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Let me ask you a chicken or the egg question...

"What would you do first?

a) find a great real estate deal

or

b) find private money to fund the deal

Do you "Find a deal and then go find the money because it gives you the incentive to make it happen?"

I answered just the opposite because having private money will give you the confidence when you make offers that you are going to be able to close.

I feel confidence is more important.

I don't know if there is one right answer but if you are not doing either one, read on...

If you simply are not ready to go to the next level is it FEAR holding you back?

If so, I've found that education is the key in taming that fear monster and give you the confidence to move ahead.

I remember my 1st deal. My knees were knocking. Fortunately for me I had an experience RE investor walk me through my 1st deal. I also had gotten six months of solid RE education through two home study courses I had purchased, library books on creative real estate and a local REIA seminar.

After that 1st deal the fear monster was gone and I was ready to do it again.

Like I said before, I've done my homework, spent tons of money on education and have had lots of practical experience in the business.

If there are gaps in your RE education, take care of that now while you're busy finding lenders to help take your business to the next level.

You'll be very glad you did.

Let's face it, the reason most investors don't have any private lenders is fear.

It's as basic as that. It's a fear of the unknown. How do I know that? I've been there too.

I was comfortable doing things the way I had always done them. I went to the bank, I jumped through their hoops of proving I was qualified for their loan, they gave me the money, and I paid them back the way they said. It was a familiar routine in my business of buying and selling homes.

However, when I became a full-time investor and wanted tons of quickly accessible cash, the bank's painstakingly slow process was no longer acceptable.

Even when I knew for certain what I wanted, I procrastinated. I was not able to do nearly as many deals as I wanted because I waited so long to take action. The thing is, if there is something you are afraid to do, you can always find a reason to not do it.

Sometimes we won't even admit to ourselves that we are afraid. We just can't get to it because we are too busy, too tired, or focused on other "more important" issues.

But then, that didn't solve the whole problem. I was still too shy to approach people who I knew would benefit from my program.

I remember sitting in my doctor's office and being too uncertain of myself to tell him about my program. I didn't have the nerve to ask for the money. That day, we both lost. I wanted money to run my business and he missed out on earning a tremendous interest rate.

Once I recognized what was holding me back, I became educated in learning how to get what I wanted and how to handle private funds once I got them. That gave me the foundation of knowledge.

I am so grateful today that I got a solid real estate education so I can now confidently let potential private lenders know that I have a great opportunity for both of us!