Delinda Harrelson

Using Brainstorming to Tackle a Problem

By admin on May. 22, 2008.

Whenever there is a large issue or problem that needs to be dealt with, few things can work as well as a brainstorming session in order to come up with the solution. If you are able to efficiently gather your thoughts for a while and focus on the question at hand, then you will be able to solve the problem quickly and with much less mental stress than usual. The key to brainstorming is to create the perfect environment, both physical and mental, for you to think as hard as possible. So if you need to do some brainstorming, follow some of these guidelines and you will be able to maximize your efforts.

First, you should completely remove any surrounding things which may distract you from the task at hand. Completely isolate yourself from the outside world. When you are brainstorming, you need to be completely alone with your thoughts, and possibly a piece of paper and a pencil to record them as they come to you. So don?t turn on music because you think it helps your brain speed up. The best thing you could do is sit in a completely quiet room with your eyes closed, and think very hard about the issue at hand.

Once you are in the ideal conditions, ideas will start to come to you extremely quickly. The process shouldn?t take more than a few minutes of meditation until you start to think of ideas. Once things start to come to you, write them down on the piece of paper that you bring along with you. Write down everything you think of. When you are brainstorming, there is no answer that should be thought of as too dumb to write down. Once you are done with the session of brainstorming, you can start to cross things off your list. But until then, you can?t be selective in your thoughts, as it will get in the way of your other thoughts.

Once you are done with the brainstorming session, you hopefully have a nice little list of things that you have thought of. If you don?t, then don?t worry. A big problem requires lots of effort to solve, and you could spend many hours brainstorming before you figure out what you will do.

Business Intelligence

By admin on May. 22, 2008.

Business Intelligence

In order to succeed in business, you need to have business intelligence. There are two definitions of business intelligence but no matter how you choose to define it, it is a good thing to have. The first has to do with an individual?s ability to understand the various aspects of running a business. The second actually has to do with a field called the Intelligence of Business.

As stated, business intelligence is the ability to know what needs to be done to succeed at business. Business intelligence can be learned if you don?t already have that skill, but most people who have a high amount of it may have already had an innate ability for it. The ones who have the innate ability are the ones who business seems to come naturally. Although, these qualities can be learned.

Another definition of business intelligence has to do with a company?s ability to assess the competition and use this information to define their place in the market. If a company needs to do some business intelligence to help assess the market and the competition, they can either hire a firm to help them out or do all the work themselves.

Things that are considered when gathering business intelligence encompass a few different categories. First, you need to understand what your customers want out of you. This may or may not have something to do with your competition. You also need to understand what your firm or company can do. Without that, you will not be able to make decisions that will accommodate your customers. You also need to understand what other companies are doing. How are they catering to their customers? Some of their customers are also your customers so observing what they do can help you in the long run. This is an especially valuable exercise to do if you want to outperform them. And after all, isn?t that what business is all about?

Business intelligence has a few different definition. It can pertain to your individual ability to succeed in business. It can also refer to the process of one company gathering information that will help them succeed. This includes information about the customers, your own company, and what your competition is doing.

First Step To Becoming A Real Estate Investor

By admin on May. 22, 2008.

Step One, Doing your homework.

This is one of the more crucial elements to becoming a wholesale real estate investor that people miss. There may be some businesses out there that you can just dive in to without doing any research, but I don’t recommend it for this one. I even recommend for those who have a little bit of experience to really think about whether they are educating themselves or not.

It’s important to understand some of the aspects of the business and what you are looking for in particular. Although you don’t need to study for months at a time to be successful, you will need to do a little research.

Where to start your research

1. Pick some neighborhoods as your target. One or two will do to start. The more narrow your focus is, the better your results will be. We are looking for median neighborhoods to start our wholesale real estate business. So ideally neighborhoods where middle class folks live. Cookie cutter neighborhoods are a great place to start, you know where all the houses look the same. Depending on your area, will depend on the price points. A good gage is an average of 150,000 priced homes in most areas. Houses built in 1970 or above are best as they usually have less problems. Brick ranch style houses are great!
2. Get to know your target neighborhoods. Drive them daily, twice daily if possible. Look for signs of crime, heavy foot traffic or any other red flags. Remember, you want to buy a house that will sell easily to someone with a family or that will feel safe. Although you will not be retailing the house yourself, the person buying it from you will be and they won’t buy it if it’s in a crime ridden neighborhood. Start looking for vacant or abandon houses, these are your first target properties that you want to focus on. Write down the information such as the address of the house, what it looks like, what kind of condition it’s in, etc. You will need to know all this. In future articles we will get more in to detail about these items, but for now you just need to familiarize yourself with the neighborhoods.
3. Get some comps. Comparables are necessary for you to know how much you can pay for the house or at least get it under contract. So, if you are familiar with Real Estate and feel comfortable doing your own comps you can always go on Realtor.com and pull area specific comps. The only problem here is that you don’t get a lot of the important information. I would recommend talking with an agent or a broker to get some true comps. You need to know: average days on market, price per square foot, % of asking price obtained, etc… Remember to only compare similar houses, for instance you need to have different comps for a one story and a two story house. Make sense? Good!

Okay, now you have someplace to start. Get started on doing your homework and I would suggest not to cut any corners. Spend some quality time on this, after all you are building a brand new business for yourself so give it 100%. If you are not willing to do this step, then you might just as well quit now because you WILL FAIL! 

It Takes Money To Make Money….Or Does It???

By admin on May. 22, 2008.

It Takes Money To Make Money…..Or Does It?

Nope, absolutely NOT! Not as a real estate investor anyway. The person who told you this is likely trying to justify why they are broke. What you are going to learn here as you come back is a step by step guide on how to make money in real estate starting with NO MONEY! It doesn’t matter if you have no job, no credit, no friends, negative net worth, bankrupt and you are absolutely broke!

The fact of the matter is that, if you can’t make money with no money, then you can’t make money with money. In the case of real estate investing, it’s likely to hurt you if you have money than if you do not. Too many times do we just throw money at problems to try and fix them. You are better off broke to start this journey.

The key is to leverage your time and your brain. Stay in control, follow the path of what someone successful left for you. There have been many people that succeed ahead of us in areas of our lives and too often we don’t follow them. We try and make our own path because we think it’s better or that we’re smarter. Don’t make this mistake. There is no room for egos in real estate investing.

A few things you need to understand before you move forward.

1. Don’t be a “Flipper”. If you are just starting out in real estate investing the last thing that you want to do is rehab and flip a house. You just don’t simply have the skill set and knowledge to pull this off. There are too many unknowns and variables when it comes to rehabbing a house for a profit. Be a wholesaler. That’s what you will learn here. If you had some big dreams and thoughts of being a flipper, then I apologize for bursting your bubble, but trust me it’s for the best!
2. If you take rejection personally, then this probably isn’t for you! I don’t mean to be a downer, but my purpose of this blog is to give you the truth and not to sugar coat things like some late night TV infomercial! This business is hard and there is a lot of rejection.
3. If you have the work ethic of a slug. FORGET IT!

I’ll leave you with this. Real estate investing and wholesaling properties is for true entrepreneurs. Those who are willing to do what’s hard now so that the rest of their lives will be easy. Those who have the “I’ll do whatever it takes” attitude is who this is for. If you were hoping for some song and dance about how you are going to get rich over night with no money down, then I apologize. However, if you have the right attitude and work ethic then you can do EXTREMELY well with this business. It’s really just a matter of choice.

Mindset and Attitude

By admin on May. 22, 2008.

What is driving you everyday? What gets you out of bed in the morning? What are some of your short term and long term goals? Or do you even have any? Are you just trying to make enough money to pay all your bills this month  and then be lackadaisical until the pressure of the bills comes on next month? Some people are motivated by pain and associate there bills to pain! Some people are motivated by money, but associate money with pain. I believe that it is extremely important for you to recognize what motivates you. It’s your mindset and your attitude that will predict your future. In order to change the direction in which your life is going and to get more out of life, you MUST HAVE GOALS!!!!

Real Estate Investing can be a VERY lucrative business. Most people who fail because it’s a direct result of what they put in to it. This is a great business, but you will have to work hard at it and someday you won’t have to work again. You need to write down your goals on paper, short and long term! I know…..you’ve heard about all this goal setting stuff before I know, BUT did you set them? Did you take specific action towards achieving your goals? Only you know the answer to that. Your goals must be specific with deadlines and you must take specific actions towards accomplishing those goals every day. A goal without a deadline is just a conversation! When setting your goals you should have different sets of goals like financial, personal, professional, spiritual, physical. Once you have your goals you must be determined to achieving them. You MUST take ACTION!

Obviously now you know you must have goals for your Real Estate Investing Career. If you are just a beginner, it’s even more important. There are going to be different levels of goals for different levels of investors. It is my recommendation if you are new to find yourself a mentor! A mentor in this business is a MUST!!! If you believe anything that I tell you, believe this! Your mentor can help you with your goal setting.

Are you committed to becoming a successful Real Estate Investor? If the answer is yes then you must ask yourself a few questions!

1. Do I have a mentor? Someone with a lot of experience in the industry?
2. What books am I reading? Am I educating myself?
3. How do I feel physically? Do you need to change your exercise habits?
4. Who am I spending my time with and what am I getting out of it?
5. If I get what I want, will I be happy with what I have?

Your success in this or any industry is going to be a direct result of.

1. Your Attitude
2. Your mindset
3. What you read
4. Who you surround yourself with!  

Welcome!

By admin on May. 22, 2008.

Hello, welcome to my blog!