{"id":92982,"date":"2019-10-28T14:30:20","date_gmt":"2019-10-28T20:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/renewsblog\/?p=92982"},"modified":"2021-03-16T13:41:35","modified_gmt":"2021-03-16T19:41:35","slug":"id-change-nothing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/id-change-nothing","title":{"rendered":"5 Things I&#8217;d Do Exactly the Same if I Started Over in Real Estate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If I had to start all over again in the real estate industry, this is what I would do.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While you can\u2019t change the past, there can be value in looking at your decisions and path\u2014and keeping stock of what has worked and what hasn&#8217;t. Many people have regrets and say they would do things differently. I can honestly say that I would personally do everything just the same if I had to go back and start again\u2014and I would advise you take some of these lessons and apply them to your own investing journey early on.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Specifically, here&#8217;s what I would tell those who are just starting out.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>5 Things I&#8217;d Do Exactly the Same if I Started Over in Real Estate<\/h2>\n<h3>1. Getting your feet wet in construction early on.<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I started out in construction in my teens. It enabled me to learn the ins and outs of the construction side of the business. That\u2019s a very critical part of the industry, no matter what you do later. You learn hard work, how to fix things, and the costs of repairing and improving a property. You also get experience on working effectively with contractors. I got to work with friends\u2014and even had some fun.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>2. Find a mentor.<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Finding a <a href=\"\/renewsblog\/free-mentor\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">mentor<\/a> can make all the difference. Some will call me crazy, but I sought out a mentor and worked for this individual for free for two to three years. Yes, for free! During that time, I was able to glean what he had learned over the course of 20 years in about a sixth <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of the time\u2014and without paying for any of those super expensive real estate guru programs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-79455\" src=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/find-a-mentor.jpg\" alt=\"find-a-mentor\" width=\"702\" height=\"336\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/find-a-mentor.jpg 702w, https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/find-a-mentor-300x144.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 702px) 100vw, 702px\" \/><br \/>\n<em><br \/>\n<strong>Related:<\/strong> <a href=\"\/renewsblog\/become-financially-free\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">5 Ways My Life Changed When I Reached Financial Independence<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<h3>3. Get on BiggerPockets\u2014and hit the books.<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Finding BiggerPockets was one of the best moves I&#8217;ve made. I\u2019ve filled my mind with volumes of knowledge\u2014and all for free! That\u2019s a big part of the reason I enjoy consistently giving back through these blog posts. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In fact, I\u2019m still active <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/forums\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">in the forums<\/a>, and I recently got some great insight for making a <a href=\"\/renewsblog\/2013\/04\/09\/how-to-buy-a-small-multifamily-property\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">multifamily apartment building<\/a> deal work by networking on the platform. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I hit the library, too. I dug into books like <em><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2MUIVYb\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Millionaire Real Estate Investor<\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;\" src=\"\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=biggerpocke0a-20&amp;l=am2&amp;o=1&amp;a=0071446370\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\" title=\"\"><\/em> by Gary Keller. I am still learning and will keep on learning all I can, so I can continue to grow.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>4. Take action.<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Getting into real estate and reaping its rewards is all about taking action. Learning is vital, and working for others in the industry can have value, but you won\u2019t get ahead until you put what you\u2019ve learned into action for yourself. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019ve tried several types of investing. I\u2019ve <a href=\"\/renewsblog\/2015\/01\/31\/ultimate-beginners-guide-real-estate-wholesaling-2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">wholesaled properties<\/a> and fixed and <a href=\"\/renewsblog\/dont-flip-houses\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">flipped<\/a> houses. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I finally honed in and got serious about buying and holding income properties. I personally enjoy it most. I also believe that it has the most upside potential and benefits of all the strategies out there. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Still, the key is just to get started. You can learn as you go and switch strategies as needed, but nothing will happen if you are still on the sidelines. I understand the unknown can be daunting, but the action will help open possibilities. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, \u201cDo the thing and you shall have the power.\u201d This is very true.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-92565\" src=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/grant-cardone-massive-action.jpg\" alt=\"grant-cardone-massive-action\" width=\"702\" height=\"336\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/grant-cardone-massive-action.jpg 702w, https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/grant-cardone-massive-action-300x144.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 702px) 100vw, 702px\" \/><br \/>\n<em><br \/>\n<strong>Related:<\/strong> <a href=\"\/renewsblog\/things-i-wish-i-knew\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">7 Lessons I Wish I\u2019d Known When I Started Investing in Real Estate<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<h3>5. Block out the noise.<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is an insane amount of noise out there. Media and industry noise will distract you. My friends and colleagues would discourage me and tell me how much of a pain it would be dealing with tenants and fixing toilets. The thing is that I don\u2019t fix toilets myself. I have property managers and a staff to service the tenants. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Getting here required distancing myself from those negative friends and surrounding myself with uplifting ones instead. <\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Summary<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If I could go back, I wouldn&#8217;t change a thing. If I had to start over from scratch tomorrow, I\u2019d follow the same system: take action, find a mentor, work hard, and make good connections\u2014in that order.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/webinars?utm_source=renewsblog\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-91217\" src=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/blog_ads-01.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"85\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/blog_ads-01.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/blog_ads-01-300x36.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What would you do the same or differently?<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Let&#8217;s talk below.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many people have regrets and would do things differently in several capacities if they could rewind time. When it comes to my real estate investing journey, I can honestly say that I would personally do things the same if I were able to go back and start again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12140,"featured_media":117190,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5524],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-estate-investing-for-beginners"],"acf":[],"comment_count":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12140"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}