Down and Out??

Question

I recently moved and decided to give real estate a try. After reading, listening to podcasts, going to at least 40 different REIA meetings I met a few good people and began my journey. I was cooking with gas and then...life happened. I got really sick, went on vacation, and started a new job. On top of that I'd "partnered" with one of my "mentors" on a deal and never got paid.  I'm never on to focus on the negative so I just put that lesson in my back pocket and decided never to work with him again.

Though I decided to continue trying it has been difficult to recapture my motivation but i think i'm finally back on track. I hear and read a lot of success stories but i hardly ever hear about the setbacks and/or failures so I decided to share mine in the hope that it would give me some motivation to continue on to success.

If anyone has any advice or anecdotes they'd like to share with me then I WELCOME THEM ALL.

Sincerely,

Devested but Dedicated

Raechelle Carroll · Answer

@Frank R. I realize there are ups and downs it's just hard to recapture motivation but I'm sure I could recapture plenty if I could catch one of those $100 bills.

@Andrew SyriosI have definitely learned my lesson about contracts. I took it all as a learning experience. It's a lesson I'd rather learn now than thousands of dollars later.

@Randy E. My dad has been in the real estate business my whole lief so I've seen the ups and downs first hand. I'm sure that this is what I NEED to do I just have to get back in the game,

@Steve Vaughan I love that quote! I will have to put it on my wall somewhere. I will be sure to watch where I step so I can avoid piles of dung in the future. lol

@John S. I'm a very jovial, happy-go-lucky kind of person so I hate to see the worst in people. I think that from now on I won't use my 6th sense and I will instead get better contracts.

John C S. · Answer

Just keep your head up there are a lot of rotton people out there who only have their own intrest at heart. This will make you stronger also evaluate people's  dispositions on their body language words don't mean much. Good luck

John C S. · Answer

Just keep your head up there are a lot of rotton people out there who only have their own intrest at heart. This will make you stronger also evaluate people's  dispositions on their body language words don't mean much. Good luck

Steve Vaughan · Answer

Knowing what you want to do with your life and pursuing it is a huge step most people don't even make.  Congrats on taking that step @Raechelle Carroll!

Getting sick is sad I hope you are better. Going on vacation is expensive. Doing a deal with a shady guy is sad, too.  None of these are necessarily RE related, though. Trust but verify. Be hopeful, but guard with wisdom.  There are shady piles of dung out there, in any industry.  After years of landlording, my young sons now know not all people are nice, unfortunately.

Keep your head up.  Thank you for sharing your struggles;  it helps you as well as us. I agree more downfalls need to be shared to keep us in check, grateful and humble. We all need to understand that investing has risks.  Thanks again and I wish you the best!  "The soil is most fertile in the valley."

Randy E. · Answer

@Raechelle Carroll, sorry but I don't have any sage pick-me-up line.  All that comes to mind now is

There were a few things I thought I wanted to do during/with my life.  Some, I pursued early and failed or succeeded on a small level.  Some, I thought about a lot but never really did very much in pursuing.  Some, I piddled around with enough to say I tried and it didn't work (or I didn't actually like those options,) but looking back in hindsight the reality is I didn't really try hard enough at those things.

In the end, we do what we want to do because we love it too much to do anything else, or we do what we think we have to do because we're too desperate/afraid to not do it.  For me, Real Estate Investing is both.  I do it because I genuinely enjoy most ever aspect of it.  And, I do it because it's the only way I know to create a secure financial base for my family while preserving the sort of family life that is important to me.

So, if you continue with your efforts at REI, hopefully you love it or you NEED it.  If either are true, you won't quit.  And if you do quit, it will be no big loss to you because you didn't love it or NEED it.  You'll simply move on and spend your time doing something else you actually love or NEED.

Good luck to you!

Andrew Syrios · Answer

I will say that real estate is a roller coaster. Ups and downs are part of the business and unfortunately I think it's just something you have to learn to live with. But the more you know about that fact the head of time, the easier it is to deal with.

Franklin Romine · Answer

@Raechelle Carroll

Read and study but don't let it bog you down.  Attending meetings generates lots of noise that needs to be filtered.  Filter out all the noise other wise you will be bouncing around like a ping pong ball.

We are all in a wind tunnel with $100 bills blowing around us.

Frank