Rob Swanson here, and I’d like to share with you an important lesson that took me a number of years to learn.
But, I had the good fortune of helping my brother, Joe, learn this lesson much quicker, when I was helping him get started in real estate investing. Thanks, in large part, to the lesson I’m teaching you today, Joe enjoyed impressive success.
We’re talking $12k in just 45 days. Yeah, impressive.
Now, you might be a somewhat seasoned investor… if so, keep reading, because this info is for you, too, not just those who are new REI. Yes, we’re focusing on leads, which pro investors know how to generate, but we’re also going to talk about how you interact with the leads that you generate.
So, whether you’re building an inbound arbitrage system, lead selling operation, or a full-blown wholesaling business like mine and like I helped Joe start, or some other kind of real estate investing game… this lesson applies to you.
Please learn it now sooner than later so you can skip the learning curve — like Joe was able to do —and accelerate your success and profits, with whatever shape your business happens to be taking.
Now, here’s the story of how Joe’s success almost didn’t happen… he was about to let a hot lead fall through the cracks, because he was going to wait to call the lead back. (Bad!)
Here’s what went down and my advice to my brother that led him to succeed.
Easy profit cities for the win
First, as I taught Joe, my approach to REI is what I call “easy profit cities.”
The preface there is that not all cities are created equal. And this strategy certainly has speed to success, when followed correctly.
Basically, easy profit cities means you can live wherever you want… but you’re going to invest where the market will give you a payday. And this might be a mental hurdle to get over. But once you see how this works, I think and hope you’ll feel good about it.
See, I’m a huge believer in building a virtual house flipping machine. Now, if you live in what would classify as an easy profit city, you have it right in your local backyard — and that’s great.
But if you don’t choose to live where you want to invest — where the market will give you regular, repeated paydays — you’ve got to pick the right market.
Let’s go back in time…
Second, I remember talking with Joe on the phone while he was on a road trip. He’d recently kicked off his REI journey, with my help, by launching a direct mail campaign in an easy profit city. Leads were coming in…
Joe hopped on a call with a lead on a Saturday, and I listened in. I clearly heard that this woman was ready to sell. She does not want the house. It’s a thorn in her side. She was motivated.
Wanna know what Joe said after the call ended?
He told me he’d get back to her on Monday. Bad!
See, he was operating with a different mindset than what’s needed for REI. He was thinking, “Well, I’m just getting back from a family vacay… it’s Saturday, that’s not a workday… work is Monday-Friday, 9-5.”
Care to know what I said?
“That deal’s gone on Monday.”
That was a pivotal moment for Joe, as he quickly learned that if he wanted success, he had to reframe his approach to this business.
I then asked him: How bad do you want success, Joe?
Then I said, because if it was me, I’d pull over at the next city, in front of a coffee shop, connect to the Wi-Fi, and call the seller back as quickly as possible to close that lead. Or, if I’ve only got my cell and no Wi-Fi, I’d pull over, open my FreedomSoft CRM, click the lead, and make the call.
I’d call her back right away and have a conversation right then and there.
I said, Joe, you can’t sit around. You’ve got to be an action-taker and quickly because great deals in real estate investing don’t wait around for people. When a great deal comes along, it’s usually because that particular seller is done. They’ll talk to anybody and everybody they think of who can help them do away with the property.
Look, when a lead like that comes in, you’ve got to jump on it quickly.
So, the first thing that I wrote down after my convo with Joe, to help turn this $10 bill into a $10,000 payday, was: Do the hard thing right now.
Again, the reason that’s so important is because great deals don’t wait, so action right now is the most critical thing you can do, even if it’s imperfect action.
Thankfully, Joe listened to my advice and got back to the seller asap.
Imperfect action is better than perfect action in waiting.
Think of it another way: purpose over pleasure.
Sure, it would have been great for Joe to enjoy the scenic drive from California to Colorado, waiting to call the seller on Monday. That’s pleasure-driven action.
But purpose-driven action was to pull over at the next rest stop and call the lead.
Joe did that, whew. But the seller didn’t answer! So he ended up driving to the next city a few minutes away and called again.
They connected, finished the convo, and Joe told her he’d send her the paperwork asap.
So, he drove a bit farther to find a place that had Wi-Fi, and he sent her the papers, getting the house under contract. Whew.
Right then, Joe had an epiphany. He realized this purpose-driven approach applies to other aspects of life, too. Here’s just a couple:
- I don’t always want to get up and go work out. But I do.
- I don’t always want to eat that particular dish, so I hit my macros. But I do.
Purpose over pleasure.
Now, it doesn’t mean that you’re not allowing pleasure to show up, of course…
But I advise you to do the hard thing right now, because if you do the hard thing right now, the hard thing becomes easier tomorrow and easier the next day and easier the day after that.
See, because Joe was still learning the script for that closing conversation with a seller, that convo was harder at that time than it is today because he was still learning…
He was working on improving his newly learned REI skills, AND he hadn’t oriented his mind yet from a 9-5 mentality to an entrepreneur’s mentality, which says you’ve got to put in the effort in right now, even if it’s imperfect action — imperfect action is better than waiting for perfect action.
Final thoughts
So, if you’re thinking, “Yikes, if I take imperfect action, I’m gonna screw it up” — I get it. No one likes to mess up.
Remember, though, the hard thing becomes easier as you go and even as you screw up. Fail forward, learn from mistakes, and take action.
Do the hard thing right now. Today.
Here’s to your success,
Rob