8 Property Investing Success Principles

Principle number three, is when we're dealing with these motivated sellers, we're always looking for the ethical win-win solution. We're looking for people who've got problems, not so that we can take advantage, but so we can help solve that problem and help that person. If you help someone, they're going to be far more likely to give you what you want. So it's needs to be an ethical win-win, it's got to work for the seller and it's also got to work for you. Now this is a numbers game. We're going to speak to lots of people who we just can't help, the numbers don't work, or maybe they don't open up enough to us to allow us to help them. We want to find great deals where we can help the seller and we can also get a great deal as well. Now that links into success principle number four. One of the ways of getting people to open up is by asking great questions and listening to what they say.

A mistake I see investors make all the time is they have a list of questions, they rattle through the questions and it feels a bit like an interview. Also they're not really building rapport with the owner and they're not really listening to what the owner's saying. Rather than worrying about what the next question you should ask is, imagine that just you're having a conversation. You ask a question, they say something back to you and based on what they say to you, that influences the next question you should ask, not necessarily the next one on your list. If you ask the right questions, open questions that get them talking, it's amazing what sellers will tell you and what they will share with you. What that means is it's more likely you'll be able to find out what the problem is and then come up with an ethical solution that's going to give you a great deal and give them what they need.

The next success principle, number five, is always have an open mind. A common mistake I see people make is they go into a deal wanting to do a certain type of strategy, maybe they want to do a purchase lease option or something. And actually maybe in that circumstance, a purchase option may not be appropriate and may not be the best strategy. So rather than having tunnel vision and rather than making assumptions about what the owner would want or wouldn't want, always have an open mind. Go in with the aspect of wanting to help this person, ask some great questions and based on what they say, you could work out what a great solution would be for this particular situation and then sense-check all the details. .

Number six is if you make decisions on your own in isolation, you might miss something. Maybe something's not such a good deal or you've missed an important point. Or maybe a deal's a really good deal and because it almost seems too good to be true, you don't do it and actually all you needed was a bit of encouragement from someone else saying, “Yeah this is a great deal.” So always find someone, a coach, a mentor or buddy who you can sense-check all your deals with to make sure you haven't missed anything, and to encourage you to move forward when it's a really good deal. After all when you see a really good deal, you should absolutely move quickly because if you don't, someone else will snap it up.

Principle number seven is always make an offer on every single property you view. Does that mean you want to buy every property you view? Of course not. Obviously there are some properties that are perfect for you in the right location that fit your strategy. Well those, you're going to offer a higher offer that works for you and that's good for the seller. But there will be some properties where you’ll say, “Well that's not really what I want, it's not the right location.” But I guarantee there will be a price that, if it’s low enough, will be a good deal for you. So the ones you want, you might make higher offers and the ones you don't really want, you want to make really nice low offers. You'll be surprised that sometimes those low offers are accepted and that means at that low price, it’s a really good deal. So always make an offer on every single property you visit. Don't have any wasted trips, always make an offer.

That links in very nicely with success principle number eight, which is you need to follow up and be persistent. When you first speak to a seller or when you make an offer to them, very often they're not going to be motivated enough, and they don't take that offer. What most amateurs do is they forget that and they walk away from it thinking, “Oh that's not really a very good deal to do, I'm not going to worry with that.” They move on to the next, failing to recognise that most sellers will become more motivated with time. What this means is as time goes on, they become more and more motivated. So what you need to do is make sure you have a really good, simple follow-up system. You speak to someone one month and if they're not interested, the next month you follow up again, find out where they're up to. Maybe it's a text or an email or call to them, but find out what the situation is because if they still have that property they haven't sold, they might be even more motivated. Some of my students have done deals literally years after first speaking to a seller because they've been following up consistently.

If you follow these eight success principles, I guarantee you, you will do more deals. So, to summarise. Success principle number one is look for sellers, not for property. Number two plug into a community, and get help from that community rather than trying to do everything on your own. Number three is always look for the ethical win-win that works for you and the seller. Number four is we ask great questions and listen carefully to the answers that will help us determine the next question we should ask. Success principle number five is we always have an open mind, never make any assumptions about what the seller might want or might not want. We don't know so that's why we have to ask them good questions. Number six, every deal you have, sense-check it with someone else. If it's a great deal, you might want some motivation to move forward and do it, if it's not such a good deal, you want to make sure you don't buy those lemons that you're going to regret buying. Number seven, always make an offer on every single property you view. It's going to adjust depending on how much you want the property or not. And number eight is always follow up and be persistent. The only reason you will not be successful in property or achieve what you want, as long as you know what to do, is if you give up. So you need to be persistent and you need to keep going.