When most people start out in real estate investing, they watch shows like Flip This House and get excited about how they can do the same thing. They think, “How hard can it be? We’ve always loved real estate and the idea of rehabbing seems to be a great fit. Right?” I mean, if you follow their model, you easily find a house that is priced low, you hire a contractor, maybe put in some sweat equity and you sell the property for a huge profit! Before you know it, you will be doing this thing full time and be able to walk away from the J.O.B.
The problem with those shows is that they don’t show you how many deals they actually had to look at before they found that sweet deal. And, they don’t really focus on the fact that this is all they do. They don’t have full time jobs with limited time to research and find deals. They don’t have to get up at 5am or stay up until midnight or later to look on auction sites and research property values or scour Craigslist. They don’t have to hope their boss doesn’t notice they came back from lunch late after looking at a project. And, they aren’t concerned with making things seem as difficult as they are. They want it to look easy. Ultimately, many of the folks who have these shows have a course or program they are pitching on FB and other avenues. So, they aren’t going to tell you the whole truth. And, the truth is, on average, you may find 1 deal out of every 20 properties you look into. It does take work and it’s not as easy as they make it look on TV.
What tends to happen, is people set out with the dream of becoming a full time rehabber. Maybe they take a course or two and they start looking for deals. After looking at their 5th property, they begin thinking that the dream was pie in the sky and this will never happen. They lose their motivation and begin to believe this can’t happen for them. So, what do they do? They quit. Not good! So, what do you do to stay motivated?
The first step to staying motivated in real estate is to know your “Why”. Why are you doing this? Are you looking for time freedom? Do you want to live a certain lifestyle? Do you want to walk away from that J.O.B.? Do you want to be able to pay for your kid’s college tuition? You really need to know your why to stay motivated. And, your why has to be more than the green stuff. I have a friend that says, “If your why doesn’t have the ability to make you cry, then it’s not real.” It has to be emotional. It has to be that driving force that will cause you to get up at 5am and stay up till after midnight looking for deals without anyone hanging over your shoulder telling you what to do.
You need to be realistic in your expectations. Every once in a while, you may get a deal within the first few you look at, but, that is a rare occurrence. Expect that you will need to look at, at least 20 properties before you find a deal that actually works. Understand that every no brings you closer to a yes.
Celebrate the small wins to re-motivate yourself. In the beginning, we celebrated putting a property under contract. We would go out and have a drink or dinner to congratulate ourselves on find that property and negotiating the contract with the numbers that work for us. Heck, have a small celebration when you’ve looked at 20 deals.
As your business grows, do things that you don’t normally do to keep yourself challenged. For Brownstone, we started out with rehabbing. Then to keep things interesting and challenging, we began to do some new construction. Then we decided it would be really great to train others to do what we’ve been doing. So, we developed a training program to help others become successful. Now we are focusing on our own Buy/Hold situation and commercial projects. Chris Coute is opening up a bar and restaurant in Taunton. So, don’t be afraid to branch out. It’s important to challenge yourself to stay motivated.
As a quick recap, to stay motivated, know your why, set realistic expectations, celebrate your wins no matter how small and keep challenging yourself. If you do these things, you will continue to stay motivated and will reach the success you are looking to create.
Happy investing!