Getting Over the Fear

It’s Halloween, a time for all things that instill fear and scare us.  The thought of real estate investing for some causes fear.  They are fearful that they will loose a lot of money.  They fear that tenants will destroy their property and contractors will rip them off.  They are fearful that they do not have the right skills.  “Why would anyone ever invest in real estate?” they think, “It is just too scary.”

To tell the truth, I was scared of real estate at one time.  Heck if you are not a little scared about dropping tens of thousands of dollars into a project for the first time then there is something wrong with you.  But I got over the fear.  How?  I did it through education and action.

Fear generally arises from the unknown.  Knowledge therefore erases fear.  The way to gain knowledge is through education.  I spent a lot of time on my real estate education in the early years.  I like to tell folks it was like going to graduate school.  Here is what I did.

• I turned off the TV.
• I went to the library and read almost every book they had on real estate.  You can’t beat free and they had a lot of great resources for beginners.
• I subscribed to and read local and national business journals.  If I was going to be a business person, I needed to begin thinking like one and I needed to know what was going on in my local market.
• I joined my local REIA group and went to every event I could.  I met folks, made new friends and networked.
• I read blogs, like Smarter Landlording and biggerpockets.
• I bought several real estate courses and other books.  They were expensive, but I considered them an investment and they have paid off many times now over the years.
• I built a team of people that could help me achieve my goals.  These included a realtor, an attorney, other investors, a CPA, etc.  I had folks on my speed dial that I could call whenever I had a problem or situation arise.

Sound like a lot doesn’t it?  Well, it was and it ultimately took several years, but that was the easy part.  The second part, the action, was harder.

Overcoming fear and putting knowledge into action is one stumbling block that many cannot get over.   All I can say here is just do it!  You have to take that first step.  Once you do the second one becomes easier and the third one even easier.  Before you know it, you have taken 10 steps forward and are well on your way.

Yes, you are going to mess up at times.  Yes, you are going to fail at times.  Yes, you will have to take a step back every once in a while.  But the smarter investor learns from their mistakes.  They know failure is part of the process and keeps moving forward.  Remember that every step back can be met with two steps forward which will still keep you going in the right direction.

Don’t want to take a huge step?  Then how about starting small?  You don’t need to buy that 20 unit apartment building right off the bat.  But how about getting a house in your own neighborhood as a rental property?  Or perhaps you could get a duplex and live in one side and rent out the other?  Don’t even want to start that big?  Wholesale a property to another investor for a few thousand dollars.

These are small steps that will help you learn along the way and give you the confidence to do bigger deals later on.  These small steps will lead to bigger steps and with each step that fear will get smaller and smaller.

So enjoy your Halloween.  Eat some candy.  Then get over the fear by learning and doing!