So I had this conversation a few days ago at my office.

Quite frankly, I hadn’t thought about this particular “deal” in a long time.

“Unusual lead sources. That’s an interesting topic. Have any good stories to share with me before Monday?”

“Sure,” I replied. “The deal I got from a drug dealer in DC was pretty interesting. And, it turned out to be a good deal.”

The story is pretty good, and it was a referral from a drug dealer in DC – who I never met.

When we finished I was told “You have to share that on Monday.”

People are always watching and listening – whether you are paying attention or not.

This is even more true in tough parts of any city.

People from these “tough” areas grow up knowing they have to look over their shoulders for any trouble.

Parents in DC were constantly telling their kids to “stay out of trouble” back when DC was the drug and crime capital of the country.

Back then, it seemed like drug dealers ran the city. You had to be careful in some parts of the city 24 hours a day.

I was younger and some of my friends would quickly add “dumber as well” when this story took place.

The lead on this property happened because I was never afraid to connect with people – no matter their station in life.

If you have left over biases from your childhood, or were raised with hints of racism I would guess you are going to have limited success in our business.

Moving forward, as our county becomes even more diverse – as it always has – you are going to have even more trouble.

Here is a hard truth for some people – DC is already a very diverse city.

Our unique metro area has people from every country in the world. You just never know who you might bump into. Language barriers still exist in some parts of our area.

If we all looked, talked, dressed and acted the same – how boring would that be?

In any group having people that have a weird sense of humor, or are a bit eccentric make any community feel like it’s more alive.

Do you know how to connect with people who are different from you? Can you connect with people who speak different, dress different or have different customs than you are used to? And if they are different, are you still willing to help them?

I hope so.

I see this situation a lot-

I happens to so-called “white-collar” people who say they will never go into some parts of the DC metro area.

On the flip side some people won’t go into “snooty” neighborhoods because “rich people” don’t need help.

Both of these people are crossing out millions of people – because they want to feel comfortable and only deal with people from their neighborhood.

Back to this story at my office.

Had I looked down on people in this particular neighborhood I never would have made a nice profit. Had I looked down on people because they were “drug dealers” or came from “bad” neighborhoods I would have missed out on 100’s of thousands of dollars.

The entire process got started with one simple act.

I’m going to tell you the whole story Monday night at our March WREIA meeting.

At WREIA this month we will talk about unusual lead sources. Most of these sources require you to have the ability to connect with people.

Come out on Monday, March 18th, and hear what is working (and not working) across the DC area.

What’s not working – looking down your nose at someone because they are different from you.

What is working is connecting with and genuinely trying to help people.

Join us at WREIA this month and you can learn from REAL PEOPLE having REAL SUCCESS in Real Estate.

Happy March and see you soon!

John Peterson
Founder, Washington Real Estate Investors Association

Oh, and Wholesalers – bring your deals to share with the members!