How to Have the Right Mindset for Real Estate Investing

Andrew la Fleur: Hi and welcome back to the show. On today’s show I want to talk to you a little bit about mindset. I think the right mindset as a real estate investor is key, is critical to having success. I think what separates those who are successful real estate investors from those who are not are those people who are just constantly on the sidelines, thinking about it, researching it, talking about real estate investing but not actually doing anything and not taking any action. I think the difference comes down to their mindset. There are many aspects, obviously, to that and to having the right mindset, but there’s just a couple of things I want to talk about today.

Before I do that, I want to just tell you a little story and introduce you to a client of mine. His name is Shane, and Shane is a first-time investor. He just purchased his first investment condo in this past week with me. It’s always very exciting to work with first-time investors and to help them achieve that first property in their portfolio, and it’s very exciting just to look forward and understand … me knowing what’s ahead, in store for them and just the great, great stuff that is still to come once they get the ball rolling, once they make that first investment purchase.

I was talking to Shane when he was signing for his unit at Capital Hall. He purchased a condo at Capital Hall in Ottawa. I said, “What was it about this opportunity that caused you to sort of take the leap and make this first investment?” What he said was very interesting and I think very insightful and very prescriptive for other first-time investors or people thinking about getting into it, and that’s what I want to talk to you about today.

He said he’s been reading the book Money: Master the Game, which is Tony Robbins’ new book, and I recommend you take a look at that if you’re interested. I haven’t actually read the book myself, I should mention, but I’ve listed to probably 4 or 5 podcast interviews with Tony. Just Google Tony Robbins podcast and there’s so many great interviews out there right now because he’s promoting his book in the past few months.

Basically, the concept of the book is sort of exposing the myths or the problems with the investment industry and the Wall Street, Bay Street financial world and helping people realize that if you just stick your money in the markets or if you just buy mutual funds and stuff like that, you think that’s a good way to create wealth, unfortunately, you’re sadly mistaken. The vast majority of people who do that get nowhere. There’s much better alternatives out there and much better ways of generating wealth. That’s sort of the crux of the book. I think Shane was basically saying that book really got him thinking about how money works and what is possible out there. It led him, obviously, to real estate, investing in real estate.

The other thing he said which I thought was very interesting is that he hadn’t bought real estate until now because part of it was just he didn’t know anyone who had done it. He sort of thought, he said, that real estate investing was something he would do later in life, like in his 50s or something is how he put it. He’s a young guy, he’s in his 30s, so he was thinking it’s something you do much later in life. I suppose we often think things like that. When we have big goals or big aspirations in our mind, we think they’re not attainable for some reason in the present. We think they’re something that’s attainable only much later in the future. It’s not something that’s in front of us.

That, I think, is very telling in and of itself. I would say to you, I guess, first off, if you are thinking about getting into real estate investing but if you’re thinking it’s not something for right now, then I would challenge you to, I guess, challenge your thinking on that aspect and to think, well, what if it is possible, what if it is something you can and should be doing right now that could actually benefit your future greatly if you got started today instead of some time later in the future?

From that, he said he was talking to one of his friends who happens to be one of my clients, and he discovered that his friend had bought a condo for investment. Actually, his friend had bought multiple condos for investment already. That was also a moment for him to say, “Whoa, wow.” It sort of was that wakeup moment to say, “Wow, this is something that is possible and something that you can do right now.”

He started doing his own research and started, obviously, understanding the market and he was reading Tony Robbins’ book and things like that and eventually he got himself together and he’s now made the leap, he’s a real estate investor. Congratulations to you, Shane, if you are listening to this podcast and congratulations to all my investor clients who are making their first investment this year. I helped so many people this year who were first-time investors and it’s always very exciting to do that.

It was interesting. The Shane story I think for me rang a bell especially because it was very reminiscent of my own story and my own path to getting into real estate investing, because just like Shane, I didn’t know anybody who was a real estate investor. I didn’t know the first thing about real estate or about investing in real estate. It was just not something that I was ever exposed to growing up. It wasn’t until much later on that I did discover real estate and I did sort of stumble into it.

Now, of course, my life is completely changed through real estate investing and my future is basically wide open, and I’ve seen the possibilities you can do through real estate investing. I didn’t know anyone either, and so I often think for me how much further ahead I would be if I had somebody in my life much earlier to show me and teach me about real estate.

Another point for today is if you don’t already, then I encourage you to find a mentor, find somebody who’s already invested in real estate successfully and follow their lead. Whether it’s a formal or informal mentor relationship, the point is look to others who have done it and just follows their example. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. If you see somebody who’s successful, then find out what they did and do it too.

The last thing I think is just more of a general statement, and that’s the importance of setting goals. For Shane and also for myself, we didn’t think real estate was possible, so we didn’t have that as a goal, or if it was a goal, it was sort of a vague goal for some point in the future. I would encourage you if you’re new to investing especially is to set that goal that you want to invest in real estate and put it in front of you and make it something that you’re working on in the present, not something that is just out there in the future as something vaguely that you might get to one day.

You need to make that decision. That is such an important thing is make that decision that it’s something you’re going to do and you need to set that as a goal and you need to put a timeframe on it. I encourage you to even write it down and tell at least one other person that this is something that you want. When you do that with any goal, it becomes much more real and the chances of you attaining it are much, much higher when you do that.

I guess going back, the last thing I would add is on the mentor point. If you don’t have a mentor, if you need somebody, then I’ll just put my hand out there and volunteer for you. Go ahead and use me as a mentor if you don’t have anyone and just follow my lead as a successful real estate and condo investor. I can help you, and that’s exactly what I do, is I can show you what I’ve done and show you what’s been successful for me and show you everything I’ve learned.

Obviously, if you’re listening to this podcast and you’re subscribing to my blog and you’re getting my e-mails, you understand what I’m about and how I do teach people how to invest in condos. If you’re new, if this is the first thing that you’re listening to or hearing from me, then I’ll just, yeah, go out there and put the invitation that you can use me as a mentor in this respect.

Yeah, that’s the podcast for today. I hope you found that interesting, hope you found that useful. Congratulations again to Shane and to all my other first-time investor clients this year. If you’d like to learn more about this or about Capital Hall condos, which is where Shane decided to make his first investment, you can send me an e-mail, andrew@truecondos.com, or you can go to truecondos.com any time and sign up for the details, the investor package on Capital Hall.

Thank you very much and have a great week.

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