Transcript:
Welcome to the Tax Sale Podcast, where tax sale investing is made easy. My name is Casey Denman, I’m a tax sale veteran, the leading tax sale expert, author of The Tax Sale Playbook, founder of The Tax Sale Academy and I’m your host right here on The Tax Sale Podcast.
Thank you so much for joining me on today’s podcast episode. This is a completely free podcast and is brought to you through and because of The Tax Sale Academy. If you’re looking to learn more about investing in tax defaulted real estate, just head to TaxSaleAcademy.com. Again that’s TaxSaleAcademy.com.
Last week I received an email. It was from someone who has never invested in real estate before. According to them, they have spent the time learning a great deal about tax sale investing but were still too afraid to begin. They feared they’d lose money or wouldn’t know what they were doing mid investment. And this is a far too common fear amongst many new investors. And it’s actually something many experienced investors experience when they go into new areas, new property types, new markets, that kind of thing.
So I think it’s important to point out that you’re not alone. This is something that so many people struggle with. So I wanted to do a podcast episode on this topic today. I want you to be able to leave today’s episode and have a plan of attach to overcome any fears, anxiety or hesitation that you have with tax sale investing.
I can really sum this up into four key components.
The first one is through education. And I’m not necessarily talking about getting a real estate degree, going through a training course or whatever else, although those can certainly be helpful options. When I started I simply did as much research about the business as possible. I bought the few books that existed at the time on tax sale investing. I read all of the websites – which were, very, very limited – this was the early 2000s mind you. And then I went and talked to anyone who knew anything about tax sale investing. My education certainly had plenty of gaps that caused me issues down the road. But the biggest issues I see people have in this business relates to their education or their knowledge of this business.
From the outside, in simplest terms your buying tax defaulted real estate at deep discounts and then you’re selling it and if you did your homework, you likely did quite well. That’s the business in a nutshell. That’s the business that draws most people in. That’s the headline – the catchphrase. The clickbait. Whatever you want to call it. Unfortunately, that’s like telling someone that you can find gold worth millions of dollars in the ground. Sure, it’s possible. But all of the other details are the difference between someone succeeding and failing in this business. There are plenty of places to learn how to invest in tax defaulted real estate. I have nearly a thousand completely free trainings, I’ve got a free book, lots of other resources. Then I’ve got the academy of course, then you can learn and explore on your own. The resources to learn about this business are out there. They’re more readily accessible than they’ve ever been. It’s up to you however to take advantage of them. The fact of the matter is this: the more complete your knowledge of this business is, the better of an investor you’ll be. The more gaps you have in your training the more difficult of a time you’ll have. And here’s the cool part: YOU control this. YOU are the variable. This isn’t impacted by outside factors. This is impacted solely by your desire to educate yourself about this business. Become an expert in all aspects of this business and you’ll experience tremendous levels of success.
Alright the next component to overcoming your fear is practice. You can go through every single piece of training information in the world, you can watch all my videos, listen to all my podcasts, go through the academy ten times and I can come to your house and train you until I’m blue in the face but until you begin to apply your knowledge to the real world, nothing will even click. And unfortunately, many people simply stock at the learning phase. They never attempt to practice. It’s a state of mind called paralysis by analysis. Learn and learn and learn, but never do.
Once you have filled in every single knowledge gap you think you might have, go out there and practice. Don’t learn, then immediately start buying properties based off your book knowledge. Take the time to go through the process. When I say practice, I want you to go through the entire process as if you were buying a property. Find the county you want to invest in, learn about the county, read the rules, register for the auction, research the entire list, attend the auction, bid silently to yourself and then see how you did. After that sit down and analyze the process – what were you confident in your understanding of? What were you not confident with? The idea behind this practice is to identify the remaining knowledge gaps you might have, while gaining practical experience in the meantime. It should help you to become more and more conformable with the preparation stage – the research, auction setting, that kind of thing. And it should help you locate what you don’t yet know about this business.
After that you’re half way there. But then you get into the aspect of this business, of overcoming your fear to invest that many people try to bull rush through. I’m talking about having patience. A common issue many new investors face, and I see to get emails from every single one of them it feels like, is that they weren’t able to find the properties that they want at the price they want. With that in mind, I’m going to be a little brash here: If you think that you can walk into this business, go to one auction and walk out with a property that will make you ten thousand, fifty thousand, a hundred thousand dollars, then do not, ever, get into this business. You don’t have the long term sustainability to make it.
During your practice and preparation phase you should be able to locate markets that are desireable based on your specific investment objectives, which includes price and margin. If you have failed to find a market, continue to explore more markets. They say that there are 3,000 properties sold daily in this business. I’m not good at math, but when we multiply that by 365, that’s a lot of properties that are sold. Sure, there are areas, auctions, properties that sell for too much money. But that’s everywhere. That’s life. There are also cars that sell for too much. Hotels that sell for too much. Tacos that sell for too much. When we see something for too much money, we keep moving forward. Just like you aren’t going to a taco truck and pay $100 for a hotdog, you shouldn’t over pay for a property. Instead find a different property. We control the knowledge, the effort, the funding, so many things. BUT we don’t control ALL of the variables. We don’t control the auction dates, the property selection, the competition, we don’t control some of the most important stuff. The market and state laws do. So don’t force yourself to invest in anything just because you think you’re ready. Wait for the right property. Wait for the easy, no lose property. Wait. Don’t force an investment. Have patience. The right property will come if you’re doing everything correctly. I can assure you of that.
And the last way to eliminate your fear of investing, is, well . . . experience. I know what you’re thinking: How can I gain experience when I’m too afraid to get started. Simple. Combine the three components we just discussed and now really make an effort to analyze them. If you’re taking action in this business every single day, you are gaining experience. Sure, it might not be the actual action of buying and selling tax defaulted real estate. But experience with investing is much more than just a transaction. Please remember that, it’s more than a transaction.
The first auction I attended I remember that I was shaking so bad from nerves that I could barely sign myself in. I was so nervous I had to tell myself to relax, breathe normal, and try to write legibly. By the next auction, I had the experience of the first auction and I was a little calmer. Every auction the experience became more and more tolerable for me. The same can be said when I started researching properties, or placing my bids. Or doing a hundred other things in this business that is not directly related to a transaction. Build knowledge and keep practicing and moving forward every single day. One of the best things you can do is go to an auction and just watch. Pay attention to what’s going on. That’s a heck of a way to gain experience. Again, if you’re building and expanding your knowledge of this business, if you’re doing something every single day to move the needle with your tax sale business, then you are gaining experience.
When we combine each one of these things: gaining the knowledge required, practicing what you’ve learn, having patience and gaining experience along the way you will undoubtedly gain the confidence necessary to move forward successfully in this business. And if you are still fearful to move forward, my suspicion is that you’re lacking one of the components we’ve discussed today.
Listen, I truly want you to take advantage of this incredible business. I want you to have the confidence necessary to push forward. And I hope that today’s episode gets you pointed in the right direction to make that next step.
If this episode or any of our episodes here have helped you, please take just a few seconds out of your tday to leave us some positive feedback. We notice each review and are so thankful for everyone who has taken the time to leave one.
And if we can help in any way, there are a bunch of links in today’s show notes, including one to our primary site at TaxSaleAcademy.com where we offer step by step comprehensive tax sale investment training.
Take care and we’ll see you next time right here on The Tax Sale Podcast. Bye bye.