A credibility kit empowers the real estate investor to take that next step, beyond the basics of locating properties, marketing, contacting and working with sellers, and working those critical first few deals that get the machine running.
This next level of real estate investing means being able to effectively and concisely explain and back up your business interests to those who might judge you for it. These types of people are not going to be your everyday clientele, as in sellers or buyers of property. What I’m talking about here are the bankers, city officials, other investors, and would be private lenders who can collectively represent your pathway to a highly lucrative tomorrow. These people aren’t going to be swayed by the basic sales presentation that works with many of your day to day clients because they are both more experienced and, from the perspective they are coming from, need to see that your business resembles a business to be impressed with you.
It is for the benefit of these types of clients that the need for a solid credibility kit becomes important. Are you going to be ready to rise to the occasion and be prepared for the higher expectations that these ‘next level’ clients will carry or are you going to be like most investors, who scramble around at the last minute throwing something together? I’d like to think you’d opt for Door Number 1, the door that offers the more prepared approach to professional investing, and it is for this choice that this guide has been created. Let’s start this discussion with a brief review of the essentials for any credibility kit.
Essential #1: The Importance of Being Thorough
One of the more common pitfalls in presenting oneself credibly as a real estate investor concerns the content of one’s credibility kit. One could argue (and argue effectively) that an investor’s credibility starts with real simple things, say a handshake or even a business card. True as these things may be, if you’re going to swim in the proverbial ‘deep end of the pool’, as many of you hopefully wish to do, you’re going to need more than that and that is where this guide will help you considerably.
That said, what constitutes too little for a credibility kit and conversely, what constitutes too much? There may be varying opinions out there on this but I’ll offer my take on this issue and hopefully this will resonate with you as you work to develop your own business. I like to work from the standpoint of the protective mother analogy. You’ll soon see what I mean here. When we were children, the tendency when it was cold was to bundle up and sometimes more so than we felt necessary. Can you imagine a mother telling her child to put on that extra scarf or layer of clothing, just in case? Of course you can and maybe you have your own personal memories to back this up.
Mothers have, for years, reasoned that It’s easier to have more layers of clothing on and take them off as needed than to not have them in the first place and be cold. Despite what a child may think at the time, mothers have a lot of wisdom and this same reasoning applies to your credibility kit. The long and short of it is that it is far easier to have more information prepared for your kit and not use it all than to not have enough and be left scrambling around trying to prepare something at the last minute. See what I’m getting at here?
When you prepare a credibility kit in sections and follow the guidelines that I’ll be suggesting, you can pick and choose which elements you want to use, based on the needs of the intended recipient. The kit can be real basic, just hitting the highlights, or it can be extremely detailed for a reader who wants to see more. Either way, it all starts with having the core complement of information assembled and ready to go; after that, you simply package the kit to match the situation at hand. Sounds pretty logical, doesn’t it?
I bring this up because I’ve seen many investors who work hard to assemble a customized kit for a particular recipient and end up creating a lot more work for themselves than is necessary. Simply preparing the different sections and then picking which to use for a particular client can dramatically reduce the time and effort that goes into kit preparation and, despite what you might think, the recipient will still appreciate the presentation for what it is.
Essential #2: The Importance of Professionalism
Without a doubt, the biggest benefit of a credibility kit is the importance of professionalism and integrity. Sure, we’ve all started with business cards, marketing pieces, or even brochures to describe our services. These things, as effective as they may be, represent the so-called “shallow end of the pool” when it comes to real estate investing and the credibility kit is the next step.
Think about it for a moment. Have you ever been asked if you have a business plan and not yet had one? Have you ever had a private lending prospect ask you for a business summary, leaving you scrambling to put something together that looks better than what you already have? Many of us have and I’m no different. A formal credibility kit is a balance of brevity and unmatched professionalism, not so much because it could compete in the world of corporate America where such proposals exchange hands on a daily basis, but more so because it speaks volumes about you as a small business owner.
You will be elevating your status to what would be expected of a larger company when you have a credibility kit to present to your clients. This is both impressive and also will most certainly set you apart from many of your investor peers, the great majority of whom have no such kits to back up and summarize what they do.
Some features of your kit that will help with its professional impact include:
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