How to force your REI business to reach critical mass and become a well-oiled money-making machine
Have you ever run out of gas and had to push your car? Come on, we were all teenagers once, trying to gain another mile off the gas tank, or just experimenting to see how far below E you could get the needle to go. That’s one of my favorite SEINFEILD episodes, when Kramer makes the car salesman say “KEEP IT ON!” just to see how far they could go.
Actually, that could be a very good mantra for your career at REI. KEEP GOING. That is the secret to reaching Critical Mass. But let’s define it before we get there.
When your car ran out of gas, you had to push it. It’s simple physics, which I’m horrible at, but the principle is the same. A body at rest will remain at rest unless acted upon by an external force. Which means the car won’t move until you push it. So you sit there and push and pull, and ho, until the wheels inching forward. So what happens? As the car gains momentum it starts to move faster and easier, and once it reaches a certain speed it just has to keep the pressure constant and it will almost roll on itself. Almost automatically.
How about you relieve the pressure? The car slows down again and finally comes to a complete stop. So you have to expend even more energy just to get back to where you were. What if someone helps you push the car? So you can reach your maximum boost (critical mass) even faster.
So your career at REI right now can be like a stalled car. You need an external force acting on you to get you off your lazy ass and onto the field. If you don’t think now is the best time to use a buy-and-hold strategy and put cash in your pocket every month, then you need to sell life insurance. If you think you can’t invest for profit, then it’s time to hit the job search sites and find a less successful and less easy career.
Still here? Good, because now I’m going to tell you a little secret. If you want to reach critical mass in your REI career quickly, all you have to do is follow a map. Today’s market is like the market of 1989-90 (same president, with the same last name and the same candidate for his title). What that means to you as a REI is that as the media screams how bad things are, they will go back up. In some pockets soon.
Other REIs with more experience have been through this before, and have written books (maps) about it and created courses about it. Now is the time to learn about the strategies you can use in REI. When is the best time to flip? How is a contract assigned? What is the best way to buy and hold?
How is critical mass defined? Like most areas of success, the definition is almost always up to you. Do you want sellers to call you and beg you to buy their properties for fifty cents on the dollar? Do you want to earn an additional $10K per month by signing a paper and then assigning it to another investor? Do you want to get 10 properties under your belt in 4 weeks and a cash flow of $4000 per month?
Critical mass is when you spend the same amount of effort (follow a systematic approach to success) and get more out of that effort. It could be something like this. Wake up Monday morning, check your email for the top 10 deals sellers send you overnight. Send 25 postcards. Drive by to view 4 property citations. Prepare 2 contract offers. Call your real estate agent friend to tell him what to send him next. Take the afternoon off to go fishing. Wake up on Tuesday morning. Check your email, respond to offer offers. Send 25 letters. Go through the properties you are changing to check the progress of the job. Accept the phone numbers of your FSBO contractor that you have seen while traveling. (You get a bird dog fee if you close a deal.) Visit the title company to sign on a property that you flipped. Stop by the bank to deposit the check. (they call you sir now).
You get the idea. REI will give you the freedom to live the life you want, but that life must include the love of finding the deal. Finding the deal means asking people why. Why are you selling? Why don’t you give me the low low price? Why don’t you want to turn this around yourself?
Your critical mass will come once you get past the initial efforts and it becomes second nature, make the calls, send the postcards, visit the neighborhoods you want to shop in, go to the REI meetings in your town, do something extra today, which will turn into another $10K next month, which you can reinvest in Real Estate and generate an extra $100K per year with no effort.
The push starts with a push. What effort did you make today to start your momentum?