7 Traits of a Successful Real Estate Investor

I  ran a real estate club for 18 years and have spoken at most of the other ones across the Country several times.  I’ve met tens of thousands of investors and have a very good idea of what it takes to succeed in the real estate business.  Here’s the 7 traits you must have to succeed in real estate.  If you have some, that’s good, but work on the others which you are lacking.

1. Has a Major Positive Attitude

Without a doubt, you must believe in your bones that you will succeed at real estate investing.  If you have doubts, bitch and whine, blame others, or just have a real skeptical attitude, you will not succeed.  Like attracts like, and a bad attitude attracts poor results; likewise a really strong positive attitude will open your world up to what it has to offer.  Make a mission statement or mantra, then repeat it daily.  As you read it and say it out loud, imagine yourself already in possession of the wealth you want to attract.

2. Educated

In the book, “Outliers”, the author opines that every great person in their field has put in their 10,000 hours.  If you don’t want to wait that long, then learn from the success (and failures) of others.  Books, CDs, seminars, and mastermind meetings are going to cut your 10,000 hour requirement down a significant amount.  Why make mistakes when you can learn from the mistakes of others?  Abraham Lincoln said, “Give me 6 hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend 3 hours sharpening the ax”.

3. Hard Worker

Nobody but the goofball on late night TV said this stuff was easy.  Any business takes hard work and a lot of hours.  If you already have a full time job, you now have two jobs for a while.  Once you accept that fact, you will put in the necessary work and focus into your real estate business.

4. Good Time Manager

It amazes me how many people don’t use a calendar or electronic planner to map out their week.  Time flies by and they wonder why nothing important got done.  The late Stephen Covey said to imagine your time as a bucket.  You have big rocks (important things), little rocks (less important things) and sand (unimportant filler).  How would you fill up the bucket and get everything in?  Of course, you’d start with the big rocks, then the small rocks, then the sand.  Make sure you plan your week like this in the right priority.  Remember that quality time with family or your hobbies is a BIG rock.  Plan those in, too.

5. Never Fears Failure

Successful investors look at failure as a learning experience, one step closer to success.  Unsuccessful people fail to take action for fear of failure.  Once you get it in your head that nobody is going to break your legs or put you in jail if your offer is rejected, you will start making offer after offer after offer.  If you fear looking bad, stupid, or inexperienced, you will fail to make multiple offers.   In my experience, most people are more afraid of success than failure.  They fear making an offer and getting it ACCEPTED, which means having to complete the deal.

6. Has a Good Team

You won’t know it all, and you can’t do it all by yourself.  That’s where your team comes into play.  A good lawyer, accountant, broker, contractor, partner, mentor, and/or title company are key to making deals happen.  Don’t delay your business until you have it all lined up, but do try to get all the pieces together so when you do get an offer accepted, you have the players in place.

7. Believes in Perfection Isn’t Necessary

The biggest obstacle in your way of success is generally you.  Perfectionists who don’t do anything until everything is exactly correct will never succeed.  A decent, B+ business plan, acted upon with great effort, will always beat an A+ plan never executed upon.  You will never be 100% sure of anything, but do your due diligence, run the  math, run it by a few people you trust, and then JUST DO IT!