Real estate catch: get your hook in the water.

• Position: How-To GUIDE

If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime." Amazing wisdom, and very true, but I have always understood that everyone (including myself) would love, at some point in time in their lifetime, to just have a fish fall directly into their lap. I have no problem fishing all day long, but I would never in a million years complain if a fish decided to hop right out of the water and directly into my boat.

Right now, this very second as you read this, "real estate fish" are hopping into boats all over our great country. Ever since we were children, we have studied and learned about history--history of people, history of places and events, and the history of our nation. We have all said to ourselves at some point in time, "Man, if I were around back then I would have ..." or, "People were so lucky after such and such event."

The reality behind our history is this: every great piece of history, every great success story, every great opportunity, resulted from a person or group of people doing one thing--fishing. Fishing? Are you serious? Our history has proven to us that fish will never jump into our boat if our boat is not on the lake and if our hook is not in the water. It does not matter if you are on the worst part of the lake, if the water is polluted or if you are as terrible as I am at fishing. The fish will jump into your boat if and only if you have your hook baited and in the water.

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What the in world does this have to do with me and most of all with real estate? I'll answer that question with a history lesson. In 1987, a great friend of mine, local Utah businessman Brock Madsen, purchased his first home. He paid $45,000 for that home. In 1971, my father-in-law, local Mi Ranchito enthusiast Paul Warner, purchased his first home--a four bedroom, one bath in Orem for $22,000. Fast forward a handful of years.

Many people every single month, buy, sell and hold positive cash flow investment properties returning 10 percent to 25 percent cash on cash annually for less...