4 Practical Ways to Expand Your Comfort Zone

Mike: Welcome back to the FlipNerd.com REI Classroom, where experts from across the real estate investing industry teach you quick lessons to take your business to the next level. And now let’s meet today’s expert host.

Michael: Hi, there. Welcome to the REI Classroom. My name is Michael Blank and I’ll be your instructor today. Today, I’m going to teach you four techniques you can use to expand your comfort zone to do bigger multi-family deals.

Mike: This REI Classroom real estate lesson is sponsored by theinvestormachine.com, FlipNerd’s private investor coaching program, and your blueprint to investing success.

Michael: So, typically, we tend to limit ourselves based on what we believe is possible, which is based on our experience, our upbringing, any other kind of beliefs that we have, and it’s amazing to see the difference with people who have limiting beliefs and those who do not. And I’ve always found it very fascinating that everything starts with your mind. It really does. And so, thinking big, achieving anything, all starts with your mind.
I thought it was a bunch of hooey at first, but the more I’ve studied it, seen it in myself, and experienced it myself and seeing it with other people, the more I believe it’s true. And the biggest problem is that the comfort zone, our comfort zone, limits us. It limits what we think is possible.
With regards to real estate investing, what this does, specifically, is it makes most people want to do a single-family house investing strategy first. And I’ve talked about this ad nauseam before, single- family house investing may or may not actually help you achieve your goals. For example, if you’re looking for passive income, flipping houses may not get you there. If you want $10,000 in income, you know, accumulating a portfolio of single-family houses may not actually get you there and may be a ton of work. Right? But most people will gravitate towards a single-family house investing strategy and dismiss multi-family because they’re limiting their beliefs.
Now, is there something we can do about that? The answer is “yes,” and it is four techniques to expand your comfort zone. Let me give you an example of why I think this works, before I get into the ones. But, I had a 51-unit under contract in Tennessee, and it was one of my students who brought it to me and he goes, “Man, you know, I’m really looking at . . . my first deal’s a 10-unit and I came across a 51-unit off market deal and I started negotiating it.” He actually got an LOI signed, a letter of intent signed. He brought it to me, he goes, “Oh my God, it’s way too big. I can’t do it.”
So we negotiated a referral fee and I then took over the process, and he says, “You know, I just want to stay involved,” and so, we shared a Dropbox folder and we had phone calls. It was a part of our coaching agreement. Okay, anyway, what I found . . . Now the deal, actually, after 14 days, after we got into due diligence, we discovered that there was actually fairly significant things that were wrong with the property, so, we terminated the contract.
But, after that 14 days experience, his name was Roger, he goes, “You know, I am not looking at 10-units anymore. I’m just going to look at 50 plus.” Why is that? Why did he respond that way, and why did he respond that way in 14 days? Here’s why. It’s because he got so involved with this deal. He studied it so carefully, he visited, he took pictures, he talked to people. All of a sudden, his comfort zone expanded rapidly, and I’m thinking to myself, “Well, shoot, I need to incorporate this into my training.”
So here are the four techniques. Four techniques. Number one is visualize. Hokey stuff, I know, but it totally works. If you study top performing athletes, they actually do this, they actually . . . many of them, not all of them, but many, many, they see themselves performing at their highest level. They see themselves winning. They see themselves holding a gold medal up. If you talk to other successful people, they do it, also.
If you’ve seen “The Secret,” the movie “The Secret,” the law of attraction, it’s all about visualization and the vision board. “The Miracle Morning” by Hal Elrod, great book, also great podcast, Hal Elrod, “The Miracle Morning” talks about getting up early in the morning and meditating, thinking, and visualizing is a key component of that. So, visualizing should not be underestimated. Visualizing is number one.
Number two, specifically with multi-family investing, the number two thing you can do is analyze deals, not just learn. And I can teach you to learn to analyze deals, and I can give you tools and techniques, but really do it. And I found that once you’ve analyzed about 12 deals, your confidence level skyrockets, and not only does your confidence level, but your comfort zone, especially if you’re maybe analyzing larger deals.
So learn to analyze deals because that does a lot to expand your comfort zone, and with that, I have my students create what I call a “sample deal package.” A sample deal package and an investor package all about the property itself, real photos, location, financials, projections, everything you would give to a potential investor. That’s three.
Number four is to visit larger properties. And this is kind of . . . I’ve seen it with myself, when I first got started, and even I do it. Well, let’s say my comfort zone is at 5,000,000. Okay? And I will then visit properties that are maybe 7,000,000 or 10,000,000, just so I’m continually expanding my comfort zone, as well. This is what Roger did, as well. When he went there, he went there twice, took some pictures, talked to property manager.
Visit larger properties. You do this one or two or three times, and it’s amazing how your comfort zone expands. So, bottom line, bigger is definitely better, with regards to multi-family, and I really want you to try to expand your comfort zone. I know you’re gravitating towards, “Let me start with single-family houses first,” but it’s really only because your comfort zone is limited to that. You can get your hand around a single-family house, but you can’t get your head around a 10, 15-unit multi-family.
So do these exercises first. Do them for 30 days, and if you can’t get there, and you’re like, “Oh my gosh, I’m so overwhelmed. I can’t even see myself buying a 10-unit building. I just can’t do it,” then before you do that, then do a duplex. Okay? That’s my fallback position. I’d rather you get started with multi-family than get stuck with single-family house, and just buy a duplex. Duplex is not strictly multi-family, but it really is. It gets you on that path. All right? So, do that.
Anyway, use the four techniques. Visualize, learn to analyze deals, create sample deal package, and visit larger properties. All right, that’s it. If you have any questions, the best place to ask me is on Ask Mike, which is themichaelblank.com/ask. Listen, I appreciate you taking time out of your busy day to learn with me, and I will catch you on the next episode.

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