Did you answer yes to any of these questions?

If so, then you are one of the select few that has been impervious to the weight-loss/wellness industry marketing of the last 1000 years. Kudos to you for your fierce resistance to high pressure selling.

The weight-loss industry is largely predicated on selling supplements, vitamins, herbs and fitness as well as cooking devices designed to be the proverbial ‘magic weight loss pill.’

That’s right – everybody’s looking for the magic pill.

And not just in weight loss…

In pretty much every other endeavor available in life, the magic pill is sought like the Fountain of Youth or the Lost City of Gold.

El Dorado.

I get a lot of questions from people looking for that magic pill when it comes to raising private money for their real estate investments. Here are the usual magic pills already tried before I hear from someone or before they attend one of my seminars:

-”I posted my deal on an internet forum – and nobody replied.”

-”I talked to a bunch of real estate agents about getting funding for my deal, but they didn’t want to invest.”

-”I asked Grandma to invest some money, but she doesn’t have enough and needs money to live on.”

-Etc.

The one good thing about these approaches is that they signal the person is taking action, which is always the most important part of success in anything.

But, trying to use a ‘magic pill approach’ to private money is a pathway to frustration. Why?

Because, to use a retail store analogy, if you want to get 72 customers in your store, there isn’t one way to get 72 customers, you must find 72 ways to get one customer.

Let than sink in for a second….

Private investors don’t all congregate in one place. They don’t all read the same things nor respond to the same messages. You won’t meet all of them at one particular networking event.

In short, there is no magic private money pill.

Sorry to break it to you.

But, there is still good news. In fact, it’s great news if you are truly committed to getting and using other peoples money in your real estate investing business. The goods news is…

You don’t need a magic pill! In fact, if you used the same approach or went to the same well for private money repeatedly you would come up dry. You wouldn’t get response. People would ignore what you have to say before too long.

So, what are a few of those “72 ways” to get one private investor to come through your doors?

Don’t worry, I’m not going to hold out on you. I just want to make sure you have enough of an understanding to put these tools to good use:

• Website – properly targeted
• Non-real estate focused networking events

The internet is going to become even more important for raising private money 6 months from now then it is today. If you don’t have a professional website properly targeted, you’re behind the curve.

Most real estate investors only go to their local REIA or other real estate related networking events. This is good. Keep doing this. But, ask yourself: is this where my private investors are going to be? Most likely the answer you will come up with is: no.

As soon as a private money pill develops I will be the first one to market it. However, in the mean time, use some proven principles to hit your money raising goals.

Huh? Is that any way to approach business? Isn’t it careless?

To me there’s no better way to profit in this market than using private money to steal real estate bargains. But, there are some different ways to approach it. There’s a more profitable way and a less profitable way. It’s up to you to decide.

The best way to do it is to: #1 get the private money and then go after the deals. However, most people do the exact opposite. Why?

There’s no law saying you have to have a deal before you get private money. But, I think you’re going to be much more successful when you go out hunting if you have dry powder and plenty of ammo.

What it comes down to are two vastly different schools of thought when it comes to private money:

1.    Get the deal, then get the private money
2.    Get the private money, then get the deal

Seems pretty simple and not much different. After all, you are in fact getting a private money loan or private funding, right? So half the battle is already won. But…

There are huge differences – both in approach and results (remember, results = profit?).

Let me explain…

First, I’m going to let you in on a little secret, well..maybe it’s not so little. If you go through door #1 (you find a deal and then run around like crazy beating the private money drum to fund it), you may get good deals and you’ll bypass all the banking B.S. that has real estate investors from Boston to Seattle running around in a paper chase close to the abyss. – All of this is good stuff….But, you’re still going to leave a lot of low hanging fruit on the vine and miss a great many profitable deals.

These deals, this low-hanging fruit is going to go to investors who utilize the following approach:

Ready. Fire. Aim.

Get the money, then get the deals. This is how to make the most money in the least time with the least effort. Private money lenders are ready and waiting to jump on profitable deals…they’re sick of the stock market and private mortgage loans or private placement memorandums are perfect substitutes for the whipsaw of the stock market.

One thing you’ll note with my “ready. fire. aim.” approach isn’t exclusive to private money for real estate deals, either. You an adopt this approach to your whole business and you’ll get a lot more done. Stop over thinking things and ‘getting ready’ to ‘get ready’ – just go out and shoot something and bring it back in. Taking action always works wonders on profits.

The absolute best way to capitalize fully and completely on the current buyers market of the century is to first get the private money and then hunt the deals.

Just about every real estate investor, no matter if they’re going after bank owned foreclosures or  does this in reverse – they are conditioned for the old way of doing things: you know, where you could write an offer on a deal contingent upon financing and you’d have 30 days or so to put together a couple of banks or mortgage brokers for financing it. Since those days are long gone, cash is the rule of the day.

Even when you are acquiring bigger projects where you are using a component of commercial financing for a piece of it, you still need to have the equity part down before you snag the deal. Any reputable commercial broker or asset manager worth their salt is going to want to make sure that you’ve got the ability to close the deal before giving you the keys to the massive equity and cash flow kingdom that they have under their thumb with some truly ‘diamond in the rough’ offerings.

Having access to the capital will bring you the best deals. You can try it in reverse or you can  If you want to be the first person to get a call on a new listing – this is the approach. Private money lending and private equity investors are going to be what you need. Hard money and bank money won’t cut the mustard.

Some of the best investment managers, real estate or otherwise, use this approach. How do you think a big REIT would make money if they went looking for deals and then brought those deals to their investors? The deals would be gone and the profits might be lost.  So, why would you do it any differently than the most successful businesses in real estate?