My experience is that most new investors don't fail at investing... they fail at marketing. Marketing is how you sell you skill as an investor and find enough motivated sellers to keep cash rolling in.

You can use billboards, flyers, telephone calls, door to door canvassing, bandit signs, newspaper ads, Web sites, direct mail... or any combination. If you don't use good marketing every week of year your chances of becoming a successful investors are minimal.

Good marketing is secret. You can be expert at every creative buying technique in book. If you can't locate motivated sellers every week you just won't be able to buy houses.

Time and again we've seen people with just basic knowledge of one or two buying techniques become very successful, because they are unrelenting in their search for motivated sellers. Perseverance and stamina can work wonders.

My choice is to mail postcards, because they are inexpensive to prepare and send. You can read more about my postcard system at http://digbig.com/4cjxp Step four - Always have an exit strategy before you buy:

Before buying an investment property you must carefully evaluate potential for profit. One of keys to your evaluation will be to determine what you will do with property if you buy it.

Included in many way to profit are:

1. Place it in your "buy & hold" inventory if it will produce profitable rental income. 2. Place it in your "buy & hold" inventory if it will produce break-even cash flow and you expect it to increase in value by 8% to 15% or more per year. 3. You can assign purchase contract to another investor for a one time cash payment. 4. You can buy property and immediately sell it to a retail buyer and cash-out. 5. You can exchange it for a more desirable property. 6. Refinance cash out and use money for down payment on another property. 7. Etc...

Finally

Now you can visualize four basic steps in real estate investing. You'll never know all there is to know about every step. Just get started and add to your knowledge as you go along. Remember, all it takes to be successful is perseverance and stamina!

5. Guard Your Contact Details

NEVER give your client name & address of another Finder. When you do, you start a Daisy Chain, and are not entitled to any form of Finder's Fees.

6. Build Your Contact List

READ...READ...READ...ever increasing number and quality of your contacts.

7. Get Organized

Keep chronological and complete files of all of your correspondence (even telephone calls) with both your contacts and your clients.

8. Find It First

Always FIND IT FIRST, before contacting a potential client. This one action, alone, will save you a lot of money in paper that doesn't go into waste basket.

9. Don't Play The Blame Game

If you don't get a response from potential client, DO NOT do what childish amateurs do ­ DO NOT blame advertiser; blame yourself. You probably didn't offer potential client what he wanted; so, try again, or give up, on that particular finding opportunity.

NOTE: If one advertiser doesn't respond to your contact offer, you should keep your eyes open for a similar Finder's Fee opportunity; to which you can make same offer. - BE SURE to re-confirm your contact.

10. Be Patient

The "key" word in being a successful finder is PATIENCE. The reason most amateur finders never earn their first fee is because they push for a fast close. They try to negotiate deal for principals. DO NOT do it!! Let your principals close their own deal, in their own time. A "right" deal will close itself. A "wrong" deal will never close; no matter how hard you push and shove.

As a finder, you can work anywhere you want, at any time you want - just by keeping your eyes & ears open. Even an offhand comment overheard on street can lead to a finder's fee. Whether you live in Podunk, or Metropolitan New York City, you can earn constant, and sizable, Finder's Fees all year, every year. Your family, friends, business associates, and local merchants (as well as people all over nation, and around world) can make you a fortune -- if you know who will pay you a Finder's Fee for information you hear and see every day. Using information in this report, you can be well on your way to earning your fortune in Finder's Fees.

This report was excerpted from the complete, master course, "Finder's Fees - The Easiest Money You'll Ever Make" by J.F. (Jim) Straw; the only professional finder to ever write on the subject. The complete, master course has been the bible of professional finders since 1978. -- Available in our Million Dollar Library.

http://www.webtei.com/finder.htm