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Real Estate Investing Outside Your Comfort Zone

Peter Giardini
2 min read
Real Estate Investing Outside Your Comfort Zone

We all know what that “comfort zone” thing is… right?

Every one of us has spent tremendous amounts of time and energy, clawing, scratching and almost begging to stay within our comfort zones.  And to what result?  To ensure that we never get too uncomfortable or have to challenge ourselves to grow and learn and advance our real estate investing business. 

I don’t want to sound like some new age self-help guru, but staying in our “comfort zones” is not helping our business.  Got it?

I would like to share a recent discussion I had with one of my clients which got me to thinking about our “comfort” zones and how it sabotages our real estate business (mostly without our even being aware of what is happening). 

My client and I were discussing a situation where a contractor had performed shoddy work (who hasn’t dealt with this issue?) and that they needed to return to fix the issues.  When my client approached the contractor about the issue, the contractor indicated it would cost more for them to fix their poor work.  Something that this client seemed “comfortable” paying for!

Did you notice that “comfort” thing present itself?

As we discussed the situation, I recommended that my client needed to demand more from this contractor and require them to correct their poor workmanship with no addition expense to my client.  I could tell from his complete silence that my suggestion was taking him outside of his comfort zone — as he would have preferred to just pay the contractor, get the job done and move on. 

It was clear that pushing on this contractor was not something that would be easy for this client to do!

What a great learning opportunity for this client knowing that he would have to push back on this contractor, demand that they perform their work with quality and most importantly gain the confidence, by getting outside his “comfort” zone, to better and more effectively negotiate with other contractors.

Well, that is what this client did. He got outside of his comfort zone, pushed back, found that life did not end has he had known it, and is now better prepared to stretch his comfort zone yet again.

The question for each of you is this…

Do you find yourself stuck, afraid to make a decision, to stand up for your business, to take a managed risk?   In short, is your business being sabotaged by your “comfort zone”?

In preparing for this article I came up with a handful of items that may prove you are stuck in your “comfort zone”.  

Here they are…

  1. You may be stuck in your “comfort zone” if you are “uncomfortable” making low-ball offers because you don’t want to insult the seller.
  2. You may be stuck in your “comfort zone” if you are “uncomfortable” seeking out private lenders because you were never taught to ASK for money.
  3. You may be stuck in your “comfort zone” if you are “uncomfortable” negotiating directly with sellers and sabotage the negotiations by not bringing a purchase contract to the meeting.
  4. You may be stuck in your “comfort zone” if you are “uncomfortable” demanding that your contractors do their job correctly within budget and on time.
  5. You may be stuck in your “comfort zone” if you are “uncomfortable” evicting a tenant.  
  6. You may be stuck in your “comfort zone” if you are “uncomfortable” talking to banks about loans for your projects.
  7. You may be stuck in your “comfort zone” if you are “uncomfortable” saying NO to prospective tenants because they don’t qualify.
  8. You  may be stuck in your “comfort zone” if you are “uncomfortable”… YOU FILL IN THE BLANK!

I think you get the concept I am conveying in this article.  It is very simple…

The more you are willing to get outside of your “comfort zone” the sooner your business and success will accelerate.

Best of luck!

Pete

Photo: Mitch Bennett

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