When you are starting out with nothing as I did, with no money and no experience, property investing can be a daunting task. I have some great wins and made a lot of mistakes along the way, some of which costed me a lot. With a lot of hard work and plenty of advice from the right people, I have been able to surpass many of my early goals.
The reason I make no attempt to hide my mistakes is that I want you to understand that I am uniquely qualified to analyse the difference between those who succeed and those who fail because I have done both. Let me assure you: success feels a lot better than failure.
I have not only had my own mistakes to learn from, but owning a real estate agency purely focussed on property investment I have had the unique chance to learn from the hundreds of mistakes of others as well.
In the spirit of helping you succeed, here are some of the things to avoid if you want to achieve your goals.
Lack of Clarity and Passion in Setting Goals
When most of us set goals, we set goals such as “I’m going to be rich when I retire” or “I’m going to be a successful property investor.” While these are great dreams, they don’t quite qualify as the kind of goal that will propel you to success in property investing. Instead, you need goals that are both specific and that arouse your passion to succeed.
We often talk about the importance of treating property investing as a business, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be fun and it doesn’t mean you can’t have passion. In reality, it means the opposite. Most of those who are successful are very driven and passionate about property investing and take great joy from not only the end result, but also in the process.
Your goals must be specific, such as “I plan to have a portfolio of five properties valued at a total of $1 million in equity by 1 June 2019.” Say those words to yourself right now. Imagine how it will feel on 1 June 2019 when you have five houses and $1 million in equity.
Are you excited yet? If not, raise your goal until you get excited. Honestly, if you can’t find a goal that excites you and makes you feel passionate about property investing, you may want to ask yourself if property investing is really what you want to do.
Too Many Fears
Two of the most common fears that a property investor has to confront are: fear of success and fear of failure.
We all know what fear of failure is like. You are afraid to take action because you are afraid to fail. For many, this is so bad that they are resigned to failure as a predetermined outcome. This is debilitating because a person thinks, “I am not going to do this because I am going to fail.” The obvious result is that the person never takes any action at all.
Fear of success is similar to fear of failure, even though it sounds like the opposite. Fear of success usually assigns baggage to success, such as “What if my dreams come true and I’m still not happy?” or, “What if success changes me from who I am and I don’t like that person?”
I am not a psychologist, but I can tell you that a certain degree of fear is healthy, as long as you can work through it. We usually erase fear of both success and failure by succeeding in small steps. No matter how scared you are, decide that you are going to be successful and then let your goals take you to success.
Giving Up at the First Sign of Trouble
Early on, when I was trying to do it all myself, I made a terrible investment mistake and lost a lot of money on the property. I could have given up, but I didn’t. Instead, I learned from my mistakes and moved on. I learned more about property investing. And I eventually became a professional in the business.
If I had given up, I don’t know where I would be right now. Luckily, I didn’t. You shouldn’t either.
Doing It All by Yourself
This is the opposite of the person with too many fears: the person who thinks they can become a successful investor doing everything by themselves. I still fall into the trap of looking at what a top professional is charging me. I always feel much better about it when I look at how much time and money they are saving and making me.
Don’t do it yourself. Build a team. Get a good real estate agent on your side. Find a great property management firm. Find an accountant, a tax professional and someone who can steer you through all of the legal aspects of property investing.
For a great real estate agent or property manager, call Investors Edge: 1300 472 427.
