Problems in Apartment Investing

Do you have a problem with problems? Do you actually welcome problems? If you are like most apartment property owners the answer is definitely NO! You are not in the hunt for more problems because chances are you already have too many that you are dealing with right now.

I am basically the same way, I am not out there going out of my way to find a problem that I can inherit BUT I think that the way a problem is looked at by most determines how successful they are as an apartment property owner and or investor.

For example, there has been a HUGE drop off in the number of what I would call “local investors” wanting to purchase apartments and be the owner of those apartments in my particular area. Not that there is no one out there looking BUT compared to five years ago the numbers are substantially smaller! I sat around thinking about this (problem?) over the last week and made some phone calls to get to the bottom of this. Why the drop off in local investors (those living here in my area) vs. the numbers you would see five years ago?

After spending some time on this I found out the reason why the substantial drop off. I can sum it up in one word…

Problems.

That is what it comes down to. Problems.

The reason for this decline is today vs. five years ago people do not want to mess with the problems that owning and investing in apartments can entail. They have no interest. For most, they weigh the problems and hassles it will take vs. the rewards of being an apartment property owner and most people opt to punt and move onto something else. This I am afraid is the sign of the times with most people wanting it ALL delivered to them on a silver platter—anything else is just to much of a hassle so they will stay home and watch ‘America Idol’ instead.

This bit of information is GREAT NEWS for us by the way. Most are too lazy to do what is required in order to succeed at this. This leaves more opportunities for us to get involved in and take advantage of. So, in the long run this is actually a bit of good news.

But back to the Problem of Problems. Most people fail to realize that to achieve anything worthwhile entails a lot of work and a lot of problems. If you really want to be problem free then you will not create any kind of success for you or others that are important around you. Great rewards in anything, especially real estate comes at a price. The price is dealing with the problems that the real estate business has. It cannot be any other way. It all gets back to the something for nothing mentality.

My attitude anymore is that I actually welcome problems and am never surprised by them. I realize that in order to achieve my goals I need to achieve overcoming the problems that are between me and my goals. I solve those problems one at a time and each time I solve that problem I get closer and closer to my goal. I constantly chip away at my problems.

You should too.

Too many people go to great lengths to avoid problems and feel somehow that even after they have ‘made it’ that their problems will go away. Not going to happen NOR do you want it to happen.

The more momentum you create and the more progress you make toward your goals the more problems you will have. It is NOT supposed to be easy and problem free. It is supposed to take more effort, energy, time, etc. than you anticipated in order to get what you really want. If you do not want to put forth the effort or problem solving that tells you that you really do not want the goals that you have set for yourself. By the way I HATE all of this and would rather it be much easier. Its not and you should welcome the fact that it is not.  Until next week.