The 3 Keys to Building Your Dream Team

You WILL NOT Succeed in Building Wealth with Real Estate Without This!

Most successful real estate investors say that of all the mistakes they’ve made, not having the right team is definitely one of the biggest.

If you are going to invest in real estate as opposed to buying your own home to live in for personal reasons, you must work with professionals who specialize in real estate investing. For example, if you are specializing in flipping houses, you need an agent who can find you a deal; one who can negotiate a good purchase price and one who will not discredit a property that needs work. If you’re looking for an apartment building, it’s important to use an agent who does only multi-family, as an agent who has not worked in multi-family will not know how to source them, will not know how to do the math on them, and for sure will not know the conditions needed to help you get a solid offer in place.

The importance of sourcing and working with specialists that are exceptional at what they do is a huge factor in the level of success you will achieve.

Lets start with the importance of relationships - nobody is self made. You’re only as good as the people you work with. Beginner or veteran, it's critical to surround yourself with a great team.

Successful real estate investment is about what you know AND who you know. This is one of the most important tips you need to know to succeed. For long term success, surround yourself with experts and fellow investors who have the same vision. Building the right relationships takes that extra effort, a message that I will constantly reinforce to you. It means doing the extra 1% that other investors just aren't willing to do.

Networking is the same in all fundamental aspects. However, you need to get the concept a little more tailored to your vision for your real estate investing business. Your current network might already be helpful. All successful investors have relationships with people who send them opportunities or guidance in the form of mentoring and so on; people that help them buy and/or maintain their properties. In many cases, the right people will provide services that enable investors to do more while spending less time and effort. As a business person, I call this leverage. You can accomplish more with qualified help than you can accomplish alone.

You need to get to work by establishing a dream team for your investment career; even if you are only purchasing a few properties.

This network is an intentionally recruited group of people who all play a key role in helping YOU -  the investor, succeed.

Finding All the Right People You Need for Each Part of the Process

This is where you learn everything you need to know, and finish everything you need to get done. This network is very important to your wealth building future goals. The members of this group will help you from beginning to end with your transactions.

Before you get to investing, set your team up first.

If you set everything up at the beginning, you will be on the front end of good decisions; instead of on the backend of desperate ones. You will be able to make great decisions quickly, because you will not have to slow down and go looking for the right people. If you want to be the best investor that you can possibly be, you need to surround yourself with the best network that you possibly can.

Close Professionals

You need to actively, purposefully, and selectively build powerful working relationships that are long term and mutually beneficial. You need to start off with a network of those closest to you currently. This network needs to be filled with the people that are already committed to you; they are the people who care about your financial success and your well being. All of them should have more investment/financial knowledge, experience, and success than you. You want them to mentor and guide you. If there is something where you do not know what to do, they will tell you or connect you with someone who does. If you need a partner, they will be that person or they will find you one. They broaden their way of helping you, or they find someone who can, in any of your investment endeavors. Think of this group as your informal board of directors for building wealth, and real estate investment decisions.

Fiduciary Professionals

As a real estate investor, these people will always look out for your best interests in all of your transactions and dealings. They have the ability to manage any of the transaction pieces for you, and if need be they can manage all of them. This network will form the foundation of the professional team you rely on, and they will be with you on every transaction:

• Real Estate Agents
• Lenders
• Accountants
• Lawyers
• and others brought in on every opportunity in an important way

These people are key to almo st every transaction you will do. You'll want to make sure these team members are also the best at what they do. These are areas that can really harm you and your success in terms of legalities, lawsuits, CRA and IRS issues, etc. Make sure these people are at the top of their field when choosing them to be on your dream team.

The most important person on investors team is a great Real Estate Agent.

Real estate agents play a huge role in finding a deal, valuing a property, losing the deal, and many other factors that can make you or lose you money. It can be difficult to find a real estate agent who will return calls and respond quickly enough for an investor.

Answering the phone or returning a call quickly is the first sign of a good agent. And its important because investors need speed to get the good deals. This speed could mean the difference between getting an offer accepted and another buyer getting the property.

After you find an agent who answers their phone, there's still a lot of work to do. You have to make sure they know what they're doing; test their knowledge by asking simple questions about the types of homes you're looking to buy. For example:

• How do you handle multiple offer situations?
• How do short sales work?
• If I were to sell one of my houses, how would you market it?

See how confident they are with answering these questions. If they don't know everything that's okay, but they should tell you that they don't know and that they will find out. And of course, make sure your real estate agent is specialized in rental properties. It helps if your realtor knows the rental market and the investment property market to help you determine the best locations, rent prices, and help you avoid potential problems that you don't see, especially as a beginner.

Independent Contractors and Freelancers

These are the people who perform specific functions for your particular properties or transactions:

• Inspectors
• Appraisers
• Insurance Agents
• Electricians
• Painters
• Roofers
• Plumbers
• Landscapers
• and others you might need depending on the situation

These people are the skilled professionals who will provide the specific services you need in order to close and maintain your investments.

Remember, what they do, how well they do it, and what they charge for doing it can make or break your deal.

With this in mind, you will need to be very intentional and precise as to who you bring onto your team. Make sure that you do your proper due diligence and research, and use your advisors for advice and guidance on finding and choosing these professionals.

Once I develop a network, I will harness and maintain those relationships for the rest of my investing and business life. Remember, you need to stay active in maintaining and nurturing your network throughout your investing career.

Practice excellence in all that you do. Do everything in your real estate business at a certain level of excellence, and demand the same with your team. If they are not willing to play at your level, you may need to trade them for another expert who will.

If you want to learn more about creating wealth and securing your financial freedom through investing in real estate click here to see how I can help you on your path.