Don't Listen to Gurus

Don't listen to the gurus

There's no doubt that there is a learning curve when you first are investing in real estate. If you begin investing on your own, you could start by making a lot of mistakes. It's a smart decision to not reinvent the wheel. Why not learn from others?

The problem isn't trying to learn from others and avoiding making mistakes. The problem is who we try to learn from. Often we turn to late-night TV gurus or Internet scams. The problem with many of these peddlers is very few of them are actually making money investing in real estate. Most of them are making their money by selling bad investment advice, with unrealistic promises and expectations. It's best to learn from local investors and other teachers who are actually investing. If people are telling you how to invest but aren’t actually doing it themselves, how do you know their method even works?

The other problem the beginning investor falls into when listening to gurus is every guru has a different "system" for making money in real estate. Each product is sold as the "magic pill" or "secret formula" for making money as an investor. The beginning investor buys a package, tries it (or at least thinks about trying it), and doesn't make money overnight. But he doesn’t give up hope. There's yet another group selling yet another package. Maybe this one will work! The cycle continues over and over.

I am not against gurus. I have learned from them. But I am against false gurus and the trap of buying “systems” without ever actually investing.