So you’ve completed the Six Steps to Mastering Foreclosures Home Study Program, attended the 3-Day Lab, went home and hit the ground running, and/or, signed on with a coach. You’re ready to rock!
Now let’s add to that list that you’ve made 200 – 300 calls every week; door knocked and developed relationships with several homeowners in default over the next few months, helping them find solutions for their problem. Then one day your phone rings and it’s a homeowner who says, “can you buy my house? I’m all out of options.” You run the numbers, set your meeting and sign a contract.
About a week later you open escrow and all goes well. You close escrow, the homeowner moves out, you get the repairs done and put the house on the market. House is sold a few months later and you deposit a very nice check into your bank account.
Congratulations! You’ve just done your first deal and you’re more excited then you’ve ever been in your life. You have now succeeded and can truly call yourself a Pre-Foreclosure Investor.
You now take it to the next level. You quit your “day job” tell all your friends and family about your success, and perhaps take that long awaited vacation. Then one day you look up and realize that it’s been months and you haven’t done another deal. What went wrong?
Are you a One Hit Wonder?
So what did go wrong? Most likely, it was that you allowed your pipeline to dry up. This is a common mistake with new investors, made by many – both before your first deal and after.
So what is your pipeline? Your pipeline is your bread and butter. It’s what you are filling with leads, phone calls, door knocks, and follow-ups on a weekly basis that eventually will turn into deals. If you don’t let it dry up that is.
What happens to a new Investor after his/her first deal is they get so caught up in finalizing their deal, they stop filling their pipeline. They are dotting every “I” and crossing every “T”, overseeing the rehab, and preparing to get their house on the market. During that time they stop pursing new leads, making phone calls and knocking on doors.
In the case of the new investor, they get one or two homeowners talking to them and then all their time and resources on those few hoping it will turn into a deal. The results for both are the same; their pipeline dries up.
The fact is that your first deals will most likely come from an owner in default that you made contact with a few months before. Let’s face it, it almost never happens that the first time you call an owner in default they say, “Great, I’m so glad you called, please come buy my house today.”
If that were the case you would all be sipping Mai Tai’s in Hawaii instead of reading this article… right?
So how do you avoid becoming a One Hit Wonder? For the newcomer who hasn’t done a deal yet, don’t allow yourself to give all your time and resources to only a few homeowners that are talking to you. Figure out what they need to do, set them on the path, and follow-up with them with what you tell them to do. Then, get back on the phone and at the door of your new leads.
Seriously consider investing in a personal coach to help keep you on track. For those of you who are on your first deal, let Title and Escrow, your General Contractor, and your Realtor do their job. After all, that’s what you are paying them for right?
Don’t be a micro-manager, it’s very costly. Turn it over to them and then repeat what did to get that first deal and go get another one.
Your goal is to get your investing machine working. Doing so will keep your pipeline full, which in turn will net you an average of at least one deal a month. Once you’ve done that, let’s meet on the beach in Hawaii…Mai Tai’s are on me.
Happy Investing,
Daryl White
Foreclosures.com Graduate, Investor, Lab Instructor, and Coach
