We can focus on avoiding failure or choose to focus of being successful.
What do we hear when people say I’m a real estate investor? Fixer-uppers, foreclosures, short sales, buying at the courthouse steps, tenants. We listen to infomercials that promise to teach us how to buy property with out working hard. All of those are part of real estate investing, but truly successful real estate investor’s focus on people more than they focus on real estate. The professionals know that nobody makes any money until a problem is solved, so they spend their time seeking out people with real estate problems and only then do they use their real estate knowledge to create profits.
Those new to the real estate field spend their time reading books or taking courses, they go to meetings and say they are there to learn. They spend virtually no time trying to find motivated buyers, sellers and solve the circumstances that created the problems of these people. The successful investor knows that when Opportunity meets Specialized Knowledge profits will follow.
New investors have no idea how or where to find great opportunities for real estate deals. A friend of mine spent a lot of time reading books and listening to tapes, but she made no money and in fact almost lost her home to foreclosure. She spent most of her time being a master of real estate strategies. I finally convinced her that we are in the people business, not the property business. She needed to find people whose circumstances matched her knowledge. When she started looking for motivated buyers and sellers, deals started to appear that she had never seen before. When she moved her focus from learning the details and strategies to finding great deals with simple marketing strategies, she truly became an investor.
It’s important to have a Mentor. All successful athletes, teams, performers, dancers, anyone who aspires to success will hire a coach, but people in their personal life think they can do it on their own. All they have to do is ask themselves one question, "How is it working?" In most cases, the answer is NOT TO GOOD! Hire people that know more than you do and you will be successful.
Obsessions with “Avoiding Failure” rather than “Being Successful”
Success depends on what you want out of life, it’s called the Law of Attraction. The Law of Attraction states that we will always attract what we focus on, and if we have a burning desire to be successful the universe will bring it into our lives. Most new investors are focused on Avoiding Failure rather than Focusing on being Successful. Of course we should avoid failure, but first we have to define what the term failure means. It could mean losing some money, losing your home, going bankrupt, etc. As human beings, we don’t do a good job of processing negative thoughts and when we focus on those negative images it will almost always leave us in a semi-paralyzed state, where we are unable to take action, and when we don’t take action we don’t succeed.
We can focus on avoiding failure or choose to focus on being successful.
When we begin to think of ourselves as Being Successful what will that mean? Will we own a portfolio of several properties that cash flow $10,000 to $30,000 per month? Will it mean freedom from your job, freedom to do what ever you desire? The attraction of being successful is certainly more motivating to your mind than the avoidance of failure. The Law of Attraction says when we focus on success our minds will attract success.
We should always use good business sense in our pursuit for success.
You should absolutely run your real estate business through a legal entity (corporation, partnership, LLC, etc) of some sort to shield you from any personal legal liability. You should use the very best legal forms and documents available whenever agreeing to buy or sell property. And you should certainly seek out excellent advice from people who are already successful as investors, rather than learning everything “the hard way”.
Failure To Establish Clear Goals And Defining “Success” As Anything Other Than Making Big Profits…
There’s only one reason for you to be a real estate investor: TO MAKE MONEY! That seems obvious, but most new investors don’t have a clear profit motive for being in the business.
Example:
A new investor may have started investing because of seeing an infomercial about making millions as a Landlord. They pour over the material. They are all excited and start looking for good investment property. While at a party they hear someone tell stories about how great the rehab business is... great profits in a very short period of time. The new investor thinks this landlord business will take a long time to make these great profits and maybe the rehab business is what they should be doing.
You can already see the problem; the new investor didn’t take the time to define what his goal was. Failing to establish clear goals and defining success as anything other than making big profits, will lead you to believe that you are a failure. The new investor hasn’t taken the time to define why he wanted to invest in real estate in the first place. If he were investing for retirement, then the Landlording strategy would be appropriate. If he wanted to create short-term cash then the rehab business would be best. If you don’t define your goals you will most likely just be spinning your wheels, and waste a lot of money on seminars and courses that will never get you the success your looking for.
I’m a big believer in going to seminars and taking courses, but the goal should be to expand your knowledge not to become the most knowledgeable investor around. Don’t fool yourself into believing that success is merely knowing all the strategies, you have to use them to be a success. Fear is the greatest immobilizer, you can read all the books ever written about swimming, but if you don’t get in the water you will never learn to swim.
Wayne H. Wagie is a Real Estate Coach, Real Estate Author, President of the Greater Miami Real Estate Exchangors (GMREE) and Director of Florida Real Estate Marketing Association (FREMA). Visit Wayne's website at www.WagiesWorld.com or you can contact him at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
