To Make Real Estate Investing Money You Must Conquer Your Fears

Making real estate investing money takes some time and takes some patience. And it also requires some fear conquering.

Recently we ran into a situation with a tenant leaving a rather nasty pile of garbage (aka: their belongings) in a property as they vacated without catching up on some missed rent.

And they didn't leave on schedule, the big bad "Sherriff" had to be called in.

Sound like fun?

Welcome to the world making real estate investing money.

For the record, the big bad Sherriff is actually a very nice older gentleman who drives what looks like an old government issued Ford Taurus with a little 8.5" by 11" sign on the dashboard that has the word "Sherriff" neatly printed on it.

We had visions of a Hummer driving body builder type with assualt rifles in the back and pepper spray and handcuffs on his belt.

Maybe a taser even.

Nah, not in Canada.

There's no need for that thank heavens.

In this situation there was no actual damage to the property, just a lot of "stuff" left behind. And we mean, A LOT.

So this investor now has to get busy and call 1-800-GOT-JUNK or post an ad on Kijiji.ca to have someone remove the stuff.

Then he'll have to get a local cleaning lady company to give it the once over.

And then re-rent the property.

His worst fears have become reality.

He had bad tenants.

And to his credit he's already taking action and rolling with things.

Knowing him there will be another tenant in the property very shortly. That's how you keep the real estate investing money flowing.

He's that kind of guy - an action taker.

This real estate investing money story reminded us of one of our favourtie quotes from Jim Rohn.

Jim passed away recently. He was a great mentor to us all.

Thankfully his books and stories live on. And for those of you who don't know Jim Rohn, he was one of Tony Robbins' original mentors.

If you ever heard he speak you've likely never forgotten the experience.

Down to earth, smart, principle based.

This recent tenant story reminded me of this quote of his:

"The greatest need for maturity is at harvest time. That is when we must learn how to reap without complaint if the amounts are small and how to reap without apology if the amounts are big ... you must get good at one of two things: sowing in the Spring or begging in the Fall."

This investor, without complaint, is continuing to plant his seeds by moving on quickly and decisively to get another tenant in his property.

He's sowing in the Spring if you will.

And he'll enjoy a great harvest in the Fall.

If you're like most investors you have fears that are holding you back form your first property or from acquiring your next property. You want to make real estate investing money with no risk and no fear.

Well, there's always risk. You can minimize it with a solid team and a proven system.

And there are always fears.

What are those fears?

Will the property burn down? Get insurance and they'll rebuild it.

Will the tenants use your house as their personal dump? See above.

Will the tenants damage your property? Take pictures before they move in and have them initial them.

And everyone's favourite, they won't pay and it will take you a year to evict them.

This one gets a lot of play in the media.

There's always a story about a landlord that took eight months to get a tenant evicted. How their real estate investing money dries up.

And of course, there are one off exceptions, but in our backyard the process is very well laid out.

And if you follow it you'll have your tenants out as early as six weeks after a missed payment but more likely eight weeks.

But you have to follow the process.

Don't believe us, do some homework and define your fear.

If you're reading this in Ontario you can Google Ontario Tenant Board for a neat little chart with directions on what to do.

Here's another fear...

The market will tank and I will lose everything.

We can tell you from direct experience that markets do tank. And it can be a very tough time.

But if you get off your rear and take action you can survive that. Our family did.

It meant hustling to find some tenants for a property that we were planning on flipping.

Not all our real estate investing money costs were covered monthly. But we survived and came out the other end fine.

In fact, we never missed a meal throughout that time.

We ate very well. We continued to live in a nice home with a pool even, had nice clothes and drove nice cars.

We skipped summer vacation to Europe for a few years - but we survived.

It was a tough time that required lots of attention and action.

You can make it through almost anything when you set your mind to it.

And you know what, the market eventually turned around.

There's a great little book somewhere that explains how the middle class think month-to-month while the well off think year-to-year and the wealthy think decade-to-decade.

When you are mapping out your own fears are you thinking month-to-month or year-to-year or decade-to-decade?

Ten years from now will the investor mentioned above care about those tenants that left their junk in his property.

Or will he be enjoying the increase in equity and/or cash flow that he is earning?

Ten years from now will bumps in last year's real estate market be of concern to him?

Ten years form now will he even remember what happened in 2010?

Ten years from now it'll be harvest time and he'll be reaping the real estate investing money that he sowed.

Will you?

"The greatest need for maturity is at harvest time. That is when we must learn how to reap without complaint if the amounts are small and how to reap without apology if the amounts are big ... you must get good at one of two things: sowing in the Spring or begging in the Fall."- Jim Rohn, 1930-2009

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