Is Personality Type holding me back?

Question

Linda Weygant · Answer

Boy do I hear you loud and clear, @Jackie Botham.  INFJ on the Myers-Briggs scale, which according to their website, I am the most specialist of snowflakes by personality type (less than 1% of all people have a result of INFJ).

For me, it means that in order to network, I have to really bolster myself first - amp myself up, talk myself into it and, much to some friends' disgust, kinda piggyback onto their conversations until I feel brave enough to go off on my own.  The thought of working through some of the more "traditional" methods for finding deals are terrifying to me.  Go up and knock on the door or a run down house.  No thanks - I would rather poke my eye out with a rusty spork.

It also means that I really like to communicate through text and email, but I always feel really awkward on the phone.

Some day, I will figure out how to overcome all of this, but today is probably not that day.

Dan Wickland · Answer

@Linda Weygant I'm a INFJ too haha. Pretty crazy to have a 1/100 personality lol. @Jackie Botham I relate to this, although not in Real Estate but other businesses / avenues I have tried but I wasn't very passionate about. Are you REALLY passionate about getting to your goal? Do you believe in it with total conviction? I think if you do and you really use daily reminders for why this is important it will help you. A few other pointers:-- It's okay to be exhausted - all introverts feel that. Make sure you allocate time to yourself daily as a non negotiable-- Wait until it's right time to bring a partner on. Trust is built over time not overnight!-- To overcome phone and stranger phobia ask yourself what is it you are really worried about and ask yourself logically what are the chances of anything bad happening. Rejection is part of the game!-- I find if I tell myself to 'stop being so selfish because other people are counting on me'; I find this pushes me to take action when I'm reluctant. Think about your partner, kids, tenants, potential business partner - whoever who is getting effected or COULD be getting effected by you not taking action! Also that some person is dying or is a paraplegic; what gives me the right to complain.Finally, from a health perspective make sure you are keeping stress down, eating healthy, sleeping 8 hours a night and staying hydrated. Lifestyle & foods effect moods big time.Hope that helps!

Christine Kankowski · Answer

if you have someone needing eviction, get a property manager or hire an attorney asap.  Personaltiy type shoud not affect you getting your rent, or getting someon out.  This is business and you need to just get that part done.

I've found that a lot can be done via email- contractor lists of repairs , leases signing, etc.

Door knocking for you  (and me) is not owrth the effort, but meeting a contractor to go over the list of repairs is.

Owen Dashner · Answer

@Jackie Botham, a couple thoughts...  What is your "Why"?  As in, why have you chose real estate investing?  This will help us/you understand a little more on what is driving you to continue pursuing a business that is at odds with your personality type.  There are obviously reasons that you continue down this path, and you surely enjoy some of the day to day activities.  I would make a list of the aspects of the business that you enjoy, and a list of the activities that you absolutely can't stand.  I would use the lists you create to form some loose job descriptions.  Your job description should obviously include the things that you are good at and enjoy doing.  The other job description contains the activities that will be handled by either your partner(s) or your extended team (Realtor, PM, contractors, etc.).  Focus on your strengths, not your weaknesses.  Then work on finding partners/team members that complement you best and can handle the other tasks.Unfortunately, you will still have to deal with people in this business, but having partners that are more on the extrovert side to handle customer service related activities will likely go a long way to reducing your stress.

Andrew Johnson · Answer

@Jackie Botham I think if I were in your shoes, I'd simplify.  Get a property manager.  You never have to deal with tenants, evictions, minor things, etc.  Pay the 10% so that you don't have to do (what I would say) is uncomfortable low-value work.  If you're going to be uncomfortable, have it be with contractors or something that may be of high economic value to you.  I don't see anything materially wrong with "outsourcing" one of your weak areas.

That said, you have to be able to call people back.  If you have people that don't know why you haven't returned their calls that's...well...not a good sign.  Sorry, but there isn't any easy way to sugar coat that.  Until you can "pick up a ringing phone" I don't know that I'd throw a lot of money into marketing either.  @Jonathan Halverson is 100% correct that cold-calling people gets easy when you do it.  100% of people are insecure on their first call.  100% of people sound like idiots, trip over their words, and fail miserable on their first call.  And, I'd posit, that 100% of people are lightyears better on their 100th phone call.  And this is from my perspective of training people on cold-calling in the non-real estate world.  It's not rocket science, it's about failing-forward.  You may never be "great" about it but anyone can get to the point where they are adequate.  You also do need to measure your results in an organized way, but that's another story.

All of that said, you do have to differentiate between phobias (like calling people you don't know) and business decisions (partnerships, seeking private money, etc.)  I would never suggest you run out and create a partnership as a means to get over one of your phobias.  But I would suggest calling back everyone who has left you a voicemail in the past month.  Consequently, I'd organize (I know, a stated weakness) and differentiate "addressing phobias" and "strategic business decisions".

Bottom line, since you have 4 SFRs in various stages of BRRRR you probably have *some* process and didn't bump into them while stumbling in the dark.  So buried inside you are the building blocks to getting where you want to go.  Not to mention that there is a huge portion of the BP community that is stuck in analysis/paralysis on Property 1, you're looking for Property 5.  Give yourself a little credit ;-)

Jordan Ramey · Answer

INTP. Your WHY gets you through

Have it be bigger than yourself. The "We" is most impactful for us. We are hard-working and creative - never stop learning & teaching. People will naturally gravitate to you. These people will do anything for you. Utilize these people to grow your business.

Bhekizwe M. · Answer

It great that you have four properties and have done research to explore possible solutions.We are all work in progress.Listening to other successful investor stories, helps

Learning to "embrace" rather than to" avoid" is the way to go in networking, being "successful", real estate investing in general.Sheldon Adelson, billionaire, Las Vegas Sands owner, said "change the status quo....do things the way other people don't do them...then you'll be successful"

Doing things the way other people dont do them, makes us contrarian.....but holding steadfast to sound investment criteria as Warren Buffet suggest (calm temperament) gets us through to success

Is Personality Type holding me back?

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