ANOTHER TREATISE ON GETTING STARTED

OR…

“HALLELUIAH, HE HAS RISEN”…(OFF HIS WANNABE BUTT AND FINALLY DOING SOMETHING)

By Bill J. Gatten, Motivator Extraordinaire

This one comes from my eldest son Russ Gatten, who has become one of the best salesman I know (what else? He’s my son) and a consistent top-producer for his employer Goldberg and Solovy Food Distributors in the San Fernando Valley, here in California.

During a recent conversation about Selling Skills in general, Russ and I were discussing our Network (the NARS Professional Realtor/Investor Network) and what some of the common problems are with regard to getting folks motivated enough to get started in this business after they’ve paid their money and joined the team. Believe it or not, the problem with those hesitant students is not education, intelligence, knowledge, ability or scarcity of opportunity: In actuality, the only real problem for most these late-bloomers is Fear and a complete lack self-confidence--pure and simple. We have several people in our group who have bought and read virtually thousands of dollars worth of books and courses, and listened to hundreds of hours of tapes by every would-be creative financing guru in the country…but still feel unqualified (and scared to death) to actually get on the phone, write a letter or look in the public record to find a free property to acquire.

It’s not at all surprising to find that this deficiency in one’s ability to rely upon him/herself presents itself in myriad forms. It’s not always simply a fear of rejection or failure. Sometimes it’s Fear of the Unknown. Sometimes it’s the fear of how peers might feel when they’re left behind (not taken up with the achiever’s success). Sometimes it’s the fear of attempting to think wholly “out of the box,” to try something that everyone else insists is simply a pipe-dream, that “will never work.” However, more often than anyone realizes the primarily reason for the reticence in “getting going” and making the big bucks is the Fear of SUCCESS: plain and simple.

One’s fearing the success they prayed to have may not seem rational at first, but think about this…how many times have you refused to initiate an action because of a fear that you might be successful at it? Say, you’re a guy (a young stud, not unlike m’self), and you’re sitting in restaurant across from the most beautiful woman you’ve ever seen. You know you look great. You know she’s looking your way and smiling; but still you sigh and turn back to your Happy Meal and Diet Coke. You do that because it suddenly occurs to you that even if you were to make your move and get lucky, she might want you to be wearing nicer clothes, driving a nicer car, be smarter than you are, have more money or to smell better than you do. “After all,” you rationalize, “she could be a Russian spy or a high-priced hooker…or a veritable next of Typhoid Fever bacillus. So you just opt to eschew whole deal, and just ask the waiter for your free Star Wars Action figure and leave the restaurant, all alone and dejected, never looking back at what “could have been.” Buy hey! You have the whole evening to look forward to…affixing your colorful Star Fleet decals to your newest action figure.

OK, that’s one example…but how about this person: This one actually takes that first step and calls on a property out of the newspaper. She hears the persona on the other end say: “Well, I guess I could consider that. Yeah, I guess I could leave my equity in tact and leave the loan in place for a few years. Sure.” She then panics and starts working on why the property is probably ready to topple over, and why it just won’t work for her own special purposes. After all she’s only made two calls and has another twenty to go…this guy’s screwing up her routine.

“Gosh those payments sound awfully high…don’t they?”

“How would you know? I haven’t even told you what they are yet.”

“Oh, but there a good reason the property hasn’t sold yet…right?”

“No. I just ran the ad today”

“Well I’m sure you wouldn’t want to deal with me…I have bad credit and no money.”

“No that’s fine…no problem”

“Oh…well…um…then… does the property meet all the standard 'Feng-Shue' requirements? My clients are mostly Asian, you know”

“No I didn’t know that, but as a matter of fact we just had the house blessed by the high priest of Kung-Pow Province yesterday, and it is being featured in the Feng Shue Gazette next month.”

“Oh. Well…could you excuse me…I have a pretzel in the oven…may I call you back…like in a month or two?”

And so on… The point being that something like this happens to most of us when we are entering the vast realm of the Unknown (woo-woo). So how do we break through that tough little membrane that exists between the way things have always been, and the way thing could be if we were to take some well-managed risk now and then?

Here’s my son Russ’ solution (and he’s bought and sold property using the PACTrust):

To get into the Unknown without trepidation, simply separate your “feelings” about your actions from the “actions” themselves.

In other words, the essence of what this means is that with every task there are two elements that must be dealt with relative to it – 1) How you “feel” about the thing that must be accomplished, and 2) what the action is that must be taken in order to have accomplished the action.

Russ says (I’m paraphrasing): Imagine that your lawn needs to be mowed and you are watching the Hell’s Angel Raiders beat the tar out’a the Boy Scout Seahawks…with a cold beer in one hand, a clicker in the other, and a plush sofa pillow under your plumber cleft. Obviously, the FEELING one has at such as point is diametrically opposed to the ACTION that should be taken. And, of course, emotions virtually always win out over logic until they are brought under control and neutralized by reason. In this scenario, the question is: Is the lawn going to get mowed? No. Not until the game is over. But then the gorgeous buxom babe with the French cooking show comes on right afterward (…or more compelling yet…maybe its time for Oprah!).

“Now, is the lawn going to get mowed? Nope. Not until you cull out from the task at hand, your feelings about all the time it will take and all the effort involved. You must consciously make the decision to neutralize how you “feel” about what has to be done and just do it. Not until you stop analyzing and reanalyzing the task, and face it head-on without emotion and without options, will it ever be commenced.

I know, in my own case, years ago, I used to fanaticize about having a motorized lawn mower tethered by a rope to a stake in the center of the lawn, around which the mower could wind until the grass was mowed and the stake was pulled out, at which point the mower would choke to a stop from the rope’s becoming entwined in the blades…which I could unwind later, after finishing my nap. But, alas…I never got around to actually testing the system, and now I own enough real estate to be able to pay someone else to mow my grass…so my bright idea may never be tested.

Interestingly, however, why do you suppose I (and the hundreds of others who’ve had the same fantasy) never tested the rope and stake idea? It’s because by the time I got off the couch, and went into the garage, and started looking for a rope, and a stake, and a hammer to drive it in the ground with, and figuring out how to toe the wheels out so it wouldn’t turn the wrong way…it was easier to just kill the “thinking (feeling)” part and get on with the “doing” part and mow the stupid grass.

Here’s another analogy to bring the separation concept to the forefront…

I once bought a lake front fixer in Landing New Jersey, next-door to a boat rental and service station (and just down the street from Claude Diamond, as a matter-of-fact) that was owned by a guy named Roger Steiger. Roger was a great friend and the most industrious, hard-working, person I’ve ever met…when the lake (Lake Hopatcong) was frozen over and the temperature was 20 below, Roger would be building boat docks and seawalls in preparation for next the Summer. Then when he was finished, he’d start pile-driving telephone phone poles into the lake bottom to start construction of a new sea wall.

At the time, my lot adjoined his and my dinky little boat dock was a floating block of Styrofoam supporting and two by four deck with some tires nailed to the sides. And when I had first built it--with my own two little hands--I thought I had really done something monumental. My boat dock was truly a marvel to behold. But then when I saw what Roger was capable of doing by working like an ant day-in-and day out, almost single-handedly building a shipyard… my dinky dock (as it were) looked sillier and sillier and finally got caught in the freeze and crumpled up like used gum wrapper.

For years afterward, I persisted in presuming that I could never do the things Roger had done…how could a single individual human being hold back an entire lake in order to build a sea wall on his property? But then I watched him do it all, tiny step by tiny step. First he arranged for a shipment of used telephone poles and drove them into the lake bottom in two rows about a foot apart. Then when that was done, he brought in more telephone poles and laid them longitudinally between the pairs, on top of each other like one might build a rustic log fence. Once the “wall was built in a semi-circle out from the shore, as the wood swelled in the water, the structure was draped with large sheets of plastic and area was sealed off from the rest of the lake. He then pumped out the water. Once the water was partially drained, he ordered several truck loads of sand and filled semi=circle with it, shoveling it away from the shore and up against the coffer dam, further water-proofing the area in which he wanted to build his seawall. When all the water had drained out, Roger began his seawall, laying in stone and cement as would anyone who would build a rock wall…and he was high and dry at all times.

I marveled at his industriousness and determination and could never quite understand how any one man could take on such an enormous task as single-handedly blocking off a lake and building an eight foot wall along the shore where the lake used to be.

Well, at last I know the secret. After my talk with my son Russ, I finally “get it.” Roger was merely doing something that I’ve learned to do when it comes to acquiring real estate. He was recognizing what had to be done and completely ignoring his feelings about the exertion that would be later required, and the below-zero temperatures that he’d be working in. His method of getting things done was to “just start” doing them. That’s all! Just begin the preliminary smaller tasks that lead step-by-step to the bigger ones, and eventually to the final removal of the cofferdam and the re-flooding of the new boat-docking area.

“That’s it!” I said to my Russ (who has, without my permission, grown way too smart for his own good): that’s the key! You are absolutely right! Encourage them to separate the “feeling” about the act from the “act” itself. Yeah, that’s the ticket! Separate feelings from actions. Simply know what must be done and do it.

What a marvelous idea. And I’m sure that now that I’ve announced our little secret to the Network at large, there need never be another member who doesn’t become exorbitantly wealthy though real estate acquisition within six months of joining us. Right? Right??

Let’s apply this new concept to a purchase by a newbie (or an old salt, for that matter)…taking just one step at a time, ignoring all remaining steps until they become the next step in the moment:

1. Grab a beer
2. Turn off the TV
3. Pick up the newspaper
4. Turn to the classified section
5. Find all the For Sale by Owner ads
6. Circle all the numbers you plan to call within the next 1.5 hours
7. Write out the questions to ask once rapport has been established with the prospect

The rapport part: “I saw your ad in the paper and wanted to give you a call.

The questions (in statement form): What I’m looking for is someone like yourself who is selling on their own who would be willing to keep the current loan in place for a year or two while I cover all the payments and maintenance on the property, then pay off the loan in full and give you all your equity in a couple years…say two or three.

8. Decide which finger you going to dial with and put it on the first key to be depressed.
9. Finish the dialing ordeal and wait for the party to answer
10. Say what you’ve planned to say
11. When a question is asked by the prospect (How would that work? What do have in mind? What if you miss a payment?), or when his comment is “Maybe,” “Possibly” or “Sure thing”…act on it immediately.
12. Ask: What is the value? What are the payments? How did you come by the value? Is it an income property for you? Where are you moving? Why do think it hasn’t sold yet? Etc.
13. Make an appointment to see the house
14. Make sure you have a deal before you go anywhere, by saying something like: “If everything looks good after we talk and I’ve seen the property, are you prepared to proceed?” Will you need anyone else’s input to make your decision and sign on the dotted line?
15. Run comps
16. Prepare the paper work you will need as completely as possible (purchase offer, non-exclusive option, authorization letters, $20 bill on top, etc.)
17. Look at the property; make your deal and get it signed (the Option, not the P.O…. that’s just there so he has some thing to read while your waiting out your option period).
18. Leave…no more talking (you’ll just mess something up)
19. Record the Memorandum of Option
20. Run you ad for a co-beneficiary/tenant
21. Once the co-beneficiary is located, collect their money and open Escrow, or open Escrow and collect their money…or just collect their money
22. Exercise your option contingent upon having good title
23. Have Escrow order a prelim or abstract of title
24. Let the Escrow close
25. Go after your next deal with equal aplomb and abandon…you’re now in the business!

Note the steps. If you’re working on #2, forget about all the rest and only concentrate on doing #2. Only when #2 is done (pardon the expression) do you go to #3, keeping all the rest out of your mind (try to not think about purple cows or something…that does it for me). By taking one simple step at a time just as a matter-of-fact, you need not involve your prejudices, fears and emotions…and knowing that there will never be a point of No Return anywhere along the way, you will serve yourself (and you pokka book) extremely well. And never have to be yelled at for not doing ‘something’…

The best of good fortune in creative real estate

And, thank you Russ!


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