Fear: The Real Barrier to Entry

With Halloween less than a week away, now is the best time to talk about the one thing that continually keeps people from succeeding. It isn’t money, work ethic, or time but FEAR that prevents people from taking the next step and achieving their dreams. We have all heard it before or maybe you have said it yourself, I don’t have time to invest in real estate or I don’t have the money to invest right now. These are just excuses to cover the fear that is preventing people from taking action.

Let’s look at what fear is and how it’s keeping people from not only advancing in real estate but in all aspects of their personal and professional life. Fear is defined as “a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid”₁ The first point here is that fear is an emotion and going back to the basics of real estate, you shouldn’t let emotions contribute to your decision to make a deal. It is important that when evaluating a deal to look at the data and numbers and to not let your emotions impact your analysis. The second part of this definition is whether the threat is real or imagined. It is difficult to argue that something, big or small, will not go wrong but this should have been taken into consideration and accepted when you decided to get into real estate. Losing money is one of the biggest perceived threats of getting into real estate but is this really a threat of danger, evil or pain?

Money is by far one of the largest reasons people use to avoid getting into real estate but is that the real reason? Thanks to Brandon Turner, we now know that there are ways that anyone can get into real estate with “No and Low Money Down”. If wholesaling, owner financing, and finding a partner are all easy ways to get started in real estate, why are people still using money as an excuse? FEAR. People are afraid to knock on doors or make cold calls to find that first wholesale deal or they are afraid to ask a family member or friend if they are wanted to partner in a great real estate deal that they found. In these two instances the fear of rejection hinders one from moving forward. What really happens when we get rejected? We move on to the next person or house on our list and repeat the sales process. No one likes to fail but every failure is a learning opportunity that could be used as motivation to push forward. Growing up we are taught to be fearful of failure. If you score 50% on a test you failed or if you only win 50% of your games, you don’t make the playoffs. In real estate, succeeding 10% of the time makes you a millionaire.

Time. There is only so much of it each minute, each day, each week, we all have the same. How is it that one person is able to run multiple business while raising a family and your coworker complains about being too busy but shows up to work late and leaves early? There are very few people that could not find a couple hours a week to analyze deals rather than watch TV or scrolling the internet. So where does this excuse come from? Once again, people are fearful. They are afraid that if they don’t watch the newest show that they will not fit in at work when everyone else is talking about it or that if they do not go out to the bar on Friday their friends will be mad. If they are your friends they will understand what you are working towards and want you to succeed and if they don’t, you should be surrounding yourself with people that do understand and will even help you get to where you want to go.

Many people may be wondering how to overcome this fear to take the steps necessary to close on that first deal. BiggerPockets is here and offers an abundance of resources to help build your knowledge and confidence. It is difficult to find a question that has not been asked in the forms or that a blog hasn’t been written. If you are unable to find what you are looking for, posting a new forum can generate your answer from an experienced investor, sometimes within minutes. The BiggerPockets calculators are also an excellent source that could be used to analyze property even if you are not the best with numbers. Another useful source that is often not taken advantage of is the meet-ups that are happening all over the country. These are a great opportunity to meet people in your area that are working towards the same thing you are and will be able to recommend strategies and even other professional in the business.

Fear may keep you away from ghosts and zombies this Halloween but with all the resources available to help you succeed, don’t let fear keep you from achieve your goals.