4 Ways to Cultivate the Perfect First-Time Real Estate Investor Mindset

Making the shift from the “9-5” to the more entrepreneurial lifestyle of real estate investing requires more than just packing up the cubicle and learning how to execute your very first deal.

Here are the 4 keys to developing the successful first-time real estate investor mindset, and perhaps cut years off your learning curve.

1. Focus on value, over time spent

There’s an uncomfortable truth every first-time investor must face, especially those coming from a more traditional work setting: As an investor, you are compensated for what you produce (the deals you complete), not the time you spend working on a project.

Whether a deal takes five days or five months, you are not paid for the amount of blood, sweat and real estate investing tears you expend on a project. Luckily, once you master this key real estate investor mindset, you’ll find yourself working with much more focus and clarity, not to mention a heck of a lot more speed.

2. Plans are only worth the action they create

Business plans are great, a fantastic tool for laying the course for your future business, and ensuring that you stay on track through the twisted maze that is your first-time real estate investor career.

Don’t worry, many elements of your business plan will change along the way. It is always better to get started today, and “invent as you go.”

3. Treat your network like an asset

Networking is the lifeblood of a professional. It’s the process of expanding and adding value to a network of contacts you intend to help and ask for help.

As a first-time real estate investor, your network may be not quite as expansive as you like, and that’s okay. Just keep cultivating it — looking for ways you can help others — and before you know it you’ll have a truly, valuable asset that can not only help you complete your first deal, but  also lay the foundation for the rest of your career.

4. Visualize success (as if it’s already happened)

First-time real estate investors can use the visualization strategies to create a “goal picture” of them buying a first investment property already having taken place. Spend a few minutes a day imagining a “movie of you doing perfectly whatever it is that you do do better.”

You could even go a step further and create physical representations of that big successful deal, just around the corner.

This isn’t to say that a successful beginner real estate investor mindset is the only thing you need to reach your investing goals. You have to actually put your beliefs into action, in the form of consistent real estate investing effort, and eventually master the practical abilities of buying and selling a home.

But whether you’re trying to secure your first real estate deal, or just learning the difference between a rental property and a rehab deal, it’s important to remember, as the mind goes, so follows the body. And with a focused, positive real estate business mindset, you can maximize your potential as a first-time real estate investor, and possibly reach investing heights you never thought possible.