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Investors Must Keep Their Balance Early On

There is a great amount of value in learning by experience in most walks of life. For infants that are unsure how to walk, those first few steps are all the impetus they need to learn how to walk. There is no handy guide that an infant reads before learning to walk and no amount of coaching can prepare an infant well enough that they are ready to walk at a moment's notice.

Just as an infant has to learn how to walk, many real estate investors believe that early on in their careers it is advisable to learn by doing and jump head first into an investment possibility without doing the proper background on the job or the industry to succeed. These initial blunders can discourage some investors, leading them away from the real estate industry as a potential investment industry.

There are those that believe just the opposite. Some real estate investors begin their careers by reading books, attending seminars, purchasing CDs and otherwise pursuing resources online and otherwise to learn about the real estate industry before ever setting foot in it. However, as is true with most aspects of life, learning about something through books and through other people is not often enough and first-hand experience can be the difference between success and failure.

So where then is the balance? It would seem that either approach is doomed from the outset and this is entirely true. Those that rely exclusively on learning as they go or rely exclusively on reading as much as a person can handle will inevitable see hardship during the investment process and likely be too overwhelmed to continue. They either have no knowledge to fall back on or so much knowledge that they don't know what path to take.

Indeed, there is a happy medium to these two extremes and much of that medium can be achieved by finding a mentor of sorts that has had experience and success in the real estate investment field. An advisor can balance the two extremes by offering advice when the time is right to give you background on a situation while still giving you the experience of going through a transaction to fill that educational need.

Finding an investor that is willing to partner with someone so inexperienced can be a challenge, but there are numerous resources, many of them online, that cater to individuals looking for investment opportunities and potential partners to share the risk with. If you have the cash to get started, pursue a partner with it and you will find that often times an investor will trade off experience for a willingness to work hard on a project and share the risk of that project.

As you go through each step of the real estate investment process, it is of course great to have a background in real estate and you should not rely on a mentor or advisor exclusively. Pick up some reading material and take a couple seminars to get your feet wet with terminology, investment types, common mistakes and solutions to common problems. This can give you a background without overloading you, leaving you free to listen intently to your partner and ask insightful questions that will give you a better understanding of the process.

As you grow to become a more confident investor, you will likely undertake opportunities on your own but don't forget that the valuable service offered to you at one point in your investment career is something that you can offer then as well. Finding the balance between gorging on knowledge and going in without a clue is made much easier by finding someone to guide you through the process and help balance your priorities along the way.

This is another original article by Joe Lane, co-owner of The Lane Real Estate Team at http://www.joelane.com/. Are you looking for an experienced Tri City WA Real Estate agency? With 20 years of service based, business experience, Joe and Colleen Lane work hard to serve home buyers and sellers for the Tri Cities of Washington's Kennewick, Richland, Pasco, and surrounding areas.

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