There are six reasons why you are not a successful real estate investor. Once you pinpoint which ones apply to you, you can make the most of the opportunities in front of you.
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Lack the ability to self-educate.
Most phenomenally successful people read between 20 and 50 books a year. They're not caught up in sitcoms and Netflix shows that take their time every single night. If you want to self-educate, download podcasts and watch YouTube videos. Seek out books and authors on specific topics.
As the old saying goes: “Action expresses priority.” The question is: “Are you making self-education a priority in your life?”
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Struggle to save money.
All successful people go through a time when they're highly disciplined around the money they spend every month. That applies whether it's a cup of coffee, eating out all the time or a gym membership they're not using. When you have savings, your anxiety and fear are reduced and everything is better in your life. This really boils down to what you need and what you want.
If you could put those into two different buckets, you can be super disciplined. If you want some help and some ideas around this, I created a financial stress test just for you at Ken McElroy Stress Test.
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Unable to invest money to make money.
You can take an active path or a passive path; you have to decide. In my own family, my brother took the passive role. He worked extremely hard, carved out a little bit of his paycheck and gave it to a financial planner, who invested it.
My brother never really understood how or where the money was invested or what fees were taken.
Meanwhile, my sister decided in her late 30s to take an active role in managing her money through real-estate investing and property management. She started buying rental real estate and got tax breaks from her real-estate portfolio.
Today, she has more than six figures a year coming in tax-free on rental real estate. She has millions of dollars in equity in those homes and apartments that she bought over a 15-year period.
If you aren't clear on how you’re able to invest your money to make more money, then you can easily get a financial education to do it.
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Don't make decisions quickly.
We all have a system and a process to evaluate things. I know so many people that have analysis paralysis. They're using their analysis as the excuse to not do anything,
When I first, I was scared to death. I had no idea what I was doing, but after I studied the things that I needed to study, I took action. I took one step and that first condo was really scary. The second condo was a little bit easier. You just have to take that first step.
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Just want passive income.
Passive income is basically finding cash flow. For example, if you invest $1,000 dollars a month, you get $100 of passive income. That's a 10-percent return. You don't even have to think about it. Everybody wants this.
Once you have put in the effort, time, study, personal development and financial education to grow your passive income, the other stuff becomes really fun. Then you can take the time to write a book like The Advanced Guide to Real Estate Investing.
There's no pressure on you to sell anything or buy and sell anything because you've got this passive income and you're on your road to financial freedom. You have to put the work in, in order to get the passive income. It's just the way it is.
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Lack consistency and patience.
A lot of you have habits. You get up and do the same thing almost every single morning. People aren't disciplined but they can change.
There was a period of time where I was not working out every day. Then I hired a trainer and met him at the gym. Once I got into a habit of discipline and consistency, I got into better shape.
You can do the same thing with real-estate investing, managing your financing and education. Every day do something that moves you forward, like listening to a financial podcast or watching a financial YouTube video just once a day.
We all get frustrated because things aren't moving along as quickly as you want. You have to wait and be patient, then be persistent to push through those things that you know will make you a better person, will make you more money and will ultimately get you to your goal.
Just a couple years ago, my partner and I had all these investors that wanted to invest and an entire brokerage network of people that were offering us deals. We had to be patient, diligent and consistent in the way we invested our money and our investors’ money. If we can do that, you can do that too.
One of the things that you can do, if things just aren't aligned for you right now, is you could go out and find a mentor. Just find somebody that can coach you along and teach you some of the things that they've done. Ask them for a cup of coffee and say, “What can I do?”
I did this as a young man, and it works. If I can do this, you can do this.