5 Common Real Estate Investment Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them!)

Eleanor Roosevelt once said:

“Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself.”

I am a firm believer in mistakes. Instead of seeing them as failures, I believe that mistakes are valuable life lessons.

However, I don’t believe that all mistakes are necessary. In my mentorship program, I tell my students that if they’re going to make mistakes, they should make them quickly and learn from them.

But I also show them how to avoid making some of the bigger, career-ending mistakes that I made when I first became a real estate investor.

Today, I’m going to share the top 5 worst real estate mistakes I’ve ever made- and how to avoid them:

Having the wrong mindset

I’ve spoken about this before, but it never gets old: Real estate investment is a mental game.

If you don’t have the right mindset, you will never become a successful investor. When I first started to invest in property in South Africa, I had a scarcity mindset. I had limiting beliefs that prevented me from seeing the bigger picture.

With the help of my mentor, I realised that I needed to change my thinking. So, I did.

I started investing in faith, which helped me to plan for the long-term instead of the short-term. This simple shift completely changed my mindset.

I was no longer afraid of losing money or making the wrong business decision; instead, I was confident that I could accomplish anything.

Trying to do it all

When I was first introduced to real estate investment in South Africa, I tried to do it all.

Instead of niching down and becoming an expert in one real estate sector, I wanted to do them all. Have you ever heard the saying:

“Jack