Watch Your Language!!

Watch Your Language!

By David “The Diamond” Oswald

“Watch your language!”  That’s what your parents might have told you growing up.  The Diamond is telling you that right now.  I got three separate phone calls in the past 24 hours, all of which started out with the following opening, “Hey Dave, I got a problem” or “Hey, we got a problem” and each time the person on the other end of the phone seemed dejected like their goldfish just died or something.  I guess I must be considered to be a problem solver or a “transaction engineer” of some corny phrase like that because people keep calling me with their problems.  By the way, when I actually find out what the “problem” is, it’s usually such a minor thing that requires literally no action for it to be solved.  Maybe the greatest extent of action would be a simple phone call with a different angle.

One of the greatest things I’ve learned is how to be a better communicator.  It may have had something to do with the fact that I spent a few years of my life making 300-400 phone calls per day to very unmotivated people.  Yes, I actually made that many calls, not just imagined I did.  Maybe that has allowed me to see the world differently than some.  Whatever it is, I know one thing for a fact….the ability to REALLY communicate with someone is what separates the boys from the men.  It’s what makes a problem become nothing more than some dirt on my shoulder I need to simply shake off….I wear a lot of white clothing so dirt doesn’t look good.  A lot of people think they are communicating well or at an above average level but that is because they don’t understand the concept.  Communication first starts with how you talk to yourself.  At any given moment, I know when I might need to kick myself in the butt…and I’ll be the first to recognize it and I’ll then….kick myself in the butt.  I don’t feel sorry for myself, I don’t go and watch television to take my mind off of it.  I don’t call my Mom.  I simply do it and DO IT NOW.  That’s all.  There are other times when I need to be my own biggest fan.  You know, kick back for 20 minutes and think about what I just accomplished.  I do that every now and then, maybe over a cup of coffee.  But that’s boring to me.  That’s feeling comfortable and I recognize that feeling right away and equate that with WEAK.  Sure I enjoy it for the moment, I live in the moment and then I’m back at it again like my man Flanagan.

For those of you reading this who have a life full of “problems,” maybe this is the butt kicking session you needed.  Just like you need to build up in anything you do, whether running long distances or bench pressing in the weight room or even learning to type faster….You also need to build up your tolerance for minor issues and stress.  Start looking forward to squashing these things.  Start enjoying when they come up so you can bring them right back down.  Like the owner of the NFL’s Raiders, Al Davis, likes to say, “The quarterback MUST go down and he MUST go down hard.”  Make that your motto for a day and see how easy things become.  I’ve made it  a motto for a lifetime.  And by the way, problems don’t exist, they are mere bumps in the road.  Lessons on the path.  Maybe you need to just quit hanging around with losers, that’s all right, you can hang with me….Hey, I hope this stuff I’m writing is better than those corporate pre-written newsletters that others keep sending you …haha…signing off…The Diamond.

The Key to Priority Management

The Key to Priority Management

By David Oswald

“If you want something done, give it to a busy person.”  - Unknown

Wealthy people make decisions quickly.

The concept of time management is a myth.  You cannot manage time, you can only manage the order in which things get done.  So many people tell me that they don’t have the time to get the things done in their life that need to get done.  We all have fires that come up during the course of the day.  We all have distractions and things that suddenly need our attention.  However, there is a system that will allow you the ability to complete those dreams that right now you just cannot seem to get to.

Priority management is the ability to focus on the things that MUST get done versus things that simply don’t matter as much.  True, they may be important but not everything has the same importance.  I would recommend that you pick a time where you consistently spend just ten minutes a day getting your day in order and assigning different levels the things you need to accomplish for that particular day.  For example, you could assign an A, B or a C to each of the tasks in order of importance and next to the A you may decide to put a 1, 2 , 3, etc. to each of the tasks (i.e A1, A2 and B1, B2).  Then simply make sure you complete the tasks in the order that you’ve already determined are the most important.  Once you commit to doing the things in that order and you do it everyday, you will see that the goals you have start to go down like bowling pins as you complete them one by one.

That system may sound very simplistic to you but in more than 85% of all cases, you will be able to knock each item down by simply making up your mind to complete them and do it in the order that you assigned to each item.  One of the challenges is that we don’t always stick to the plan and we end up either skipping over certain tasks or ignoring them until the next day or even the next week.  I will admit that there are circumstances that may contribute to the system I’ve spoken about not being realistic around 15% of the time.  I understand that there are certain phone calls and other distractions that can eat into a big chunk of our day.  Believe me, I get it.  But when those situations pop up, we need to handle them and then get back into what we had planned previously.  What helps is to not only schedule out the actual day but also to have a weekly plan that we can look back at to make sure we’ve completed everything during that week.  Anything that was not completed by the end of the week may have to be attended to during the weekend.  For more information how you can outsource the details so you can focus on the big stuff, contact info@maybachrealestate with the word ‘Outsource’ in the subject line.

Television is a Thief

Television is a Thief

By David “The Diamond” Oswald

“Cause Life is So Brief and Time is a Thief”  –  Rod Stewart from the song, “Young Turks”

I had the great fortune of deciding to no longer watch television about two years ago.  I was going through a time in my life where I was taking a very deep look at what it would take for me to go to a higher level both mentally and spiritually.  In the past, I was always the type of person who would like to finish off a long day by watching a couple of hours or so of television.  Sometimes I would watch informative things, sometimes I would watch sitcoms, sometimes sports, and sometimes I would just vegetate with some cartoons….they say “The Diamond” is a big kid anyway, right?  Nothing wrong with some cartoons.  To this day, I am often asked to show my ID when I go to a movie theater.  But enough about me.

Here is what I learned when I stopped watching television.  The box we call TV is an absolute thief.  It robs you of your most valuable commodity – time – but it comes wrapped in such a delightful package of convenience with a deceptive notion that we actually need this thing so we can “know what is going on in the world”…

I took the words right out of your mouth, right?  Well, here is the truth ladies and gentlemen, if something is so important for me or you to know about, we will hear the news some other way.  Bottom line.   What inspired me to write this article is that in a rare return to ‘the tube’, I noticed that I spent a day over at my aunt’s house and I was flipping through the channels for a couple of hours.  She has a few hundred channels, and I felt like I had too many options.  Literally, there was so much to watch that I could not decide on what channel to actually stay on.  I felt like a kid in a candy store watching one mindless episode of a sitcom and then flipping to a piece of a movie to endless commercials about who knows what.  I realized how quickly the time had passed and how if I had access to this many channels in my own home, I would be back to the same old person watching two or three hours per night (I have only the basic 18 channels or so and I rarely turn the thing on other than to watch a DVD on occasion).

So what has replaced the television?  I’ve devoured twice as many books as I used to read, I began to jog 30 miles per week, put over 50 properties under contract, I started mentoring others in real estate, developed a seminar company, wrote an ebook and began work on a novel, read the entire Bible, completed four classes toward becoming a minister, traveled about 15 times, learned to golf, started journaling my life daily, began writing these articles to you guys every other week and the list goes on and on.  I have probably forgotten more than I can remember at this point.  Hey, I only say this not to impress but rather to make you aware of what I have been saying all along – time is your biggest friend but it is also your biggest thief.  I close it out by asking you who wants to be a part of the Diamond’s World?  Send me an email and we will see what level we can get you started at.  Get at me! 

 

The Magic of a Mentor

The Magic of a Mentor

By David Oswald

“When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”

I was thinking about the importance of a having a mentor in anything that I’ve ever done during the course of my life.  Anytime that I’ve taken a step into some area where I was unfamiliar whether it was learning a new sport, learning some new aspect of real estate or completing my first ebook, a mentor was always the difference.  I did a tally the other day on how much I’ve spent on my real estate education during the past 5 years and it came to just over $87,000. 

Much of that education involved bootcamps and seminars at different locations throughout the country but the main area in which I saw the biggest jumps came when I had a direct mentorship with someone.  Although the classes are great and the people I’ve met are even greater, the real progression came when I had access to the real world individuals who were out there living it.  In the case of my real estate career, I was able to push out and become a full time investor only once I had the opportunity to spend about seven months straight with my original mentor.

That is just one of the reasons that I now mentor students in the area of real estate myself.  I know from experience that all the education in the world can’t replace what really happens on the day to day.  One unique aspect of my mentorship program is that my students have unlimited access to me during the first 30 days of working with me.  I know that usually that first month or so can be very critical in shaping one’s beliefs about the industry they are stepping into.  Having me there during this time period is essential and that’s why I sacrifice my time to make sure that there is a lot of contact and easy access.

I have always believed that if you have an interest in a particular area of your business or personal life, it can be done regardless of your previous background.  I’ve mentored students with absolutely zero background in real estate or sales and then again, I’ve taken individuals into my coaching program who had already closed a few deals and were looking to refine themselves.  Either way, you get plugged into a system that works.  To learn more about how I can help you accomplish your goals, drop me an email at doswald@maybachrealestate.com with the words ‘free consultation’ in the subject line.

Feel The Fear and Like It!

Feel the Fear and Like It

By David Oswald

I just got back a couple of weeks ago from Las Vegas where I attended a seminar with motivational speaker Marshall Sylver called The Next Level and while reflecting on what I did during that five day period I would have to agree that the title of the event is appropriate.  During one of the days, I spent about 8 hours at a ropes course doing a variety of challenges that normally would not have been of interest to me.  Not because I don’t enjoy new things but I am not always interested in seeking out thrills.  In fact, had I known what I was getting into before I paid for the event a few months ago, I may have decided not to do it.  I guess sometimes it’s not best to get all the details before diving into something.

To give you an idea of some of the things that I went through, at one point I was standing on a platform about 100 feet high and looking down into a canyon.  I was strapped into a seat harness and the harness was hooked onto a wire.  Upon jumping off of the platform, there was an immediate drop for about 10 feet and then I went speeding across the wire for about the length of a football field with my hands and legs free.  It was exhilarating to say the least.  Another challenge was to walk across a different section of the canyon at the same height but this time, I was walking across a metal wire with each of my hands holding onto a rope on both sides of my body.  Again, it was mentally and even physically challenging to get all the way across because the wire and the ropes started to shake as people got on behind me.  Another memorable task was to climb the equivalent of a 40 foot high telephone pole with only the ability to step onto those tiny rocks which are oddly shaped and sometimes even the rocks were loose and would move as I tried to get my footing.  The hardest part of that event is that the rocks are spaced so far apart that most of your steps are awkward because of the height and the difficulty in stepping up so high from rock to rock.  I finally got to the top, took a step onto the platform at the top and looked out over the Las Vegas desert knowing that I was glad to have accomplished the goal. 

One of the biggest things that I took from this event was that there were people who were not in good shape and there was even a 70 year old who pulled it off!  That was something that I could barely even wrap my mind around.  How could they be doing this?  The courage that they displaced was even more powerful for me than what I had done.  When I got back to the real world, I began to realize that the lesson of that week was that the things that I would have to overcome in my daily business life didn’t seem to have the same impact.  In other words, they weren’t as difficult and didn’t even compare to what I had done out there.  So when people ask me what the point of doing something like that was, the answer lies beyond a simple explanation because its beyond head knowledge, it was a “next level” for me and will open the door to future “next levels” in my lifetime.  For a free consultation on taking your real estate business to the next level, contact www.riversofincome.com with the words ‘Free Consultation’ in the subject line. 

All that Glitters May Not Be Gold…

I’m currently mentoring a couple of investors who are really excited about the business of real estate investing.  I like to feed off of their excitement and I enjoy listening to them when they talk about something new that they’ve learned and want to use in the business.  However, this also brings up the very tricky subject matter of what deals to take on and which ones to leave for a later time.  As with my last article, the experienced investor may read this and say, “Yes, I get it, I went through that period of my career where I looked at every deal with rose colored glasses but I’m smarter now.”  To that investor I would say that yes, you probably are smarter now but we must constantly be taking our own temperature (so to speak) to determine really where we are at that moment in our real estate business.  Even though you may have bought and sold 100 or 200 properties and you have years of experience, there are always going to be new and possibly distracting opportunities that people are putting in front of you.   I recently got an email from a friend who has an exciting opportunity in Costa Rica that he’s been talking about for a year.  He organized an LLC and is looking to raise millions of dollars specifically for this project.  Every time I speak to him about it, it sounds better and better.  There’s always an update from him about how he just had another investor get involved and the project is looking great, etc.  Of course, I’m sitting here and listening to this and each time I get more interested.  But the reality is that at this point for my particular situation, there is a greater chance that this opportunity would only take me farther away from my goals and into an area that I’ve done very little research on.   Which brings me to the subject of what one of my investors-in-training said to me recently.  He said, “Dave, I have this opportunity in Texas that is a pre-construction deal that I think I am going to do.”  Keep in mind that what he and I have been working on has been almost entirely the wholesaling side of real estate, where he is taking the least risk possible with the greatest potential reward.  And now he approaches me with something that he knows very little about, hasn’t had enough interest to even research the market extensively, has no real contacts to speak about in the area and knows no one who has actually been successful with the project.  These are all things that I asked him about to which he knew almost nothing.  However, the one thing that stood out in his mind was that the potential return on investment was in the mid six figures.  In other words, once he heard about that and looked at the website and heard the sales pitch, everything else didn’t matter as much.  The hard questions that need to be answered anytime we look at a deal, he seemed to justify in his mind that it was worth the risk.  They say that love is blind but sometimes we as investors are blind as well.  We hear that one thing or we believe that somehow we have the inside scoop and that we need to act now to take advantage of an opportunity or it may be gone forever.   While there is some truth to the fact that some opportunities need to be seized at a particular moment, for the most part, there are always going to be good deals available if we want to find them.  I’m not advocating that we scoff at every opportunity and pass on everything but I am saying that the same amount of time and work that made you good at one thing in real estate will be required to be good at another area of real estate (or any business for that matter).  A statement that summarizes this idea goes something along the lines of “Trust, but verify.”  This is true not only of real estate but also most aspects of life.  Even when creating a new business relationship with someone, I may trust what they are saying but I’m going to ask the questions that reveal whether or not they have an intimate knowledge of what they are speaking about.  To do that, I must first have an intimate knowledge myself by doing the proper homework.  Only then can I look at an opportunity and say that this one is not fool’s gold. For information regarding real estate mentoring opportunities, please contact info@maybachrealestate.com.

Know When to Hold ‘Em and When to Fold ‘Em

This blog is dealing with the topic of when to proceed with a real estate deal and when it’s better just to step away from it.  I had a recent situation that inspired this article and I decided to put it on paper because it involves an important topic concerning this business of real estate and something that many other investors ask me about: what is a motivated seller and how can you tell the difference between someone who is motivated and someone who is not?  From the question, it would seem obvious but you must remember that you must first define in your own mind what it means to be motivated.   For my purposes, a motivated seller is someone who is absolutely ready to do business and is craving for me to help them.  It’s not someone who wants to have multiple conversations to get to know me, followed by me coming out to snap some pictures of the house, followed by another week or two of them having an attorney look at the documents, followed by another week of them discussing it with their spouse.  I don’t care how great the deal may appear, if your seller does not NEED your services, then you’re probably setting yourself up for a lot of wasted time and a big disappointment in the end.  If you have to consistently call the seller and convince them as to why your service is important, that again is not a motivated seller.  If you find that your day consists of calling back people who are in foreclosure and always following up with old leads, you’re probably not generating enough new ones and your business is going to be stagnant and lead to disappointment.   I recently went out to northern New Jersey to get a 4 family house under contract that had two mortgages and would have been an ideal property to spend time on and probably would have turned out to be a winner.  The house needed repairs as well so a short sale would have been a strong option.  The owner had called me twice, I explained the process and he seemed motivated by the standards of my definition.  However, when I showed up at the property, the owner was 20 minutes late.  Ok, nothing to get too excited about but I was watching a little closer.  His next item of business once he showed up was to spend about 20 more minutes arguing with a tenant.  Now I was starting to feel as if he was eating into my time.  I normally spend less time than that in total at the property.  Finally, after I had snapped a few pictures, I took him aside and said that I would like to go over the documents which I had already briefed him on over the phone.  It was at that point, that he asked a few questions that to me indicated there was still a bit of indecision on his part.  I think in the back of his mind he believed that his realtor might still get the property sold.  Meanwhile, the realtor had the property listed for over 6 months and there hadn’t been any offers above what he owed on the property.   So I stood there a minute, did a mental evaluation of where I thought I was with this seller, stared him in the eyes and said, “You know what, at this point, I’ve decided not to do business with you.”  I thanked him for his time and went to the car where my driver was waiting (I usually pay a notary to drive me).  As I walked away the guy attempted to try and open up talks again with me and even was knocking on the window as I began driving away.  But I had already made my decision.  He had a combative spirit and even though I could have had the papers signed and another deal to work on, I said that this one was a motivated seller in sheep’s clothing.  Even though I wasted an hour, I still looked at that deal as a win for me because earlier in my career, I might have walked right into that one but this time, I knew when to fold ‘em.  For more information regarding our real estate mentoring programs, contact us at info@maybachrealestate.com.

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!