Inaction
I was reading a Facebook thread today where one my friends were asking what we thought the No. 1 killer of success was. That’s easy — inaction.
Inaction manifests itself in all kinds of forms. Sometimes it’s fear-based like when people are afraid to fail or even afraid to succeed. I can’t tell you how many times this very thing happened to Ashley and me when we first started. We would spend hours out door knocking on all the pre-foreclosures. When we actually found someone at home, that was scary. We would think, “What if we say the wrong thing and the people run us off?” Then the next thought was, “What if we say the right thing, make an offer and they accept it? What would we do then?”
Inaction can also be caused by the “one day” mentality. You know, “One day, when my kids are out of sports, I’ll flip a house.” Or, “One day, when I have the money, I’ll buy a rental property.” There’s “One day, when I get my spouse to back me up, one day when I win the lottery, one day…” You see how this keeps someone from ever accomplishing anything. One day will never come. The only day you can focus on is today, and you need to get after it!
The paralysis of analysis can cause inaction, too. This “syndrome” is caused by looking at so many variables that you never move forward — kind of like a lion when it’s faced with the four legs of a chair. (If you missed that story, you’ll have to check out my recent post, “Focus like a lion”.) New investors find themselves paralyzed — i.e. not moving forward — because of things like trying to figure out what specific area to work, what marketing plan to use, what attorney, what realtor, and what business entity they should use.
If you’re new, you don’t need an LLC to start talking to sellers and looking at property. An LLC makes you look official, and it’s good for some asset protection. But if you’re new, there’s a high likelihood you have very few assets to protect. And I can tell you from experience that a seller doesn’t think an entity makes you look official. What a seller cares about is if you can solve their real estate problems. And if you can, and you buy the house, you can always deed the property over to your LLC after you create it.
Another thing that can cause inaction is rumors. For investors, rumors sound like, “The housing market is about to crash!” I’m pretty sure Chicken Little was yelling something along these lines. But even so, if the market crashes, that means we should be able to find cheap houses. So why should the state of the market keep you from going out, meeting with sellers and constructing win-win deals? Rumors are just a means to keep you from moving forward. If you make a good deal, it will survive a market crash.
Or how about this rumor: “There’s just not that much out there right now.” If you’re looking to buy houses at a discount on the MLS, you’re right. There’s not that much out there. If you’re looking to buy houses at the foreclosure auction, you’re right again. There’s not that much out there.
To overcome this rumor, you’re going to have to take some action because houses are out there.
Need some proof? I went to a seller appointment yesterday in Calhoun. On the way back to the office, I took an extra 30 minutes to do a little driving for dollars and did some door knocking before my next appointment. During that time, I located four vacant houses and one distressed landlord — in only 30 minutes. Houses are out there.
In order to overcome the No. 1 success killer, you’ve got to act! Here’s what you do: find sellers, meet sellers, make offers, repeat. Follow that formula, and you will find success.
Joe and Ashley English buy houses and mobile homes in Northwest Georgia. For more information or to ask a question, go to www.cashflowwithjoe.com or call Joe at 678-986-6813.