Rich Dad Education Blog

After you have laid the groundwork for your real estate investing business by establishing a solid power team, acquired the educational foundation necessary, and done a few deals, your sights will undoubtedly turn to expanding your business. How you market your business at this point can vary dramatically. The most common approach people take is to proceed as they had up to this point, through hard work and getting out there, calling on properties, and through the marketing that had been effective for them up to this point. While this will be included as an aspect of almost every real estate investor, it will also limit you if it is the only avenue you can take. You only have so many hours in the day, and even the most efficient, hard-working individual has a limited supply of time.

Because of our limited time, one way in which many successful real estate investors expand their real estate investing business is through referrals. You are professional in your approach, so it would be natural that those you do business with would like to refer others to you, right? This may seem completely logical, but if you simply sit by your phone, waiting for those you deal with to send referrals your way, then you will have a lot of spare time on your hands. To get your referral marketing going, you are going to have to invest some time, along with losing any shyness you have, in asking for referrals from others.

Here are a few areas that cover the basics of a referral marketing program. One of the keys to all of this is for you to be someone worth doing business with. If you offer a good service, then your referral marketing program will have a greater chance of success as others will be far more likely to refer those people they know and come into contact with.

Get the Word Out

The most obvious place to start is to ask buyers, sellers, and renters you deal with for referrals. Business associates can also be another source for your referral program, and an expanding network can lead to referrals going both ways on deals that might not be right for you, but work well for others with their own real estate investing business. A nice way to entice those whom you ask for referrals to put thought or time into them is to offer up some sort of compensation or incentive. Some states consider referral fees in certain real estate transactions as real estate commissions, and limit payment of commissions to licensed real estate agents and brokers. Be sure any compensation you offer referral sources is legal in your state.

You are not going to be in contact with most past buyers or sellers on a weekly or monthly basis, so keeping an organized list of your past contacts. Checking on them from time to time will remind them of you, and that you welcome their referrals. No matter who you deal with, be genuinely interested in their side of the deal, and they will be more likely to help you out with what you need. A past buyer who only thinks you are contacting them for a referral will likely be a poor source of help.

Establishing Yourself as an Expert

There are only so many people you will come into contact with during the course of your real estate dealings. To expand your referral marketing program to a larger level, you will need to find new venues. As a general rule, those interested in real estate love information and knowledge. Even simple steps, such as starting a blog, a quarterly electronic newsletter, or submitting articles to venues that can get you published, can go a long way in establishing your credibility.

In this process, you never want to pass on an opportunity to speak at a professional meeting or conduct a workshop, if the opportunity arises. At first, it would be unlikely for you to be invited to speak at such an event, so you should try to attend functions that might have referral opportunities whenever possible. This, by its nature, is an efficient use of time in expanding your real estate business

Become the People Person

If you take a genuine interest in people, then they are likely to take a genuine interest in you. You chose to become a real estate investor, so never pass up the opportunity to meet new people. At professional meetings, go out of your way to meet new people. When the opportunity arises in everyday life, don't be shy. Sure, not every person you meet will be a good opportunity for a referral, but one of them eventually will. Plus, you will work on your people skills, and become more invested in humanity while you are at it. Sounds like a win-win situation. Becoming involved more with people also means that you should look to become involved more in community groups and professional organizations.

Become the Professional

During your entire referral process, you should strive to be the consummate professional. Follow up on referrals once you have received them, send a thank you note for referrals received, and have business cards and marketing materials that clearly state that you welcome referrals. These are just a few items that go a long way to helping your professional image. The basics are important here: be courteous, be prompt, be thorough. Applying these to your marketing program will go a long way to helping your overall real estate investing program.

There is no doubt that real estate investing is not for the shy at heart. For those that wish to invest themselves in this venture, the rewards can truly transcend the material gains from real estate.

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Your average person gets up, makes a morning cup of coffee, pours a bowl of cereal, and makes some eggs—or some variation thereof. Depending on their routine, they will then turn on the morning news, read the newspaper, or surf the internet. Before, during, or after all of this will include showering, shaving, feeding the dog, and other activities that are needed to be done on a daily basis before heading off to work, school, or even for those who stay at home during the day.

Depending on the individual, the order and type of activity will change, but it is fairly common for some type of morning routine to set in for all individuals. Seldom are these developed routines conscious choices, as people often simply fall into certain patterns depending on the interests, needs, strengths, and weaknesses. There is nothing inherently good or bad about routines, as they can be a wonderful addition to someone's life, or they can include negative aspects that are a continual hindrance.

Since you are likely to fall into some sort of routine, you might as well do all you can to maximize the routine you fall into. For those that trade in the financial markets, a solid routine can help someone who still works full time to maximize their time spent trading. For those that trade full time, a solid routine can allow more time to analyze new stocks, spend time with their family, or enjoy whatever other activities that catch their interest.

Whatever you include in your routine, the key to making it stick is repetition. Over the years, I have heard many numbers thrown out to state how many days in a row you need to do something in order for it to become habit. Whether it is 15, 25, 30, or 45, there are two things for sure: first, the number of days undoubtedly varies based on the activity and individual, and, second, if you do a certain activity long enough, it will eventually become habit, so stick with whatever routine you establish religiously.

Write It Down

Since a person starting a new routine is likely going to have to break an old routine, your new routine will hardly be second nature at the start. Whether you go through your financial market activities in the morning or at night, there are likely to be some old habits you will have to break in order to establish your new, more productive habits. One thing that will likely help in this transition is to write down the exact order of how you want your routine to go, and then to follow it each day until it is no longer needed. This may seem very simple, but it is quite easy to forget something that is not habit to us already.

The items below are just a few of the areas that you could concentrate in your financial markets routine. Some people will establish this routine at night, and others in the morning, depending on their other activities going on in life. Both can be successful and both can maximize their remaining time if their routine is systematically followed.

The News

Whether it is at the start of the day or the conclusion, it is good to take a few minutes to at least check the headlines for any financial news that may have occurred. If you want to read more in depth at a later time, then do so, but for your routine, you want to just spend a few minutes to see if there is any macro news that might affect your positions or potential upcoming trades that day.

Check Current Positions

One of the first places any trader wants to go to is to see how their current active trades are doing. Since this will be a likely desire, there is nothing wrong with putting it at the top of your routine. Include it in your routine to make sure that all stops are in place, or make any adjustments you may need on your targets. Make sure this time is productive, and not just spent hoping or lamenting where you want the stock to go or not to go.

Check Your Watchlist

Any solid trader will have a developed watchlist of stocks they have been following for potential trades. The size of this list will vary dramatically, but your routine should definitely include some time to see if any of the stocks on your watchlist have setups occurring that would make them good trade candidates. Too often, traders only check their watchlist sporadically, which is ill advised as you never know when that juicy trade setup is going to occur.

Run Scans

One of the most powerful advantages to stock-trading software is the variety of scans they can perform. With the numerous parameters you can set, even the novice trader will likely have a few scans they feel comfortable with. Running scans for new trade setups or stocks to put on your watchlist is something probably left for the end of your routine, and you can allocate the time you deem necessary on any given day.

Continue Your Education

Unless you are the pro of pros, it is important that you dedicate a certain amount of time in your routine to your continuing financial markets education. Naturally, the greener you are at trading, the more time you should develop; however, even those that have been trading for years still have things they can learn. Take the time each day to invest in yourself, and it will pay dividends down the road.

How long a routine takes, when it takes place, and what is included will vary according to the individual. Whatever your situation is, there is no reason to not start today. What seems like work today will soon become habit, and while bad habits may be hard to break, good habits can be very financially rewarding.

Posted 11:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Fox's long-running television show Married with Children had quite the cast of characters. Chief among them was the father, Al Bundy, whose failures in life helped provide the comical setting that kept the show running for numerous years. Amidst all of his personal and professional failures, Al would occasionally reminisce about the one time in life that he was successful, high school. Al would tell the story of the high school football game in which he scored four touchdowns to anyone that would listen, hoping that through past glory the listener would look more favorably on the man that stood before them.

While we can laugh at a comical character such as Al Bundy, the behavior of glorifying past actions is hardly an uncommon human behavior. Sit in a circle of financial market traders, and stories of individuals' all-time best trade are bound to come up. Sit in a circle of real estate investors, and stories of that deal where the individual made a killing will eventually be told. Regardless of the professional or social circle, it is very natural for stories of great accomplishment to be told by their respective teller.

There is nothing wrong with this in small doses, as we all occasionally enjoy recanting our accomplishments, especially to those close to us or others who can relate. However, dwelling too long on single instances or even prolonged past success can be damaging to your current financial health and well-being. There is a simple truth that should be driven home: the world rarely cares what you have done or what you will do, it only cares what you are doing.

There are many television shows that highlight past rock stars, athletes, and celebrities and chronicle what they once accomplished, and compare it with what they are currently doing. What makes these shows appealing to many is the wide discrepancy between past accomplishments and the current state of the respective musician, athlete, or celebrity. Oftentimes, the fall from grace is quite severe, and the one-time celebrity that had more cash, cars, and homes than they knew what to do with is now destitute, having to work regular jobs to pay their bills. These individuals have fabulous stories to tell, but they are just that—stories, tales of past accomplishment when times were much better.

One of the teachings I have always enjoyed most in the Rich Dad philosophy is Robert Kiyosaki's constant emphasis on what we do today. What we are going to do tomorrow, and what we might accomplish, is irrelevant to what we do and accomplish today. In fact, dwelling on tomorrow too much can be damaging. Mr. Kiyosaki points out: "The most life-destroying word of all is the word tomorrow." Any action today is infinitely better than any theoretical action tomorrow.

I believe the same principle can be applied to those who dwell too much on past accomplishment. No matter how great the real estate deal was, or how much profit was made on a trade, those events are now historical. You may have killed it in your respective market in 2006 or 2007 as many people with little real estate training did, but how many of those people today have nothing left but stories of how they once were a real estate investor.

Your past accomplishments should have one primary strength: they give you, the confidence that you can do it again. Those that are just entering real estate investing or financial market trading are often apprehensive building up to the first deal, and inaction often sets in. Even after the first deal, it is quite some time before that large payday arrives. Your past accomplishments in any area in life should give you the confidence that you can do it again, and this is a valuable asset that your hard work in the past has given you. When this confidence is coupled with action today, your chances of repeating said success increase dramatically.

Ideally repeating our past success constantly allows us to live life on the pinnacle. Very few people exist at the apex of their success or their happiness for very long. It is the rare individual that can capture the success enjoyed at their peak, and maintain it for a prolonged period of time. Principles in the Rich Dad philosophy can help you be one of the rare persons who can accomplish this. You should strive to be the individual that is constantly living the stories that others are recanting. One of the surest ways to do this is to act today, and apply the correct principles while doing so.

There is nothing wrong with the occasional story as some of the most entertaining people tell the best stories. When you start each day, however, let those stories serve simply as a confident reminder that whatever you are setting out to accomplish today;, that you have the skills and ability to do so again. Then, simply let action set in, and results will follow.

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