For all of the newbies out there, I was wondering what excuses you have for not investing. I think it might be helpful to share with everyone here! For the veterans, I’d love to hear some of the excuses you used before taking the first step!
Well . . . ?
Overwhelmingly, I think fear is the ultimate barrier. Fear of failure, fear of going bankrupt, fear of not knowing enough, etc.
After that, I’d say procrastination and simply letting life dictate what you do instead of vice-versa.
The Wife - The number one stopper of man’s dreams. 
Just kidding - sort of anyways
Fear for sure (this newbie). Know we are have trouble with finding houses at a 30%+ discount and getting the numbers to use a hml. Seems reos are at fmv. Looking in the dallas texas area.
I believed the old adage that you have to have money to make money. The mortgage brokers just reinforced that until I discovered the Hard Money guys.
Believing that you need to know everything before you start. Is another book on REI going to help you get started?
My focus has shifted from learning about REI to searching for deals that fit my criteria.
I think for me it was the fear of success. What would happen if I made it? Then what the hell would I do? It was when I decided to embrace the change and how my life could be different that I took the leap!
I guess the bottom line was fear.
Lack of money
My fears:
Owning property that has to be managed by a property manager that doesn’t answer my calls,doesn’t do his job and swindles me out of my rent money and constantly plays games forcing me think bad thoughts…Ultimately making me to play babysitter to a property that I intended to be managed by someone else…
Buying overpriced junk that is someone else’s headache and finding out that this cheap area is also the highest vacancy rate place on earth…
Buying something that gets reassessed and the taxes really aren’t xxxx amount but %50 higher and now I’m stuck with something that is deeply negative cashflow…
Finding out that the hype about cashflow is just really that…HYPE…
I have owned businesses most of my life and the rule of thumb is no one ever sells something that is making them money…I mean think about it, why on earth would want to sell something that is making you money for doing close to nothing???For a few dollars in capital gains??..I would much rather keep the income stream…I would NEVER sell my business for even a good amount of money and lose income…Income is king !!!..
The ones that I see are looking for the “perfect” deal.
The great thing about this thread is that once we realize what’s holding us back… or the worst case scenario as posted above with the poor property mgmt scenario, we can put a plan into place to safeguard against such.
My fear is this, so I will do this, this, and that to prevent it/recover from it should it happen.
Fear is about a lack of knowledge.
realnew,
very true…As negative as I may have sounded I met up with a great contact today…In short we are teaming up to buy properties in his area…I’m looking forward to moving on and getting past the what if’s and finding a good deal to execute on…I finally met an equally enthusiastic person that isn’t in stuck mode…Hope all goes well and I will keep the forum updated on my venture as it pans out…Wish me luck !
Well guys, one person once said that, fear is false evidence appearing real. Don’t kid yourself here, fear in it’s PURPOSE, could be an asset, but fear in itself, is a complete liability.
Fear in it’s PURPOSE, why do we fear? Well, we fear because our current situation or the topic that we are focused on, lacks in details. So we fear the future, we fear failing. There’s a way to get around that.
We also fear out of pain. That cobra snake looking at you and coming your way, causes fear. So we fear feeling that enormous pain that snake will put us through. There’s a way around that as well.
What else do we fear, well some fear success and gain. That means, once I have acquired all these “things,” what do I now do to maintain them? What if I can’t maintain them? There’s a way around this fear as well.
There’s more fears, but overall, my point is this fellows and ladies, fear is a result of a lack of planning. And another saying goes that if you fail to plan, well then you just about plan to fail.
Real Estate Investing is all about planning. A plan to get the property, fix the property, and sell the property. Of course you might say, well, I’m afraid of some things within that process. Well, you just take the fears out by doing ADDITIONAL planning.
While I’m not an enemy of study, I do believe that a lot of real estate students study too much, and the studying doesn’t even apply to what they realy want to do in their career. They study and read books, without even FIRST, having a definite direction they want to go in Real Estate.
Lol, it’s like a college student just going to college JUST BECAUSE their parents said to do so. That student has no plans, doesn’t know why he’s even in college, he’s just there because his parents said so. Then he gets out of college, has a Master’s Degree, but can’t find a place of employment or ends up working in a career he doesn’t really even like.
Bottom line, you have to first know which area of Real Estate Investing you want to do. The next thing, is to figure out what type of income you want, whether it be a residual income or a quick buck. Then you need to study some potential areas of the United States that this would work great in, and more importantly, HOW LONG it would work great in. The next step, go out and attain the TAILORED information that applies to your goal and plan. Become the EXPERT in your Real Estate Investing Niche. Then begin building your team, find a reliable money source, tell that source what you’re planning to do and obtain a letter stating you have a source of capital. Go to your particular area, and begin putting the plan in force.
Do you see how the success comes? The success comes because you have a direct, tailored, unique, niche you are working in. You are doing what you know, and doing it well. You’re not reading all this information, taking all these seminars, just getting overboarded with information. The ONLY information you take in is applying to your niche, and THAT IS WHY you do it well. It’s not magic, it’s direct, tailored, planning.
As you can see, this takes a lot of planning. Do NOT just take the Carlton Sheets course and go out and START. Lol, everybody does that, that’s why majority of people in Real Estate Investing are not succeeding well. They are all chasing the same deals, the same seller, the same buyer, the same area, the same house, it’s just a mess. Don’t do that.
I want you to have a unique and new strategy to succeeding in a particular niche of Real Estate. It’s not magic ladies and gentlemen, it’s planning. You DO NOT just go to a motivational seminar and come out swinging, lol, it anything you’ll come out losing and going bankrupt. The reason is, you don’t have a unique, direct, tailored, FOCUS. You’re not focused in one area, you just are studying “REAL ESTATE” but not a particular “AREA,” hey, there’s a lot in the industry about REAL ESTATE. What area are you focused on? You’ll be surprised as to how, “everybody is doing real estate,” but hardly nobody is focused on doing just ONE PARTICULAR AREA.
I believe in God, I have all the faith in the world, but it takes more than just believing and having faith, you must have a plan. A plan that is unique, a plan that is yours, and a plan that will produce for YOU.
So true! and get this i am the wife. I am here on my hubby page messing around trying to see what he is always reading about on this site and now i see. And I think I am holding him back but… now I am planning on joining him in his dream of being a flipper, landlord, property owner, and real estate investor.
That’s Awesome that your on board. Two minds working together will be able to accomplish more. Plus my wife says that women are smarter then men, so I guess you should be able to learn faster. 
I must say that your wife is a smart woman. She hit the nail right on the head!!
Thanks!
lack of credit, funds, and knowledge
I am trying to educate myself by doing as much reading and talking to people as much as possible before I start REI. That is my excuse but…honestly I want to pay off some bills that way I can have a nice size saving to start off with. I would like to take a little time of work when I first get started so I can devote 8 hours a day to it for at least a month. I am currently saving all my leave time at work so I can take off sometime when the time is right. Not sure when that time will be!!
I have always thought of REI (in a fashion) since I was at least 13. I used to believe in “Got to spend money to make money” and I never had any. Now I look at my little 2 year old daughter and I realized that I no longer have the luxury of fear. I have a FT job but it only pays the bills. So in December I decided what the heck I have nothing to loose other than my sanity so I started looking for anything that might be a deal in my area and wouldn’t you know it I am in the one place where the prices have not gone down. So now I am looking out of state and have found a lot of cheap deals on Rentals (This will be my niche) now I just need to find someone I trust to run them correctly. Now I still read the books and my library is getting bigger everyday. I have never bought any of the courses and of course my wife says “Just let your education work for you it takes time.” I let her know that I wasn’t quitting my job to do this, that it would be very foolish. Now I also let her know that I would love it if she was behind me on this, I honestly don’t think you can succeed in this without your wife/husband behind you, but I was going to do it one way or the other. Sorry I just rambled on, to sum it up I had the fear of starting and then the fear of the “what ifs” but ultimately I want to be something that my daughter will guide her life by and I also want to send her to Harvard of course. I feel sorry for the people that let fear or failure control their lives. I used to be one of them and now I just can’t live that way anymore. In one of my books it has a quote from Mark Twain that I think sums up most of REI.
“We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it - and stop there; lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove lid. She will never sit on a hot stove lid again - and that is well; but also she will never sit down on a cold one anymore. -Mark Twain.”
Benjie
Hey,
One the subject of fear, I have always thought that fear is a good thing. If you invest with a total absence of fear, especially when you have an investment vehicle like RE that allows so much leverage, you will eventually overextend. Fear is a good part of investing. Courage is not the absence of fear, but the ability to make decisions and MOVE in the face of our fears. Fear is what motivates you only to take the good deals and not the so-so deals. You just have to be able to move past fears, not get rid of them.
My two cents,
DB