Understanding How Your Mind Works Against Your Investments

"Success is not final; failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts." -Winston S. Churchill

Why We Are Addicted To Negative Things

In my travels as a real estate mentor and speaker, I hear plenty of conversation about what’s happening in the real estate market and why. Of course it’s important for all us to have this understanding as well as an educated opinion on what’s coming next. Unfortunately, too many people are so focused on the negative and unknown factors, and they are overlooking the REAL opportunities.

For many of us who rode the wild roller coaster market of 2006-2008, things today just don’t look that bad. In those days, I was struggling just to find the down payment to close one deal with mortgage rates over 7.5% on my first house, while in the hurricane of a full economic recession. I danced around the fire like native American tribes praying for rain at night in hopes the finance gods would someday bring us a 5% 30-year fixed rates again and allow no down payment loans!

Yet, with almost every economic factor working against us, armies of brokers, builders, lenders and others continued to look for the sunshine and seek out new opportunities. They were determined to not just survive, but to thrive. It is important to remember that many of them actually did.

It’s time again to get back to reality and back to the fundamentals. The market conditions earlier in the last decade looked more like “the happiest place on earth” than the real world. That was a gift, and there was a serious price to pay for that gift the last time we saw it and we faced the conditions of the Great Recession.

The good news is that our current climate – interest rates, employment, income growth, household formation and inflation are all at historically favorable levels. Even though at the time I am writing this we are experiencing the worst global pandemic the nation has seen since the “Spanish Flu”. The stock market has been swinging back and forth completely disregarding the true value of a company, and yet real estate seems to still be on the rise in the residential sector anyway.

Most important, there are millions of people who desire better housing solutions, and this demand will only continue to grow. Especially in the multi-family housing sector and in the southern states where the weather is better as well as the “depressed cities” (where the housing prices are more affordable) that lie between half an hour to an hour drive away from major cities.

What’s the key to empowering ourselves to recognize and make the most of today’s opportunities?

In my opinion, there is nothing more powerful than a mind focused on abundance which I will continue to refer to as the “Alchemist Mindset”. With the alchemist mindset, you believe that there’s a lot more business out there. You just have to do the right things to capture it.

Unfortunately what we find more often is a “scarcity” mentality, founded on a belief that there’s a limited, finite amount of market share. We have to first do the mental work to put this old mindset behind us. To almost separate from the mainstream of our society by having a mindset that drives you to be better, faster, stronger, than our competition (or as I refer to them as, “our future partners or eventual replacements” as you move up in your empires) which is actually healthy and the key to wealth.

An attitude that the only way we’re going to get new business is by taking from someone else, IS NOT. The sooner you can adapt the belief that everyone around you is a potential partner, the faster your retirement plan will come into being.

I once heard the story of trainer who was introduced to a real estate agent who had been “working” fulltime for 17 years, but had not yet bought a square inch of real estate. No rental properties, no flips and was still a tenant. “Deborah,” he asked, smiling calmly across the desk from her, “don’t you like real estate?”

“Are you kidding? I love real estate!” she gushed. “I’ve made the most wonderful friends of my clients. I really enjoy the seminars we attend and the office meetings are fun too. I look forward to doing the open houses every week and the best part of all is the thank you letters I get from my clients in their new homes and investments. Getting involved in real estate has changed my life!”

With a puzzled look, the trainer then asked “If you love this business so much,” “wouldn’t you like to actually own some real estate?” Deborah leaned forward and answered softly “The truth is, when you buy a house, it’s really a hassle. There’s so much work with contractors, tenants, toilets and so many things that can go wrong. I hear the stories all the time and it really scares me. I like real estate a whole lot better if I don’t have to buy or own anything.”

At this point it was clear he had gotten to the bottom of Deborah’s little problem with real estate investment success. As I thought about it, however, I realized that this story carried more significance. Here’s someone who is professionally trained and presumably “in the business,” and yet she finds the real estate ownership terrifying. She’s not alone and her story is not an isolated one.

The reality is that many potential real estate investors, sellers and renters find the process even more terrifying than Deborah does. In the case of building a new construction development, we face the normal home-buying fears and then throw in the additional fears of dealing with a builder, construction delays, financing and the myriad of choices and decisions to make. My point is that every day there are millions of people who would love to flip a house or buy a rental property, but they’re simply afraid of what they’ll have to go through to get there.

Based on this reality, one of the most important fundamental messages I share in my mentorship training is that to really succeed in this business, we’ve got to find the ways to make it easier for our future millionaires to invest. Anything we can do to make the real estate transaction less intimidating will work to bring investors into the market who are held back by fear. As obvious as this may seem, relatively few in real estate fully appreciate the significance of this perspective.

Our most successful alchemists apply this concept wherever they can in their business. Their outstanding success attests to power of this approach. Some examples:

• Educate the people you serve. The more they understand the realities, both challenges and benefits, of the rehabbing or land-lording experience, the less intimidating it becomes. Helping our clients begin the process with realistic expectations benefits all involved. • Provide Outstanding Communication and understand that in our business, no news is bad news. When you don’t know what’s going on, you tend to feel out of control, which breeds fear and dissatisfaction. Ongoing communication helps you know we’re working consistently in your best interests. • Deliver Outstanding Customer Service and Analyze every aspect of the experience and identify the many ways to make it more efficient, simpler and more easily understood. • Consistently Work to Increase Your Professionalism through ongoing market awareness, professional training, organization. We must consistently find ways to increase our ability to deliver the highest level of service and results. • Above All Truly Care About the people who we serve in our business which ranges from the partners you work with, your end buyers and your tenants. There’s simply no more powerful way to increase your success than to sincerely dedicate all of your professional skills and resources to helping people make their best decisions about one of the most important components of their lives which is where and how they invest their time and money to fast-track their retirement or to call home.

You have to understand that the day-to-day practice of real estate investing offers many opportunities for us to improve ourselves. Rather than wasting energy worrying about the scarcity of business. You will focus on adopting an alchemist mindset that empowers you to focus on making it easier for people to do business with you.

Alchemist Insights

You must believe that we are surrounded by an abundance of individuals and families who dream of a new home or neighborhood that will improve the quality of their lives. To enjoy this abundance of opportunity, you must never forget that we’re in the business of making these dreams come true.

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