Do you want to be a big and famous real estate investor? Do you want to own and manage dozens of residential and commercial real estate properties? Do you want to make lots and lots of money? Well, at least as related to the last – we all do, no? While it is possible for virtually anyone and everyone to succeed in real estate investing with the right knowledge, skills, and attitude, it is important to know one thing from the very beginning – success in real estate investments rarely comes overnight. Of course, there are investors who are just crazy lucky and manage to hit the jackpot immediately, but most successful people in the real estate investing world needed years or even decades to get where they are now. The main reason for this is that real estate investing – like most other businesses and jobs – is largely learning by doing. No matter how much you prepare yourself for the real estate investor career, you will never know enough before you actually emerge yourself into the business. While this is definitely a disadvantage, the big benefit of any learning by doing endeavor is the steep learning slope that comes with experience.
So, don’t let yourself feel discouraged or overwhelmed if you are just about to buy your first rental property and become a real estate investor. In a few years time, you will be a real estate expert, just allow yourself to be learning by doing all the time. Meanwhile, let’s take a look at the important takeaways from the fact that real estate investing is learning by doing.
1. Evolve from a real estate agent or broker to a real estate investor
Although real estate investing is largely dependent on learning by doing, this doesn’t mean to say that there is nothing you can learn and benefit from other real estate careers and areas. Actually, if you are already a real estate agent or a real estate broker looking to become an investor, you will be at a huge advantage compared to other investors. As an agent or broker, you will gain immense real estate knowledge related to buying and selling real estate properties, the current housing market, the local rental market, doing real estate market analysis, using traditional and predictive real estate analytics, obtaining comps, etc. The transition from an agent or a broker to a real estate investor career path should actually be quite smooth because your “learning by doing” would have started way before even thinking about buying your first investment property.
Related: Real Estate Investment Agent: Do You Need One and Why?
2. Form real estate partnerships
In any learning by doing process, there is so much you can learn from doing things with others. Real estate investing is no different. While you can learn a lot by doing your real estate investments on your own, imagine just how much more you will be able to learn and how much faster this will happen if you work with other real estate experts. In real estate investing, your real estate partners will probably be your greatest source of knowledge in the field. Generally speaking, other investors and real estate experts would be very happy to partner up with you, even if you are newer to this world than they are, because for them your common real estate partnerships for buying, owning, managing, and renting out investment properties will also be learning by doing opportunity.
Related: Real Estate Partnerships Are Not All Roses: Beware of These 7 Potential Traps
3. Get exposed to the best real estate investing tools and resources
With experience in real estate investments, you will automatically gain exposure to the best and most useful real estate investing tools and resources. And trust me – there are so many of them out there on the market. The recent surge in technology has supplied real estate investors with numerous websites, mobile apps, and devices that have made real estate investing so much easier and more precise. For example, let’s look at an investment property calculator. That’s something quite new to the world of real estate investing, which saves investors tons of time and energy. If you get a really good one like Mashvisor’s rental property calculator, you will completely eliminate the need to engage in real estate market analysis and investment property analysis. You will still be learning by doing, but instead of learning about the best investment properties by doing crazy calculations in complicated spreadsheets, you will be learning about the best rental strategies and investment options by doing comparative analysis with the click of a button. Sounds appealing, doesn’t it?
Related: 7 Tools Modernizing Real Estate Investing
4. Start out small
Maybe the most important lesson to take away from the fact that real estate investing is all about learning by doing is to start out your career as a real estate investor with something very small. When searching for and buying your first investment property, it is most highly recommended to choose a small, simple, non-luxury, cheap single housing unit. Even if you have lots of money, don’t get tempted to buy a luxury single-family home in San Francisco or an apartment building in New York. Remember – the more money you initially have, the more money you can end up losing. Thus, regardless of your financial situation, stay reasonable for your first few real estate investment properties. You will start learning the moment you start just thinking about when and where to buy a rental property, so soon you will be on your path to becoming a real estate expert. Then, you can buy another and another, more and more expensive investment property. Since, as a real estate investor, you will be learning by doing, don’t hurry unnecessarily.
There are many great things about real estate investing… The wide diversity and virtually unlimited options… The opportunity to make money… The chance to run your own business… The opportunity to grow a large investment portfolio of numerous rental properties… And last but not least, the chance to be learning by doing. On your path to becoming a successful real estate investor, just remember one thing – you learn from anything that you do and that happens to you while investing in real estate properties, even from your mistakes and failures. So, be passionate, curious, and patient, and you will soon be running your own real estate investing business.