There is no doubt about the fact that real estate is one of the most lucrative industries in the world, at least according to statistics. According to statistics, this industry offers an average return on investment(ROI) of about 10.05% per annum. Of course, the figures depend on the type of property investment in question. For instance, residential rental properties have an average ROI of 10.6% while commercial rental properties have an average return on investment of 9.5%. That means if you put in about $100,000 in the business, you can expect to make around $10,000 in profits, on average, at the end of the year, assuming all factors remain constant. Sounds like a good business to start right? Well, that’s accurate because it is!

However, no matter how promising real estate business may sound to the effect of wealth creation, it should be noted that this sort of investment can prove to be painfully catastrophic, especially if entered without a proper strategy. A number of factors, including, economic conditions, a change in demographics, geographic location, and supply of property, can cause your hard-earned money to go down the drain. To learn how to cushion yourself against potential real estate investment losses and to be sure to grow your business, here are some invaluable tips you should know:

Tips To Best Grow Wealth In the Real Estate Industry

1. Only Consider Good Locations

When you start shopping for a land where you will build your residential units, you will find plenty of options that are going for a wide range of prices. When you decide to look for ready-built units, instead, still, you will come across numerous options available for an extensive array of prices.

Property price variations are normally caused by a number of factors, with one of the primary factors being location. For instance, properties that are located in prime areas such as those in or near urban/developed areas with better infrastructure and social amenities tend to cost more and vice versa. Why? because they have a high demand from tenants.

It’s a good idea to pick land or ready-built units that are located in a prime area. Even though you will pay more for such, the return on investment you will derive from this will definitely be higher, thanks to the higher demand coming from tenants. Avoid remote locations because of the lower rental prices homes built in such locations do attract.

2. Start with Residential Properties

As a starting investor in the real estate niche, you have two main investment options; residential properties or commercial properties. You might be torn between the two such that you are not able to decide which option to go for between the former and the latter. Well, experts recommend starting out with the residential option. That’s because residential properties carry lower risks than their commercial counterparts. The profits may be lower than commercial property profits, though, which isn’t a bad thing, taking into account the fact that your investment will be safer to build wealth.

3. Do Not be Afraid to Borrow Loans

Contrary to what you may have been told, borrowing is an essential part of the success journey. All the richest people you know, including Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Facebook’s Mack Zuckerberg once borrowed money to boost their businesses. Some of these well-doing companies such as Microsoft, and Amazon are still not debt-free. That tells you a lot about the power of borrowing when it comes to shaping your financial future.

Try securing funds from creditors to put into your business. By the way, real estate investing requires higher capital not so many beginner investors have. Instead of launching mediocre projects simply because you are cash-strapped and debt-averse, change your attitude towards borrowing. After all, if you can’t give you can’t offer the best, you can’t expect to maximize your ROI and build wealth.

4. Consider Buying Dilapidated Units

Buying abandoned and dilapidated properties to rent can be another great idea to build wealth. Such properties are sold at throwaway prices and can be easily restored to their former glory with renovation. The good news is that, in some states, the governments provide stipends to encourage homeowners to renovate and restore their dilapidated properties. If you can acquire some units in good locations and renovate them, you can make some good money off of these properties, despite the fact that you invested very little amount of capital.

5. Play Your Part Well as a Landlord

Before you want to become a landlord, you should understand that this title comes with a huge responsibility and a myriad of obligations. According to the law, these duties and obligations broadly fall under three categories:

• The obligation to give the tenant possession of the building.
• The obligation and responsibility to provide a habitable condition for the tenant.
• The obligation to not interfere with the tenant’s use of the property as long as they utilizing the property accordingly.

Neglecting your duties and obligations as a landlord can result in serious lawsuits with your tenants, which could end up costing you a lot of money in the process. For example, in 2017, a UK landlord was fined heavily for changing the locks in order to vacate the tenant. Mr. Nathan Shipley was found guilty of violating one of his obligations as a landlord, which is to not interfere with the tenant’s occupation of the property and was compelled by the court to pay the plaintiff a sum of about $3600.

Three thousand six hundred dollars is thirty-six percent of the average return on investment on residential property. Assuming the landlord had made the bare minimum profit that year of $10,000,(which is the average return on investment of residential property), it means he lost 36 percent of it to just one tenant. If this investor could have been fined for similar violations against other tenants, he could have lost an overwhelming portion of his 2017’s return on investment.

Final Thoughts

Do not be fooled that there are any other secrets to become successful in real estate investing apart from the above. If you want to best grow wealth in the real estate industry as an investor, mind your location, start with residential units first, and do not be afraid to take loans to boost your business. In addition, think about investing in those promising, low-cost dilapidated units that abandoned in prime locations, and be sure to play your part well as a landlord to avoid costly penalties.

Just as it’s impossible to plan a trip without a destination, you can’t build a successful real estate business without setting clearly defined goals. Success does not happen by fluke. It takes proper planning, and they are markers that show us how far we have come or how far we still have to go. Here are a number of ways on how to set great goals for real estate.

Know Your Why

Despite you having the resources, knowledge and a reliable team in setting up your real estate career, you will have a hard time if you clearly don’t know your “why”. So, start by writing down the reasons for venturing into the business. The reasons may vary from one individual to the other, but undertaking this important step in successful goal setting ensures that you understand what you want to achieve.

Goal Settings

Be specific with what you want to accomplish. For example, you could say “I want to earn a million before I turn 40” instead of “I want to make a lot of money.” You are most likely to achieve your goals if they are real and clear. And don’t forget to write them down.

Wealth Definition

Make sure you understand what wealth means if you are focusing on gaining wealth. In this case, wealth does not always equate to money. The meaning varies and could mean either of these important areas:

• Physical
• Relational
• Financial
• Intellectual
• Spiritual

Will Power and Attentiveness

The first great step is to ensure that goals are identified and are written down. Commitment, discipline, and focus are key in crushing the set goals. It means that an individual ought to work when the job is no longer new and exciting as a start-up. It means that work needs to be done when an individual prefers to be doing something else.

Realization that life’s outcomes are the responsibility of an individual, creates an ideal situation for the person to see desired results. Bad things may occur.

Bouncing back from setbacks makes a true statement of a person’s character. It greatly identifies the difference between falling down and staying in that position.

Create a Business Plan

The success in real estate lies in the development of a business plan. It involves creating an overview of what needs to be accomplished, and the specific steps needed to make this possible. It is essential for the plan to contain mission statement, specific goals, a strategically plan for accomplishing the goals, and the timeline.

Additionally, goals need to be refined within the market. Refining these goals could include purchasing rentals, commercial buildings, or buying and holding. Also, specific criteria for deals to be undertaken ought to be clearly indicated in the business plan.

Listing the teams and systems that are already in place helps in efficiency. A back up plan or an exit plan is also important. All these steps are necessary for the success of real estate goals.

Find Your Niche

Finding and understanding a niche is important in real estate. It will help in weeding out the strategies and deals that are sub-optimal in meeting the goals and focusing on the optimal ones. It is critical to find out what a person likes, the strengths, and understanding the need in the market.

Understanding the market and carrying out an analysis adds more prospective to succeeding. Researching about the market and the industry at large is advantageous. Coupling this with having a game plan increases the chances of success.

Set SMART Goals

Every goal that is set needs to be SMART, that is, Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time bound. Investors should revise their goals to ensure that they are SMART. The center of attention for the goals should gravitate on efforts that allow the effective use of resources as well as time.

Setting SMART goals in real estate helps in setting tangible numbers that can be easily tracked. It provides a concrete measure for deadlines all through.

Adopt Key Visual Tools

When setting your real estate goals, adopt different concepts such as the Wheel of Life. The visual tool helps in identifying the different areas in your venture that need immediate focus. For instance, if your area of focus is relational and the wheel is short, it means that you have not established helpful relationships with your friends and family.

This means that your life is not in the right direction, and such an imbalance is most likely to affect your life negatively. So, the wheel concept helps you come up with short-term goals by finding balance in all aspects of your life.

Short or Long Term Goals

Have both short and long-term goals to achieve your desires in the long run. The former refers to things you are willing to achieve in a short time, more specifically within six months from the time you set the goal. A few examples smart, personal short-term goals are:

• Cutting off or reducing unnecessary expenditure
• Offering volunteering services often
• Having an organized place of work
• Working out once or twice a week
• Waking up and sleeping early to ensure you have enough rest
• Maintaining a work discipline
• Saving

You can achieve these goals in a short time, which, in turn, will help meet your long-term goals such as earning more, reducing or eliminating debts, becoming more productive, and being fit.

Ask yourself honest questions like “Where do I want to be in 10 years?” or “Do I want to be in debt in five years?” to come up with long-term goals.

Conclusion

It is okay to start small in the adventure of investment in real estate. For instance, investing in rentals to get the general idea of the overall process might be a great idea. It eliminates the process of home acquisition, renovations, or getting tenants. Irrespective of the strategy used while investing in real estate, setting intentional goals is key. It ensures that the action steps are prioritized and the process moves towards attaining the short-term and long-term goals.

You have likely heard the saying: “dress the part” before. However, being a real estate professional doesn’t always come with an established dress code. It doesn’t mean that the clothes you choose will not influence your career. On the contrary, first impressions – including how you dress – can make or break a real estate deal. 

So, what kind of clothes should you wear as a real estate professional? Here are a few tips on what to pick in your wardrobe and what to leave behind to dress the part of a successful professional. 

• Dress for your audience

Real estate jobs come in many shapes and circumstances. Maybe you sell slinky commercial buildings in the heart of a big city. Or on the contrary, your principal business may come from farmland in a rural area. Most of your clients may be millionaires looking for mansions, or you deal with a lot of foreclosures which have seen better days. You may be spending a lot of time in your office, or on the contrary on the field. 

Either way, your scope of work may be very different from one day to the next, and your clients have different expectations. Dressing the part as a real estate professional involves, first and foremost, knowing your audience. You don’t want to walk through the fields in a business suit any more than to show up at an important meeting with high-end clients in the same clothes you would be wearing to show a run-down foreclosure who may require exploring the attic. 

When deciding what to wear that day, check your agenda first and bring a change of clothes with you if you will be attending to different tasks and won’t have time to stop on the way. 

• Keep it professional

Real estate pros may have a particular relationship with their clients, but they should remain professional at all times. Avoid anything too casual, like athleisure clothing, or too revealing, like mini-skirt or tank tops. 

First and foremost, no matter what kind of clothes you will be wearing that day, make sure that they are clean, pressed, and fit well. Even you will be walking through the snow to inspect a rural property that day; it is no excuse to show up in a wrinkled shirt on which you inadvertently spilled your morning coffee. 

It is a good idea to carry a spare shirt and some stain remover to go in your car or your purse to prevent a last-minute disaster. You may also want to invest in a hand steamer to look presentable in a pinch. Finally, getting your clothes hemmed and tailored will ensure that you always look your best. 

Clothing rental subscriptions can help you maintain an up-to-date closet without breaking the bank. 

• Details matter

When it comes to first impressions, there is no way around personal hygiene. Even if you wear the most expensive designers’ clothes and the fanciest car, it will come down to nothing without appropriate grooming. A neat haircut and a polished manicure will do wonders to look professional in any circumstances. 

Go for more conservative and neutral options that will always match your look and offer the most neutral backdrop depending on your circumstances. 

Becoming an investor in the real estate industry is a great way for entrepreneurs to make lots of money and build wealth. Private real estate investors who are ambitious and possess an entrepreneurial spirit can make thousands and thousands of dollars per month buying and selling homes. Each year it seems there are new real estate entrepreneur success stories that pop up. With all that entrepreneurs stand to gain in the real estate market it is easy to see why so many of the top entrepreneurs in the country continue to buy and sell. To demonstrate just how successful some of these investors have been over the years, take look at five of the top real estate entrepreneurs in the market today.

5) Carlos Reyes: Co-Owner, National Cash Offer

Carlos Reyes was raised by a single-mother and for 14 years worked a regular corporate job. In 2015 however, Reyes decided to pursue his own dreams and create his own real estate investment company. Today, along with co-owning the wholesale giant, National Cash Offer, Reyes also owns 25 businesses, seven of which produce seven-figures annually. Meanwhile, NCO has emerged as a powerhouse in the wholesale real estate market and is one of the most successful companies of its kind.

Reyes currently also offers online courses for beginners to start wholesaling. Additionally, Reyes along with Shakir and Alex Saenz, hosts the 2-day master course event, Momentum, to each aspiring entrepreneurs their systemized method that has yielded them great results. During a 2018 podcast, Reyes revealed that he and Shakir are able to move an average of 30-40 properties a month and bring in about $400,000 per month wholesaling. Today, National Cash Offer also pulls in 6 figures a month.

4) Sal Shakir: Co-Owner, National Cash Offer

Unsurprisingly, Sal Shakir takes our 4th spot on the list. Shakir is an Iraqi immigrant who came to The States knowing very little english. Shakir is yet another shining example of real estate entrepreneur success stories. After escaping his home country from war at age 15, Shakir went on to co-found 14 companies including National Cash Offer, building an empire not just for himself but for his whole family.

After spending years working odd jobs, Shakir finally was able to save up and buy a fixer-upper home. He knew he was handy enough to fix it up himself and eventually he sold the home, thus beginning his real estate investment career. At the time, Shakir owned a car dealership and upon meeting his business partner Carlos Reyes, his entrepreneurial instincts led him to jump at the opportunity to venture into wholesale real estate. Shakir is also the founder of All In Entrepreneurs. Together, Shakir and Reyes are two of the most successful real estate investors in Phoenix.

3) Robert Faith: Chairman & CEO, Greystar Real Estate Partners

Initially, Robert Faith planned on being an engineer and working in the Oklahoma oil fields just as his father did before him. However, upon graduating in 1984 from the Oklahoma University, the oil market had taken a decline. Subsequently, Faith went on to get his MBA from Harvard University and in 1990 co-founded Starwood Capital Group.

Three years later, Faith founded Greystar Houston, where as CEO he also served as the Secretary of Commerce of South Carolina from 2002 to 2006. Today he is the founder, chairman, and CEO of Greystar Real Estate Partners. Greystar is ranked number 1 in the multifamily market according to the National Multifamily Housing Council. Last year Greystar became the second largest supplier of student housing in the US with its $4.6 buyout of student housing developer and owner EdR.

2) Dottie Herman: CEO, Douglas Elliman

Dottie Herman began he real estate career as a manager of the Northeast real estate division at Merrill Lynch in Long Island in 1978. Since then, she has gone on to become the “richest self-made woman in real estate” in 2019 as dubbed by Forbes. In 1990, Herman borrowed $7 million from Prudential to purchase Prudential Long Island Reality. Against long odds, Herman eventually turned Prudential into a massive powerhouse brokerage on Long Island and eventually in The Hamptons.

Eager to move on to the city, in 2003, Herman and her business partner purchased the largest and more prestigious brokerage in Manhattan, Douglas Elliman. Today, Douglas Elliman is the fastest growing brokerage in all of New York. As of 2018, according to Cision, Douglas Elliman is the third largest US real estate brokerage by sales volume. With over 7,000 agents, Douglas Elliman does approximately $27.4B in sales volume annually.

1) Ben Caballero, CEO of HomesUSA

Ben Caballero came to Dallas, Texas at age 21 with nothing but $500, his wife, and a car he borrowed from his mother. In 2007, Caballero launched HomesUSA, a web-based platform that process real estate listings. Today, Caballero is the top ranked agent by sales in the U.S. having done over $1.9B in closings on nearly 5,000 transactions. In addition to HomesUSA, Caballero also manages sales and marketing for building giants such as Toll Brothers, CalAtlantic, Highland, First Texas, Ashton Woods, and McGuyer.

It is even more remarkable that HomesUSA has been such a booming success since it launched the same year that the subprime mortgage crisis began. Yet Caballero managed to weather that storm and become the top agent in the country and has held that position ever since. In 2018, according to Business Insider, Caballero sold $2.2B worth of homes. In the same year he was awarded the Guinness World Record for “Most annual home sale transactions through MLS by an individual sell side real estate agent.”

For many, the real estate industry has been a catalyst for great success and personal wealth, often creating a ‘rags to riches’ story for real estate investors. The most successful entrepreneurs make the most of their situations, take risks, and above all else, never let failure slow them down. To become a top real estate entrepreneur takes drive and ambition, all of which is embodied in the career paths of all five people listed here.

Wholesale real estate is a great way to begin as a real estate investor. You hear all the time about how people can make a lot of money really fast by buying and selling houses. With few start up costs, wholesaling is an excellent way to get your feet wet as an investor in the real estate market. Yet as simple and rewarding as wholesaling can be, often people quit early in the process because of the demanding work and amount of dedication it takes to be a successful wholesaler. Anyone looking to become a wholesaler needs to be fully committed to the business. 

The process of wholesaling can seem daunting and overly complicated, but fortunately there are resources to help people become successful. While there are a number of online resources to help aspiring wholesalers navigate the industry, three stand out above the rest. Fortune Builders, Learn to Wholesale, and Cardone University are by far the top 3 best online courses for anyone who wants to be a wholesaler. 

Fortune Builders

Than Merrill, Paul Esajian, and Konrad Sopielnikow founded Fortune Builders together to teach people how they can make money in wholesale real estate. Together, they each have more than fifteen years of experience in the industry. They are the principals and founders of numerous real estate investment firms and have combined have produced over $1B in both residential and commercial real estate investments. 

After years of people constantly asking the three how they became so successful at real estate investment, they created Fortune Builders to give people the tools they need to become successful themselves. In addition to their in-person seminars and classes, Fortune Builders offers several online training courses, including one entitled Wholesaling for Quick Cash. 

In this online course, Than Merrill leads enrollees through the ins and outs of the business model utilized by one of Merrill’s own investment companies CT Homes. According to Merrill, the goal of the course is to, “change the way you think about building a business and show you a model you can follow to ensure your financial success. The purpose of all this is to lead you to your own business that you will enjoy building, can be proud of, and provide you with financial freedom.” The course is for beginners to instruct them on how to build a successful wholesale business to help reach their long-term financial goals. 

The price of the course is $1,1970 and comes with a reference manual that contains over 190 pages of content. 

In addition to that beginner’s course, Fortune Builders offers a full online program called Mastery that teachers its students how to strategically invest in real estate. With Mastery, students will have access to a team of experts readily available to coach them through the process. Mastery coaches have each completed thousands of real estate deals on their own and are well qualified to assist members in the program. The online course includes a one-on-one support system, an emergency phone hotline, instant email access to coaches, and even offers deal submission reviews from the coaches, all easily accessible and all online.

Additional amenities in this top rated course include weekly live training webinars including case study training classes for students to share and give a full rundown of recently closed deals with other students. For these reasons, Fortune Builders easily ranks among the top 3 best online real estate investment courses.

Learn to Wholesale

Another such online course is Learn to Wholesale. The program is taught by Carlos Reyes, Alex Saenz, and Sal Shakir. Reyes and Shakir are each co-founders of National Cash Offer, and Saenz is the owner of Home Equity Pros and Offer Home. Combined they have over twelve years of experience in the real estate industry. 

The program instructs people on how to create a constant cash flow using the techniques in wholesale real estate that the three have used to find success in real estate investment. With the course, you get access to the best industry insights from real experts with proven track records of success. The information constantly updates to bring you the best and latest techniques and information to keep up with market trends. 

The course consists of six steps. First, students in the course learn the foundations of virtual wholesale deals. Second, they learn how to value property within an online market. Third, students learn the ins and outs of negotiation and get specific tactics to be effective in negotiations for closing over the phone. This step also includes learning how to sign contracts virtually. In the fourth step, enrollees get access to the best online marketing hacks to get the best virtual deals possible. The fifth step involves knowing how to use budget inspectors to get the secure the best deals and also covers what to do after your virtual property inspection is complete. The sixth and final step covers how to close a deal.

One benefit from the course is that once you purchase it, you have access to it forever. Keep in mind, the information provided continuously updates as needed for changing market trends. From the moment of purchase you instantly get access to contracts and scripts and everything you need to complete your first deal. The course is completely self-paced and ends when you want it do, allowing the student to proceed on their own time through the more than 55 videos included.

Cardone University

Cardone University offers what it calls, “most extensive sales training curriculum on the web today” and contains over 1,500 segments of interactive video web content. Grant Cardone is an author, entrepreneur, and real estate mogul who built up a $1.2B portfolio. In 2017, Cardone was the #1 marketer to watch from Forbes Magazine. Investors who want to thrive doing wholesale real estate should definitely consider Cardone if they want to become successful from every angle of the industry.

Cardone classes include instant access across multiple devices from one account. CU boasts of one of the most comprehensive online training programs in the world. Each module has multiple courses within them. For example, the Sales Process module consists of 28 courses including certification. CU offers modules in; Selling 101, Selling basics, Understanding the buyer, the Sales process, the Theory of closing, Closing strategies, Incoming calls, Prospecting, and more. Prices for modules range from $495 to $1,995

Industry experts affiliated with the course include Grand Cardone, Jamie Shanks, David Jensen, and Daymond John among others. Another benefit of CU is the instant and free access to Grant Cardone’s free e-books including How to Fill a Pipeline with Cold Prospecting and 20 Rules of Closing a Deal.

Cardone University includes everything you need to be a successful sales professional in any sales industry, including wholesale real estate. It contains hundreds of classes, videos, and other online material to help you create a successful career in sales.