To be a successful real estate investor, you need a plan, and that plan should start with some goals. Your goals need to be specific, measurable, and have a deadline.

I want to be a real estate investor is not a goal.

I want to own 25 residential rental units that average $100 a month in positive cash flow (profit) within the next 12 months is a goal.

Do you see the difference?

Next, figure out what your resources are. Do you know how to find and acquire the property you want to buy? If so, great. If not, you need some training.

How much cash do you have to use for your investments? Along with your own money, consider who you know who might want to invest in your projects for a share of the profits. If you have cash, its much easier to get started. If you dont, youll have to take the time to learn various no-money-down techniques or strategies such as assigning contracts to generate cash flow.

How much support do you have from family and friends? Who are the people who will back you and help you reach your goals? Who are the people who will laugh at you and tell you that youre crazy and youll never make it? Identify these people and surround yourself with positive people who will be supportive. Avoid the negative people who try to shoot you down.

What are you going to do every day that will help you achieve your goals? Make a daily action list of things like reading the real estate section of the newspaper, driving through neighborhoods looking for properties, going to real estate investor club meetings to network and learn, reading books on real estate investing and business, and so on.

Make your list specific and realistic. It needs to be specific so you know exactly what you are going to accomplish each day. And it needs to be realistic so you dont set yourself up for failure. For example, if you are still working a full-time job and doing real estate on the side, a realistic plan would be to make 5-10 calls on the classified ads every day, spend 2-3 hours every weekend driving through neighborhoods looking for properties, and read one book a week on real estate investing. An UNrealistic plan would call for making 40 calls a day, spending five hours a day on at least three different days each week driving through neighborhoods, and reading a book a day.

If your plan is realistic, youll stick with it until it starts producing results. If its not realistic, youll get discouraged and give up quickly.

Simple but not easy

Investing in real estate is simple, but not easy. By simple, I mean that the basic strategies are not complicated, the formulas are essentially eighth-grade math, and it doesnt take a genius IQ to do it. By not easy, I mean that it takes work. You have to be willing to do the work, put in the hours, and give up some things now to build wealth that you can enjoy in the future.

Real estate is one of the simplest and safest ways to build long-term sustainable wealth, but it takes time and effort. I started investing in real estate when I was 20; I became financially independent (meaning that I could live off the income my real estate investments generated) at the age of 23; and became a millionaire at the age of 27. Think about it: it took me seven years to achieve millionaire status. Today, I often make $1 million or more on a single deal, but I didnt start that way, and neither will you. But if you will make the investment of time and energy, if you will take advantage of the knowledge offered by successful investors, you can probably become a millionaire in a much shorter time than it took me to do it.

So turn off the television, put down the sports magazine, stop chatting on the internet, and make a commitment to do what it takes to achieve financial freedom and true wealth. And that, my friends, is the best way to get started in real estate.