Successful Investors

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We are often asked “How do successful real estate investors get started?”

The starting point and degree of success varies from individual to individual. However, many of the same characteristics show up time and time again in the successful investors that we come across.

  • Knowledge.  Successful investors immerse themselves in learning everything they can about the area of real estate investing they are interested in. Gaining all of the knowledge you can is crucial to your success.

 

  • Passion.  All successful real estate investors have a real love, or passion, for what they are doing. They are always looking for the next good deal.

 

  • Discipline. They have the ability to set goals and let nothing stand in the way of achieving what they set out to do. This usually involves denying themselves other things until their goals are met.

 

  • Self-belief.  They have the confidence in themselves that they can and will succeed.

 

  • Commitment. They have the ability to keep going and have their lives organized well enough that other things don’t interfere with their financial plans.

 

  • Imagination.  This involves the ability to visualize their goals as already being accomplished.  This is a very over looked ability.  It is difficult to envision the financial forces that come into play to create critical mass, leverage, appreciation, loan pay down, inflation, budgeting.  The combination of these factors is very powerful and normally much more can be accomplished than people are able to envision.

 

  • Daring. Successful investors must be willing to go out on a limb and stretch to accumulate properties. An analogy for this aspect might be: if you have 5 shares of stock and the stock triples, that’s great.  However, if you had dared to buy 500 shares you would make 100 times the profit.

 

  • Patience.  Time can be your best ally or worst enemy.  It is one thing you cannot change.  You need time for your investments to mature.  Usually you cannot influence the time needed for an investment to come into its own.  Obtaining critical mass takes time, but when you get there the results can be astounding.

 

Remember a journey of 1,000 miles starts with a single step.  You need to get started today.
 

This article was originally written for and appears in the San Francisco Examiner. Eric Ruxton and Larry Aikins are the owners of Terrace Realty Inc. and Terrace Associates Inc., in Redwood City. Terrace has been in business for 60 years and in addition to being an independent Brokerage Company, also owns and operates rental properties.