Real Estate Investors: Dealing with Discouragement and Rejection

Real estate investing is rewarding, fun and exciting. But there will be days when things go totally wrong and you get discouraged. What do you do then?

Launching a career in real estate, investing in real estate, and running a real estate investing business can bring a lifestyle most people dream about. Money can come incredibly easily, and life can evolve beyond expectations. It’s fun and exhilarating. But with such dramatic highs there can be down times too. Things may not progress as rapidly as hoped for at the beginning, you can hit slow months, you might run into a difficult seller and pay a little more for a property than planned, or you may even lose money on a deal. What do you do on those days? How can you better plan to avoid, insulate yourself from, and get over these disappointments?

Expectations

Discouragement and disappointment is what happens when our expectations aren’t met. The obvious answer is then to have better expectations. At least more accurate expectations. Yes, some get in and hit it out of the park with amazing wholesale or rehab deals in just a few days. For most it takes a month to 3 or 6 to really get some traction and create momentum for yourself. The same applies to rental properties. Some are going to outperform expectation. Others will do average, and some may fall short. Expect that, and plan for it. Anticipate that sometimes you’ll make less than hoped for, budget overruns and that it will take longer to get paid than you’d like. If you have a plan that is very realistic and accounts for these bumps in the road then you’ll run into disappointment far less often.

Diversify

Diversification is another way to eliminate disappointment, or at least minimize it. If you make 10 offers instead of one you’ll be more likely to land a deal. If you hire 5 sales reps versus 1 you’ll be more likely to see the results you want. If you have 10 rentals in different areas you are more likely to see the consistent income and value growth you want. So plan to diversify from day 1.

Choose to be Resilient

Grit and endurance is often considered among the most important traits of successful entrepreneurs. Things won’t always go smoothly. So it is a matter of deciding in advance that you’ll keep pushing through to the results you want. But who wants to just endure or survive? Choose that you will be resilient, stay optimistic, and keep forging ahead with a good spirit.

Rest & Relaxation

You can’t wait until you are burned out or completely discouraged to take a break. Plan in advance for keeping your schedule light, infused with plenty of fun, and when it gets ugly have an activity that can distress you fast. This might be grabbing your board and hitting the surf, hitting the gym, going for a run, or taking a weekend off in the mountains. Whatever, works for you, have it on your radar.

Stay Objective

Don’t let your emotions sabotage your success. Stay objective. Did your real estate marketing plan really fail because it just doesn’t work or because it was sent on a bad day? Did you lose money because real estate is too risky, or because you made a bad call? Keep it real, and keep going with the tweaks you need to ensure success next time.

I”ll See you at the closing table,

Marcel Umphery the “R.E.I. Successmaker”