How To Overcome Investment Jitters
Most first-time real estate investors are naturally fearful of the risks involved in such a large financial commitment. Fortunately, there are some good strategies you can use to reduce the fear factor and empower yourself to make investment decisions with confidence. Here are some tips:
Confront your feelings. The first step to overcoming fearful feelings is to realize that fear is a normal reaction to the prospect of making any big decision. Once you accept that you are in fact afraid, you can begin to face your fears and pay attention to the specific aspects of the decision that most frighten you. A personal journal is a good way to confront your darkest fears in private.
Share your fears. Professional advisors often are well familiar with investment jitters since they've faced similar fears of their own and helped other people overcome those same types of fears as well. Discuss your concerns with professionals you trust. Ask them how they overcame their own fears and how they can help you feel more confident about your decisions. Friends and family members may prove supportive too.
Educate yourself. Taking classes, reading books, joining an investment club and swapping stories with other investors are just a few of the many ways you can calm your fears by learning more about real estate. The more you know the better equipped and empowered you'll be to make good decisions and take action.
Weigh your choices. Big decisions typically come with pluses and minuses, pros and cons, and risks and rewards. Analyzing those tradeoffs from an unemotional point of view is another great way to take the fear out of the decision-making process. Divide a sheet of paper into two columns; list all of the pluses, pros and rewards in one column and all of the minuses, cons and risks in the other column. If the tradeoffs make sense to you, you'll probably feel more confident about your decision.
Acknowledge the risks. Opportunities always involve risks, and the chance to invest in real estate is no exception. Risk, almost by definition, triggers fear since the future is unknowable and one can predict to a surety whether a risk will pay off or not. That's why smart investors look for ways to reduce or insure against risk, yet also accept the fact that some amount of risk is unavoidable.
Focus on success. While it's important to recognize and give voice to your fears, obsessive fearfulness isn't emotionally healthy. To overcome obsessive thoughts, try to imagine, visualize and focus on positive outcomes. A clear and specific mental picture of what you want to achieve is a powerful way to overcome your jitters and become confident about your real estate investments.
Copyright 2007. Marcie Geffner. All rights reserved. No part of this article may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author.
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