Real Estate Investing Tactics

Every single person who wanted to invest or even just make a little money in real estate has reached the exact same point.

No matter how much knowledge they have accumulated; no matter how much confidence they have in their ability to spot a great deal; no matter what else is pushing them forward; their progress comes to a grinding halt.

For an extremely small minority it is just a little bump in the road. They easily get passed it and move on. For others it is much more formidable.

Of course I am talking about fear. Over the last 25 years I have had many opportunities to talk about this paralyzing point in time with lots of people. The real fears are varied but the fear is real and it is paralyzing them.

In my experience, the way to get passed that is to embrace the fear, not trivialize it and then move forward in spite of it.

One common fear among new investors is the fear of looking silly or saying something stupid. The typical guruspeak way of dealing with this one is to practice faking it until you make it. But, that just reinforces the fear. It does not deal with it.

When someone expresses that kind of fear to me I say...
"Look you are new. Of course you are going to make mistakes. Of course you are going to say something less than perfect for each situation. Of course you will look silly in the eyes of more experienced investors. You can either avoid that by stopping your investing efforts now, or you can push forward, learn from any mistakes you make and gain the experience necessary to look less foolish in the future.

"Look, no two people have the exact same level of experience or expertise. You will always run the risk of saying something someone views as silly if they have more knowledge or experience than you do. That is a fact of life and there is no way around it. You cannot control the way others view you. You can only control your actions and reactions.

"When I was starting out in Seattle, WA in 1984 I attended a meeting with some very experienced investors. I was green. I knew it. I also knew I didn't know everything and was willing to learn in any way I could. I was asked a question and gave an honest answer. It was an incredibly wrong answer but it was an honest one. The person who asked me the question took extreme delight in pointing out exactly WHY my answer was wrong.

"Now, I could have sunk deep into my chair and wished the world to go away. That is where fear was trying desperately to push me. But, I didn't. I took notes on everything he said about why my answer was wrong. I even asked him some questions to clarify exactly what he was saying. I pushed past my fear and learned from the situation. So did the person who started the whole exchange by asking me the question in the first place."
See, fear isn't really what is holding you back. Your reaction to that fear is what prevents you from taking the next step.

So, when you find yourself stuck because of some kind of fear. Don't try to ignore it. Embrace it, acknowledge it, own it and then take the next step in spite of it.

There is a funny thing about fear, once you conquer it one time, it gets easier and easier to do as time goes by.

So, I know you are scared, do it anyway.