Are great property investors born or made?
If you’re like me you were told from a very young age that if you want to succeed at something – be it sport, school, or a musical instrument – that you must put in the time, hard work, and importantly, practice.
Most of us learned our timetables by repeating them over and over – practising multiplication was the most effective means of learning this skill.
Well, the same applies to property investment.
Successful property investors are not born with a “How To” manual and they certainly don’t rely on luck.
Fact is one of the big differences between the athletes, musicians, and business people who excel in their chosen field, compared to the “average Joe” in the years of practice they dedicate to honing their craft.
And this also applies to property investors.
Successful property investors understand that to be good at what they do – creating wealth with real estate – they must learn the rules, gain experience by “doing it” and then improve by refining how they do it.
Training for investment success
In his book Outlier, Malcolm Gladwell noted that in most occupations where complex cognitive and motor skills are required – such as performing complicated surgery or playing the piano – experts in these fields have had an average of 10,000 hours of training.
The key is being able to eliminate all the “noise.”
You need to be able to chunk down all the information available into usable bite-size pieces through a finely honed retrieval system that can quickly screen out irrelevant options given the specific situation.
This skill comes from familiarity gained by “doing it.”
It’s like top tennis players who through experience have developed a sense of where a ball is likely to be served by unconsciously noting the subtle changes in the stance of their opponent.
Or the champion cricketer who seems able to anticipate where a ball will be bowled even before it has left the bowler’s hand.
It’s the same type of perspective that gives seasoned property investors an edge over the average investor.
Think about it…
Having lived and invested through seven property cycles means I don’t get carried away by all the property naysayers and doomsday merchants that seem to concern many other investors.
I’m not an eternal optimist. I’ve just seen it all before.
Consistency is key
No matter which investment strategy you select, be it capital growth or cash flow, renovations, or property development; you’re likely to find that a small group of investors, say 10% do really well, and the rest struggle.
Rather than jumping from one shiny thing to the next like the average investor, these successful investors do the same things over and over again.
They set their goals, map their course and then keep doing what works, refining their skills along the way.
By sticking with a tried and tested strategy, these investors know how to navigate any tricky bumps in the road and become accustomed to seeing the opportunities and potential earning power in market movements.
This means their success depends on them and the skills they have refined throughout their investment journey, rather than on the marketplace.
That’s not how most beginning investors do it
They want to climb the property ladder all the way to the top and nothing will stand in their way.
They start using the latest fad from some a get-rich-quick seminar or webinar or podcast, they buy their first investment and then look for the next big way to make millions.
And thus begins a cycle of jumping from one bandwagon to the next.
However, we know most investors never achieve financial freedom.
In fact, most never get past their second property.
This is in part because they have never refined their real estate strategy and taken the time to learn the rules of the game, so they inevitably fall at the first hurdle and more often than not, call it quits before they make any progress at all.
That’s why around 20% of those who buy an investment property sell up in the first year and around 50% of those getting involved in real estate investment sell up in the first 5 years.
So when will I become an expert?
The way to become an expert is to do one thing a hundred times, rather than 100 things once.
Yes, practice makes perfect, which means that rather than looking for the “one big deal that will make you rich quickly”, you should start your investment journey gently, knowing that you’ll make mistakes along the way and learning from these will make you a better investor.
Before you panic about having to commit 10,000 plus hours to property investment before you can call yourself an “expert”, let me assure you that there are ways to speed up the learning process in real estate.
The simplest is to find a mentor who has already achieved what you want to achieve and let them guide you.
Study how they think because it’s likely a large part of their success comes from their mindset.
Then emulate their successful behaviours and learn from the mistakes they made in order to advance your own skills and refine your own strategies.
How will you know when you’re an expert?
The main thing that separates the successful investor from the wannabes is the ability to consistently outperform the averages.
And yes, to get to this level of expertise, takes time, patience, and practice.
How you can speed up becoming an expert
The safest way I know how to speed up your learning curve and save yourself from making mistakes is to learn from experts.
But be careful…only take advice from those who have done it successfully and significantly and kept their wealth for a long period of time.
In other words, find practitioners not just teachers…
There is a long, long list of people who have conducted property seminars over the past 20 years giving wanted-to-be sounds like good advice who are no longer around.
Sure, there are those who can teach, even if they haven’t done it, but why take the risk?
Of course, another way to gain expertise and perspective is to hire it.
In fact, that's what our clients do when they engage our team at Metropole to help them grow, protect and pass on their wealth.
They use our years of expertise and experience to level the playing field – in fact, they don't just even the odds, they move the odds in their favour.
We are much more than just another buyers' agent, we help our clients safely build intergenerational wealth through strategic property and wealth advice.
Why not click here now and learn about how we could help you?
