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Don’t Be a “Real Estate Investor.” Instead, Empower Yourself By Doing THIS.

Michael Blank
2 min read

One of the biggest objections I hear from investors about getting into larger real estate deals like apartment buildings is that they don’t have enough cash or experience. So they limit their real estate strategy to their current abilities and resources.

This is one of the biggest myths in the world of real estate investing.

One of the biggest causes of this myth is what we call ourselves. We call ourselves “real estate investors,” right? Now when we use the term “investor,” what normally comes to mind?

That’s right, investors normally have lots of cash, capital and money. You need that in order to invest in something.

We’re being told as newbies that we are to be real estate investors. And the first thing we associate with that label is that as investors, we need money. If you have lots of money, you can do bigger deals, and if you have less, then you should focus on wholesaling or smaller deals, and if you have none… well, you can watch the game from the bench.

Related: Replace These Two Limiting Words From Your Vocabulary

The Limitations We Give Ourselves

We limit our real estate strategy to the amount of money we have.

That’s why so many investors start out with wholesaling houses, and then they “graduate” to flipping using hard money and sometimes they hold a few.

It’s all a lie.

And it’s all because of what we call ourselves: “investors.”

We need to fix this, right now.

We’re not really investors. We are and want to be entrepreneurs.

This is considerably different, isn’t it? Here’s dictionary.com’s definition for an entrepreneur:

“A person who organizes and manages any enterprise, especially a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk.

Notice the words “organizes,” “any” and “initiative”.

What do you think of when you hear the word “entrepreneur”?

Entrepreneurs are rain-makers; they make things happen; they create businesses out of thin air through vision, persistence, creativity and hard word. The term “boot-strapping” is associated with entrepreneurs, implying no or very little money.

In no definition of an entrepreneur is there a notion that the entrepreneur requires capital to be one. Instead, the entrepreneur “organizes” the money, just like they organize everything else: the deal, the people and the opportunity itself.

Call Yourself What You Want to Be

What if we called ourselves real estate entrepreneurs? How would that free us from the limiting belief that we need money to pursue our dreams using real estate? How would that affect the real estate strategy we pursue? Would it empower us to skip the baby steps and go directly after the best plan to achieve our goals? Even if that strategy is larger apartment buildings versus flipping houses?

Related: The One Simple Thing Required to Raise Unlimited Money From Private Investors

When you use that title in your conversations with others, it’s clear that you’re not expected to have all of the money or even the experience necessary to do what you want to accomplish. It’s immediately understood that you’re going to find the deal, and that you’ll bring investors together to raise the money, and that you’re not even going to manage things yourself because you’re going to have professional property managers do that for you.

Don’t be trapped by false labels. Call yourself what you truly are and want to be. You are a real estate entrepreneur. Take away the pressure of having money and experience to get in the game. You don’t need any of that to get started. Instead, “organize” it and make it happen from nothing. Find the deals, raise the money and create the opportunity you want for yourself.

If you would call yourself a “real estate entrepreneur” from this moment forward, how would it affect the real estate strategy you’re pursuing right now?

Let me know what you think with a comment!

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.