Real Estate Investing

I just wanted to remind you to NOT believe a thing I say. This is because I can only come from my own beliefs & my own experiences. I will share my experiences, beliefs, successes and failures with you and this will give you ideas of what has worked for me in my life. If you choose to follow the same path, these strategies can work for you as well.

A fatal flaw you will experience as a real estate investor is that you may choose to believe what others say. The flaw is when you start to beleive those who have minimal Real Estate or 'Real World' experience. By the same token, if I can only come from my own beliefs & my own experiences, the same rings true for your circle of influence including your friends, family and your advisors.

Let me ask you a question. When you want to learn something new or you have a new aspiration about something you would like to accomplish, what do you do?...find people who know nothing about what it is you want to do and talk to them about it? Or do you find somebody who has already done what you intend to do and talk to them about it?

Are you petrified of losing your shirt, pants, socks AND shoes by investing in real estate? Are you terrified of purchasing your dream property for fear of finding out that it was the prototype for the movie “The Money Pit”? Or, is one of your biggest fears that you will actually succeed in your real estate venture beyond your wildest dreams?

Instead of letting fear hold you back from taking that first small step and getting your feet wet, consider this statement: fear is an instinct designed to keep up alive but not to control us. How can you overcome your fears and be successful in real estate? Well, let me tell you how I’ve done it.

Get out of ‘analysis paralysis’ and just do it!

First, gather up all available information about the property that you’re looking to invest in and then take a leap of faith and go for it. I’m not suggesting that you run out and buy the first house for sale on the block or the property with the really gorgeous landscaped front yard. You still need to do your homework first which includes getting a qualified appraisal; a full property inspection; get pre-qualified from a lending institution; and have your down payment sitting in your bank account. When you have each one of these factors in place and are ready to go, the right property is already yours for the taking (or buying) and is waiting for you to show up and sign the purchase agreement.

Most unsophisticated financial planners will tell you that investing in real estate is risky because of low rates of return; it ties up your capital for a long period of time, and possible tenant problems from rental properties; depreciation of property values.

Say it isn’t so!

In the long run, real estate has always appreciated in value simply because they’re not making any more land. The population growth is rising and consequently land is being snapped up quicker than Dorothy’s heels clicked in Kansas. Some of the ways to assess the risk factor of investing in real estate is to look at the fundamentals such as migration patterns (immigration from other countries); in migration (moving within the country itself); job explosions in certain areas of the country which create a shortage of available housing, and reasonable interest rates from financial institutions. All these factors affect investing in real estate – and for the good.