5 Ways Real Estate Investing Has Negatively Affected My Life

Real estate investing can be amazing. There’s a semi-famous quote that says the most number of millionaires have been created through real estate investments. However, there can certainly be a darker side to investing in real estate. Before pursuing a path in real estate investing, consider these five ways real estate investing has negatively affected my life.

Disclaimer: I consider myself one of the most fortunate people alive. I would not be the person I am today without this career path. Real estate investing has been a roller coaster of emotions. However, my journey has been worth every headache, breakthrough, bruise, and lesson.

1. Friends and Loved Ones Distance Themselves

People grow and change. Friends sometimes grow together and sometimes not. This can be the same with loved ones, too. You may find yourself naturally growing, expanding your comfort zones, learning new skills, overcoming mental blocks, and safely risking your resources for financial gain. This may make a few of your less-desirable friends uncomfortable. Continue learning, growing, helping others, and investing. Never be bullied or intimidated to quit by negative influences or negative friends.

Pro Tip: Monitor your feelings. If someone is making you feel less than desirable, try bringing it to their attention. If nothing happens, perhaps consider slowly reducing the amount of time you spend together.

2. My Graying Hair

I have made mistakes. So many mistakes. What I’ve learned so far, is “life goes on.” As hard as you may try, mistakes can, and will, happen. We should always aim to perform thorough due diligence with a clear picture of the specific real estate transaction ahead of us. Learn from all mistakes and do not beat yourself up unnecessarily.

Pro Tip: There are a few ways to learn, through trial and error and through other people’s experiences. Surround yourself with local mentors and experts. Make sure most of these folks are more active and more seasoned than you are with regards to real estate investments. Be curious and ask questions when you’re around these more experienced investors.

3. Personality Change (When You First Start Out)

After six months of active real estate investing, you will be a very different person than who you currently are now. While actively investing, you should ideally be speaking with buyers, sellers, brokers, attorneys, handymen, inspectors, etc. on a very regular basis. While speaking with some of these individuals, you will be lied to, made fun of, insulted, belittled, praised, bullied, encouraged, and more. You will be placed in situations you’ve never been through or even considered. Through it all, you should aim to learn and implement something new each day.

Pro Tip: Surround yourself with positiveness and motivation. Be open to adapting. The world can be a negative place, and we all need as much positive reinforcement as we can get.

4. Lost Nights and Weekends

While I certainly would not describe myself as a seminar junkie, I have spent many sunny weekends inside affordable seminars and classes in order to further my real estate education. These classes are often put on by your local real estate groups, real estate schools, city, or hardware stores. While in these classes, seminars, and events, we lose quality time with family and friends who are off having fun shopping, watching movies, going to the beach, or playing sports.

Pro Tip: While it can be very important to specialize within a certain real estate investing niche, there is much more to know about real estate if you are interested. Aim to be a real estate investing sponge. Attend real estate educational classes that don’t lead to sales pitches. Aim to learn a few lessons, and leave behind the information you don’t need. Look for very affordable classes held by active investors or real estate professionals locally. Grow your knowledge of real estate, make new friends, and ask questions along the way.

5. Missing Office Parties

Some of the best memories from my old nine-to-five jobs were the office holiday parties. We got to see and spend time with work friends and colleagues in our “normal” clothes without the typical office hierarchy. If you have a traditional job, then I hope that your company has extremely fun holiday parties.

Positives…

All of these “negatives” are to be taken with a grain of salt. With every negative, there are usually some positives if you look hard enough. As mentioned above, every heartache and challenge has been worth the journey. Here are the upsides:

Friends and Loved Ones Distancing Themselves: In reality, we replace and upgrade old friends with newer friends. This is typically a very natural process.
My Graying Hair: These grays are badges-of-honor from many lessons learned.
Personality Change (When You First Start Out): We get to learn and grow regularly. As active investors, we are lucky to get a crash-course in human nature and real-world people skills that few other non-investors ever learn. This is really a cool thing.
Lost Nights and Weekends: Learning about real estate and furthering our money-making education is ideally something we should want to do. These classes are a great way to meet like-minded friends and future business partners.
Missing Office Parties: During the winter holidays I choose to spend time enjoying the company of friends, family, and business friends of my choosing.

When it comes to real estate investing, there are certainly many differences of opinions with regards to how and when to move forward. Always aim to have clarity in your decisions and clarity in the steps along your journey. Questions will always arise, so aim to surround yourself with knowledgeable investors. Use this website to search for local experts in your market and real estate niche. Aim to associate with quality investors and reject negativity that comes from uneducated folks in your life. Now continue forward to learn more and take action daily.

What are some of the pros and cons you’ve experienced since you’ve become an investor? Let me know in the comments below!

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