In today's episode, we are sharing our Top 10 Lessons Learned from Real Estate...but these lessons go far beyond real estate! We're peeling back the curtains to reveal how the lessons we've learned from buying, investing, and managing real estate can transform the way you approach life's decisions. Prepare to be enlightened as we discuss the virtues of intuition, the grace of detachment, and why sometimes, the best move is to simply take action. Our experiences are your guide to understanding when to heed your instincts and when to graciously walk away, all in pursuit of a more fulfilling journey.
We all crave a pinch of excitement in our daily grind, and in this episode, we dive into how 'following the fun' can radically alter your real estate ventures and personal endeavors alike. Imagine infusing every choice with joy—from picking out kitchen tiles to mapping out big dreams—and learning to step back, trusting that sometimes the universe has even better plans in store. Join us for a candid conversation that bridges the gap between the bricks and mortar of property deals and the lofty heights of your biggest aspirations, all while fostering connections with those who inspire you to stretch beyond your comfort zone. This isn't just a podcast; it's a celebration of what happens when you align passion with action.
In today's episode, we are sharing our Top 10 Lessons Learned from Real Estate...but these lessons go far beyond real estate! We're peeling back the curtains to reveal how the lessons we've learned from buying, investing, and managing real estate can transform the way you approach life's decisions. Prepare to be enlightened as we discuss the virtues of intuition, the grace of detachment, and why sometimes, the best move is to simply take action. Our experiences are your guide to understanding when to heed your instincts and when to graciously walk away, all in pursuit of a more fulfilling journey.
We all crave a pinch of excitement in our daily grind, and in this episode, we dive into how 'following the fun' can radically alter your real estate ventures and personal endeavors alike. Imagine infusing every choice with joy—from picking out kitchen tiles to mapping out big dreams—and learning to step back, trusting that sometimes the universe has even better plans in store. Join us for a candid conversation that bridges the gap between the bricks and mortar of property deals and the lofty heights of your biggest aspirations, all while fostering connections with those who inspire you to stretch beyond your comfort zone. This isn't just a podcast; it's a celebration of what happens when you align passion with action.
Hello everyone. It's Christine Fisk from the Abundant Investor Podcast. I'm here with Beth Rooney, my co-host, and we are so excited to be back for this episode. It's one that I think is really practical for anybody listening, whether you're just getting started in real estate investing, whether you're in the market for a new house, whether you're selling your house, or maybe you're not even thinking about real estate right now and you're just thinking about life and maybe some things that you want to switch up. I think that this is a really interesting, really list that we're going to share with you today around things we've learned from real estate. They're applicable to real life as well so absolutely, absolutely, I love this.
Speaker 2:
I love this.
Speaker 1:
So the 10 lessons we've learned in real estate, and I think you can apply them to real estate or, and really, like you said, any way you want to, I love it, yeah exactly, and you know, beth, when I think about this list, I think about my experience as a home buyer, my experience as an investor, buying and selling, and then you have the experience of managing real estate offices for many years, and agents, and you've seen so much from so many people, and so I think we're bringing together both of those worlds again, as we often do, and the perspective that we have is broad and we really share this mindset. Of these ten things that we've learned in real estate that are applicable to life and anything that you might be doing in real estate, so we're going to dive right in number one is trust your gut. So I think we don't trust our gut enough. In general, I think we are a very logical species. We like to analyze, we like to think, we like to overthink things, and that is one of the biggest things I see getting in the way of people making decisions and taking quantum leaps in their life. We cannot think our way through these big leaps that we want to take, and trusting our gut is one of the most underrated skills that we all have access to. It doesn't take any education, it just takes life experience and tuning into yourself. So I'm a big fan of meditation. I think that by getting still and by getting quiet whether that's sitting in a meditation pose or going out for a walk in nature by yourself will help you to get in tune with how you're feeling, what feels like truth to you, and that trusting your gut in real estate is so important because you're making a huge decision.
Speaker 1:
If you're purchasing or you're selling, the stakes are big. They're not undoable, but they are really big, and I think you want to listen to those inclinations that say something about this just feels right or something about this feels off, and maybe you can't put your finger on it. I don't think you always have to. I think you have to really listen to that, though, to help inform the decisions that you're making. I mean, it could be whether you're putting an offer on a property it could be thinking about. I'm thinking now back to our first investment. We bought a house that sat on the market for almost a year. There were a lot of people that said don't touch it. My instincts were touch it.
Speaker 1:
My instincts were go buy it, fix it up, and I was just thinking about this yesterday and that was the best decision I made in my real estate investing journey, because that's what got me started and that turned out to be a very valuable move for us. So trust your gut.
Speaker 2:
I love it. I think that's great and I think you know we've talked about here on this before like great leaders. To me, great leaders are people that trust their gut.
Speaker 2:
So you know I think it's in real estate, trust your gut. But in life, trust your gut and I love your advice about getting still, so you get to really know your instincts. So that's awesome. So number two is really the serenity prayer, which is the serenity to accept the things that I cannot change, the courage to change the things that I can change and the wisdom to know the difference. That is a really great lesson when looking at real estate, Because if you're going to be buying a property as an investment, there are some things, like you know, you just can't change, like location.
Speaker 2:
When I looked at a property last night, Christine, that a potential fix and flip, it was just some things that we could not change and we had to know that we left the location, but we couldn't. You know, there was just the structure of the home, the age of the home was a really old home. We needed to accept this. We needed the serenity to accept the fact that we just couldn't make changes to that property and have it be a profitable fix and flip. So I love that starting a prayer in life in general, but I think it really applies to real estate and the wisdom to know the difference. Sometimes you just have to pull back even though you're really excited. You want to, you have to. You have to have that wisdom to know that. Okay, I can't see these changes are insurmountable and I'm gonna have to pass on this right, right, and I love the notion of being the Zen, notion of being detached, right.
Speaker 1:
So, as excited as you are about something, just trust that the we're going to talk about this, trust that the highest and best outcome is on its way. So we'll get to that more in a minute. The third lesson is just start. This goes back to what I was just saying about overanalyzing, and we tend to get in our heads and we want to, we listen, like at the core of it, we want to feel safe. So our brains are telling us to be careful, be calculated right, and our brains are not so as smart as we often think. And, by the way, we're not our brains, we're so much more than our thoughts and what's happening in our head. And I want you to realize that, just because your program, what you've always done, is to be in the spreadsheets, read all the books, gather all the knowledge, just because that's been the way that you've always done is to be in the spreadsheets, read all the books, gather all the knowledge. Just because that's been the way that you've learned to do things. It doesn't have to be the way that you do things going forward. So often that analysis, paralysis, keeps us from starting.
Speaker 1:
So one of the biggest lessons I learned at an event I went to five years ago was to put myself into a state where I was excited and felt really invincible, unshakable. And from that state you can. You feel like you can do anything and that's an excellent place to make decisions. And that's about state management and knowing how to get your mind in the right place and really see your power. And from that place, you want to start.
Speaker 1:
You want to say yes, you, from that place, you want to start. You want to say yes, you want to sign up, you want to make the offer, and then you want to figure the rest out. Now I'm not saying be reckless. I'm not saying put an offer on a $3 million house when you can afford a $1 million house, but if you're feeling like making an investment is a scary thing to do and you've run the numbers, you've surrounded yourself with some people that have done the same thing Awesome, the hardest part is just just getting started. So just say yes, sign up, and you can figure the rest out. I promise you.
Speaker 2:
I love it. I love it, we have. You know, when you were talking, christine, it made us maybe think of a client that we recently worked with who wanted to get started investing in real estate. She couldn't necessarily invest, afford to invest, in the market that we're in here in greater Boston. So we connected her with another eXp agent and we found her a market that fit her budget and she took a leap of faith and she closed yesterday. So it's so exciting. So, yes, you just have to start and get over those, get over the hurdle. I love it.
Speaker 2:
The fourth lesson we're going to talk about is a lesson that everybody should should know is that is to treat everyone well and really treat everyone as you'd want to be treated. And you know the process of in real estate is stressful. Sometimes people aren't don't behave in their best light. Um and I would say this is for all the agents out there especially you really want to treat other agents the way you'd want to be treated. You know it's really great when you have a listing right now and everybody wants to see it and everybody wants to. You know you're sort of like, oh, this is great, you're kind of the queen right.
Speaker 2:
And you know, next week you're going to be on the other side of that and you're going to have a buyer that wants to get into that listing that everyone wants to get into.
Speaker 2:
So just remember that you're going to be on the other side of the table at some point and that treating people well is really important.
Speaker 2:
I teach a course called Win-Win Negotiations where we it's a great book, there's a lot of great books about negotiations and that's actually another great thing to do is, if you're a real estate investor, maybe read a few of those books but be on the other side of that table with that same exact agent.
Speaker 2:
It really is a small world emotionality from it and to take a steady hand and to not get caught up in the emotion and to really be a leader through the transaction. Your client is allowed to have emotions, whether they're selling a home they've been in for many, many years, or they're really excited about buying a property and there's a lot of other buyers that are also looking at it. Really excited about buying a property and there's a lot of other buyers that are also looking at it, that's okay, but you don't need to get caught up in that and so that's a you know, as an agent again, it's just it's really important to keep that perspective, totally agree, and I would chime in as an investor who's hired a lot of contractors and people to help work on properties.
Speaker 1:
I think the same is true there and also for tenants. Right, you've got to think about the long-term game, and having a team of people that you can trust, rely on, that will be there for you and, you know, pick you when they have multiple jobs that they could do, is something that is a huge advantage. So I am always thinking about that as I'm hiring handy people property managers, contractors, right, like. I just really feel like part of the success as an investor for me has been treating those people really well and making sure that they are, that we're fair, that they're respected and looking up for their best interest. Um, yeah, so, um, that's like that's a good. I mean, all of these are good lessons to live by in general.
Speaker 1:
I think number five follow the fun, and, yes, this is a good one to live by in general too, in real estate, especially as an investor choosing property, thinking about the upgrades, thinking about the, the experience of the guest, whether that's a long-term tenant or whether it's a short-term rental. Especially, we're thinking about amenities here. What would be fun to do at your property, what would bring you joy in terms of even just you know, like picking kitchen finishes, what would be fun, what would be fun for you in the renovation process? Focus on that and outsource the rest. Because here's what happens when you follow the fun and you follow the passion of the thing that you're interested in. Follow the fun and you follow the passion of the thing that you're interested in, people feel your energy and they align with that and it shows not just in you and how you show up, but it also shows in the work and it shows in the finished product.
Speaker 1:
So when you're having fun, you're in your. I mean you're basically setting yourself up to be in flow and when you're in flow, it doesn't feel like work, and that's the reason to get into any of this If it doesn't feel good to you. So I mean I had an example of this a week ago with a car. I just said to the universe, I said I do not want to go car shopping, I'm just not up for it, and we are going to be getting a new car and I really just let go and I said let's just let this be fun for me because I'm I've done that all of my life and I'm done.
Speaker 1:
I'm done driving around to dealers. And so I got on Facebook marketplace to sell some things that I have leftover from my short term rentals. And right in front of me, like as soon as I opened Facebook marketplace, was this adorable car. That's the car my daughter's been saying is like so fun. And I thought, yeah, I could get behind that too and we could have that as a extra car in our house. And that's the car I ended up buying. It was so easy. That's the car I bought. It was fun, like it was a. It was so easy and fun.
Speaker 1:
And I think in your renovations or in home shopping, you want to find an agent that you gel with. You want to find you know you want to have a good time. It doesn't have to be dry. You don't want to be wishing that it was more fun to go look at houses. You don't want to be thinking it's more fun to renovate houses or I wish I didn't hire this. Really, you know hard to get in touch with contractor. There's someone out there for your needs that's going to align with you and you want to like whatever you're vibrating is going to come back to you. So just keep that in mind and you stay in your zone of like this is fun, this is enjoyable, and that's what you'll attract back.
Speaker 2:
I love it and I love you know. Just a reminder back to the listeners these are great lessons just to live by in general. And you know we've said on this podcast a lot, christine, you've heard me say it all the time we're put on this earth to enjoy life, not to struggle. You know that's not why that's not our purpose. Our purpose is to enjoy life and to enjoy life. You should follow the fun, you know, and and yeah, so I love it. I think that's it. I love that.
Speaker 2:
Lesson Number five.
Speaker 2:
Number six is stay detached from the outcome and really trust that the highest and best is on its way.
Speaker 2:
You mentioned this earlier on this podcast, christine, but I think if you remove your ego a lot in anything you do in life, but especially in real estate transactions, it's a lot easier to move forward.
Speaker 2:
And I'll give you an example by removing your ego, you know when you're buying a home and there's a lot of buyers there, you know, going for the same property, it can feel really like, it can really feel personal if you don't get the house. Or you know when you're at an open house and there's, you know, 40 other people walking through the house that you want to buy. I think if you can just stay detached from that and trust that the highest and best is going to come your way, you're going to be in a lot a better position. And who knows what's coming on the market? In a lot a better position. And who knows what's coming on the market? Um, you know down the line, or or what have you? The same thing when you go to um to sell your home you know, you're going to have people come in and um scrutinize your home.
Speaker 2:
They're not scrutinizing you, they're scrutinizing a major investment. So staying detached is a really, really important thing to do.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I have to tell this quick story.
Speaker 1:
So our first investment property is on Cape Cod, near the beach, and we decided, after owning it for a couple of years, that we would be so wise and cash out and sell it. We put it on the market and we had been vacationing there and we left and we came back thinking the home inspection was happening now and we drove back up and the woman who was going to buy the house was there with her home inspector and she walked up to the car and she started telling us what was wrong with the property, asking ask first, asking some questions which I think she kind of knew the answers to and it seemed right then and like the deal was going to fall apart. And it did. And the old version of me would have taken some of it personal and and and would have felt like like I can't believe she's saying you know that this, this and that about the property. Right, and it was really interesting because I was in a really good state at the time and have done work to make some changes in my own mindset.
Speaker 1:
And I said great, that's fine, it's actually actually okay. And I, going back to number one, trust your gut. I had this gut hit that maybe we're not supposed to sell this property. Well, I'm really glad we didn't, because that was two and a half years ago and the property's appreciated in value quite a bit by about $300,000 since that time. And holding onto that property is one of the best decisions that we made and that only came from being detached from selling it and from selling it to that specific person. So I really trusted that this was the universe saying this is just not the right buyer, it's not the right time, this is not what you're meant to do.
Speaker 2:
I love it. Yep, I love it. That's great, yep, so important.
Speaker 1:
Yep, so important. So, um, number seven is have an open mind and be curious. So I love this for anyone embarking on something new or anyone who's feeling stuck and I think a lot of us feel stuck a lot of the times because we just tend to get in our head and think in the same grooves, those deep grooves in our mind, they just repeat where it's a little bit like Groundhog Day and then we don't really see the opportunity that can be in front of us. So if you're open and you're not committed to doing things the same way that you've always done them and there's a couple of things we're going to talk about in the next few lessons here that help you do that If you're open, then you're going to see things in a new light, and opportunities I promised you opportunities are right in front of your nose right now and you're just not seeing them.
Speaker 1:
Whether it's a town that you never thought to move to. So we live in Milton, massachusetts. I actually never thought I was going to move to Milton. It was only when I said, hey, let's go, look at Milton. I don't know anyone from there Like this was almost 20 years ago.
Speaker 1:
Um, and now I've been living here and I love it, and so much has happened that wouldn't have happened if I live somewhere else. And I think just saying, well, what if? What if you know? If you someday want to live in a house that's a lot bigger or maybe in a much different location maybe in the city and you feel like I don't know if I could ever afford that or some beautiful suburb where the schools are great and you have young children, why not just go poke around at open houses? Why not just go explore the investment property? Why not just go check it out? Because by putting yourself in that environment and being open-minded, you're going to realize it's closer than you think, or that there are ways to do it that you might not have thought of. So I'm a huge advocate of just getting really curious and asking yourself what if? Because it gets you out of the grooves that we are perpetually in. That keep things the same.
Speaker 2:
I love it and it's a great lead into our next lesson, lesson number eight, which is one of my favorites, although all of these, I don't know we couldn't do this list longer. Number eight is dream big, and I mean really effing big, like big big, big Love it.
Speaker 2:
You know I mean, why not? Why not? You know, if you've listened to us, you know that we're both athletes. I think that you know this whole idea of visualization is so big and so important. I know a lot of athletes do it. They visualize themselves making the play, winning the game, having the you know success. And dreaming big, as it relates to real estate, is just as important. We're really putting a vision in place for yourself.
Speaker 2:
In dreaming big, we've built a house that was a lot of land, that was full of trees and really literally nothing from nothing. We created a gorgeous home, um, and and that was a big dream of mine to be able to do that, and that was really fun um, we also, um, bought a house that was almost 100 years old, that had one bathroom and really was tiny, and we doubled it in size and renovated it and brought it into. You know, the, the, all, the, the state-of-the-art kind of kitchen and all that kind of great thing. But in order to do that, you have to dream big, you have to have a vision of what could be, and I think you know I have a dream to have a Cape house. That's on my list, it's like on my vision board. I can picture it, you know.
Speaker 2:
So you have to have those dreams. You really have to like, picture what it's going to feel like to live in that house, to have family and friends down to your Cape house, like what is it going to be. And when you do that, the reality of it becomes closer and closer each time. So this is not just for real estate, this is in life. Dream big. Why not picture something really freaking great. Just think it's. It's a, it's a great thing to do is to to have to be an optimist and to to to take the time to write down your dreams, think about them. What are they? Um and um, you know. Again, it relates to real estate in a big way, but it relates to to just life in general.
Speaker 1:
Absolutely. I love it so much, and we have these limiting beliefs that often keep us from dreaming big, because we've been told that we can only have so much or in so many ways. Right, and so overcoming those is imperative if you want to move beyond, like the place you are today, and I really believe it's possible for everyone. I don't I don't believe any of us are meant to be stuck. Um, I think progress and evolution is a very natural. You look around in nature like that is part of the human process. So, um, one of the best things you can do to support your big dreams is number nine Surround yourself with people who are doing the things that you want to do. So if you keep hanging out with people that are doing the things that you do right now, it's likely that you're going to keep doing the things that you do right now. If you start hanging out with people that are doing things, bigger or different or in another realm.
Speaker 1:
Guess what? It's going to start to normalize it for you and it's going to make it all that much easier for you to start to dream differently. You know, have feel differently and it's going to start to normalize that. So then it's not that big a deal to go buy an investment property. If you're in a, if you're hanging out with other people in groups that get on calls weekly that are investing in property and you haven't quite done it yet, guess what? After just like being around those people for a while, it's not going to feel as scary and overwhelming. And it's the same thing with anything I always. I'm so grateful.
Speaker 1:
A couple of years ago my husband said we were looking at houses and he took me to a house that was twice what our budget was at the time and I am so grateful for that. He said let's just go see it and just let's just see what this house is like. It's a. It's a beautiful house. I'm so glad he did that Because there were so many things I loved about that house that then I could put into my vision for what my next house is going to be. It wasn't the right location for us at the time and we did not have the budget at the time. However, now I know there's things about that house that I want in my next house and it helps me to dream big.
Speaker 2:
I love it. I love it. And so, yes, surrounding yourself with people, just that they're doing the things you want to do. I love it. You know, if you've ever heard the book Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, one of his top lessons is to mastermind, and that's exactly it, you know, surrounding yourself, we love that book. And that's exactly it, you know, surrounding Yourself, we love that book. And we love creating community through the Abundant Investor. We have monthly coffees and we're really trying to create that level of community so that we can do the same, lift each other up and invite people into our world, and together, everybody does better, so better. So, yes, we love lesson number nine. And lesson number 10 is something that, christine, I'm so proud of you and I because this is, I think, something we really embody figure out ability.
Speaker 2:
Okay, so just remember, you can figure anything out. Um, first of all, we have the tools at our fingertips. You can just go to youtube and watch a video, figure out. I mean, we didn't know how to do podcasts, right, we figured it out. You had an awesome course that you had invested in that. Uh, we, we. I remember being on an airplane with you and like envisioning out what it looked like. Um, we Googled the best equipment, we figured, we got somebody through Upwork to help us with some of the things that we didn't know how to do, like editing and all that kind of great stuff. So there's been so many things through the Abundant Investor that we have just figured out and I think that, again, it's a great lesson for real estate because you can figure out, you know anything, you know the best price to charge, what's the going rate for. You know short-term rentals.
Speaker 2:
All of the data is out there. You just have to be willing to be open to look into it, to make sure that you're getting information from the right kind of people, make sure that you're getting information from the right kind of people. And, yeah, to do kind of all of these things together will lead lead up to being able to figure things out.
Speaker 1:
Absolutely Love it so much it's. It's a great list. I want to print it out and paste it to remind myself of all the things and to, to, to keep doing them all the time. I hope you all found this helpful, informative in some way. We'd love to hear how you're thinking about real estate and how we can help you apply them. We have courses. We have coaching. Check out our site. Reach out to us If there's something specific you're looking for. We'd be happy to help you or point you in the right direction, for sure.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely. We'll put a link in our show notes to this list and you can download it and have it available to you. So we'll make sure we do that, thanks everyone have a great week.