Have you ever ran out of gas and had to push your car? Come on, we were all teenagers once, trying to eke one more mile from the tank of fuel, or just experimenting to see how far under E you could get the needle to go. That's one of my favorite episodes of SEINFEILD, when Kramer gets the car salesman to "KEEP ON GOING!" just to see how far they could get.
Actually, that could be a really good mantra for your REI career. KEEP ON GOING. That's 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. Its simple physics, which I'm awful at, but the principle is the same. A body at rest will remain at rest unless acted upon by an outside force. Which means the car won't move until you push it. So you sit there and shove and heave, and ho, until the wheels inch forward. Then what happens? As the car gains momentum, it begins to move faster and easier, and once it reaches a certain speed, you just have to keep the pressure constant and it will almost roll on its on. Almost automatically.
And if you ease off the pressure? The car slows back down, eventually coming to a complete stop. Then you have to spend even more energy just to get back to where you were. What if someone helps you push the car? Then you can reach your maximum momentum (critical mass) even faster.
So your REI career right now may be like the stalled car. You need an outside force to act upon you to get you up off your lazy bottom and out in the field. If you don't think right now is the best time to employ a buy and hold strategy, and put cash in your pocket every month, then you need to go sell life insurance. If you think you can't flip for profit, then it's time to hit the job search sites and find a less successful, less easy career.
Still here? Good, because now I'm going to let you in on a little secret. If you want to reach critical mass in your REI career quickly, you just have to follow a map. The market today is just like the market in 1989-90 (same President, with the same last name, and the same contender going for his title). What that means for you as an REI is that while the media is screaming about how bad things are, they will go up again. In some pockets soon.
Other, more experienced REI's have been through this before, and they have written books (maps) about it, and created courses about it. Now is the time to educate yourself about the strategies you can use in REI. When is the best time to flip? How do you assign a contract? What's the best way to buy and hold?
How do you define critical mass? 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 at fifty cents on the dollar? Do you want to earn an extra $10K per month by signing a piece of paper and then assigning it to another investor? Do you want to get 10 properties under your belt in 4 weeks, and cash flow $4000 per month?
Critical Mass is when you expend the same amount of effort (follow a systematic approach to success) and reap greater results from that effort. It might go something like this. Wake up Monday morning, check your e-mail for the 10 deals sellers sent you overnight. Mail out 25 postcards. Drive to view 4 property appointments. Draw up 2 contract offers. Call your realtor buddy to tell him what to send you next. Take the afternoon off to go fishing. Wake up Tuesday morning. Check your e-mail, respond to deal offers. Mail out 25 letters. Go by the properties you're flipping to check the progress of the work. Accept the phone numbers from your contractor of FSBO's he's seen while riding around. (he gets a bird dog fee if you close a deal). Visit the title company to sign on a property you flipped. Drop 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 a love of finding the deal. Finding the deal means asking people the Why questions. Why are you selling? Why won't you give me the low low price? Why don't you want to flip this yourself?
Your critical mass will come once you've pushed past the initial efforts and it becomes second nature, to make the calls, to send the postcards, to visit the neighborhoods you want to buy in, to go to the REI meetings in your city, to do the one thing extra today, that will turn into another $10K next month, that you can plow back into Real Estate and generate an extra $100K per year with no effort at all.
Momentum begins with a push. What effort did you make today to start your momentum?
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