The day before I wrote this article I went out to view a major fixer upper with a very experienced local real estate investor, client and friend. My friend and I were looking at a house that he was considering buying to fix up and resell.

This particular house needed major work including a new roof, fixing some of the brick siding, new kitchen, new bathrooms, new flooring, fresh paint and considerably more.

While I have been around real estate investing all my life and I know I still have a lot to learn myself, I was a little surprised by what my very experienced friend shared with me as we looked this particular house. He told me that he still learns new things with every house he does and just recently he learned about asbestos tiling.

Now, I should not have been surprised by his comment. I mean I learn something each time I invest in house myself. I learn a lot talking with other investors about houses they’ve invested in and I suspect they learn from me and my mistakes. I guess I assumed–as wrong as it was–that my friend, who I consider much more knowledgeable than I am about fixing up houses, still learns on every house he buys and fixes up. If ever there was a guy that knew about fixing up houses, he’d be the one person I’d imagine in my mind.

So, for those investors that are still in the “I am just learning” phase and afraid to take action, I think the lesson here is that even the most experienced investors learn with each new deal they do. They become better and better by making mistakes and, hopefully, learning from them.

There is saying that I heard from Tony Robbins, but that I believe was an Oscar Wilde quote:

“Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment.”

It seems that, as real estate investors, we need to get out there and invest in properties, learn the process, make mistakes, learn from them, improve the process and keep moving forward.

Until my next post,

James

P.S. You can significantly cut down on your own learning curve investing in real estate by listening to the experience–often very expensively acquired experience–of others and consulting with knowledgeable professionals as you move your own business forward. That’s just one of a long list of benefits that we offer to our Real Estate Investor Bronze Members with our consulting program. Sign up today and start reaping the rewards of our vast real estate investing experience.