Getting rich

Have you set your New Years Resolutions? My goal is to purchase 12 to 20 new front doors during 2012 and to finish the three we have left to do from this year.

 This article covers the first consideration or decision a real estate investor needs to make. The second is finding the money and then finding good properties to acquire.

 I have been a business man and investor for 45 years. What I have learned during those 45 years is that there are only three things you can do with your time and money that have a better then 80% chance of working out well. These are.

• Investing in your own education that leads to a well paid career.

• Investing in Roth IRAs and Employer matching 401Ks.

 Things do not always go the way you planned and when it does go awry being mentally prepared gives you the courage not to panic. First if you are out there doing something sooner or later you will get lucky and make some money, it's inevitable. On the other hand, sooner or later, no mater how well you planned everything, circumstances will happen that makes the your money making plan go slower, faster, harder, more expensive or something will veer it off course.

 I am what you would call a self made man. I have earned every nickle I ever got. I came from a large, poor family. I was blessed with a wonderful encouraging mother, a large passel of siblings to help teach me how to interact with people, a sharp mind and lots of ambition. I dropped out of high school, got married to young and all the other things poor kids do to make life more difficult. Then I got lucky, I met a series of people who saw potential in me because I was not afraid of work and I was inquisitive.

 The average rich person is just like you and me. They work hard and make more good decisions then bad. They tend to buy things that last and take care of them. They live in modest homes and drive modest cars. Rich people put money to work for them so that they have income other then just pay checks. They pay attention and take advantage of whatever opportunities that they can, such as, Roth IRA's, Regular IRA's, CD's, Rentals, 401K's, and other investments. They are homeowners.

 We will be done with the house remodeling project in Seguin Texas this week. It was part of our first property purchase for Gem rental properties LLC. (This is the "See how we make a million dollars project" that you get to follow along as we do it).

 For those of you who want to invest in real estate but do not have the time for hands on there are companies who will make it all very easy. Or Maybe you want to invest in one sate and live in another. These companies are perfect for you.

 Finding bargain properties has always been a problem. It can be done if you mount a campaign to do so. I once purchased a vacant house on 1.5 acres for $10,000 because I let everyone know I am a buyer and someone, told someone, who contacted me. I once purchased a three bedroom, two bath house for $15,000 on an owner carry note because I passed out business cards that said I buy houses. The point is, you have to look to find them and you never know from where the lead will come from.

Yes you can do it. You could start with ten grand or less and still do it. It requires pyramiding and you will need your good credit. You can do it without good credit but it is much harder. If you do it with a partner as I am, then you will have to just make it two million to have a million each. There is not a lot of risk but you do have to have guts and determination.