Getting cold feet - help!

[Stephanie D.]

So we've got an accepted offer and have fulfilled all conditions. Had a bit of trouble with financing due to the type of foundation but that has now been resolved. But last night, just before our deadline, I wrote to the real estate agent and told him we wouldn't be buying the property. He actually wrote a nice message in return and now I am second guessing myself. My main concerns: What if we can't rent it? What if we have a terrible tenant experience? What if something goes really wrong with the duplex? I want to invest in real estate because I want to diversify our investments, but I'm not that excited about being a landlord. We plan to hire a property manager, but I am still worried.

[Vincent Crane]

Things are going to go wrong but you shouldn't be worried about that. The best investors on this site that are making millions have made tons of mistakes and that's how they learned to make more and more money. Every time you have a bad tenant, you learn to screen better for the next time. Every time you have a cheap fixture or appliance that breaks you get a better one. When a property sits vacant, you learn how to market it. Every time you make a mistake it's going to help you make more money down the road. If you analyzed the deal and it's going to cashflow well enough to buy, even with the property management fee, do it. In order to avoid mistakes in life, you must do nothing, be nothing, and have nothing. That's no way to live. And if you haven't made many mistakes in life, you haven't been trying to solve hard or big enough problems. Take the step and 10 years from now you'll look at your bank account and say it wasn't so bad after all.