Although most people want to be more successful, rarely do they answer the fundamental question of whether the pain required to achieve that success is worth the gains they will get. In this video, you'll discover; (1) Why answering the pain-gain question is required before improving your results; (2) The kind of person you must be in order to make it big in real estate; (3) What you must endure in order to experience true success investing in real estate, and; (4) When the pain is worth the gain, and when it isn't. This is real world wisdom that you won't hear from other real estate experts. PLUS, there's a special holiday message for you at the end of the video! Hint: I play "Mele Kalikimaka" (Merry Christmas in Hawaiian) on a ukelele from a beach in Hawaii.
Mastering Real Estate Investing
I have a perspective that can provide you with some great insight into this question of "Is the pain worth the gain?" In the real world, there's a lot of pain required to get you to a level where you are a real estate investing master, and that's where the majority of the gains come from. If anybody tells you anything otherwise, either A they're lying or B they just don't know what they're talking about. We're going to first focus on the pain, then the gain. We'll answer the question if it's worth it. I'm also going to share with you a peculiar thing about real estate investing and that's delayed gratification, which I'll share a little bit later.
The Pain
There's several different elements, costs, expenses, pain, that comes along with become a real estate investing master.
Time:
We're talking ten to fifteen hours per week, week after week, month after month. If you have a great real estate investing mentor, maybe that becomes a year or two. If you don't have a mentor, five to ten years, maybe longer, especially if you have difficulty learning new things. That's not an exaggeration, that's the real world timing.
It's a tremendous amount of time. That doesn't mean you have to lose your family. It doesn't mean you have to sacrifice important things like your health, but you may have to give up certain little things like watching network television, reality TV at night, maybe it means you have to wake up a little earlier. I know that gets a lot of people upset, but believe it or not, waking up earlier can make you feel better. I've discovered that I don't need as much sleep as I think I do. I'm not saying you don't get any sleep, I'm just saying there's little things you may have to adjust about your schedule.
Maybe you don't get to go to all those tailgates and get to party for hours and hours and hours. There's going to have to be changes in your schedule. This is a huge commitment. Time, that's the one thing that we're not making anymore of, it's the one thing that we do have control over, but once we've used it, we've used it.
Money
Time is a big commitment, but there's more. There's money, and when I mean money, specifically cash out of your pocket. Thousands and thousands of dollars minimum. That's to put yourself in the position to do the right deals. There's the cost of education. There's the cost of everything in between to make sure that you actually get to a point where you're doing deals and making money.
You can do some deals, use the profits from those deals to go back into more of your education, so some of it's cash literally out of your pocket, some might be in the earnings that you have to reinvest back into yourself and into your business, but that's real cash. That's not the biggest expense money wise. The biggest is what we call opportunity cost. Those are all the deal that didn't go as planned, that things fell apart, you should have closed but you didn't. That's where you can lose enormous amounts of money, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars. The majority of people will lose in what we call opportunity costs, deals that should have closed but didn't. They were learning lessons.
You can reduce those enormously with a mentor, but even still, if you're working with a mentor like me, I'm going to share in the profits with you, so there's still going to be an opportunity cost, and for me it's half the profits.
My argument is 50% of something's a whole lot more than 100% of nothing.
Mental
There's more cost, there's more pain. Ready for this? Mental. Henry Ford said, "Thinking is the hardest work there is. That's why so few people do it".
Thinking meaning you have got to use your brain, you've got to learn. There's a lot that goes into learning how to be a successful real estate investor. If you're young and you're just getting out of high school, just getting out of college, that might be slightly easier because you've already been using your brain. If you haven't been using your brain in a while, that can be exhausting.
There's the cost of using your brain, but then there's also the emotional roller coaster you have to go through in the ups and downs of deals that do well and deals that fall apart, and you're going to have to go through that too. Again, with the mentor, there's a little bit less of that, but that's one thing that even the greatest mentor in the world can't shield from you and that is the ups and the downs and the emotional roller coaster.
Once you reach the level of mastery, the roller coaster goes away because you already expect it. Mentally you've already been using your brain so much, you're in good shape. You've already paid your dues on the education, so now you get the money rolling in. That's the gains. We've talked about the pain and that was the time, the money, both cash out of your pocket and opportunity costs, your brain work, mental work, and then the emotional roller coaster. That's exhausting, the emotional side.
Gain
What are the gains of becoming a master in real estate?
Freedom
I'm in Hawaii right now, behind me is the west side of Oahu where I'm going to be surfing here in a minute and I'm going to take you along with me. The gains are freedom. For each person that's going to be different. You may not want to come to Hawaii with your freedom. What is your goal? What is your dreams? That's part of it. It's not just your own personal freedom, it's all the other people in your life that this effects. Your family. Those that are less fortunate that you want to help. I brought my family along here on this trip to Hawaii. Think of all the people you can help. You've seen my videos where I'm on a board of directors for a foundation that serves the homeless. When you do have this level of freedom that comes from being a master in real estate, you get the gain of being able to not only help yourself, but help others. You know what? We don't have to belabor the gains because you already know what they are to some degree. Maybe not fully, but you know to some degree.
Is it worth it?
That's the main question in this video. Every single person I've ever worked with, I've ever met, I've ever talked to, that has mastered real estate, listen carefully, every single one has said it's absolutely worth it. They'd do it over and over and over again if they could. Why is it worth it though? Yes because of the freedom. Yes because of the choices. But it's more.
Let's recount the pain just a moment ago. The money, the time, the emotional.
TIME
You're already going to spend that time somewhere. I'm talking about removing that part of your schedule that's not all that necessary anyways, like watching network television. You're already going to spend the time, whether you spend it on mastering real estate or anything else, you're still going to spend it.
MONEY
You're going to spend that to. As far as opportunity costs, well that money was never in your pocket anyways, so the fact that you lost it on deals that didn't close, does that really hurt you?
EMOTIONAL
The emotional roller coaster. I got news for you, if you're young. You're going to already go through emotional roller coasters in your life. Welcome to life. You're already going to be spending, you're already going to be going through much of that pain, so the argument here is that it's absolutely worth it because you're going to have to go through that anyways, you might as well redirect it to something that's going to serve you the rest of your life.
Caveat
Delayed gratification. Are you the kind of person that can deal with delayed gratification? Even when you master real estate, you still have to deal with delayed gratification. These days, as sharp as I am on real estate, the work I do, I typically don't get rewarded for about three to four months when the deal closes, sometimes longer if it's a long-term hold or rental. You've got that issue.
If you're first getting started, you have a completely different delayed gratification and that is potentially six months, year, two years before you really start to experience the gains and the joy of all this. If you're the kind of person that needs a pat on the back as soon as you do anything, real estate just may not be for you.
Real Estate Will Always Be Here
If you put forth that effort, if you go through that pain, there's always a rainbow at the end of that rainstorm. Always. Why? Because real estate will always be here. People will always need a place to live. They're not making anymore land, except for maybe in Dubai when they take the bulldozers and they push the sand out into the ocean. For the most part, they're not making anymore land. Delayed gratification. You have to be willing to enjoy the fruits of your labors months or years into the future for this thing to work and for it to be worth it to you. If you need instant gratification, real estate will never work for you.
Sara Michaels says
Thank you for sharing this! It’s lots of to the point, no B.S. truth and I love it!!!
on point 🙂
Tonya Caldwell says
I love your energy. I will be a great teachable mentee.
Lex E says
That was Awesome! Thanks Phil for always delivering poignant Real estate lessons with passion.
Mahalo!
Rebecca says
I listened and watched four videos about real estate and these are all helpful. I shall try to apply these lessons this year 2016 and will continue to follow your tutorials to master this job. Thank you Phil and waiting for more helpful video tutorials this year.
Deborah Matthews says
I enjoyed your video,
I would like to succeed in this business .
Darrell says
Thanks for always keeping it real.
Harold says
Great advice. Very honest
Jhun says
thanks for the inspiring words Phil
Sarah says
Merry Christmas Phil, I just applied for your program and I hope I make it in. Mele Kalikimaka!
Wayne Brantley says
Good words of advice phil. I think you hit the nail on the head. In todays world we are in the fast lane,fast food,drive thru this an that. Im trucking so i see alot of hurry people dont even enjoy the trip! So i think this should be the verry first viedo you do because this is where it starts between your ears! Thanks again Wayne…
Bart says
Happy Holidays Phil.
Great video
I just sent it to my 2 sons, who are young enough to learn.
Thanks
Rachel says
Very intense truths.
tim says
Merry Christmas Phil, i enjoyed the video
Raymond says
Everything you said is true. It take time but has been worth the effort. You read my life like a book. I am going to have my son whom is 16 to listen to this video. He doesn’t understand right now because he is just beginning to learn. I wish I had me today as a dad whom could guide me. If anyone reads this believe every word. It not easy but really worth it as it will give you freedom from work for the man in time. You will be able to help family members and others all in time.
Thanks Phil and Merry Christmas to U & your family!
Julio Chaparro says
Merry Christmas Phil, enjoy Hawaii, and hope to see you soon!
Moses Wilson says
Great information just getting starting in the right direction and doing
Into right was to build my network of income!!
Mitch from California says
West Side? Oops…Pokai Bay, then.
😉
Mitch from California says
Looks decidedly like Waimanalo — maybe Bellows Field Beach Park — with Makapuu Point in the background.
Phil is true to his words — he’s on the beach pretty early in the morning — with very little competition for sand or waves.
December or July, the darn weather in Hawaii is usually gorgeous. It’s called the Chamber of Summer for a reason.
Talha Qayyum says
Perhaps the most outspoken speeches I have heard about Real Estate Investing. Props to you Phil, for opening up the minds of others.
Tim says
Great video, everyone who is thinking about investing in real estate should see this video.
Michelle says
Nice to hear you speak the truth
Fernando guerrero says
Hi” Mister Phil I really want to Lear this? How much cost me to do real state, I start reading your book. ” please” mentor me.
John says
Phil…lovely singing voice…How’d you do that? lol Mele Kalikimaka
Sherman Peters says
Way to go Phil, Merry Christmas to all and may 2016 be so much more gratifying, from one of your videos watching investor. Your inspiration has been a great source of strength for me in this business of Real Estate Investing.
Theron Rogers says
I definitely think the pain is worth the gain I do understand the long term gratification I do not need Pat on the back for every little thing I do my gratification comes from a job well done
Janice Flenor says
Phil,
Merry Christmas to you too.
I enjoyed your ‘pain’ video from Hawaii. You truly have a delivery gift.