So you are at a REIA meet up and you run into Dennis. So you ask, Dennis what you have been up to? And he says, been buying rentals up at Eastpointe. You whip out your notebook and write down: buy rentals in Eastpointe although you cannot remember if Eastpointe is in Wayne County or in Ohio.
10 minutes later you see Allan Boike holding court in a corner talking about this REO he is about to close in Macomb Township and immediately your ears perk up and your notebook opens up again in which you write : buy REO's in Macomb Township although you live a good 45 miles away from Macomb Township in Ypsilanti.
That night later you stumble into Eric Tomei's Facebook Page on which he is talking about the 3 foreclosures he just bought with Scott Baumgart over at Grand Blanc and Holly and Fenton and you make yet another note about buying REO's soon in those three cities.
I love your initiative but you are, in the beginning days of your real estate investing business are asking the wrong question from all these veteran real estate investors: you are asking WHERE they are doing their deals instead of asking WHY they are buying their deals in those cities?
The WHERE in most cases is useless to you. If you live too far or know nothing about these cities where they are doing these deals and if you are just going to copycat what they are doing without knowing what they know; you are most likely end up in wrong deals.
But if you ask Boike on WHY is he buying REO's in Macomb and WHAT made him buy this deal above all or WHY Eric and Scott focus on Holly then their answers will give you a solid template that you can cut and paste in your business and find a Michigan city close to you where you live or work that would let you cross out all the points that they told you about.
Instead of just memorizing city names learn WHY they are doing WHAT they are doing and you are going to walk out of this 10 minute conversation a much smarter real estate investor in Michigan who will pick a great city close to where you live and work and which is familiar to you instead of driving and getting lost in a new city that you heard in a conversation at a real estate networking event.
Long time ago I read that the quality of your life is determined by the questions you ask. Tony says that ask better questions if you want better answers.
This asking of WHY instead of WHERE is one of those better questions. Ask it often and ask it every time you come across an experienced real estate investor in Michigan everywhere you go for networking and meeting other like minded folks.
Make it a habit from Day 1. It will give you the eyes to start spotting all those gold mine cities that are around you already that you have been ignoring while trying to find greener pastures somewhere far in Michigan which could be right for them but so wrong for you.
