Remember our earlier post about planning? Well, you know the old saying – if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Many real estate investors make their first mistake when they jump into the market without long term goals or plans.

The purpose of the first step to real estate investing – planning – is three-fold:
1) Identify your existing resources.
2) Outline a 10-year million-dollar game plan for leveraging those resources.
3) Stay disciplined.

Identify Existing Resources
Millionaires are typically keenly aware of their finances, but most middle- to upper-class individuals are unaware of the assets and resources they can leverage to produce greater wealth in real estate. These assets lay dormant and unutilized, resulting in a failure to act and lost opportunity costs. For some individuals, they may have enough assets to create a stable retirement in just a few years.

Use a net worth worksheet to analyze your assets and liabilities, and then seek professional help to use what you already have, or work to improve your net worth.
10-Year Portfolio Game Plan

Once your assets are clearly identified, the next step is to create a 10-year million-dollar game plan that maximizes the assets through real estate investing. The goal is to shift unproductive resources into areas of higher productivity. A typical, achievable plan results in an investor purchasing about twenty properties and making over $2 million within ten years.
However, since everyone’s situation, abilities, and desires are different, each plan should be customized. The important thing to note is the timeframe – 10 years. Many investors think they can time the market just right, buy and sell for a few years and make a million. The fact is true real estate investment requires commitment, planning, and long-term focus.

Long-Term Discipline
Any real estate investment system (ours is called Strait Path Investing) is significantly hindered when investors are unable to stay disciplined over the course of 10 years or more. When applied in its most pure form, real estate investing builds on itself to provide exponential growth. When all profits are consumed, especially in the initial stages, only linear and sporadic growth is possible.

Whatever real estate investment strategy you adopt, plan to stick with it for the long-haul. There is no way to get rich quick in just one year (unless you win the lottery). Also, you must reinvest your profits rather than spend them, especially in the beginning of the process.