5 Lame Excuses for NOT Investing in Commercial Real Estate

Here are the top 5 lame excuses for NOT investing in commercial real estate and how to get past them so that they don’t hold you back from achieving your goals in commercial real estate.

 

Top 5 “Whys”

Success occurs when your why, when your dreams, are bigger than your excuses. And when the why is powerful, then the how-to is not so difficult. One of the privileges I have as a mentor is learning what motivates people to invest in commercial real estate. Here are the top 5 reasons that I’ve learned over the years.

1. Walk Away Money: They want to use commercial real estate as a vehicle to create walk away money so they can walk away from their job. Very powerful why.
2. Create Generational Wealth: Investing in commercial real estate to leave a legacy for your family. Commercial real estate can change lives. It can change generations by creating generational wealth.
3. Get Time Back: We have many students that work six days a week, ten hours a day, to put food in the table. They don’t have time for anything other than work. Work is very honorable, but they desire to do a different type of work, that allows them to spend time with their family. 
4. Want Options: Commercial real estate investing gives you more options in how you live your life. You can work part-time, and pursue other interest like volunteering, traveling or going on a missions trip.
5. Switch from Single-Family Investing: This why may resonate with those of you who have been investing in single family homes for the purpose of creating cash flow for retirement. Some of our protege students have bought 10, 20, sometimes up to 30 homes and still come to us because they have no cash flow. 

 

Top 5 Lame Excuses

The enemy of your why are your excuses.  Jim Rohn once said, “Excuses are like nails to build a house of failure”. And as a mentor, I also get to hear people’s excuses of why they can’t get stated in real estate investing. I call them lame excuses because they aren’t legitimate. They’re simply uninspired excuses of people unwilling to put in the time and money needed to be successful. Here are the top 5 lame excuses for not investing.
 

#1: Not Enough Time

The first lame excuse is that you’re too busy with your job, family, and personal issues. Why is this a lame excuse? Let me ask you this question. If you were gifted $20 million but you only had three years to live, what would you stop doing? I ask this because where your energy goes, your focus follows. When you think about what you would stop doing, you are considering your deepest values. What is meaningful to you? What is your mission here on Earth? Why did God put you here and what is your legacy?

So what would you stop doing? You could watch less TV. The average American spends four hours a day, which is an incredible amount of time. Or, if you would just get off your phone you would have more time. The average American spends 171 minutes per day on their phone. All you need is a few hours a week to start investing in commercial real estate. There is a time commitment, but it’s not a lot. You can generate this time easily by just adjusting your screen time. So, I just blew up that excuse for you.
 

#2: Not Enough Money

This is a lame excuse for not investing which I will debunk using these 3 truths about money and commercial real estate investing:

• You have enough money.
• You need money in commercial real estate – 100% financing and over leveraging yourself is not smart.
• Gained knowledge trumps money. Gained understanding through a mentorship program, where you are guided through the process, trumps money every time. 

Here are 3 examples from our Protege Program that provide evidence of these 3 truths:

• Investing with Partners: Jacob, was a waiter who purchased a 90-unit apartment building with no money out of pocket. After one deal, he is investing with his partners full time and getting checks every single quarter. Now he is working on closing his second deal, again with no money out of his pocket. You can watch my interview with him where we talk about all the details of his amazing no money down deal. If he can do it, you can do it too. So, saying you don’t have enough money is a lame excuse.
• Syndication: Another Protege Student named Allison purchased her first commercial deal, a $6 million apartment building with no money. She used a strategy called syndication. You can find out more about how she used this powerful technique in my interview with her. Again, if she can do it, you can do it. 
• Silent Investor: Takashi & Rei, purchased their commercial deal with an investor who paid a hundred percent of the downpayment. What they brought to the deal was their knowledge, gained from being in our Protege Program. We were there to guide them through the process and their gained knowledge was such that someone trusted them with the downpayment to purchase an apartment building. Learn more about purchasing commercial real estate with a investor in my video $0 Down 18-Unit Apartment Investment Deal.

As further proof that you don’t need a downpayment to invest in commercial real estate, I have a training called Six Ways to Raise Your Down Payment. Kaboom! This excuse has been blown up.
 

#3: Not Knowing What to Do or How to Get Started

This is an understandable excuse. You may be sitting on money and want to invest it, but you don’t know what to do or how to get started. Here are 3 steps you can take to get started in commercial real estate.

Step 1: Download my free best selling book Commercial Real Estate for Beginners. No strings attached.

Step 2: Enroll in my free course. 

Step 3: If you want to know how to get started after step one and two, contact our incredible staff about joining our Protege Program.

Now you know what to do and how to get started. Kaboom! No more excuses for not investing.
 

#4: Timing Isn’t Right

Waiting for a Housing Market Correction: Often people say that they are waiting for the housing market to crash or make a correction. The problem with this excuse is commercial investors don’t invest in housing. It’s true, the housing market may crash, but commercial investors don’t care because we don’t invest in single family homes. Everyone doesn’t need a house, but everyone needs a place to live, and that’s where we invest. We are multi-family investors.

Now, as multi-family investors, volatility in the housing market has its benefits. Let me explain. During past market upsets, demand for apartments went through the roof because people stopped buying homes and rented apartments to wait out the housing volatility. With increased demand, we were able to raise the rents. In fact, between 2008 and 2009, we raised our rents three times. So, waiting for the house market to crash is a lame excuse.

Waiting for Lower Interest Rates: Others say they are waiting for interest rates to come back down. They say, “Interest rates are too high now, Peter, it’s scary times”. I have two thoughts on this. First, as multi-family investors, as interest rates climb, our rents go up because less people can afford to buy homes, which increases demand for apartments. And when our rents go up, the NOI goes up, increasing property values. 

So, while you’re waiting for interest rates to come back down, you’re missing out on these three things:

• Rent increases and more cash flow
• Creating more equity
• Utilizing tax benefits

The question is, will the benefit of waiting for lower interest rates outweigh the benefits of these three? No, it won’t. While you wait, you’re missing out and for some of you it will be too late. 

Waiting Until Things Are Just Right for Me: If something is important to you, you’ll find a way. Remember those why’s? Do any resonate with you? If something is meaningful and a priority, you’ll find a way to accomplish it. Excuses will always be there for you, but the opportunities won’t.
 

#5: Unsupportive Spouse

Many of you have spouses that are unsupportive, which can be discouraging. The good news is, this too can be overcome. I have already debunked the excuses that are often deployed by loved ones to try to deter you.   

• If your spouse says, you don’t have the time. Well, now you know how to counter that excuse. 
• If they were to say you don’t have enough money. You have an answer for that as well.
• They may say you don’t know what to do, or how to get started. That’s no longer an excuse. 
• In this crazy time they may discourage you because it’s too economically unstable right now to start investing. We covered that one too and now you have an answer.

Role of a Spouse

Lastly, I want to address the powerful role your loved one or spouse has in contributing to your success.

1. Source of Encouragement: It’s amazing how powerful a loved one’s voice can be. My wife is so encouraging to me when I jump into difficult sophisticated deals. She supports me and says, “Babe, you can do this.” And guess what? I figure out a way to get it done. That’s what you need from your loved one. You need that powerful voice behind you encouraging you. 
2. Accountability: A spouses role is to hold you accountable for the time and money spent on investing in commercial real estate. If they hold you accountable for the time and money spent to improve everyone’s life, combined with encouragement, life changing goals can be achieved. When a couple is aligned with the same goals, they can accomplish things they never thought possible.
3. Support: The business of commercial real estate can be difficult. Sometimes the deals don’t close and it can be very discouraging. The doubts start to creep in and your mindset isn’t right. This is when your spouse needs to give you support. As your coach I can give encouragement, but your spouse knows you best. They know what you need to hear to get you back up and out there.  
4. Participation: Will your spouse participate? I hope so, because I would love to coach both of you. There is power in two becoming one with each other in real estate. My video Commercial Real Estate Investing with Your Spouse highlights a husband and wife team, a power couple in commercial real estate, changing the lives of themselves and their kids.

Now you have the tools to knock out the excuse that your spouse is standing in your way. And you can also see how important it is that they are on board and supportive of you.