The question would seem inappropriate, wouldn’t it? After all, investing in real estate is a business, isn’t it? What does “fun” have to do with it?

Quite a bit, actually, and if you think about it, you’ll understand why.

The Gloves Come Off

Let’s take the gloves off and be brutally honest. How is your real estate investing career progressing? Are you accomplishing your goals and objectives? Are you getting the number and kind of deals you want? Are you making all the money you care to make through your investing efforts?

If you couldn’t say “yes” to these questions, part of the problem may be that you’re really not enjoying what you’re doing- you’re not having any fun!

I suggest you decide right now that it’s OK for you to enjoy yourself. Since real estate investing is probably something you’re choosing to do in your spare time, you’re allowed to actually like it. In fact, it’s more than OK- it’s necessary that you have fun doing it because if you don’t, you won’t be very good at it.

I speak from experience. After a fast start to my investing life, I fell into some activities I found just plain boring. I didn’t enjoy them, and it was obvious by my miserable attitude and woeful results. I wasn’t getting any deals, because I was going about my investing all wrong- at least all wrong for me.

I wasn’t having fun, and my investing suffered for it. When I consciously chose to change direction and pursue investing activities I enjoy, I turned a corner. My renewed joyful spirit translated into renewed success. The same can happen for you, and here’s how you can do it.

Decisions, Decisions

There are lots of ways to invest in real estate. You can choose to invest in residential property, commercial property, or raw land. Within those broad categories you could choose single family homes, apartments, strip malls, or mobile home parks.

You could decide to flip properties, wholesale properties, or buy and hold. You might want to do cash out refinances, lease options, or subject to’s. You could buy and sell notes, do condo conversions, or vacation rentals. The list is nearly endless, and limited only by your imagination, because the information on how to do all these things is so readily available. If you want to badly enough, you can find out how.

What you choose to do, however, should also be guided by your own skills and abilities. I examined this in depth in Is Real Estate Investing Really One of the Best Income Opportunities?

I suggest to you that your choice should also be guided by what you actually enjoy doing. If you find that you really don’t like going through a lot of rundown properties calculating repair costs, why would you want to spend your valuable time as a wholesaler or rehabber? If you decide that you thoroughly enjoy negotiating with and helping sellers in financial trouble, then lease options or subject to is something you should consider.

Admittedly, there is a difference between being good at something and enjoying it, but in my experience, the two usually go hand in hand. The difference is especially small when you’re talking about something you choose to do in your spare time. You should really love it. You should be passionate about it. If you are, you’ll be more than good- you’ll be excellent, even if it takes some time for you to achieve that excellence.

Simple, or is it?

This stuff seems so simple on the surface, and you might be saying to yourself, “Everybody knows that.” Really? Then why are so many of us so miserable? I think it’s because we do what other people are telling us to do, not what we really want to.

Why is that? Because many of us never really stop to think about it. Like so many things in life, we just go through the motions, like we’ve been programmed. In a way we have been. The things we pay attention to and focus on program us in ways we’re often not even aware of. It’s time to de-program yourself.

How? Easy. Just think. Think about what you’re doing and why. Set aside fifteen minutes today to sit down by yourself and think about your investing. Ask yourself the questions found at the beginning of this article. If you run out of time, spend another fifteen minutes. It’s that important.

Now ask yourself one more question. Are you having any fun? If not, why not? Why go through your days forcing yourself to do what you really don’t want to do? How effective do you think you’re going to be in the long term?

Do you need to make some changes? Email me and let me know: tom@dealfiles.com