Remove the fear

One of the biggest obstacles I see new investors dealing with is fear. They may fear looking dumb to other investors or real estate professionals. They may fear that they don't have enough knowledge to take the first steps in investing. Everybody feels it when starting any new endeavor. I play the guitar, and still have fear when going to a recording or a performance that something will go wrong. This is natural.

But it only becomes a problem if we allow it to interfere with our productive actions in real estate investing.

Fear is nothing but a lack of knowledge about how things are going to end up. If we understand what the results of our actions are going to be, we'll have much less fear. So lets look at a few of these fears, and what the realities are.

First, what about looking dumb to an agent or real estate professional? Well, as long as we are respectful to the professionals, and honestly let them know what our goals are and what our resources are, there will be professional that will help us to invest. Every time we interact with a professional, we learn. The more we learn, the less fear we'll have. So, starting with basic contact with real estate professionals will help dramatically reduce the fear you feel in future interactions. So what if you do look dumb because you "mess up" or say something wrong? Get it over with quickly so it doesn't happen again. There will always be more professional to work with, even if you alienate one or two. Don't worry about it. Worry about getting smarter and improving every day. We all make mistakes. It's nothing to fear. They just make us better over time.

What about the fear of not having enough knowledge to invest? Keep in mind that there is not an individual out there who knows everything as it relates to investing. People have specialties, and we rely on those professionals to handle certain aspects of the transaction. You just need to be the buyer. Let the mortgage person worry about the details of financing. Let the Title people or attorneys worry about the contract legalities. Over time, you will learn more about these aspects of the transaction, but you don't have to have everything mastered to begin to invest.

So, in my opinion, there really is nothing to fear in this process. It should just be fun. Let yourself learn. Ask questions of professionals. Lean on the support of the coaches. You will get the hang of this, and it will probably happen a lot more quickly than you realize. But, it will only happen if you lose the fear, and take some action. So get out there and do something, ... anything! It should be fun.