So, for those who want the to-do list on how to get started, I will
Share with you some of
the things I do, in abbreviated form.
• Stop doing what
you’re doing.
In other words, take a
break and
assess what is working
and what is not working. The definition
of insanity is doing the
same thing over and over and expecting
a different result. Stop
doing what is not working, and look for
something new.
• Look for new ideas.
For new investing ideas, I go to bookstores
and search for books on
different and unique subjects. I call
them formulas. I buy
how-to books on formulas I know
nothing about.
For example, in the
bookstore, I found the book The 16 Percent
Solution by Joel Moskowitz. I bought the book and read it
and the next Thursday, I
did exactly as the book said. Most
people do not take
action, or they let someone talk them out
of whatever new formula
they are studying. My neighbor told
me why 16 percent would
not work. I did not listen to him
because he’s never done
it.
• Find someone who has done
what you want to do. Take them to lunch and ask them for tips and
tricks of the trade. As for
16 percent tax-lien
certificates, I went to the county tax office
and found the government
employee who worked in that office.
I found out that she,
too, invested in the tax liens. Immediately,
I invited her to lunch.
She was thrilled to tell me everything
she knew and how to do
it. After lunch, she spent all
afternoon showing me
everything. By the next day, I found
two great properties
with her help that has been accruing
interest at 16 percent
ever since. It took a day to read the
book, a day to take
action, an hour for lunch, and a day to
acquire two great deals.
• Take classes, read,
and attend seminars.
I search for newspapers and the Internet for new and interesting classes, many of which are free or inexpensive. I also, attend and pay for expensive seminars on what I want to learn. I am wealthy and free from
needing a job simply because of the courses I took. I have friends who did not take those classes who told me I was wasting my money, and yet they’re still at the same job.
• Make lots of offers. When I want a piece of real estate, I look
at many properties and
generally write an offer. If you don’t
know what the right
offer is, neither do I. That is the job of
the real estate agent.
They make offers. I do as little work
as possible.
A friend wanted me to
show her how to buy apartment houses.
So one Saturday she, her
agent, and I went and looked at six
apartment houses. Four
were dogs, but two were good. I said to write
offers on all six,
offering half of what the owners asked for. She and the
agent nearly had heart
attacks. They thought it was rude, and would
offend the sellers, but
I really don’t think the agent wanted to work
that hard. So they did
nothing and went on looking for a better deal.
No offers were ever
made, and that person is still looking for the right
deal at the right price.
Well, you don’t know what the right price is until
you have a second party who wants to deal with it. Most sellers ask too much. It is rare that a seller asks a price that is less than something is worth.
Moral of the story: Make offers.
People who are not investors have no idea what it feels like to try to sell something. I have had a piece of real
estate that I wanted to
sell for months. I would have welcomed any offer.
They could have offered
me 10 pigs, and I would have been happy—
not at the offer, but
just because someone was interested. I would have
countered, maybe for a
pig farm in exchange. But that’s how the game
works. The game of
buying and selling is fun. Keep that in mind. It’s fun
and only a game. Make
offers. Someone might say yes.
I always make offers
with escape clauses. In real estate, I make an
offer with language that
details “subject-to” contingencies, such as the
approval of a business
partner. Never specify who the business
partner is. Most people
don’t know that my partner is my cat. If they
accept the offer, and I
don’t want the deal, I call home and speak to
my cat. I make this
ridiculous statement to illustrate how absurdly easy
and simple the game is.
So many people make things too difficult and
take it too seriously.
• Finding a good deal
The right business, the
right people, the
right investors, or
whatever is just like dating. You must go
to the market and talk
to a lot of people, make a lot of offers,
counteroffers,
negotiate, reject, and accept. I know single
people who sit at home
and wait for the phone to ring, but it’s
better to go to the
market, even if it’s only the supermarket.
Search, offer, reject,
negotiate, and accept are all parts of the
process of almost
everything in life.
• Jog, walk or drive a
certain area once a month for 10 minutes.
I have found some of my
best real estate investments doing
this. I will jog a certain
neighborhood for a year and look for
change. For there to be
profit in a deal, there must be two
elements: a bargain and
change. There are lots of bargains, but
it’s changed that turns a
bargain into a profitable opportunity.
So when I jog, I jog a neighborhood
I might like to invest in.
It is the repetition
that causes me to notice slight differences.
I notice real estate signs that are up for a long
time. That
means the seller might
be more agreeable to deal with. I watch for
moving trucks going in
or out. I stop and talk to the drivers. I
talk to the postal
carriers. It’s amazing how much information
they acquire about an
area. I find a bad area, especially an
area that the news has
scared everyone away from. I drive it for
sometimes a year waiting
for signs of something changing for
the better. I talk to
retailers, especially new ones, and find out
why they’re moving in.
It takes only a few minutes a month, and
I do it while doing
something else, like exercising, or going to
and from the store.
• Shop for bargains in
all markets.
Consumers will always be
poor. When the supermarket has a sale, say on toilet paper, the
consumer runs in and
stocks up. But when the housing or stock
market has a sale, most
often called a crash or correction, the same
consumer often runs away
from it. When the supermarket raises
its prices, the consumer
shops somewhere else. But when housing
or the stock market
raises their prices, the same consumer often
rushes in and starts
buying. Always remember: Profits are made
in the buying, not in
the selling.
• Look in the right
places.
A neighbor bought a
condominium for
$100,000. I bought the
identical condo next door for
$50,000. He told me he’s
waiting for the price to go up. I told
him that profit is made
when you buy, not when you sell. He
shopped with a real
estate broker who owns no property of her
own. I shopped at the
foreclosure auction. I paid $500 for a
class on how to do this.
My neighbor thought that
the $500 for a real estate investment
the class was too expensive.
He said he could not afford the money
or the time. So he waits
for the price to go up.
Look for people who
want to buy first. Then look for someone who wants to sell.
A friend was looking for a certain
piece of land.
He had the money but did not have the
time. I found a large
piece of land, larger than what my
friend wanted to buy, tied
it up with an option, called my
friend, and he said he wanted
a piece of it. So I sold the piece
to him and then bought the
land. I kept the remaining land as
mine for free. Moral of the
story: Buy the pie, and cut it into
pieces. Most people look for
what they can afford, so they look
too small. They buy only
a piece of the pie, so they end up
paying more for less. Small
thinkers don’t get big breaks.
If you want to get richer,
think big.
• Think big.
Retailers love giving volume
discounts, simply
because most business people love
big spenders. So even if
you’re small, you can always think
big. When my company
was in the market for computers, I
called several friends and
asked them if they were ready to buy
also. We then went to
different dealers and negotiated a great deal because we wanted
to buy so many. I have done the same
with stocks. Small
people remain small because they
think small, act alone or
don’t act all.
• Learn from history. All the big
companies on the stock
exchange started out as small
companies. Colonel Sanders did
not get rich until after he lost
everything in his 60s. Bill Gates
was one of the richest men in the
world before he was thirty.
• Action always beats
inaction.
These are just a few of the things I
have done and continue to do
to recognize opportunities. The
important words are “have done” and
“do.” As repeated many times
throughout the book, you must take
action before you can receive the
financial rewards. Act now!
