What did you have to CHANGE the most to achieve success.

[Chinmay J.]

We all know change is a MUST for any type of success. Change is usually painful, but as the old refrain goes NO PAIN ! NO GAIN.  What is something you have had to change to get from Point A to Point B.   What do you think you need to change to get from Point B to Point C. 

Among many things that I had to work on one of them has been NOT to be too impulsive in responding to text messages and emails, and not to get in the mode of justifying myself - especially when I am right, and the other party is wrong.   Typically, my nature is to respond to people right away. I find weight of answering a text message hanging over my head to be overbearing.  I have found that this is a bad idea if the other person is not as prompt in responding to your messages. Makes you look needy and impatient.  You are the landlord. They are the tenant. It should be the other way round. 

I have had to come to a realization that this is not a classroom where I am tutoring/teaching students.  My college friends always jokingly said that their kids were set for life, because I was so good at explaining  the course material - sometimes even better than the professor. But being a landlord is different. This is also not the Senate floor either where you are debating legislation.  I have had to learn to keep perspective of that as I dealt with tenants. You might be right, but you don't have to spend hours convincing them you are right.  Direct them to the lease agreement and leave it at that. 

Another thing I had to learn was not to get bent over backwards over the tenants not following the lease to a T - especially people who are under $1000 category. As long as the rent is paid on time and property is being cared for (no damages) and nothing illegal going on, not to get too wrapped up in details. You can get them to sign anything and everything, but at the end of the day they are going to follow what they are going to follow.  Instead of losing your sleep over it, try and get next property under contract. 

I had started to hate landlording, but when I was able to zero in on the pain points of landlording, and tweak how I handled myself, I am starting to like it again. 

What is some of the things you had to change?

[Alexander Felice]

Most impactful change I made was making time for education.

Most people I know haven't read a book in years, and to their own detriment. I'm not talking about just a few hype and business books either, I try to read everything I think will make me smarter. I changed my daily routine to include reading all the time, and to learn deep nuance to lots of subjects: Science, History, Economics, Psychology, etc, The intellectual confidence that comes from well rounded reading has improved my life and my business far more than anything else.

I have a speaker playing podcasts in the shower

in the car on the way to work

while I'm at work

at the gym

I know this isn't directly RE related, but it's the one thing that has grown my wealth more than anything and I believe it's under-utilitzed by most people . My opinion is there is no higher return on investment than from learning.