Judging from all the late-night-get-rich-real-estate testimonials, it seems like anyone can be a real estate investor these days with the proper know-how.
In my opinion, the know-how is important, but not the end-all-be-all when it comes to real estate investing. The late night night commericials that suck you in by telling you that you can get rich if you just "follow my system" is very alluring and appears to be downright EASY. Well, first of all, it's not easy, it can be simple (home is worth 100K, you buy it for 50K...hmmm, what now?), but it ain't easy. I've purchased many courses and books, and up until a few years ago, did absolutely NOTHING with the knowledge. Oh, but was I an expert when it came down to talking lease options and flipping and foreclosures? You bet! But, that was the extent of my real estate investing - sharing a wealth of information that I paid out of my nose for, but did nothing with.
Now before we get knee deep with this, let me preface my argument by saying, it would serve you best to know as much as possible about whatever real estate endeavor you decide to partake in, before you actually doing anything.
Real estate is big, BIG, money. You can make a lot of money in real estate (yes, sometimes relatively quick), but you can also lose your shirt and then some too if you don't know what you're doing. So again, yes, you do need to know what you're getting into and all the pitfalls.
Apart from knowing the ins and outs of real estate, there's a component of the successful real estate investor makeup that almost always gets no press. And that's what's between your ears.
Real estate investors have to have that certain mentality and attitude. And the mentality that I'm referring to is not common, but is definitely something that can be learned and cultivated.
I've read numerous books on more known real estate investors out there - Trump and Kiyosaki to name a few. And as different as they all are, they are very much similiar in their approach and mentality towards real estate investing.
On the surface, they appear to be about no BS and cut throat, and although there might be some truth in that, there are many more traits that are fueling their real estate prowness.
Here a few common traits that successful real estate investors share. If you're thinking about real estate investing, these are the traits that you need to cultivate and bring out in yourself.
1) Self Belief - Forget real estate investing - this is a requirement for ANYTHING you want to do in your life. But I want to clarify what I mean. It's one thing to have self belief in your real estate investing abilities, it's another thing to just have self belief, PERIOD. No matter what you do and no matter if you know the subject matter. Your attitude must be "I can learn that and I can do well with that" even before you dive in.
2) Willingness to take risks - First and foremost, lets change that to "calculated risks". Understanding, with the know-how of course, what you're getting into and weighing it out and then acting on it. Of course numbers can look unbelievable and scream "IT'S A DEAL", but if you don't have that "risk taking" mentality and attitude, you won't do a thing. And the main reason is fear. Fear has everything to do with the unwillingness to take risks, but like anything else, fear can either be used to hold you back or move you forward. You have to be willing to risk what you have now, to obtain what you want in the future. And not fear the consequences.
3) Wants/Desire- Desire a better car. Want a better house. Desire a better life. Want to be your own boss. Material things are a majority of what this is about, but it's NOT everything. There are waaay more benefits to being a successful real estate investor (i.e. own boss, hang out with childeren, spend more time on hobbies.."FOORRREEE!") than just buying crap. BUT regardless if the majority of what you want it materialistic, SO WHAT!! At least you have something that means something to you and is something that you're shooting for! If you have nothing to shoot for, then you have no reason or purpose to have passion and ummph with your daily activities. In a nutshell, successful real estate investors have GOALS and strive to achieve them.
4) Students of the game - This can be categorized as learning the know-how, but I believe it's more of the attitude towards learning and getting better. The top people in any game, real estate or otherwise, have this mentality when it comes to their profession. They're always striving to learn more and better ways of doing things. It's one thing to learn how to make $10,000 on a deal, but the willingness to learn how to make $50,000 on the same deal is what makes the real successful investor stand apart.
5) Committment- If this is the game you want to be in, you have to have committment. There are no two ways about it. Mr. Trump in the mid 90s experienced serious financial troubles, but because he was 100% committed to real estate and had all the other traits mentioned above, he persevered and came back. And stronger than ever. Please refer to his book "The Art of The Comeback". Committment in real estate is the same as committment in a relationship - you have to give your all and be ready to fight through the rough times.
So learn what you need to learn about real estate, but at the same time learn what you need to learn about yourself and what sort of mentality and attitude you need to have to become a super duper rich, multi-millionaire real estate investor.
To your success my friend!
Al
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