BiggerPockets

You can either make excuses or make progress, but never both!

Every year I talk to countess " Investors" who:

* Have been thinking about investing
* Have been reading about investing
* Have a friend who failed at investing so that means you'll fail (The elusive friend)
* Are saving for a down payment
* Are Waiting for rates to go down
* Are Waiting to finish their real estate course
* Are Waiting for their mentor to tell them to buy
* Are Waiting for summer (insert any season), to get started
* Are Waiting for the market to straighten out
* Waiting till they can afford it
* Waiting till they get a promotion
* Waiting till their friend or relative can partner with them
* Trying to read just one more book, then they will get going
* Waiting till they buy their own house
* Waiting till they get a raise
* Waiting to graduate from college
* Waiting till their friend or family member becomes a realtor
* Waiting to be married
* Waiting till they contribute their maximum to a 401k
* Waiting till they get done working on their own home

Then after giving me their excuse for waiting to start investing they ask:

* What happens if the toilet gets clogged?
* What happens if the furnace gos bad?
* What happens if tenant ruins the house?
* What happens if the roof leaks?
* What happens if the tenant doesn't pay?
* What happens if someone breaks a window?
* What happens if someone leaves a broken down car at the house?

If they don't have the question, they usually tell me about a friend or relative who had one of the above happen.

The questions that they SHOULD be asking but NEVER do:

* What happens if I don't start investing now?
* How many homes do I need to buy in order to retire comfortably?
* If you could share with me your best idea, what would it be?
* What kind of money am I leaving on the table by not investing?
* How does the stock market compare to real estate? (that doesn't even deserve an answer)
* How can I use real estate to make my dreams come true?
* What would I do with an extra $500 or even $5,000 a month in cash flow?
* How will my family react when I retire 10-20 years earlier?
* What are my broke friends going to think when I show up in my Porsche?

99% of people share this problem: If a family member or friend needed $500, most people would need a ton of convincing to loan it to them, and if it wasn't repaid it would surely be a BIG problem, some people would even lose friend over such a small amount of money. But that same person could care less about the $500-$10,000 a month that they will lose each and every month for the rest of their life by not investing in real estate.

Why doesn't anybody pay attention to their opportunity cost?

I used to be a tight a##, then one day I got to thinking.

What if instead of worrying about ways to save money, I started just focusing on ways to make it?

That simple question changed my whole life.

Hopefully most of you are making progress and not excuses, but......

I would love to hear the excuses that are holding your back, or how you have actually overcame the excuse trap

I will be the first to admit I make excuses. What I think is holding me back is my lack of knoweledge, money, and people. As far as the knoweledge goes I am taking a real estate appraisal course, in a REI club, read books and news. As far as money goes I am saving $500 a month and trying to network to be a birddog or work for someone for the time being. As far as people, I am everday trying to work on my networking skills. Working on getting to know more people and some day find life long partners. I know I could be doing a lot more, just trying to find what that is. :violin:

Still waiting for SOMEBODY to accept one of our offers. But...atleast now we ARE making offers!!!! We will find the right motivated seller if we keep moving forward. Love this post.

My excuse is that I dont have any money, I am living paycheck to paycheck, my credit sucks which is what Im working on fixing, I dont know much about Investing, but I am learning alot on this website. I was thinking about birddogging or if I could find a mentor to show me the ropes that would be great. I do think it will take me 4 years to get any money to invest, but once I do I will start investing, but until then I will learn as much as I can.

Have you spoken with a mortgage broker? You can get properties using as little as 3% down so that's 15k not 150k...to get started.

I have spoken to about 6 mortgage brokers, and not one of them would accept less than a 20% (most wanted 25% - 30%) down payment for an investment only property. If I were owner occupied as my first property I could get away with something lower, but I am not looking to do that right now.

Ah maybe that's what it is then, I will be an owner occupying my first investment property.

Just to quote a few of my favorite lines on this subject:
The rich act in spite of fear while others allow fear to stop them.
Rich people do what others think about doing.
Adopt wealthy ways of thinking.
AND MY FAVORITE:
The greatest mistake in life you can make is to continuously be afraid you will make one!

That all said, everyone, including myself, is scared the first time. The only way to overcome the fear is to Just do it! Get eductaed first, do not buy RE blindly which WILL be a mistake. You can also get someone on your " team" who is veru experienced to assist you in this business. That is how I got started.

In today's market, I suggest the buy and hold strategy and acquire as much as you can without over-extending and always do your due diligence.

Good luck to all and happy investing!