Overcoming Negativity

[monnchew]

This is exactly what I needed to hear.  Thank you.  I have to watch Boiler Room now.

[DannyTheGreat]

That's one of the main reasons there are so many employees and so few owners - they only see the negatives, and never the rewards (which will come).

People shy away from risk, only certain types of personalities can handle the risks.

This extends beyond humans as well. With canines and any other pack animal, 1 natural leader is born or created out of 30 or so who are not built to be anything more than a follower. It's only natural for a pack to have up to 30 followers with 1 leader. If everyone was a "leader" there would be no followers thus no true leaders. Most people lack the confidence to be anything but a sheep in a wolf dominated world. Most people want to be a wolf because of the rewards, but simply aren't built for the necessary responsiblity, control, judgment making, leadership, and most of all, risks. Risk only survives with people who try to be the wolves. A wolf has the confidence in his abilities to complete the task and the responsibility and determination to never allow anything but a success. When failure's not an option, there are no risks.

[propertymanager]

On the other hand, your friends and relatives have every reason to urge caution.  The vast majority of newbies fail in a very short period of time.  The horror stories you've heard about tenants are absolutely true.  If you are successful in building your rental property business, you will experience every one of them.  Then, there are the idiotic laws which protect the criminals, deadbeats, and scumbags.  These same laws are absolutely set to punish honest landlords.  In short, there are stresses everyday in business.  That's the bad news.

The good news is that if you can survive the first few years, you will become relatively numb to the nonsense.

With all the talk about negativity and emotion, that is not the real threat to new business owners.  Businesses fail primarily due to the lack of cash flow.  You either understand business and come up with a valid plan, or you fail.  It's just about that simple.

Mike

[aak5454]

being a landlord really demands that you be pretty multi-faceted...dealing with fianaces, contracts, social services (the people), etc, etc.  It is NOT a one dimensional, push-button process.

As for tenants, the 80/20 rule of life comes into play here. Twenty percent of the tenants cuase 80% of the pain in your back side.

lastly, its not a wam-bam, qucik return kind of business, but rather requires a steady effort over many years and then you really can see the fruits of your efforts

[Rich_in_CT]

Lucky for me I'm the type of person that will work harder if the rewards are greater for harder work.  I just have a problem with a 9-5 where I can can work 20% or 160% and get the same pay, in that case I tend to work 20%.  If I can see financial growth for extra effort I don't stop working.  Plus if I know my life will be easier down the road if I make it harder now I am willing to sacrifice now to have a better life later.  

[NoMoneyDown]

You either understand business and come up with a valid plan, or you fail.  

Amen.  No truer words were spoken.

[rlack72]

I had some negative people around me in the beginning....but the longer I have my properties, the less I hear their BS and the more they wish they had the balls to do it.

[patat335]

Realestate is more of a passion , don't listen to everyone, listen to your self, my wife and family all told me not to get into realestate for the last 8 years , now they all want a piece of the action ( like that going to happen) i work full time and use my realestat for retirement, the only piece of advice i can give you is , if your going to do this you will where many hats, you will be on call 24 hours, but and the end of the day it is the easies way to wealth,

word of advice start out with condo there alot easer then house, and stay away from low income housing

good luck

[LL]

monnchew:

Why are you listening to the people who have never done it?  What do they know about landlording?!  You need to listen to those who have done it and successfully.

On other boards, I see comments like "You can never do out-of-state landlording successfully" or "You should never use PayPal (or bank deposit) for rent payments".  Many of those who say that (and some are experienced LLs) have never done that!  We've been doing both successfully.  Why should I listen to those who have never done that?!   Some tried, but failed (or didn't like it).  Does that mean I'll fail?  NO.  I have a different skill set from those people.

So talk to successful landlords.  Sure, every LL has at least a few war stories (we've got our share), but most of us have survived and you will learn a lot from your bad expeirence, which will be tremendously valuable. 

Most evictions and damaged properties result from poor tenant screening If you screen your applicants thoroughly (you have to go beyond what they say on applications), your chance of ending up with a problem tenant becomes very small.  If you end up with a problem tenant, that usually means you made a mistake during the screening process (often out of pressure to avoid a vacancy).

I may add, however, landlording is a people bueiness and some people aren't made for that.  Tenant management is like employee management--the difference is tenants pay you!  (I had to pay my employees even when they caused me problems and financial loss.)

Happy Landlording