You may be thinking “now what?”  That all sounds great about the BRRRR method and all but I don’t know anyone with money to loan.  Or, “I don’t have the time to look for properties.”  Or you may be focusing on any number of obstructions to your success.  I have been that way as well.  This becomes a mindset issue.  You have to be determined to succeed and you have to want it.  Not just kinda want it.  Not just “I’m gonna give this real estate thing a shot” want it.  You have to be determined to change your life and find success.  Last week I listened to an older investor speak who has had major success.  He told me about losing everything in the 80’s.  He also told me about building it back up.  He lives tax free now due to his retirement planning and use of Roth IRAs.  It was inspiring to listen to him.  We all need inspiration from time to time.  I hope that I can help you stay inspired and focused on your goals through these posts.

What do you believe is holding you back?

Whatever your situation, you have some advantage you can capitalize on.  If you want this bad enough, you can succeed.  Perhaps you don’t know anyone with money to loan.  I didn’t think I did either but after talking about our business, people appeared.  If they hadn’t, I knew I could borrow hard money if I just found a deal that was great.  Maybe you don’t know enough about real estate.  There are so many free podcasts out there that you can educate yourself just on your drive to and from work or errands.  Maybe your finances are a mess.  Get the Dave Ramsey book and do a side-hustle like driving Uber or cold-calling for an investor to learn the ropes while you earn.  Maybe your market is over-priced and isn’t a good rental market.  Start making connections through Bigger Pockets forums and build a partnership with someone in a better rental market.  Maybe you have a negative mindset and still are finding reasons why you can’t succeed.  Then focus on books, audiobooks, and podcasts about positive thinking and self-development.  You have to get your thoughts right to succeed at anything.  Approach those perceived, or actual, hurdles with extreme focus.  Make It a challenge to overcome them.  

Start to inventory your advantages  

Focus on what you do have; not what you don’t have.  Here are some examples.  Do you have time?  Money?  Enthusiasm?  A rich uncle?  A knack for numbers?  Relationships with investors?  A strong desire to succeed?  Do you love challenges?  Do you communicate with people very well?  Do you come into contact with a lot of people in your work or other organizations?  Do you write well?  Do you love spreadsheets?  Do you understand construction and how a house is built?  Do you live near a lot of run-down houses?  Do you own a pickup truck?  Do you own a Prius?  Do you ride a bike?  Are you a painter (artist)?  Are you a painter (house)?  Any of these things can be an advantage.  You have to find a way to use it as such.  The list goes on and on.  The point is, you can look at this list of traits and discover that you don’t have all of these strengths or you can look at it and recognize one that you do have.  The difference is in your mindset!  I don’t have all of these strengths but I have a couple of them.  I focus on the fact that I have a couple of them and use those to my advantage to be successful.  I hope you are seeing a trend that most of this comes back to your mindset.

My unfair advantages

My unfair advantage is my amazing business partner.  She happens to live with me and take care of my family too.  She is my wife.  I tend to be the overly-cautious partner and come up with all of the reasons why a deal won’t work and she will find all of the reasons it will work.  As I write this I am hoping that she didn’t pick me with that same attitude she takes into this business – “well, he’s pretty rough but I can see the potential!”.  It has helped my mindset to have her balance me out.  We also have an enthusiasm for this business that I believe is attractive to others.  This costs me nothing but I truly believe it is an intangible that has attracted multiple lenders and sellers.  Think about that for a minute.  Enthusiasm doesn’t cost a thing and any of us can cultivate it.  And it’s one thing I’ve never read about before in all the real estate books I have read but have just simply found to be true.  Find your “unfair” advantage.

The glass is almost full

Have you ever known someone who looks at everything with extreme negativity?  I mean the half full glass isn’t just half empty but is almost bone dry to them.  I have a theory that when you have a negative outlook, you frown.  When you frown, people frown back.  When people frown back, you begin to believe the world is just as you knew it was: negative.  Have you ever known someone who looks at everything with extreme optimism?  It’s more than the glass half full or half empty.  I mean they can see a glass that’s is half full to you and I and describe it as almost overflowing?  I also think that they smile at the world and the world smiles back at them, reconfirming their belief that the world is good.  Life starts to be like a mirror that way.  If we can start with ourselves and what we project, we will begin to see the “reflections” of that in our lives.  If you are scared and afraid, you will project that.  If however, you are on fire with your passion for something, you will project that.  People will be attracted to what it is you have found.   

I truly believe that two people starting from two opposite perspectives can experience the same events and report a totally different outcome.  In any given day we will all have good and bad things happen, but which things we focus on makes all the difference.  I think any of our pursuits are the same way.  If we spend our energy staring at all the reasons we cannot succeed, we won’t succeed.  If we focus on the advantages we have, starting with the country we are lucky enough to live in, we will succeed.

When I was younger, and before I became a paramedic, I rode a motorcycle.  It didn’t take many motorcycle accidents on the job to inspire me to sell the bike.  In motorcycle training they tell you that if you see a pot hole and stare at it, you’ll hit it.  If you want to avoid it then stare at the space beside the pot hole where you want your tires to go.  This is a perfect analogy to what I’m talking about.  I want to help you stare at where you want to go, not at where you don’t want to go or at the “potholes” that are scaring you from moving forward at all.

Start to look for ways to shift your thinking.  Don’t think “I’m too young”, think “I have energy and time to learn and I understand technology and that could help me to help a more experienced investor and learn the business”.  Don’t think “I’m too old”, think “I have wisdom and patience and have learned so much that can help me understand what really matters to me without so many distractions”.  Don’t think “but I drive a Prius and don’t have a truck”, think “I could drive for dollars without spending much money at all and pick up some Uber income while doing it”.  Look for the positives in your situation.

Finally

I hope I have driven home the point that you can succeed in this business if you have the desire.  I suggest you start with the right mindset and get over the objections in your head.  They truly are more of an impediment than any real obstacle you will find.  I’ll end with a story of my friend Alex Kamunyo.  His family moved to the United States when he was one.  They chose New Orleans Louisiana.  His father and mother had an extremely strong work ethic.  They were wiped out when Katrina hit.  They moved to Houston and started over.  His parents were able to pay for his and his sister’s education.  Alex got a good job after college.  He wanted to start investing in real estate.  He bought a house with a garage apartment and lives in the garage while he rents out the house.  He traded paying 1200 dollars a month in rent for his apartment for owning a house and living for free while someone else pays off his house.  He now can save for his next project.  He could say to himself that he deserves to have a house all to himself after all he has been through.  He could say, “I don’t want the hassle of tenants living next to me”.  He could say “I got a degree and a steady paycheck, I just want to coast”.  None of these would make him wrong.  None would make him a bad person.  But he didn’t say these things.  He decided he didn’t want to work in a cubicle his entire life so he started charting his course.  He saw living in a garage apartment for free as a small price to pay to get the ball rolling.  He decided he could keep driving the car his father bought for him and not buy a new fancy car like his classmates did.  These decisions will make him extremely wealthy in the future and I will be asking to borrow money from him.  He is 22 years old.  He has changed his trajectory by his mindset.  How bad do you want it?  What are you willing to do?  I want to be like Alex!

Do whatever you do with passion.  It may be something unrelated to real estate but mindset and passion will make you successful.  Keep your priorities in line and stay true to you and of course, “keep the main thing the main thing!”