Real estate investing can be as fraught with complexity as it is fruitful with rich opportunities and profitable dividends.
The challenge is to demystify this process — to translate the nuances and contradictions of this vocation, for many, and this avocation, for many others still — into something that people can apply with consistency.
For there are multitudes of novice investors who do not understand, and need to appreciate, the dynamism of the marketplace; who require the tutelage from an expert — and deserve the mentoring from a financial professional — so these men and women, these investors, can learn the intricacies of buying and selling real estate, of renovating and flipping homes, of converting rental properties into sources of recurring revenue; of mastering a discipline that demands the intelligence of a teacher and the wisdom of a proven investor.
I write these words from experience because, in my role as Director of Marketing and Communications of the Real Estate Knowledge Institute (“REKI”), I recognize that people deserve a real-time counselor with the ability to offer insight that investors may not otherwise possess.
I understand that the best way to build a business is through personalization, creating an emotional bond between your brand and the individuals you serve.
The same rule applies to real estate investing because, without an eye for detail, an ear for language and an intuitive sense of what constitutes a good deal versus a bad one, investors can too easily succumb to the temptations of — they will often surrender themselves to the false promise of — too-good-to-be-true sales and promotions.
Thus, the most valuable type of real estate is knowledge; the most precious commodity a real estate investor can own is intellectual property, the capital by which transactions occur and the exchange of contracts happens.
By personalizing the union between a professional real estate adviser and a potential protégée, the latter can learn from the former in ways no conventional seminar can equal, no ordinary textbook can match and no customary video can compare.
This new class of investors also offers what the economy needs in general and the housing market requires in particular: Stability, a reduction in blind and rampant speculation, thereby professionalizing an environment that should be an order of the highest caliber and a field of the greatest integrity.
Knowledge can further these ideals, led by experts of character and decency.
Indeed, we owe it to our fellow investors — we have an obligation for the real estate industry as a whole — to elevate our collective game, so to speak.
In so doing, we will heighten the value of knowledge and increase the virtues of successful real estate investing.
This ambition is achievable because it is practical, and it is pragmatic because it is so readily doable.
Real estate investors will benefit from these rewards, making them more astute observers of emerging trends, changing market conditions and shifting economic opportunities.
If we seize this moment — if we do what we must — then we will sow the strengths of a superior group of real estate investors.
Professional by their behavior, and accessible by the character of the content they provide, these experts can expand our knowledge about real estate investing.
Now is the time to capture this invitation of growth and leadership.
