I decided to go “all in” with my real estate investment business when I started it and I truly believe this has resulted in getting me to where I am today.
Now I have true freedom in my life and if I want to spend 6 months of the year in another country I can do that (I do this often).
So what do I mean by “all in”?
Well you may have heard this term associated with the famous Texas Holdem Poker game. A player believes that they have a winning hand so they put all of their chips or cash in as a bet.
They go all in.
Business people have been using this term for a number of years now. It means “everything or nothing”. Your real estate investment business is everything to you. Achieving your goals and developing your portfolio is what you are all about.
So are you prepared to go all in with your business?
A lot of startup businesses fail all across the world. For some it is a case of the market not being ready or the market not being large enough to allow the business to grow.
But in some cases it is because the owner or founder didn’t go all in.
They didn’t live, eat and sleep their business. They didn’t do everything that they could to make it a success.
I want to share with you today what going all in means for a real estate investment business owner.
You Have To Make Sacrifices
When you start any new business you need money. You need money to invest and money to live on while you wait for your investments to bear fruit. If you have some expensive habits then you need to cut these out of your life until you make it.
Succeeding with your real estate investment business is more important than anything else.
I was fortunate that I sold another business that I had developed to fund my real estate investment business. But that doesn’t mean that I haven’t made sacrifices.
I used to watch every penny when I started as nothing was more important to me than building a successful property business.
I hardly went out at all and only used my car when it was absolutely necessary to save petrol. I resorted to basic living at home and cut out going to expensive restaurants.
There are a number of things that you can probably do too to find extra cash for your property business.
I know other people in this game that sold their houses, their cars, cashed in life insurance policies and sold shares so that they could fund their dream of creating a successful real estate investment business.
Are you willing to do these kinds of things to be successful? You need to be otherwise it is going to be a tough road for you.
Downsizing from an expensive luxury car to an older, more frugal, run around is not an easy change to make. Selling your home and renting lower quality accommodation is even harder to do.
But if you need to do these things to free up some capital then so be it. This is going all in.
What About Time?
How much time are you willing to dedicate to your real estate investment business? Do you have a partner and a family? Have you sat down with them and explained that you are not going to be around as much as you were before?
Time is something that you can’t get back. It doesn’t matter how much money you have if you don’t have enough time to make your real estate investment plans happen then you won’t be successful.
There is always a ton of things to do when you are a real estate investor. You should always be on the lookout for new opportunities and keeping abreast of the trends in your chosen locations.
If you have acquired a property and it needs renovation then you need to be around to supervise contractors and get stuck in and help so that you keep your costs down.
The world of real estate investing changes all of the time.
You need to stay on top of everything by attending seminars, reading books and websites and topping up your training.
This all takes up your precious time. Dedicating the maximum amount of time to your property investment business is going all in.
At this point you might think that this conflicts with the very idea of this blog. Surely you want to have more time to do the things that you want to do by getting involved in real estate investment?
Yes that is the ultimate aim. You want to be where I am now which is having a very successful business which runs on autopilot (well almost).
But it took me a while to get to this point. When I first started out I was spending every waking hour, 7 days a week, on my real estate investment business. As I became more successful I was able to employ people one by one and train them to do the things that I used to do.
Then I systemised everything so that all of the employees had their specific tasks every day. I took my business to the point that it runs well even if I am not there. This took time and money to achieve.
To start with you need to put in a lot of your precious time.
You Need To Take Calculated Risks
If you want to succeed in any business you need to be prepared to take risks so that you can grow. This definitely applies to real estate investment. If you want to create a portfolio of investment properties then you will need to take calculated risks to achieve this.
You need to be committed to reinvesting your profits. When you start making money it can be very tempting to spend some of it on other things that you really don’t need.
People that go all in with their real estate investment businesses reinvest everything into the next project. You need to do the same.
The term “calculated risks” is very important here.
I have been in situations where I was really serious about investing in a specific property and others were telling me not to do it. These were colleagues and others in the business that I considered experts. They were concerned about the level of renovation required for example.
But I had done all of my homework and decided to go for it. I knew that the property had the potential to make me a very good return. So I went ahead anyway despite all of the resistance I was getting from others.
I worked hard on the project and achieved the returns I was looking for. I took a calculated risk.
I have told you before that I made some mistakes in my business and it is very likely that you will do this too.
A good friend of mine recommended that I invest in some properties in an area I wasn’t familiar with. I took him at his word rather than research the risk properly. This was not a calculated risk – it was on a whim because I trusted the person.
This taught me a very valuable lesson. You must check everything and then check it again and satisfy yourself that the risk is worth taking. If you do this then most of the time you will be right.
real estate investment by its very nature is risky. House prices fluctuate and so do rental prices. The government can implement changes which make achieving the returns that you want so much harder.
So you need to know your numbers and research until you drop. Even then you can never be 100% sure.
It is better to take calculated risks than no risks at all. Once you become experienced as a real estate investor then you will know if a project feels right or not. If it doesn’t feel right then don’t spend any time on it – just move on.
If it does feel right then research everything and calculate all of the possibilities.
Build A Winning Team
People that go all in with their real estate investment businesses have the best possible team supporting them. These people are worth paying extra for because you know that they are reliable and will do a great job.
With most of the properties I invest in there is always a degree of renovation work to do. Take a look at my recent post about adding value to a property.
If you don’t have the skills, the time or the inclination to do this work yourself then you will need good contractors that you can rely on. The kind of contractors that will actually turn up on time and stay on the job until it is finished to your satisfaction.
These people are rare but they do exist. Pay them extra if you need to. It will be worth it. When you find contractors that have these qualities look after them and don’t let them go
The same goes for mortgage brokers, solicitors, real estate agents, management companies and everyone else that you need to work with to complete your projects successfully.
You Need To Take Massive Action to go All In
There is a huge difference between being busy and taking massive action. Anyone can make themselves busy but not take that much action. Where do you stand on this?
A lot of new real estate investors find that they take on so much themselves that they never have enough hours in the day.
They are doing everything from finding new real estate deals, participating in renovation work, keeping up with their accounts and fixing problems on their website.
If you are in this situation then you need to get some help. You can’t take massive action if you don’t have the time available.
I understand that money can be tight when you are first starting out. It was for me. But I soon learned that I was not getting any nearer to my real estate investment goals because I wasn’t taking enough action.
This all changed when I got other people involved in the process.
Spending several hours fixing problems with my website was certainly not getting me any closer to my goals. I had the skills to do this so I thought I would save money doing it myself.
I soon learned to outsource tasks like this. For a few pounds I could get someone else to fix the problems while I took action in my business.
Going all in with your real estate investment business is not the same as doing this with a poker game. If you lose a hand at poker going all in then you are out of the game.
But you can keep going all in with real estate investment even if you make mistakes.
You have an endless supply of chips in the form of your persistence, your energy levels, your mindset, the actions that you take and your creativity. These chips don’t run out if you lose a hand.
The only time that you will run out of chips is if you give up. And that is not an option for a real estate investor prepared to go all in.
You cannot afford not to Go All In With Your Real Estate Investment Business
If you don’t go all in with your real estate investment then your business will contract, shrivel up and die. You are not going to achieve freedom through real estate investment with a single buy and hold property that you rent out to a nice family.
This will just bring you in a bit of extra income and nothing else.
The thought of continually expanding your real estate investment business may scare you. But when you go all in and you keep expanding then you will quickly rise above all the rest.
It goes without saying that you need to manage this properly and be on top of everything. But the rewards of going all in are certainly worth it.