Profile of Today's Real Estate Investor by RG Williams

Investing in Real Estate has always been a solid avenue to generate large amounts of income, monthly residual income and generational income. However, the profile of today's real estate investor has dramatically changed from days gone by. 

When my mentor, Dr. A.D. Kessler risked his last $100 bill in the '40's after returning from the war, he knew that it was up to him to make things happen. He knew that no one would or could do it for him. He was responsible for his choice, his actions and had to keep himself accountable for it all. Dr. Kessler was the pioneer of creative real estate investing. He pioneered the seller financing strategies, the time share concept and was a powerhouse in the land development arena. His simple, straight forward, no hype and no nonsense approach of "What's in it for them" was his secret.

Today the new real estate investor is looking for the easy way out, they want someone else to do it for them. They are not looking for the "box of parts and instruction manual", they want the "financial hot rod" to be sitting in the garage and to be handed the keys. We have become such an instant gratification society, a "I want it now and by someone else's efforts" world. 

Dr. Kessler taught me how to use a simple "casio" calculator with a pad of paper to create an offer. The importance of discovering what the seller wanted and why they were selling. Yet it was always up to me to perform and create my own history.

Don't get me wrong, I believe that we must use the technology available to us today! However, we need to keep it simply, and most importantly we need to be responsible and accountable for our actions and choices. 

How many investors have been "caught with their pants down" during this downturn in the economy? How many of those caught are now blaming it all on their "coach" or "training program" that they purchased? What happen to taking time to learn, understanding and asking questions? What happened to learning what investments work best for your personality, or when and why to invest. With the previous few years before the decline, anyone could invest in real estate and make money. If you lived in California, Nevada, Arizona and Florida, you only had to "fog a mirror" as they say to secure a loan and then by the time you put together your marketing program and launched it, the appreciation created a financial whirlwind without much effort. Taking the time to understand market timing allowed an investor the opportunity to generate a fortune. It didn't matter what strategy to use, you would make money. Now, that the lending guidelines are tough and tight, an investor must think before investing.  

I am not foolish enough to put all of the blame on the investor! I believe that a lot of the so called "training" companies or programs available to day do not give the student a fighting chance. I also believe that some of the training programs are worthless! Let's also address the fact that the "coaches" hired with some of these training companies are nothing more than college students that read from manuals with zero investing experience! The greatest challenge to the student is ... "how do you know?"

It really is very simple, the training program you purchase (and yes I believe that you need to purchase or invest into your own improvements - and not expect it to be given to you) should care about what you need. Better said they should discover some of your personality traits so as to customize a program best suited for you. That doesn't mean that the materials need to be different for every student, they can all be the same. It does mean, however, that they should understand you in order to better serve you and train you. For example, your personality may be one who's heart breaks with every story of a family losing their house in foreclosure, therefore making it more difficult to create success with the strategy of pre-foreclosure. Maybe your personality hinders you from knocking on a strangers door. Or maybe your personality is a strong one that allows you to help a foreclosure situation without emotional connection. That does not mean that you don't care, simply that you are strong and in control of your emotions. I know that my personality does not handle family stress like that and that I am better working with banks, agents and brokers where it all comes down to business. 

Take the time to understand you, understand what makes you tick and where you will be the most effective when investing in Real Estate. 

Real Estate will continue to be the strongest avenue to generate lump sums of cash, monthly cash flow and generational cash, so get involved and invest wisely.