Transcript:
Hey, what’s up guys, it’s Casey Denman from the Tax Sale Academy coming to you with a livestream here on Facebook today.
So glad you’ve decided to join me today. As always if you want more information about tax sale investing, be sure to head on over to TaxSaleAcademy.com.
Today, we’re talking the fast track to experience.
For whatever reason I have been targeted with a lot of ads lately for employment. Their targeting is obviously off, but one thing I notice is that everyone requires experience to work anywhere nowadays.
Guess what? Experience isn’t a MUST have for tax sale investors. It isn’t a prerequisite. In fact, there aren’t really any requirements to become a tax sale investor.
But, the truth is, experience is a HUGE, HUGE bonus.
Experience can mean the difference between taking advantage of an opportunity right in front of you or overlooking that same opportunity. It could mean the difference between making an insanely profitable investment or a lousy one.
I know what you’re thinking, I have zero experience. I get it. I had zero experience when I started too. Heck, everyone has zero experience when they start too.
But, the good news is that you can gain this experience. And you can get it without needing years and years worth of investments. And you can get it without needing to waste your hard earned money trying to figure out what you’re doing while learning in the meantime.
You can do it three different ways. Now, before I go over each of these, I highly suggest you utilize all three. Use every single of these methods in combination.
Alright, here’s how you can gain tax sale experience as a beginning investor that’ll allow you to succeed:
1) Go through the motions. Yep, just go for it. Do it. Become an investor . . . except don’t spend a single dime. That’s right, be an investor and don’t invest a single dime. Here’s what I mean: Go through the motions exactly like you would as a tax sale investor. Determine your market areas, educate yourself and learn about the process a particular county uses, then get their auction list. Review it. Analyze it. Then research it. Research every single property. Determine which properties you’d skip. Which properties you’d buy and how much you’d pay. Find trends. Make the phone calls. Then do site visits of the properties. Figure out which properties you like. Which ones you don’t like. Compile your information into a spreadsheet of some sort. Grab your spreadsheet and head to the auction. Go ahead and register, even. Be there and be ready to bid, except don’t. Follow along with the auction, write down the sales prices. You can even make note about who bid on what. Maybe certain investors in the room have one preferred area. Maybe there isn’t any rhyme or reason to it. Then go home and analyze the list again and figure out who overpaid, who underpaid, who will make lots of money and who might even lose money. Determine if there was anything that was just off or strange. Figure out if your research makes sense now. Then do it again and again. You’ll get more and more comfortable and familiar with the process and you’ll gain experience, without investing a dime.
2) Get a mentor. A mentor can help to mold and shape you into a successful investor. But here’s the deal: If you know a tax sale investor who will mentor you, then that is absolutely wonderful. Go for it. Buy them coffee, lunch, take full advantage of it. But I understand that you probably don’t know a tax sale investor to mentor you. I get that. How about a few “micro mentors”. Here’s what I mean by that: Find anyone that is in a business related to tax sale investor that can mentor you in their specific discipline. Maybe you know an appraiser. Perhaps they can mentor you a little and you can learn how to value properties. Maybe you know a builder that can help you with noticing a few things you might not have noticed otherwise. Perhaps you know an attorney who will provide some direction for you. Maybe you have a Realtor friend that could assist you. Maybe you have a surveyor that could give you some pointers. The fact of the matter is that you probably know someone, somewhere that could serve as a mentor for you. And, this is not a sales pitch, but we do offering mentoring as well at the tax sale academy.
3) Everything’s a learning lesson. I have an academy member who is just getting started in tax sale investing and I told her a couple of weeks ago to view everything she does as some sort of learning lesson. And she has done just that and will be successful in no time. More than 16 years later, I still view absolutely everything as a learning lesson. This business evolves over time. Every auction you attend, property you driveby or research, every phone call you make, every interaction you have, really, everything you do . . . can be a wonderful learning lesson for you as a tax sale investor. I’m obviously a huge advocate of formal training, which is why a created the tax sale academy but I can’t begin to express the importance of continuing to learn in all phases of your tax sale career, including before. There is no better way to gain experience then by learning what you’re doing ahead of the time that’s required to put your money into a project.
So there you have it guys. You need experience. And those are the three ways that you can gain experience, without investing a dime. Go through the motions, get a mentor, and use everything as a learning lesson.
That’s it for today guys. I really hope you’ve enjoyed today’s livestream. As always for more information on tax sale investing, be sure to head on over to TaxSaleAcademy.com. That’s TaxSaleAcademy.com.