Cracking The Real Estate Investing Bottleneck (Transcript)

Damian Lanfranchi writing to you from Jaco Beach, Costa Rica; one of the surfing hot spots of the world. I got a chance to get out on a board for the first time, actually got to stand up. It’s been a dream of mine. Today I’m gonna talk about something that’s so important to you as a Real Estate investor and a business owner.

This is something that I’ve gone through so many times in my business. You get to a point where you can’t get to the next level, can’t push the business forward and it’s just not happening. I’m gonna share with you a hands on strategy to crack that bottleneck in your business.

First we need to find out what a bottle neck is. I have my trustworthy Hawaiian Tropic sunscreen which I definitely need here in Costa Rica. Down at the bottom, the bottle is very thick and up at the top it gets thin. That’s what known as the bottle neck. That’s where the expression comes from because no matter how hard I squeeze on this tube it’s only gonna flow out as fast as this little part up here will allow it to.

When I want it to flow out faster, I need to make the neck wider. This is where you come in, because you need to understand the sticking point in a Real Estate investing business. If you don’t properly identify that, you can pour more and more work in. You can make the other parts of the bottle wider and wider but you’re never actually gonna get more profits to flow out at the end of the day. So we need to take a look at the core parts you need to effectively compete as a Real Estate investor.

First you need to be able to attract buyer and sellers. If you’re not attracting motivated buyers and sellers you’re not gonna be able to get good deals. You need to schedule appointments with them. Get them to agree to speak with you in person.

Once you get the appointment you need to be able to close the deal. You have to know the bests Real Estate strategies and approaches to profit on the deal. You have to have the financing. Also you need a place to actually sell the deal, whether you sell it to a wholesaler or a rent hold strategy, or a lease purchase.

The key is understanding that any one of these activities listed above could be your bottleneck. It’s different for every real estate investor. In fact, it will even change with time, over different stages of your business. But you need to know where to start.

THERE’S GONNA BE TESTING!

Here’s the litmus test that’s really gonna help you crack your Real Estate Investing bottleneck. You need to ask yourself “If this one thing was different, would my Real Estate Investing business be radically different?” Stop and read that again.

You see, there are two huge mistakes that investors make. And I don’t want you to make them.
For example, let’s say you get a lot of opportunities to sit down with motivated sellers but you don’t know how to actually close the deal.

Well getting more education on structuring the deal isn’t gonna help you get more deals, right? It’s not gonna solve that bottleneck. Even getting more motivated sellers won’t help either. Your bottleneck is not knowing how to close the deal! Yet, so often an investor in a situation like this will just cry out – give me more motivated sellers.

Now, if your problem is that you’re not able to turn properties, again having more seller leads or education isn’t help. You need to find buyers or wholesale investors to sell your properties. Sounds simple, but it’s a huge mistake most investors make every day. Missing the bottleneck and focusing on the wrong part of their biz.

Let me introduce the second step and I think it’ll make more sense. I’ve come to the danger of making this mistake too, and that’s thinking that just because you’re not profiting as much, the whole thing is broken. Let me give you an example. I had a joint venture with this real nice guy, Jeremy. We had a promotional call and 300 people pre-registered for the event. The problem is only about 20 people showed up. However, we closed 4 or 5 deals that day, which is 20 – 25%.

A lot of people would step back and go “I did all this work and I only brought 4 or 5 new clients onto my service. You shouldn’t work with this guy. It was a bad joint venture. It was a bad fit.” That’s just not the case. Look at what we did right.

We got the people to pre-register. That was tremendously successful. The conversion rate was also tremendously successful. The bottleneck was the show rate. So we just didn’t do a good enough job reminding people to actually show up for the call, or possibly scheduling it at a time that was more convenient.

Again that’s why you need to focus on this bottleneck. You don’t want to make the mistake of saying “Nothing works.” Maybe you’re getting great motivated seller leads. Maybe you’re getting them to schedule appointments. Maybe you’re closing the deals. But maybe you just don’t know how to analyze the deal and find the profit. The bottleneck is you need to understand better how to profit from Real Estate Investing deals.

Finally, what do you say we really smash that real estate investing bottleneck? I can’t tell you how many Real Estate Investor watch videos, watch training, and I’ve been guilty of it before as an entrepreneur; then do nothing. If you have excuses like “I’m too busy. I don’t have the money. I don’t know enough. I’m not professional enough” whatever the case may be, those excuses will always be there tomorrow. When you’re in excuse mode, you’re not thinking in terms of execution.

There’s always gonna be risks.  There’s always gonna be people who tell you you’re crazy. That’s why fortune favors the bold. That’s why the possibilities, as a Real Estate Investor, are limitless. Most people don’t have the guts to do it. So don’t make excuses. If you want to do it step forward and do it.

ACTION JACKSON
So I promised you I was gonna leave you with that action step. I want you to look at your business again. I lined up those different steps that every investor needs to do; attract buyers and sellers, schedule appointments, negotiate and close deals, know how to maximize profit, find the financing, and turn the properties. Look at those core steps and really ask yourself “Where is the bottleneck in my business?”

Find it and identify it.

Then take the proper steps to crack it wide open. It’s the only way to grow your business, and fast.

So this is Damian. I hope you enjoyed cracking the Real Estate Investing Bottleneck. Now go out there and kick some butt!