All
Members
Companies
Blog
Forums
Podcast
Webinars
    User Log in  /  Sign up
  • Forums
    Newest Posts Trending Discussions Followed Forums Real Estate News & Current Events General Landlording & Rental Properties Buying & Selling Real Estate Deal Analysis See All
  • Education

    Read

    BiggerPockets Blog BPInsights: Expert Analysis Coronavirus Content & Resources Guides Glossary Reviews Member Blogs

    Watch

    Webinars Video Library Financial Independence Blueprint Intro to Real Estate: Rentals

    Listen

    BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast BiggerPockets Money Podcast BiggerPockets Business Podcast Real Estate Rookie Podcast Daily Podcast (Audio Blog)

    Topics

    Business Operations Finance Finding Deals Property Management Property Types Strategy
  • Network

    Recommended Vendors

    Real Estate Agents Mortgage Lenders Companies Hard Money Lenders Contractors Investment Companies

    Search

    Members Events Jobs
  • Tools

    Calculators

    Rental Property Fix and Flip BRRRR Rehab Estimator
    Wholesaling Mortgage Payment 70% Rule Airbnb

    Services

    BPInsights: Property Insights Tenant Screening Property Management Lease Agreement Packages

    New Feature

    BPInsights (beta)

    Quickly analyze a property address or ZIP Code to compare your rent in your neighborhood.

    Analyze a property
  • Find Deals
    Real Estate Listings Find Foreclosures External Link Ads, Jobs, and Other
  • Bookstore

    Real Estate Books

    Profit Like The Pros Bidding to Buy See all books

    Featured Book

    BiggerPockets Wealth Magazine book cover
    BiggerPockets Wealth Magazine

    Written by financial journalists and data scientists, get 60+ pages of newsworthy content, expert-driven advice, and data-backed research written in a clear way to help you navigate your tough investment decisions in an ever-changing financial climate! Subscribe today and get the Oct/Nov issue delivered to your door!

    Get the Magazine
  • Pricing
Log In Sign up
User
Quick search links
Podcast Hard Money Lenders Books Washington
BlogArrowReal Estate Investing BasicsArrowHow to Steadily Learn Real Estate Investing (Without Lulling Yourself Into Inaction)
Real Estate Investing Basics

How to Steadily Learn Real Estate Investing (Without Lulling Yourself Into Inaction)

Andrew Syrios
Expertise: Mortgages & Creative Financing, Business Management, Landlording & Rental Properties, Commercial Real Estate, Real Estate Deal Analysis & Advice, Real Estate Investing Basics, Personal Development, Real Estate News & Commentary
219 Articles Written
grant-cardone-massive-action

I’ve lost track of the number of forum posts I’ve seen by new members noting how overwhelmed they feel at the sheer volume of information there is out there about real estate investing. I often see people who get “paralysis by analysis” syndrome and can’t take the first step. Others have gone to seminars for years but still haven’t purchased their first property. And still others fret about remembering it all and are constantly paranoid that they have forgot some key detail.

Want more articles like this?

Create an account today to get BiggerPocket's best blog articles delivered to your inbox

Sign up for free

There’s no magic pill for this, but I would make a couple recommendations. The first is to get it clear in your mind that you will never learn “enough” before jumping in to be satisfied. There is always more to learn. And the best way to learn is by doing. And even once you’ve done some doing, there’s still more to learn. I’ve been investing in real estate for 12 years and am still learning. My dad’s been in the game to one extent or another for 37 years, and yet he still has things to learn.

That being said, you don’t want to get started right away without having done any research. It’s important to read articles, books, and forum posts and to listen to podcasts and videos. That is, after all, what BiggerPockets is here for. It’s also important to brush shoulders with real estate investors at your local real estate club and talk to others in real estate investing and associated trades. But that kind of thing can’t be the only thing you do forever. Sooner or later, you need to actually do it.

So, for the second point of advise, if real estate investing is something you’ve made up your mind that you want to do, set a “drop dead date.” This is the date that you are going to start actively looking to buy a property. Sure, you may not find one for a while. But this is the date you are going to begin your search with the absolute intention of buying if you find the right deal.

In the meantime, you can do your research, learn the business, meet potential vendors and professional contacts, line up financing as best you can and the like. But stick to that date. Humans naturally procrastinate if given imprecise due dates. Humans even procrastinate when given too long of a due date. Remember in high school or college when you had the whole term to finish that project, so you waited until three days before it was due to begin? Don’t lie, I know you were like that as well.

Related: 5 Highly Actionable Steps to Make REAL Progress Towards Your Investing Goals

The morale here is to set a due date that isn’t too far off in the future. I would say that if you’re just starting to learn about real estate, three months or so is probably the longest I would consider waiting.

Learning How to Learn: The Retrieval-Practice Method

And the third tip I would give is to learn how to learn better. There are good ways to learn, and there are bad ways. While you’re being inundated with huge amounts of information (as most newbies are), it’s very important that you pick a good way to go about.

Enter the book Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning by Peter Brown, Henry Roediger, and Mark McDaniel. The first big fallacy they bust is that by simply rereading or watching something, we learn it better. Not so.

“The fallacy in thinking that repetitive exposure builds memory has been well established through a series of investigations going back to the mid-1960’s, when the psychologist Endel Tulving at the University of Toronto began testing people on their ability to remember lists of common English nouns. In a first phase of the experiment, the participants simply read a list of paired items six times (for example, a pair on the list might be ‘chair-9′); they did not expect a memory test. The first item in each pair was always a noun. After reading the listed pairs six times, participants were then told that they would be getting a list of nouns that they would be asked to remember. For one group of people, the nouns were the same ones they had just read six times in the prior reading phase; for another group, the nouns to be learned were different from those they had previously read. Remarkably, Tulving found that the groups’ learning of the nouns did not differ” (Brown 13).

These types of results have been repeated on many subsequent studies.

So what does work? Perhaps ironically, one of the best ways to learn something is to employ what we use to test whether we’ve learned something in the first place—namely, a test. The authors note that “…practicing retrieval makes learning stick far better than reexposure to the original material does. This is the testing effect, also known as the retrieval-practice effect.” In one study:

“Students heard a story that names sixty concrete objects. Those students who were tested immediately after exposure recalled 53 percent of the objects on the initial test but only 39 percent a week later. On the other hand, a group of students who learned the same material but were not tested at all until a week later recalled 28 percent. Thus, taking a single test boosted performance 11 percent after a week” (31).

But why stop at just one test?

“Another group of students were tested three times after initial exposure and a week later they were able to recall 53 percent of the objects—the same as on the initial test for the group receiving one test” (32).

The authors also note, as you would expect, that cramming is effectively useless. You remember it the next day, but forget virtually all of it a week later.

Apply This Concept to Real Estate Investing

There are, of course, no tests in real estate investing like you get in school (although BiggerPockets’ quizzes come fairly close). But you don’t need a teacher to quiz you; you can do it yourself or with a colleague. One of the best ways I’ve done it is by writing. I read a book on business or real estate, and then I write an article here for you all. But in matter of fact, it’s just as much for me. And by forcing myself to remember the concepts (i.e. retrieve them) and then rephrase their points, comment on and even criticize them as well as relate them to real estate, I am moving that information deeper and deeper into my long-term memory. And anyone can start a member blog right here on BiggerPockets. This also works for other things than just real estate, which is one reason I would recommend keeping a personal journal.

I also talk to myself. I AIN’T CRAZY! Hillary Clinton is a Deep State Reptilian and Donald Trump is a Russian bot Nazi—just open your eyes sheeple! Sorry, I digress. Anyways, for those who have witnessed me doing this and possibly been so unkind as to question my sanity, let me explain myself. Although I didn’t know why this was helpful, I quickly realized that by talking over whatever concept I had learned with myself, I was forcing my mind to retrieve those ideas. Effectively, I was testing myself. Sometimes, I just explain whatever I learned as if I was teaching it to someone. (And by the way, teaching something is, as they say, the best way to learn.) I’ve heard this technique called “lecturing to the wall,” and I believe it is quite effective for cementing concepts in your mind.

Related: The 7-Step Motivated Newbie’s Guide to Finding a High-Quality Mentor

If you’re starting together with another person, you can even make this a team exercise. Teach each other what you have learned on a routine basis. When talking about your business plans, don’t just talk about what you are going to do, but explain what you’ve learned to the other person. This will help teach them, but it will really help you. Not only are you retrieving the information and thereby cementing it in your mind, you’re also forcing yourself to put these ideas into your own words and thereby conceptualizing the ideas and not just memorizing the words. How many of us can remember just repeating the lines from the text book in school without having any idea what it really meant? Don’t fall into this trap.

Throughout life, you should never stop learning. But what better way to learn is there than to learn how to learn? And once you’ve figured out how to learn correctly, you can pretty much forget about trying to learn the old way.

How do you learn about real estate investing—while making sure those lessons stick? What’s your plan towards taking action?

Comment below!

By Andrew Syrios
Andrew Syrios has been investing in real estate for over a decade and is a partner with Stewardship Investments, LLC along with his brother Phillip ...
Read more
Andrew Syrios has been investing in real estate for over a decade and is a partner with Stewardship Investments, LLC along with his brother Phillip and father Bill. Stewardship Investments focuses on the BRRRR strategy—buying, rehabbing and renting out houses and apartments throughout the Kansas City area. Today, they have over 300 properties and just under 500 units. Stewardship Properties on the whole has just under 1,000 units in six states. Andrew received a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from the University of Oregon with honors and his Masters in Entrepreneurial Real Estate from the University of Missouri in Kansas City. He has also obtained his CCIM designation (Certified Commercial Investment Member). Andrew has been a writer for BiggerPockets on real estate and business management since 2015. He has also contributed to Think Realty Magazine, REI Club, Elite Daily, Thought Catalog, The Data Driven Investor and Alley Watch.
Read Less
13 Replies
    Rob Cook from Powell, WY
    Replied almost 3 years ago
    Andrew, I could not agree more with everything you shared and stated. In my experience, there is nothing more productive and effective to enhance learning, than discussion. Written or oral, both work well. And each has its own advantages and drawbacks. Writing takes longer but it creates a record you can refer back to. Oral discussion is efficient, but a one time deal. Engagement with others is also key. It forces you to be somewhat organized and disciplined in your discussion. Which forces you to get organized and think about the process and presentation more. Jumping in without preparation is not a good idea, but never jumping in until you are completely “ready” is almost equally bad. Or even worse. At least you could win jumping in half-cocked, but you will NEVER win if you don’t play. I am developing a real estate coaching business, in its final stages now, before launching it online, and the most valuable part of my preparation is, actually coaching! By the very act of discussing and coaching, I am developing my voice, my approaches, and systems for my coaching business. Waiting, instead, until I have my e-books and my real books and my canned webinars and video training courses and all that stuff, DONE, before I begin coaching or write my content and programs, is a bad idea. Not only will I not know what and how to write the programs, until after I actually practice with real clients for a year or more. So chicken and egg. I know plenty already and can coach well, right now. I will not improve my coaching and my materials until I hone it via the process of coaching lots of people! Pretty neat, and precisely coordinated with your article’s subject here. Thanks!

    Report Abuse

    Why are you reporting this?

    Additional Comments (optional)

    Cancel
    Kristina Lobrin
    Replied almost 3 years ago
    Andrew, this is spot on. Thank you so much for sharing.
    Andrew Syrios Residential Real Estate Investor from Kansas City, MO
    Replied almost 3 years ago
    Thanks Kristina!

    Report Abuse

    Why are you reporting this?

    Additional Comments (optional)

    Cancel

    Report Abuse

    Why are you reporting this?

    Additional Comments (optional)

    Cancel
    Jerry W. Investor from Thermopolis, Wyoming
    Replied almost 3 years ago
    Andrew, Very good article. One other way we learn well, at least I do, is by making mistakes. I can be told something, but until I end up with a house trashed by a tenant that I should have rejected it doesn’t hit home as hard. The worse the incident the better I recall it. Isn’t that a shame.
    Andrew Syrios Residential Real Estate Investor from Kansas City, MO
    Replied almost 3 years ago
    True, unfortunately mistakes are one of the best ways to learn as the pain of making them ingrains them in our memory. That being said, the wise man learns from his own mistakes, the wiser learns from the mistakes of others. I’m trying to do more of the latter and less of the former.

    Report Abuse

    Why are you reporting this?

    Additional Comments (optional)

    Cancel

    Report Abuse

    Why are you reporting this?

    Additional Comments (optional)

    Cancel
    Kylee Gaona from Wiggins Co
    Replied almost 3 years ago
    Great read. Thanks for writing such a good article!

    Report Abuse

    Why are you reporting this?

    Additional Comments (optional)

    Cancel
    David Turnbull Investor from Melbourne, Victoria
    Replied almost 3 years ago
    Great article. Thanks for sharing and for the book recommendation

    Report Abuse

    Why are you reporting this?

    Additional Comments (optional)

    Cancel
    Yan Papas
    Replied almost 3 years ago
    Andrew this is so true. I use this technique as well and it really works. My memory is so so bad !
    Andrew Syrios Residential Real Estate Investor from Kansas City, MO
    Replied almost 3 years ago
    From what I’ve seen, pretty much everyone’s memory is bad, so the more tricks we learn to learn better, well, the better.

    Report Abuse

    Why are you reporting this?

    Additional Comments (optional)

    Cancel

    Report Abuse

    Why are you reporting this?

    Additional Comments (optional)

    Cancel
    Rommel Taylor Developer from Oakland, CA
    Replied almost 3 years ago
    Solid.

    Report Abuse

    Why are you reporting this?

    Additional Comments (optional)

    Cancel
    Chance Brown from San Antonio, Texas
    Replied almost 3 years ago
    I couldn’t agree with you more. Thank you very more for your insight sir.

    Report Abuse

    Why are you reporting this?

    Additional Comments (optional)

    Cancel
    Dale Rast from Fairfax, Virginia
    Replied almost 3 years ago
    Great advice. I have a background in instruction design, and the scientists in the field agree that the best learning method is to “learn by doing.” Of course, a newbie cannot immediately start by doing, but by rubbing shoulders with seasoned investors and professionals, observing and asking questions. That’s for basic knowledge. For the real knowledge, it will come by trial-and-error eventually. Making gradual steps is the best approach, I think.

    Report Abuse

    Why are you reporting this?

    Additional Comments (optional)

    Cancel
    John Bryson Investor from Seattle, Washington
    Replied over 2 years ago
    Love the quiz…However, I could only find one. Are there more?

    Report Abuse

    Why are you reporting this?

    Additional Comments (optional)

    Cancel
Rotate Log in or sign up to comment

Related Blog Posts

Real Estate Investing Basics Jan 13, 2021

Investor Spotlight: From Accidental House Hack to Financial Freedom Featuring Whitney Hutten

By BiggerPockets

Whitney Hutten’s first deal could’ve gone sideways. But she saved it, pressed on, and transitioned into a full-time investor who now has 60 deals under her belt.

Read more →

Real Estate Investing Basics Jan 12, 2021

How Much Do You Need To Save for Your First Investment Property?

By Whitney Hutten

There’s no cut and dry answer for how much money you will need to get started in real estate investing. It depends on a few factors.

Read more →

Real Estate Investing Basics Jan 12, 2021

Investing for Equity vs. Cash Flow: Which Is More Important?

By Andrew Syrios

Like with most things in real estate, your primary focus depends on your situation and goals. But in this instance, one goal is better.

Read more →

Real Estate Investing Basics Jan 11, 2021

Note Investing: How To Find & Finance Real Estate Mortgage Notes

By Scott Smith

Investing in real estate mortgage notes is a profitable and hands-off alternative to hard real estate investment. Learn the ins and outs here.

Read more →
Log in Sign up

Log in

Forgot password?

If you signed up for BiggerPockets via Facebook, you can log in with just one click!

Log in with Facebook

Or
btn_google_dark_normal_ios Created with Sketch. Continue with Google

Let's get started

We just need a few details to get you set up and ready to go!

Use your real name

Use at least 8 characters. Using a phrase of random words (like: paper Dog team blue) is secure and easy to remember.

By signing up, you indicate that you agree to the BiggerPockets Terms & Conditions.

Or
btn_google_dark_normal_ios Created with Sketch. Continue with Google

Why create an account?

Receive a free digital download of The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Real Estate Investing.

Connect with 1,000,000+ real estate investors!

Find local real estate meetups and events in your area.

Start analyzing real estate properties, we do the math for you.

It's free!

Explore

  • Membership
  • Community
  • Education
  • Marketplace
  • Tools
  • FilePlace
  • REI Resources
  • Perks
  • Glossary
  • Reviews
  • iOS App
  • Android App

Company

  • About Us
  • Press
  • Advertising
  • Careers
  • Stats
  • Contact Us

Important

  • Editorial Guidelines
  • Terms of Use
  • Rules
  • Privacy
  • FAQ

Social

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
© 2004-2021 BiggerPockets, LLC. All Rights Reserved.