If I asked you to describe your perfect real estate deal to me, would you be able to give me five things that HAD to be in the deal to make it “ideal”?
If I asked you the same question about your perfect real estate agent or mortgage broker or investment partner, would you be able to give me the 5 most important qualities of each off the top of your head?
When Michael Losier, author of Law of Attraction, asked me to describe my perfect joint venture partner, I froze! Um, ah – “I want him to have money”.
Michael said, “Well, I have lots of money. That doesn’t mean I am going to invest it with you.”
Ouch! But, his point was well taken. I wasn’t clear. And, I am pretty sure this lack of clarity has been holding me back! How do I know what I am looking for if I can’t clearly describe my ideal joint venture partner? The same goes for a deal, a realtor, a mortgage broker, a lawyer and so on!
You see, many things are important to your success as a real estate investor. Taking the time to complete good market research, carrying out careful due diligence, and using a little creativity are all important. Some things are helpful but you can work around them like good credit or cash in the bank. And, other things, may not be necessary at all when you first start out like finding a high powered courtroom attorney and a full time book keeper. But the one thing that you do need is an idea of what you’re doing and why.
We’ve always said that you start with your goals. Figure out where you want to go, then make a plan to take you from where you are today, to where you want to be. We’ve said it’s the one thing you must do in order to overcome emotions in real estate investing and it’s always the first step in our real estate investing process. But, as we sat down with Michael Losier, author of Law of Attraction it became obvious that we hadn’t taken this step quite far enough yet.
And the most beautiful part of this whole story is that it only took Michael about 5 minutes to help all of us on the call describe our perfect joint venture partner. This one single tool (and he gave us many tools on the call to use in our lives and our investing business) has already changed my real estate investing life.
He told us to:
1. Take out a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle to create two columns.
2. At the top of the left hand column write CONTRAST. At the top of the right hand column write CLARITY.
3. Beside CONTRAST write negative.
4. Now, in the column of CONTRAST write down everything you DO NOT like or DO NOT want in a joint venture partner.
Suddenly – I had a long list. I don’t like partners that don’t call me back, that never have money, that are too controlling … I could go on and on. It was really easy to describe everything I didn’t like or didn’t want in a partner.
Next, Michael said, “So, what DO you want?” You don’t want a partner that never calls you back, so you want a partner that is “Responsive and easy to get in touch with”. You don’t want a partner that never has any money, you want a partner with “lots of investment money they will use for your investments”. And we went down the list … and every time we created the specific detail about what we DID WANT, we crossed out the corresponding negative item. (You can download a copy of my Contrast/Clarity Example Here)
It felt great! I had clarity. And, I felt good about it. No wonder Oprah loves this man!
I’m now sitting down to create a contrast and clarity sheet for every aspect of our real estate investing business. I know that I will find better partners, better deals, and better team members in the future because I will know exactly what I am looking for and what is ideal!
Check out Michael Losier’s work on his website: http://www.lawofattractionbook.com
He has a $99/year program where you can get on the phone LIVE with him for 60 minutes every month. He also has a new book coming out in June – all about improving the connections in your lives. As real estate investors, our entire world is about connections so we’ve already preordered it!
Oh, and if you want to listen to the call to learn all the tools and read the transcript, you can order a copy here. But you’ll want to do so soon as we’re only selling it until May 21st!
Posted on May 14th, 2009
