Life is littered with problems—personal, professional, spiritual and a myriad of others in between. Being a problem solver has been part of your development since you were a newborn baby. “How do I get this empty feeling in my tummy to go away? If I make a lot of noise, someone nice appears with a bottle. So I guess, making lots of noise takes care of my empty tummy!” From the very beginning of our lives we are learning and we don’t stop learning until the very end. Being a life-long learner is valuable in all walks of life and is considered an important ingredient when figuring out how to become a real estate investor.
Learning involves trial and error, growing and changing, stops and pauses and many, many restarts. I have often expressed caution about getting stuck in the first part of Proverbs 13:12. Keep reading and let the second part of the verse encourage you to learn from your mistakes and walk into success—because it is coming. The Passion Translation says it very clearly:
When hope’s dream seems to drag on and on, the delay can be depressing. But when at last your dream comes true, life’s sweetness will satisfy your soul. Proverbs 13:12 TPT
Learning is cumulative and learning how to become a real estate investor takes time, determination, some trial and error and a good amount of faith. Anything worth having in your life will require work, investment, learning, risk and faith. This blog will focus on the learning aspect of how to become a real estate investor. The following are steps to build on as you commit to your wealth building journey.
Learn from your mistakes
My ultimate goal has always been teaching people to build wealth for the Kingdom. I know through over 30 years of experience that one of the best ways to build wealth is through investing in real estate. I firmly believe that anyone can become a successful real estate investor and change their financial future as long as they are willing to learn.
One of the first keys to learning how to become a real estate investor, how to build a business, how to work with stocks or any other path to creating wealth is to be willing to learn from your mistakes and become a resilient learner. Resiliency means being tough, strong, hardy, quick to recover and rolling with the punches. In other words, keep coming back, learn from the hard knocks and get better each time you get up. No one’s life is without ups and downs, and back and forths, so determine now to learn from your mistakes and move on to the next thing.
Learn to get in the game
Learning how to make money is a participation game. WealthBuilders teaches concepts, principles, best practices and foundational truths, but the real learning happens where the rubber meets the road. If you want to learn how to become a real estate investor, you have got to get in the game and start investing. You need to get some financing lined up, start doing research in the area you are interested in and find someone with experience to give you some pointers. You don’t know what you need to know until you are in the middle of it. We have an outstanding coaching program with experts who will advise you throughout the ‘game.’
Learn to develop a team
Surround yourself with people who know more than you do. As a resilient learner you will need to work with a team of people who have strengths where you have weaknesses. A leader who feels they need to know more than everyone else, lowers the level of knowledge available and stunts the growth of everyone on the team. If you want to learn how to become a real estate investor, you need bankers, mortgage brokers, real estate agents, contractors and property managers. And believe me, you want all of them to know more than you do about their particular field.
For example, as a real estate investor you can build relationships with local community banks and private lenders. They will be able to work lower interest rates and downpayments into the terms, especially if you’re buying properties for less than they’re worth. You don’t need to walk the path of creating wealth alone, as a matter of fact, it is better if you don’t.
Learn historical returns
It is imperative that you understand the historical returns on what you are planning to put your money in because it will inform the potential return on those assets right now. With the convenience of the internet, the historical statistics you want to look at are easily accessible. Researching returns and comparing political conditions during that time period can also help you predict future return possibilities. Learning from the past isn’t necessarily from your own past, but can be from a past with similar economic circumstances as yours.
Learn to rely on systems
Systems are the solver of problems before they happen. Having systems in place and the documentation and policies to support them makes decision-making easier. A system anticipates problems ahead of time and diffuses any stressful occurrence before it becomes an incident. Some systems are created after a problem occurs and is resolved, but some systems are shared from mentors, coaches, colleagues and friends. I am happy to relate the stories of my mistakes and ‘lessons learned’ if it will help one of you avoid the same mistake. Karen Conrad Metcalfe, Vice President of WealthBuilders is a master system maker. She can listen to you share about your goals, plans and possibilities for 30 minutes and give you a system to make it happen. Find someone like Karen to help get you started or enroll in our Real Estate Coaching program.
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Strategic Real Estate Investing
