It’s Impossible to Run a “4” Minute Mile Before You Learn How to Walk!

I recently had a telephone conversation with one of my students who asked me what I thought was going to be the next best strategy to use to do more deals in 2014. My student is thinking the market is making a real come back. He is very excited because he is seeing house prices starting to go up, house sales are increasing every month and he had just been told by a traveling Guru that the market has huge profit potential and the market is headed back to 2006 price levels just like it was before the crash.

I can truly appreciate his bright eyes and positive enthusiasm. This student is someone who spends time and money constantly in seminar land listening about the latest niche that will be the next million dollar method for investors to create wealth. I must admit that some of the most recent strategies being pitched could, if done using thorough research and use the correct paperwork could be profitable. My problem with all of these new strategies…. Most of these new strategies aren’t really new. Many have been around for years. The problem, many new investors quickly bore with each strategy as they hear about the next great money making idea that is making investors wealthy. Most of these new strategies will require large sums of money to learn and implement. As market conditions continually change another will soon appear and the investor is again quickly off in a different direction without perfecting the last.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not recommending not listening to what these Gurus’s are teaching. What I am saying, you need a basic strategy that will give you a solid foundation of investing knowledge you can use every day to generate money for you to care for your family. Once you have this solid foundation of knowledge that works for you in place and you are comfortable with it, how it works and you really understand everything about it and can easily implement your strategy to buy any property, then and only then I would recommend looking at every pie-in-the-sky new million dollar idea that comes along. Wait until you already have adequate income coming in every month. For those of you who haven’t built your solid foundation of knowledge yet, if you continue to chase every new million dollar idea the next Guru shows you and sounds too good to be true the chances of your success will most likely be a long and difficult journey.

I have personally lived and invested through seven different economic cycles and I can tell you from experience that every one of those cycles brought out new and exciting strategies I thought I had to learn to be successful. I desperately sought to learn as much as I could because I wasn’t making the kind of money all of the Guru’s of the day said I should make. I was so desperate to make more money to feed my family but because I never took the time to become proficient at any of the strategies I was chasing, the money simply wasn’t coming in like I needed. I ran from idea to idea spending money to buy courses I really couldn’t afford believing each new idea was going to solve my money problems and allow me to become rich. Markets come and markets go and so does the latest million dollar idea each time the real estate market or economy changes.

Do yourself a favor, stop chasing every new idea and take the time to become good at one strategy, unlike I did. I never became good at any part of the real estate investing business because I was so desperate for money and that caused me to continually chase the dream but never achieve it for many years.

My Ah-Ha moment finally came when I learned that every property I looked at fell into one of four categories. Over time I became very successful at profiting from each type of property I saw. Not until then did the money start coming in. Now that I have the money and the time, I can now afford to chase some of the newer ideas that might help me expand my war chest and give me more freedom to do what it is I want to do.

If you have any questions about what I just mentioned about the “4” different type of houses and how to profit from each, feel free to call me at 727-420-4810 or email me at larryharbolt@gmail.com.

Happy Investing!

Larry