A Lesson From The Race Track
Bobby Unser won the Indianapolis 500 three times, and his favorite saying was “success is where preparation and opportunity meet.” He was talking about auto racing, but I can’t think of a better description of real estate investing. The opportunity shows up whether you’re ready or not. The only question is whether you’ve done the homework to grab it when it does.
Figure Out Where The Opportunity Is Going
Most investors look backwards. They buy whatever made money for somebody else five years ago, and they usually show up right as the party is ending. The smarter move is to look at the trends that will shape the next ten or twenty years and invest in front of them. A few that I believe are as solid as they come:
- The demand for affordable housing. America has not built enough housing that regular people can pay for, and every year the gap gets wider.
- A “rental nation.” More Americans are renting longer, by choice or because home prices and mortgage rates have put ownership out of reach.
- The internet. It keeps changing how people shop, work and live, which helps some property types and quietly destroys others.
None of these require a crystal ball. They’re in the news every day. You just need a little creative imagination to see which niches benefit and which ones get run over.
Do The Preparation Before The Deal Shows Up
Preparation is the boring part, and that’s why most people skip it. It means learning a niche inside and out before you buy, so you know a good deal from a bad one in the first ten minutes. It means having your financing lined up, or at least knowing where it will come from, so you can move when a seller is ready. It means building relationships with brokers, lenders and other owners so the deals come to you instead of to the next guy.
It also means knowing your own rules ahead of time: what you will pay, what you won’t, and what would make you walk away. When the opportunity arrives, there’s no time to invent a strategy. You have to already have one.
Opportunity Doesn’t Wait
The best deals I’ve ever bought were available for a very short window. A seller got tired, a bank needed to clean up its books, or a market shifted before everyone else noticed. The people who won those deals weren’t luckier than the rest. They were simply ready.
So spend this year getting prepared. Pick your niche, study it, line up your money and your team, and keep your eyes on the trends. When opportunity comes knocking, and it always does, you’ll be the one who opens the door.
