It seems odd to open by telling real estate investors how to fail. Sometimes, though, the best advice comes from being told what not to do! While there are always individual circumstances in real estate investment and advice should be taken with a grain of salt, there are certain principles to the business that are universal. One of them is to never call a buyer a "loser" as the sign points out. I promise you....that has never happened on our end!
We have worked with nearly 1,000 investors at this point and there are certain actions that we can all identify as "trouble" for real estate investors. How you refer to a buyer is an easy one. Here are five REALLY EASY to identify trouble points to watch out for as a real estate investor. They may not be as obvious as the picture above, but they are crucial and often self inflicted so they are critical to be aware of! Take notes and shoot us any questions you may have.
Certain behaviors and ways of doing business will always hinder you as a real estate investor — sometimes catastrophically.
You will make some mistakes as an investor, and that's OK. It's how you learn. Serious and lasting problems, however, come from bad attitudes and bad habits. If you find yourself having a rough time in real estate investment, maybe you need to step back and closely examine yourself.
Are your habits bad for business?
These are just a few ways that you can sabotage yourself in real estate investment. If you find yourselves falling into these behaviors, it’s time to make a change.
Isolating yourself.
We all need a little time away from other people. That’s totally fine! You should be able to take a break. Isolating yourself, however, is a different matter entirely. Real estate investors can’t do it all by themselves, and if you neglect to make connections with people in the business, you’re going to struggle. Networking can take some energy, but you’ll be glad you did it when it generates leads and pays off in big ways — whether it's with support from people who understand investing, wisdom from seasoned veterans, or much-needed help when you’re in a pinch.
At the same time, asking questions can sometimes be a hard thing to do because we are afraid that whomever we are asking is going to think less of us for asking! That is crazy talk. If you are talking to the right people - or company for that matter - then you cannot ask too many questions. If your motive is to move forward, then find good people and companies and ask your questions. This will help keep you from isolating yourself as a real estate investor.
Not recognizing and learning from your mistakes.
Before you can learn from your mistakes, you have to admit that you made them in the first place. Remember that learning from your mistakes doesn’t mean beating yourself up over them — it means identifying what went wrong and making the conscious effort not to repeat it in the future.
It may take time to get it right, so be patient with yourself. The biggest mistake you can make for your investments is to refuse to change your ways when they aren’t working. If you make a mistake, admit it both to yourself and to whoever you may have hurt by it. Take a healthy dose of humility, and work toward improving.
Procrastinating.
Chronic procrastination means tasks pile up, opportunity passes by and everything gets behind. Manage your time well as a real estate investor. If you find yourself overwhelmed and paralyzed, you may need to step back, try to streamline, and even look into hiring a personal assistant or a freelancer to help manage the load in tough times. Same thing goes for taking action on purchasing deals.
Chances are, if you are client of Memphis Invest Companies, you may have missed an opportunity to purchase a property at some point. Properties move quickly around here, and while all deals are not created equally, a good deal that fits your portfolio is going to be the same no matter the address. Do not procrastinate. When you are ready to add to your portfolio and the right property that fits your needs comes along, be ready and take your action. If you miss it, that is okay. There will always be other opportunities. If you miss everything you want to move on, it may be more a case of you procrastinating rather than moving! Just be aware.
Getting too big for your britches.
Ego is always bad for business. Ego burns bridges, offends and ultimately makes people not want to work with you. Even if you don’t agree with how another investor is going about his business, you shouldn’t bad-mouth him to your colleagues in the field. In fact, make it a rule not to badmouth anyone. Nothing good comes from it. Keep your ego in check.
As a business owner, this is an easy rule for us to follow and you should follow it too if you are a business owner. Always concentrate on yourself. Keep your ego in check, and never worry about talking about your competition. If the best thing you can say about yourself is something bad about someone else...you are in trouble!
Thinking only of profit.
Greed can ruin your real estate investments. Real estate investors are constantly urged to think bottom line, which is good — after all, you need to have that positive cash flow — but your success shouldn’t come from taking advantage of sellers, tenants and other investors. Don’t gouge prices, rip people off or crush anyone under your feet. You can set your prices however you want to set them including sales prices or rental rates. Just make sure that you offer the proper amount of value to justify that price. We are huge proponents of providing value. If you get don’t care who or what gets in the way of making a profit and forget that you are there to provide value, it’s going to hurt you in the end!
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We would love to share this video with you on the 11 Mistakes You Need To Avoid In Real Estate!
We think the video goes hand in had with this blog article. Enjoy!
