Hello again my friends and welcome to another episode of Ask Marco where I answer or at least try to answer your investing related questions.

Today's question comes from Michelle and Michelle says, hello. I've been listening to your podcast for a couple of months now and I think in one episode you said you help people figure out a clear plan for real estate investing. Question Mark, I want to do this, but my ideas are scattered and this real estate investing stuff can be really overwhelming because there are so many options and all of these rules to follow. I can relate because we all start there, Michelle, but you will find that it gets easier as you go. Believe me, she concludes by saying, if I could get a chance to speak to someone about my goal so that I can have a clearer understanding of what I want to do and invest in, that would be great. If not, do you know of anyone that does? I really want to do this, but I want to know somewhat what I'm doing.





Okay. This is a great question and this is actually a very common question, especially for people who are just getting started, knew what some of us call newbies, but essentially your green behind the ears and you're trying to get clear on all this stuff that just looks and seems and sounds overwhelming and you just want to get clear on your investment goals. So for a lot of people it's really just finding the right direction, just knowing what direction they need to go in and just someone to be a compass for you, point you in the right direction and then you will figure it out and learn what to do as you go because you're going to have the tools, resources, the education and the team of people around you to help you get there.

And it's just a matter of first pointing in the right direction, facing the right way, and then starting with little baby steps and moving forward. And then you'll find that you'll feel more competent and confident and you'll grow and you'll start to take bigger and bigger action steps. So the bottom line here is in what I'm saying is to educate yourself because your confidence is equal to your competence. And if you don't have the competence level right now to give you that confidence, then it all starts with my first rule of my 10 rules of successful real estate investing, which are posted on both of our websites. And that is to educate yourself. The more you learn, the more you earn. You've heard that saying before, it is very true because when you start to know what you need to do and what to look for and what to avoid, you can't help but to start taking action steps that will propel you in the right direction and get you to do the things you need to do.

So educate yourself because again, your confidence is equal to your competence and then you will find that that will magnify and accelerate as you start to get successes under your belt. When you get that first rental property, it's a big learning curve, but you'll feel great about it. And then you'll look back and you say, Oh okay well I get it. That wasn't so bad. And the next one is going to be a little easier. And then the next one is a little easier. And then you get to the point where you don't even think about most of the steps. You just are so in tune with the process. So the question I have now is what do you consider investing? Because for some people they think that buying, fixing and flipping properties, investing and in a way it is cause you're putting capital up in real estate and you're turning around and flipping it for what you hope to be a chunk of cash.

And so in a way it is an investment but it's very transactional. It's short lived. And so I don't actually consider that investing. For me, investing is something that creates long term, ongoing, predictable cash flow. But for some people they like to buy, fix and hold. And that's an active approach to investing. That ultimately becomes a passive approach. Because once you're done with the renovations,