What is Stopping you From Buying your First Investment Property?

Why aren't you buying your first investment property? Now there are a variety of reasons that can be given but the truth is, it's only the B-S that you're telling yourself and why you're not buying it. 

Let me explain this. 

There's a reason to, or not to do anything and if the consequences were great enough, you would buy your investment property. Now, think about this for a second. We've all seen that movie, “The Pursuit of Happiness” back in the day. Imagine for a second, that you and your child are being bounced around from place to place from these little slummy apartments to hotels, to finally sleeping in a bathroom stall. It's just completely cold, and rainy, and disgusting, you have nowhere. However, you do have the knowledge on how to buy a duplex and buy maybe a two-unit property and know without the shadow of a doubt that the other tenant is going to pretty much pay for this.

The deal just has to be structured the right way. How motivated would you be? How would you do it then? Would it still become secondary? Would you still tell yourself the same excuses? Oh, I'm not sure if I'm going to name my LLC, I'm going to put it in. How am I going to raise the money to buy it? What bank is going to finance me? There's always a way to get it done and with modern technology through YouTube channels, like this one, that will answer your questions. Go to any of the other various places out there that, online, give you answers to real estate questions like Bigger Pockets or your local real estate investors associations. There's no reason why it can’t be done.

So now, try to get past being paralyzed. What is the B-S you're telling yourself? Is it because you're working somewhere? Well, I can tell you when I was working full-time, probably doing 60-hours a week at the job plus I was working part-time on the side with a bunch of landlords fixing up their properties. That's what motivated me to say, hey, if they can do this, I can do this too. But it was so tiring. I would go, and I would put the car in park at red lights, on the way to work, and would wait for the person behind me to beep to wake me up, so I can put it in gear and keep going. It was during that time, that I bought my first investment property, I bought a duplex in a small suburb around Cleveland, and I was taking calls during work. At that time, they were paging me during work. I'd call them back on a cell phone, which has been a long time at that point, and meet them in parking lots to sign leases, pick up money, have rents dropped off. It wasn't convenient at all. It was a miserable experience. Actually, after buying enough properties, I left my job, and even then it was tough. It was not a walk in the park. I had no idea how to manage properties. It was a disaster. I overpaid for the properties. I quit my job, but you know what? It all worked out because I kept driving forward, just kept on going, and kept driving forward. If you're having any reluctance at all, here's the good news. It's probably because you're an intelligent person. I'll explain this to you.

When I was young and I was just starting, I looked back at the risks I would take, the things I would do, the deals I would get myself involved in. Just blindly going out there and doing stuff. I made some big moves and they worked out. Back then, it seemed like no big deal. I got older, I got wiser, and I guess smarter if you will. Now, in my mind, I think of all the things that could go wrong. I could think of what if this and what if that, and what if they don't pay, and what if I can't sell it? What if I can't rent it? What if I can't raise the money? What if the toilet leaks or breaks and I can't fix it? All the what-ifs come into mind and I looked back to the days with just the bliss of ignorance and not knowing. So, I invite you to go to those days when you were younger, and you just took a chance.

The first time you rode a two-wheeled bike, and you didn't think about falling and scraping knees or knocking your front teeth out or do whatever. What if people laughed at me and what if I can't get this whole bicycle thing? No, you went out there and you rode the bicycle, and you fell a couple of times, and you kept on riding. So, let's get young in our minds.

Again, let's get this old man's hat off and put on our baseball cap, and start thinking like the youth because that's what we make progress. Imagine if when you started trying to walk for the first time if you could comprehend the thought process at that time of your life. You'd start thinking, Oh, I'll never do this. I've fallen three times. I'm just going to crawl my whole life. We would all be crawling up and down the streets. I guess if you go out at two o'clock in the morning, there are plenty of drunk people crawling around on the streets. But I'm talking to regular society.

So, go back, revisit your youth, revisit that boldness that you need to drive you and your business forward. Go put an offer on that first investment property. Reach out, ask how to structure the deal. Go to some of these other websites, ask people. People are willing to share, and they'll work with you to help you accomplish your dreams. It's a great society we're living in right now.