When starting out in acquiring your FIRST and NEXT property, often the challenges are the same. Even now, as a pretty seasoned investor, I’m still up against dealing with these 7 BIG BARRIERS that can often hold us back from moving to the next level of success. If you haven’t heard of Billionaire Ray Dalio then read up on him, he covers interesting principles about investing success and in one of his quotes He says “To make money in the markets, you have to think independently and be humble.” What does independent thinking mean? It means trusting your own judgement, impressions and not just following the crowd. If you want to be successful in property, you will need to develop your ability make informed decisions that not only take into consideration the public and known information, but also rely on your intuition about the UNKNOWNS in the market to make the right decisions about WHERE and WHEN to invest, WHAT strategy works in WHICH area and market. However, independent thinking also dictates that you are HUMBLE enough to identify your weaknesses and the BARRIERS that are holding you back and then put plans in place to overcome them. Below, I unravel these 7 main barriers to success in Property Investing and for most of us, you will identify at least 3-4 of these barriers that you need to work on. The great news is there are ways and solutions to overcome each of them which will include you looking within yourself or looking outside yourself but rest assured, there is always a way when you have the will.
So, on to the barriers:
- MONEY: Money works out to be the biggest barrier we think we face. The difficulty of accumulating enough of it to make sure we can actually get on the property ladder when we are competing with a variety of wants, needs and desires that crave access to this limited resources we have to invest. Most of us need money to get started and we agree that we have limited funds. While this is indeed true, what’s interesting is we will almost always find the money for what matters to us; and where we spend our money usually indicates where our heart is or what is important to us. To be prudent custodians of this MONEY, we need to ensure we spend it wisely, leveraging it and making it work for us whether by making the conscious decision to invest in assets or even in ourselves. We owe it to this limited resource we have to build something that will continue to grow and yield great returns for us and our families. Money is only a barrier because of the mindset we have and usually there are ways around money as a barrier to getting into Property, some of which I cover in my 14 Ways to build a property business. So your aim to to become resourceful and not let money represent a barrier to your starting out in Property.
- ACCESS: interesting to note that this affects you whether you have the initial start out capital or not! By ACCESS, I’m covering all aspects including access to the RIGHT information, access to the right property, access to leverage or financing, and access to investors if you’re trying to raise funding or you want to build a career in property investing. Access is a strange word because it feels like you are limited before you even begin, especially when you don’t know where exactly to start. Overcoming access stems from 2 major issues, CONFIDENCE that you know what you’re doing, and knowing WHO to talk to or connect with that can progress your agenda. Once you have mastered these 2 things, then ACCESS becomes much easier to navigate. Confidence is an internal trait you need to develop to help you speak clearly and coherently about what you want or need. On the other hand, looking externally to know WHO it is that has what you need is also another skill which determines how you engage them to come along side. This could be the right agent, the right broker, the right experts such as mentors, accountants, legal, tax, planning consultants etc etc.
- FEAR: The fear of the unknown is a crippling concept you will need to overcome when you’re venturing into property investing. The fact is you are increasing your risk considerably with the amounts you’re investing is indeed worth you taking a step back to make sure you run your numbers and are ready to launch into the deep. The true and easier way to overcome fear is with EXPERIENCE, and the experience can be yours or BORROWED. Once you or someone who is working along with you has ventured previously into these unchartered territory then you can define what steps to take to avoid the potential pitfalls that exist ahead of you. This has truly been a gamechanger in my property journey, as I have gained immense value from leaning on borrowed experience through mentors, coaches and co-labourers in our success ventures that have led to major wins and minimised the risks, and wasted time I could have experienced in my journey.
- KNOWLEDGE: The saying “you don’t know what you don’t know” bugs me a little as it sounds pretty obvious. But indeed it is true and moreso when you get started on this journey and feel that you are in a position to do it all on your own based on your own understanding. While that is indeed a good and commendable trait (and one in which I’m always proud of when I see my 3 year old displaying as I try to show her how to do something for the first time and she insists on doing it herself). It does make me realise the risks that one takes without equipping themselves with the necessary knowledge required to ensure that they are doing everything they can to ensure the right amount of due diligence is going into a venture they have never embarked on before. Certainly, the planning, the consultation and analysis required to get into a deal, probably worth a couple thousand or even hundreds of thousands of pounds, does require that one does the responsible thing and get a good grasp of the knowledge and understanding before venturing out. However, you need to understand how you learn and acquire this knowledge! Within the Property kept simple membership questionnaire, I’ve now learnt to ask how best people take in information? Is it in group setting through sideways coaching, is it via email, reading, videos, audio? Or 1-2-1 or via learn while doing? it’s crucial that you reason within yourself to identify how best you take in information that yields results because you want to maximise the return on your investment. Some of you will be self starters and can just take courses that help them get started as they have the time to figure things (effectively trading their time for money). For some others, you’ll realise that you need more help than just taking in courses and you need the step by step guidance from a masterclass or group coaching. Others need and want the personalised 1-2-1 mentorship to deep dive into their specific scenarios to quickly get going and save time and get results quicker. It’s all about you working out how you best take in information and then focus on the people you resonate with the best to get you there.
- EXPERIENCE: Whilst knowledge is a real barrier, an even greater barrier is experience and I have referenced this earlier as being a way to protect against the fear of the unknown. Every stage of your property journey requires experience. Experience in the deal analysis, the way to negotiate, how to convince landlords to part with the key to their property, how to make money starting out, how to get clients and investors, experience on how to scale and systemise and the list goes on and on. Again, you can learn by trial and error which will always be a necessary evil as you gain your own experience, but it doesn’t have to be in every aspect of your journey. There are areas that borrowed experience I referred to earlier will help you move quicker across, so you only need to worry about the personal experience you need to build up that is crucial to you building your confidence.
- RISK – one of the most difficult barriers for most will be overcoming the ability to take RISKS. Risks is fundamental in business, thankfully property investing in the UK represents one of the least risky asset classes. However, make no mistake, RISK is inherent in every property transaction mainly because we don’t have crystal balls that can predict future events. Case in point, 2020, now how is that for risky business? You cannot predict what you never knew existed and that’s the main issue with investing in that you have to take account of the known risks, but also plan for the unknown and outlier risks. The way to overcome risks is by scenario planning, work our the main exit strategies a) Best case b) worst case and c) normal case and then work out the last WILD CARD case, in case something you never expected like death or a global pandemic was to occur. Once you have mapped out the worst expectations then you can atleast put together a plan, and by all means, get your ideas tested by someone else who has more experience to sense check that your assumptions and plan to mitigate are cogent.
- MINDSET-This is ACTUALLY the biggest barrier of all and one we need to overcome as quickly as possible and why I have reserve it for the last. Mndset plays such a critical role in helping you or limiting you from achieving your goals. You can have dreams and expectations of what you want to achieve, but without working on your MINDSET, you will constantly hit this brick wall which won’t go away with just a wing and a prayer. You will need to overcome MINDSET and LIMITING BELIEFS by engaging and surrounding yourself with the right people ONLY. I emphasise only because if you keep speaking to people who also suffer from limiting beliefs themselves, they will continue to hold you back and keep you in that limited place. Your game plan should be consistently filling your mind and any negative inadequate talks with positive words of affirmation, and reading, speaking and consistently connecting with people who are already where you want to get to. By the way, speaking of people you want to build up a connection to various people in the ladder, not only those that have reached the end goal (ie the GURUs who have attained great success and represent your (POINT Z), but also connect with those just slightly ahead of you that are more accessible and can point out the immediate steps to get you from where you are (point A) to the next steps (POINT B and C) to get you moving and aligning your words, actions and behaviour towards your ultimate goals.
For most of us we will continue to deal with these barriers through out our journeys and our plan to overcome them will determine who succeeds and who stays at the same level. Let’s try not to let months and years erode us of achieving our goals because we didn’t take the right steps and map out the plan to move beyond these barriers. So to wrap up, say to yourself “I am a success, I overcome barriers, challenges, and I build, grow and attract wealth. No seriously, I mean stop reading and say it 🙂 and keep it front and center, as you need to make take big steps to achieve on your property journey.
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Next, I’m covering the 5 stage journey to anticipate and work towards in your property journey.
