basis.
Listen to:
And please, I beg you to PLEASE TURN OFF THE DAMN TV.
If you can tell me more about the most popular TV shows on Netflix than you can about self help, motivation or investing in real estate, then you are reading and watching the wrong things my friend. If you spent more time watching TV than reading or listening to podcasts then you are wasting your time.
Unless you like your current financial situation.
If you are happy with your financial situation then you don’t need to change anything at all.
But if you want financial freedom,
If you don’t like your current situation then understand that you need to change.
Start reading books that will motivate and inspire you.
Start every day with a great inspiring video on YOU TUBE.
I recommend Goal Cast:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCc4IYtPKkJLSAHHuJx1GiGQ)
Read anything written by Tony Robbins. And then read it again.
Read, read and read some more. Read every book (or listen to audiobooks) by every well know motivational speaker/author out there like Eric Thomas, Les Brown, Tony Robbins, Zig Ziglar, Jim Rohn, Dr. Wayne Dyer, Norman Vincent Peale, Napoleon Hill, Dale Carnegie, Earl Nightingale and many other amazing authors and speakers that I have not listed.
Inspire yourself to change.
Get motivated to change.
YOU and your OWN FEARS are the enemy.
YOU are the competition.
Your own worst enemy is the person that looks back at you when you look in the mirror.
If you are my student, and you attend one of my boot camps or Inner Circle Training events, and I ask you “what part about Think and Grow Rich did you really like?”
And you stutter and stumble, then we both know that you didn’t read the book.
So, stop bullshitting yourself.
And stop bullshitting me.
Own up to yourself.
Own up to your failures and your mistakes.
Own up to your life.
Take control of it.
It’s called accountability.
And if you do become accountable for your OWN actions.
Then you will understand what I mean at my training events when I say that every morning when we get up, we have to go out there in the world and we have to slay dragons to take care of our families and our children.
It’s a war out there my friends. Make no mistake about it.
There is a lot of money at stake.
People are making millions of dollars flipping houses.
Making money flipping houses is hard. It is NOT EASY.
Finding deals before your competitor does is hard.
Driving around looking at deals that don’t pan out is hard and time consuming.
Slaying YOUR dragons is hard too.
I am talking figuratively here not literally.
I hope you understand that.
Getting over your inner fears means slaying your inner dragons.
So, are you a dragon slayer?
Do you think you have what it takes to flip houses for a living?
Do you think it is possible to make $250,000 or more per year doing this?
It is. I personally know many people that make 7 figures or more flipping houses.
I know far too many people that have done it to tell you how possible and how real it is.
And do you know that less than 1 percent of the population make $250,000 or more?
Do you want to be in that 1 percent? How about in the 1 percent of the 1 percent that makes more than $400,000?
It’s not as hard as you think. I have taught many people how to do it.
Start by being better.
BE BETTER STARTING TODAY.
And being better starts with looking in the mirror.
And owning up to who you are and what you are (accountability).
Be accountable for your own actions and your own decisions.
And decide who you want to be.
And that has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH REAL ESTATE.
But it is where you need to start.
What kind of father or mother do you want to be?
What kind of husband or wife do you want to be?
What kind of son or daughter do you want to be?
What kind of business partner do you want to be?
What kind of friend do you want to be?
What kind of an investor do you want to be?
And when you figure that out, then go and be that person!
And if you succeed, then help other people be that person too.
And even if you never ever make it into the 1 percent of the 1 percent that make $400,000 or more.
I can guarantee you this.
If you start doing these things,
You will lead a way better life!
You will be a better person.
You will be a better father, mother, son, daughter, husband, wife, friend, business partner.
And you will be a better real estate investor.
You will be the best version of you.
And isn’t that what we all strive to be?
Now what the hell does that have to do with flipping houses?
Everything my friend. Everything.
And that is why I stress this concept so much at my training events.
You can read a complete analysis of the six ghosts of fear on the Nightingale Conant Web Site at this link:
http://www.nightingale.com/articles/the-six-ghosts-of-fear
Here’s to hoping that you can overcome your inner fears and your ghosts and your inner demons.
Here’s to hoping that you can start being accountable to yourself.
And to you becoming and being the best version of you that you can be.
I wish you all of the success in the world and in life and in business (and in real estate).
Remember….
It’s just a game.
And money is how we keep score.
If you think money is for paying bills then please scroll up and read this post again.
Now go out and slay some dragons.
Lex
