Real Estate Investing Education Is Crucial

From Buyincomeproperties.com

Real Estate Clubs
Real Estate Investing Education Is Crucial
By Vena Jones-Cox
Mar 13, 2006, 08:30

Needless to say, there's more to learn about real estate investing than can be crammed into a 10-point report. Before making your first investment, you need to understand how to evaluate, appraise, and inspect properties, how to negotiate, how to find the money you need to close, and how to repair, manage, or wholesale properties. There are numerous books, workshops, seminars, and classes available to teach you these important basics. And by far the best place to go to learn them is your local real estate investment club (go to www.nationalreia.com to locate one near you), because the members and the education you'll get are local to you.

Having said this, be wary of a phenomenon that real estate teachers and group leaders refer to as, "paralysis of analysis." This occurs when a prospective investor attends meeting after meeting and seminar after seminar and reads book after book, yet never takes the important step of actually going out and making offers. When questioned, these professional students give excuses like, "I can't make an offer; I don't know enough yet." And, "I can't buy a property, I haven't set up an LLC." And, "I'll make an offer as soon as I learn about 1031 exchanges."

The truth is, much of what you learn about making offers comes from, well, making offers. It's scary to ask a seller to accept a price that's 40% less than what he's asking; it's scary to offer to make payments to the seller rather than getting your own financing; and it's scary to put an offer in writing when you're still unsure of your ability to determine value and repair costs. But the only way to get over this fear is to make offers anyway, and to see that sellers don't kill you, or yell at you (at least not very often), or even get angry. If your offer doesn't meet their needs, they simply don't take it, and you move on to your next offer.

There are many ways to protect yourself from making a bad deal via your purchase agreement. For instance, if you aren't certain of the value of a particular property, make a professional appraisal a contingency in the contract. If you aren't happy with the results of the appraisal, you won't have to buy the property and won't even lose your earnest money deposit. Similarly, if you aren't sure what repairs need to be done or what they'll cost, make your best guess and include an inspection contingency in your offer. This way, if the offer is accepted, you can have a professional property inspection completed and have a contractor look at the repairs and give you an estimate of the costs. If you guessed low, and the property is not a good deal at the price you offered, you don't have to buy it.

No one-and I do mean no one-feels completely confident about making their first deal. But no amount of reading, learning, or attending classes will give you the confidence you need; only getting out into the market and making offers will. And yes, you will hear "no" more than you hear "yes"-I myself made 100 offers before I bought my first property. But that's part of the learning process, too.

In 14 years as an investor and 7 years as a real estate educator, I have never met a person that couldn't become financially independent with real estate as the vehicle. But I have also never met a person who made deals without making offers. No matter how many hours or how many thousands of dollars you spend on education, you won't be rewarded until you step out of your comfort zone and start to make actual deals. Real estate investing is endlessly rewarding in terms of money, lifestyle, and personal satisfaction. But not until you actually do something to move your investing career forward. The only thing standing between you and the financial independence you dream of, is you. Get out of your own way. Take the risk. Get some knowledge, then get out and use it. You'll be glad you did.