landlord rescue

How to think like a successful real estate investor

Posted by neil on September 30, 2010
General / 1 Comment

Hi Everyone,

I hope that you are all doing well.

I am happy to let you know that the First Edition of The Canadian Real Estate Carnival is available.

Fellow Canadian Real Estate Blogger Rachelle from Landlord Rescue has done a fantastic job in putting this carnival together.  There you can read a collection of articles by fellow real estate investors and bloggers such as Julie Broad and Wade Graham.  Check it out!

Every successful real estate investor realizes at some point that they have to think differently from everyone else.

I have found that there are a couple of common traits that super successful real estate investors have.  These traits are:

  1. They think differently (from everyone else)
  2. They only act on advice from people that have ‘gone’ before them

Think Differently

Very successful business people and real estate investors have become wealthy because they do not ‘follow the crowd’.

In fact, if there is one single piece of advice I can ever give someone starting out as a real estate investor, it is exactly that, ‘never follow the crowd’.

Successful business people and real estate investors have an ability to mentally block out all of the ‘noise’, and ‘opinions’ that are given to them by the rest of society.

If everyone knew how to become rich, don’t you think the majority of the people would attempt to do so?

You see the thing is, the majority of people do not know how to become wealthy, yet many people who are not wealthy give their opinions as to how someone can become wealthy…

There is a small minority of the population that does know how to become wealthy, and they achieve this by working towards their goals and ‘thinking differently’.

The point I am trying to make here is that successful real estate investors become wealthy partly because they think differently!

They don’t follow the crowd because the crowd is a collection of average people.

Don’t get me wrong.  I am not saying that there is anything wrong with being average…

What I am saying is that super successful people know that to become GREAT, you can’t be average.

Thinking differently is the first step towards achieving MORE!

Only act on advice from people that have ‘gone’ before you

What does this mean?

Simply put, do not take the advice from people who have not accomplished what you are trying to accomplish.

Here is a classic example that I see time and time again.

A new real estate investor is considering purchasing their first rental property.  They are doing their homework on their selected investment area and property type.  They have built up *just enough* confidence in order for them to ‘pull the trigger’ and make the purchase.

Their dream of buying their first rental property gets shattered when they receive “advice” from a friend or family member stating that:

  • “buying a rental property is a too risky.”
  • “the real estate market is in a bubble “. —  (I personally can’t stand this one!)
  • “how are you going to manage the property?  You are not a handy person!”
  • “there is NO WAY that you are going to be able to pay for 2 mortgages.”

In most cases, these potential real estate investors take all of this ‘advice’ to heart and end up ‘throwing in the towel’…

…never to attempt purchasing a rental property again.

Here is what successful people do

Really successful real estate investors get to the point in which they never act on the advice of others, who have not achieved what they are trying to achieve.

Notice here that I have used the words…”never ACT on the advice”, rather than, “never LISTEN to the advice”

There is an important distinction to be made here because successful real estate investors can LISTEN to the advice from these inexperienced people.  It is hard not to LISTEN to the advice when people are trying to give it to you 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, even when you don’t ask for it!

It is okay to LISTEN, however, the super successful do not ACT on this advice.  The successful know that the only advice that they should be ACTING on is the advice given to them by those that are MORE successful than them.

Once a novice real estate investor realizes this distinction, everything starts to ‘click’ and making decisions becomes a lot easier!

You must THINK DIFFERENTLY and only ACT on the advice from people more successful than you!

Best Regards,

Neil Uttamsingh

PS: To keep up to date with my blog, enter your e-mail address on the LEFT hand side of the blog.  To receive The First Rental Property Newsletter, enter your e-mail address on the RIGHT hand side of the blog.  In the Newsletter, experienced real estate investors will share with you how they bought their first rental property.  They will also share with you tips and tricks in order to help you get started!

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