Have you ever heard the term heuristics? Heuristics with an H. If you haven’t, it’s an interesting concept that deals with the power of first impressions — how people perceive you and treat you.

As human beings, we do something we don’t even realize: we assess people within milliseconds of meeting them based on a lot of factors. One major factor is how they’re dressed, their demeanor, and their overall appearance. Those things play a big role in how we view someone — the respect we give them, how much confidence we have in what they say, and whether we believe them.

It’s all built into what’s called heuristics. The human brain developed this over tens of thousands of years because, back in the caveman days, we had to make split decisions. Can I trust this person? Should I run the other way? We had to decide quickly whether we were in a good environment or not.

Today, we can apply that to business. The way we approach a client, the way we’re dressed, our demeanor, our grooming, can c...

I had a real estate coaching student come to me recently and asked me if she should invest her equity of her home into other real estate.

And it's a question she was getting from her clients as well.

So I explained this to her in a story form, so she could explain it to her clients as well.

So let's assume that you had $400,000 in equity in your home. And you leave $200,000 equity in your home and you pull $200,000 out.

Now, how do I pull it out? I refinance it or I get a HELOC loan for that $200,000.

So now I have $200,000. Of course, I'm paying interest on it. It's not free money. Let's assume I'm paying 5.5% interest today.

With that 5.5% interest, I now have to beat that rate of return in order to make money.

So let's assume then I go out and I take that $200,000 and I find an investment property. Maybe it's a duplex or a triplex, and I spent $700,000 on it.

That's reasonable because they gotta put 25% down generally on investment property. So that $200,000 would...