Real Estate Investing Is Risky

I was listening to an audio book while I was driving the other day, as I always do in the car if nobody’s riding along. And the author said something that caught my attention. He said “Risks only feel risky until you do them”. Think about that. It’s so profound yet so profoundly simple. Think of anything you’ve been frightened of doing in your life. Then after you do it, it’s not so bad!

The reason it struck me is that it’s the same for investing. Typically a beginner investor is not only frightened, but completely intimidated and often overwhelmed as well, by all the new information, the new skill sets they must learn and the new decisions they must deal with. I often tell a beginner investor, if you’re not at least a little scared – you’re not paying attention!

The first one is always the toughest. This is the hurdle, when conquered, sets the new investor apart from all the would-be’s and wanna-be’s out there. There are no official studies, but the figure we bet on in the Real Estate Industry is 1 person will invest for every 10 that say they’re going to. Many of them even call themselves ‘an investor’ already – they just don’t have any MN real estate investments yet!