I was out at a current renovation today, going over a few design decisions.

I needed a few minutes to go outside and research a few “competitive” properties that had recently sold. While I was out there, I stopped for a couple minutes to share with you a few more details about our upcoming Sept. WREIA meeting.

I thought one of the segments of the meeting is particularly relevant to anyone who is struggling to find deals.

First of all, it has always been difficult to find deals.

Real deals. The kind you can actually make a profit from and not stress about losing money due to tight margins and limited or overly restrictive budgets.

Some of you have skills that you think are unrelated to real estate.

Here is some news – almost anyone can take their skills and use them in the wide world of real estate investing.

Accountant – you might be very good with budgeting.

Photographer – you probably have an eye for marketing pieces to sell the property.

Plumber or electrician – obviously, you can put your skills to use.

Decorator – you can be useful when it comes to staging for sale.

Maybe you’re a web developer, painter, project manager, have great sales or soft people skills, analyst, landscaper and the list goes on, and on, and on.

And on.

And on.

• So the question is this – how do you take your skills and use them to find a deal?

It may seem obvious, but use them to get into the market and start networking with people that are already where you want to go.

Learn from them by offering your skills first.

Prove you are competent in your field first – and then, time permitting, ask a few questions of your own.

• How do you do that?

Our speaker will tell you how he used his skills to enter a handful of completely separate markets and instantly networked his way into dozens of active investors who openly invited him into their world.

Let me tell you – that closed network of active investors is where you find the location specific details and the deals that never see the light of day on the MLS or public markets.

Is it an unfair advantage?

Is it “shady backroom” deal making?

I will say unequivocally – NO!

Small minded people who don’t understand this business usually get discouraged quickly and think it’s a business only for insiders.

They don’t understand a basic law of business.

You need to give first – then, you can receive.

When you violate this law – nature will run it’s course and it will ultimately end in failure.

That’s how little ol’ you can compete against the large billion dollar hedge funds and companies like Zillow that are buying property all across the country.

One of my students use really struggle finding deals. When deals finally started to roll in for him he would call me and start with “John! I’m finally picking up what you’re putting down!”

He used his “blue collar” skills to get in. Once he was in, he leveraged a pleasing attitude and sense of humor, and started “asking for orders”.

If you understand what I’m saying here and want to hear more – join us Monday night at WREIA.

FYI – as a last note – this process works for any business. So if you know a small business owner or service provider, invite them to our meeting Monday night.

If that small business owner is struggling to grow their business and is saying things like “It’s harder than it used to be” or “There are no deals/clients/people in my market right now” they need to hear what our speaker will be putting down at the September WREIA Meeting this Monday night.

See you Monday!