Cory has completed over 75 million in real estate acquisitions and closed over 1000 real property transactions including 100+ multi-family, land, SFR, and private investment dealings. He runs a nationwide education company that coaches high achieving entrepreneurs and their teams for getting phenomenal results in their business, as well as a top rated real estate Podcast in iTunes. He currently buys or wholesales 80-100 properties a year in the Greater Oklahoma City Metro Area and resides in Oklahoma with Lesly and their wonderful two kids.
I suggest you revisit real estate investing. The time is great to purchase properties under value from either short sales, foreclosures, or REO. I have been investing for years in real estate and it's been a consistent excellent investment with returns of 15% or higher annually. You can either purchase the physical asset (the real estate property) or you can purchase the note (the paper). Both of these have advantages, but the key is buying each for a big discount. There are several methods of doing this, even virtually, but you need to get educated and gain specialized knowledge before you dive in. I'm also a coach for not only business, but specifically real estate investing at CoryBoatright.com
I hope that helps.
Remember... be a servant,
Cory
Find a mentor. A mentor will provide you so much insight that will allow you save time and money on your project. I also recommend you "fail fast". What I mean by that is start taking steps to get data, don't worry about being perfect or making mistakes. You're young and you can use that to your advantage. Look at other young entrepreneurs and learn where they hang out and who they follow on Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. The mechanics of a business isn't the most important part. It's the implementation of the idea. It's actually "taking action" so you can get your prototype crated. Then you can tweak it and get more data. The exciting part is your in the mindset of working for yourself instead of a boss. That is a powerful mindset at the age of 16 for sure.
I hope this served you.
Remember... be a servant,
Cory Boatright
http://CoryBoatright.com
http://Facebook.com/rememberbeaservant
Many people you hire from say "Odesk" will show they are independent contractors. However many of them will also work for development firm too. I suggest you find a solid 4 rated firm to go over your basic concept. Don't worry about the NCND because you want to protect your idea. These firms see hundreds of design concepts a day and odds are pretty good you aren't creating the next "Angry Birds". That said... you don't want to explain every aspect and details of your app in your Job Description on Odesk for the contractor/development firm. Once you find a few inquiries about getting your app developed, you want to get on Skype with the person you feel might be good fit for you. Make sure you feel comfortable on how you communicate with them. That's really important. There is a huge difference hiring a $30-$50 coder or a $10 one. The $10 one might be cheap, but will take 3-4 hours to do what $30-$50 coder can do in one hour for you. Make sure you confirm your code will be secured third party password protected service too. If you have been working on this concept for 6 months, that tells me you have put a lot of thought in it. Don't give away too many details, but find someone that understands your direction when you explain it them. Trust your gut instincts, but don't forget to verify past projects and experience before hiring them.
I hope that helps.
Remember... be a servant,
The best advice I received was get a personal assistant immediately. Take a minimum of 10% from each real estate deal and put it back into marketing. Most people are not consistent with marketing. Real estate is volatile so think about it this way "sucks for you when you have a headache, but fantastic for Tylenol". In other words, make money on the downside from buying short sales and make money on the upside by selling retail. Decide if you want to focus on residential or commercial, but do not try to master both. Focus is the key to success and mastery. I hope that helps.
Remember... be a servant,
Cory
Seth Godin in his book "The Dip" said: "You don't have the courage to quit".
That is a reframe on how most entrepreneurs view "quitting" or "giving up".
The point you should give up is when you consider four things.
1. Your mindset and passion for the project
2. Your metrics
3. Your market
4. message
The passion is extremely important because it fuels everything else in your business. If you don't have a positive mindset believe in what you're doing with full commitment and total un-resolve, you need to examine that first. 75% of success in business is mindset only 25% mechanics.
Second are your metrics. What are your K.P.I's? How are you viewing each one and what is the result you want to achieve in a specific time period for each one? Often it's easy to let passion take over the intellectual side of your business which are the metrics. You need to have balance and awareness of these things.
And is your market ripe for addition to it or are you betting on "hope"? How much have you accumulated to payback your investment? Are you growing each month or falling further behind? What is your market telling you they want or have the greatest challenge and desperately need a solution? What is their pain? Solve this and they will love you.
Lastly is your message. What is your USP (unique selling proposition)? How are you different from the others and what makes you so needed and desired that people love to talk about your product and services? Can you sum up what you are about in 10 words or less?
Work on these things first before you even consider giving up. If you are full throttle meaning scale of 1-10 you are hitting all these at 9 or 10 and still not seeing results. It's probably a good idea to look at another angle, market or product.
I hope that helps.
Remember... be a servant,
Cory Boatright
http://CoryBoatright.com
This is simple, but most make it harder than it looks.
Residential real estate is always going to have a use. You will never find a time where people don't need housing... at least not in this lifetime. You pick up residential property for rock bottom prices (especially if you short sales them http://shortsaleology.com ) and sell them for a significant profit quickly or hold them for long term cashflow purposes.
Commercial property has incredible opportunity too, but it's a completely different animal than residential and has a lot more zeros to "get in the game" or play in that "sand box".
I know you didn't specifically ask about that, but just saying.
ISSUES:
1. Know your market. You can do this by simply contacting a Realtor that works with investors or gaining access to the MLS and looking at top 5-10 best selling zip codes. You want to know what type of houses; e.g. "3 beds or 2 beds selling better... 1 or 2 baths? You want to do this for whatever area that interests you.
2. You need to lookup "REIA" (real estate investor associations) in your state and go to a meeting. There you will meet other investors and connect with people that can help you.
3. You need to educate yourself by finding a mentor to teach you "the ropes". If that isn't an option with your budget, I recommend you investigate which real estate guru/teacher you like the most and follow their study materials. At the end of the day, 99% of the people don't take action and watch everyone else's dream come true. They make excuses on why "the market sucks" or "no one is buying in their area" ... all that crap. They find an excuse for everything, while successful people take action and find a reason to get motivated and stay that way.
The decision is up to you, but it ultimately it comes down to your energy investment. You only have so much energy to devote to any endeavor. If you half-ass something you won't get many results for it. If you get focused and stay consistent at learning and getting results, you'll start reaching your real estate goals the fastest; that and get a mentor.
I hope this was helpful.
Remember... be a servant,
Cory Boatright
Commercial real estate is completely different animal than residential. Loop.net is a popular site where you can review commercial deals. Outside of that you need to find pocket listings and build relationships with brokers and Realtors that list commercial properties. You can also go to http://www.Listsource.com and pull criteria to send out a mailer to a very targeted list of owners.
I specialize in investment real estate; more specifically short sales and flipping houses. However I have friends in the industry that do specialize in storage units. I could point you in the right direction for sure. Are you only considering storage units?