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Location is No Excuse

Shae Bynes
2 min read
Location is No Excuse

Excuses are the tools with which persons with no purpose in view build for themselves great monuments of nothing. ~Steven Grayhm, Canadian actor

Pretty strong statement, isn’t it? My brother-in-law mentors high school boys and has them say that quote repeatedly whenever he meets with them. Why? Because excuses are dream killers, faith killers, action killers.

Today I’d like to pick on a frequently used excuse among those who are timid to get off the fence and take action towards real estate investing goals.  I’m picking on this one because I heard it just recently and it ruffled my feathers — the excuse of location.  These excuses come in many forms.

“But my market is too expensive!”
“Nobody is buying in my market!”
“Yeah, that worked for him because of where he is, but that will never work here!”

Yes, I am familiar with the old saying “The three most important things about real estate is location, location, location.” In fact, maybe that’s what you’re saying to yourself and it’s holding you back from taking action. Please stop the madness!  There are successful real estate investors in every area — in the most expensive parts of the U.S. in states like California and New York, in rural areas in the midwest, in ridiculously high foreclosure areas like Florida, California, Nevada, and Arizona, and in stable markets that haven’t been heavily impacted over the past few years.   Regardless of your location, you can do it!  Does it mean that perhaps you’ll have to be open minded to the possible need to expand your area of focus by another 25-100 miles? Maybe, but don’t let those few miles keep you out of the game. Be willing to do what others are not.

If location is your concern,  be sure to check the facts to see if they line up:

  • Ask a realtor for a quick favor and have him or her pull up data in the MLS on recent sales (in your county or area of investing interest) the past 6 months.  Make it even more interesting and pull up cash sales!  My friend Matt Rosen in Hawaii told me how surprised he was to see so many cash buyers on record in his local market for very expensive homes ($400K and up)!  There is a lot of money floating in and out of hands for real estate all over the country.
  • Go to local real estate investor gatherings and talk to experienced investors right there in your local market
  • Call the numbers on  “for rent” signs in the area and talk to the landlords — tell them you’re a new investor in the area and just wanted to get some input on their perspective of what’s going on in the local areas they are investing in, etc. (this is a page out of Nick J.‘s book)

With a little bit of investigative work, you will likely find that your concerns are unfounded.   More importantly however is that you have to rid yourself of excuses and become action and solution oriented. Your attitude will make all the difference when it comes to being successful in real estate (or anything else)!

Photo: LowerDarnley

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