Traits to Avoid as a Real Estate CEO

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Whether you come from a corporate background or a blue collar background, you will most likely have been given a job description that details your areas of responsibility.

Well, guess what?

As a real estate investor, you also have a job description. In fact, you start right at the top of the corporate ladder. As soon as you decide to own a portfolio of real estate, whether it be one or 100 properties, you must begin to think and act as the President & Chief Executive Officer of your investment business.

As with all job descriptions, your investment job description details not only your actions but also your responsibilities. We developed your job description after studying the most successful Members of Canada s Real Estate Investment Network over two decades.

What this allowed us to do is uncover the best traits of the best investors in the country so all you have to do is follow in their foot steps, modeling their success. In the corporate world, your job description changes as you move up the ladder. In real estate investing you start your job at the top, stay at the top, and only have one position throughout your career, so you might as well get great at it.

What s unique about your new job description as a successful and strategic investor is that it outlines not only the five traits that will help you succeed, but it also clearly lays out the five traits that you must avoid. These behaviors, no matter how smart, wealthy, or experienced you already are, will either make or break you as a real estate investor.

Let s get the negative traits out of the way first as they are the downfall of most investors during their career. Some of them are ingrained habits that must be broken, while others are emotions that need to be kept under control. Bottom line, an investor with these traits will be average at best but most likely far below average investors. Eliminate them and you can become a superstar.

Traits to Avoid or control:

1. Negativity
2. Analysis Paralysis (fear)
3. A Scarcity Mentality
4. Win – Lose Relationships
5. Lack Of Follow-Through or Stick-To-It-ness

1. Negativity. The world is filled with negativity. People can always find a reason for NOT doing something or to be afraid of something. We are bombarded everyday with negative messages, negative news, and negative comments from others. The growing proliferation of social media is not improving this situation.

Most people allow this negative outlook to control their life. Whereas the smart ones, try and rise above it, mostly by ignoring it and following ways to keep themselves calm. Their ways may include yoga, meditation, or some medications from dispensaries similar to leiffa. When the mind is at peace, all kinds of negativity can be ignored and stress or anxiety can also be avoided, which often come accompanied by negativity. Your job as the CEO of your investment business is also to find ways to rise above this noise by focusing on the two key questions: What do I need to do in order to achieve my vision? and What is the truth behind this negative spin?

I don t mean that you become a Pollyanna realism is important. Use tools to filter out the commentary to get to the facts that matter. The easy and average route is to get caught constantly looking for the downside of everything, I m sure you ve met people like that. They are not true leaders and would never be able to run a successful real estate business as the CEO.

2. Analysis Paralysis (Fear) Fear is such an overpowering and paralyzing trait that as a leader, you must at minimum find ways to harness it and use it to your advantage. If you allow fear to take over in this new job , you will begin to freeze, afraid of taking critical steps. One of the main symptoms of fear is analysis paralysis.

Many average or below average investors feel very productive analyzing properties, crunching the numbers, working through scenarios. It is safe and frankly they don t have to put anything at risk by sitting in their office feeling busy. The truth is, they have allowed fear to take control of their life and it has manifested as Analysis Paralysis: enjoying the analysis part, but never taking the leap to purchasing.

In this job, analysis must be done, but hiding in it must be avoided. Imagine this: In 1969, your grandfather watched as a real estate boom hit your home town. He didn t buy that property for $17,000 located down at the corner because he thought it was too late and he feared it was never going to last as he had seen the downturn before. So rather than use some risk mitigation strategies he just said no. Today, that property is worth close to $950,000. Did fear cost him and his family wealth? Absolutely! As CEO of your business, you can t allow short term fear stop you from taking action.

3. Adopting a Scarcity Mentality Let s get this straight right off the top there are enough quality real estate deals in the marketplace for everyone. They will not run out, every week new ones become available while others are snapped up. If there were a true lack of deals, the real estate market would have dried up decades ago.

Today s society has helped program the majority of us into thinking that there is a limit to everything. A limited amount of money, a limited amount of deals, a limited amount of success. We ve been programmed to make everything a race — it s almost like we have adopted the mantra I must beat the other guy because there is only one winner. There are three negative occurrences that will happen if you get caught in this mentality:

  • You will add additional stress to your life and business. Stress that is simply manufactured, not real.
  • You will make poor investment decisions as you grasp at deals that you may justify as good enough due to a mental state of this could be the last one or I ve just got to get a deal done before I miss out.
  • You will be an easy target for promoters, they will prey on this mentality using terms like There are only a few of these , Others are lining up, why aren t you? or This will be sold out by Thursday.

Suddenly, with a scarcity mentality, you become vulnerable, you lose track of your vision and the dreaded F.O.M.O. (Fear Of Missing Out) takes over and you are dragged into the world of below average portfolio. Thinking of wealth creation as a race against someone or something will add a level of frustration and desperation that doesn t really exist in the real world, it gets manufactured in your mind. You ll soon discover that there is a deal of a lifetime around every corner.

4. Creating Win Lose Relationships Quality relationships in real estate are the key to success. As CEO you must focus on ensuring that all of the relationships you create along the way allow each party to win at some level. The below average investor believes that in order to become successful you must make someone unsuccessful, or squeeze them for every penny. What the true overachievers understand is that real estate is a long-term commitment and in order to be successful you MUST help other to do the same.

5. Having a Lack of Follow-Through or Stick-to-it-ness I believe this is the most damaging trait of all for the Real Estate CEO. The only way in which you can become successful is by moving forward, sticking with the plan through the good and bad times. That is why your Personal Belize is so important it will be your foundation that keeps you on track when the easy way out would be to quit and go try something else new.

We all know people like that, they quit on themselves when the going gets a little tough. Once you know you have a solid plan and a clear vision in place, quitting only hurts you and your family. Yes it is easy to quit when things aren t smooth, that s what the masses do. But let me tell you, sticking to it will take you to your Personal Belize and beyond. And that is a financial place worth the extra effort.

If you allow any of the above 5 behaviors to become strong in your life then, as Donald Trump has so clearly put it on his TV show The Apprentice, You re Fired! However, unlike the corporate world, the only way you ll know that You re Fired is by looking at your results. If you re creating results (not excuses) you re still the CEO. If you are finding ways to blame the market, your team, the banks, etc. then you have just fired yourself as the leader and re-entered the world called average.

In other words, the market will let you choose whether to be a winner in your new position it s completely up to you.

All right, enough talk about what NOT to do. Next month I ll dive into the results we uncovered regarding the behaviors you MUST adopt as the CEO of your investment business, whether your plan is to stay small or go big. These traits are not what you expect.

While waiting for those, here is a little homework for you. It is both fun and serious. I recommend that you have a name plate created for your desk, even if no one else ever sees it. On it should be engraved your name along with President & CEO. You will find that the subtle mental shift this causes can go a long way to helping you avoid the above five Negative Traits. A subtle reminder of just who is in charge of your life: YOU!

began his investing career in 1985 with a house purchased in Mission, BC. He is Founding Partner and Senior Analyst at The Real Estate Investment Network and currently owns nearly 200 doors in BC and Alberta. A seven-time best-selling author, Don s expertise and passion for teaching Canadians how to create wealth through real estate are far-reaching and have made an impact on the lives of thousands. You can follow his daily thoughts on Twitter www.twitter.com/

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