7 Tips For Real Estate Investing Success (By Alice Stevens)

1. Find out what you really want from your investments.

Set goals. Where do you want to be 5 years from now? Do you want a much larger nicer house for your family? How about waltzing into a car dealership and paying cash? Picture what you want.

Your investing needs to provide a living -and a lifestyle. You need to be able to look forward and enjoy your life and your family.

If you want to coach your children's sports teams, your real estate needs to give you the time, not steal the time from those precious events.

With proper planning you can learn how to out-source but you've got to know where you want to go before you can get there.

2. Start simple and keep it simple

Sometimes it's too easy to lose focus because of information overload. Our generation is being bombarded with more knowledge than any in history. And it's only going to get worse.

Real estate is basic investing. Stick to the fundamentals. Go to the old gurus such as Tyler Hicks and read the old books. Markets come and go, but the basics never change.

3. Do your investing one small step at a time

Don't try to compete with Donald Trump with your first property. Start small.

Get your first property going. Then move on to the second and the third. Don't worry about what the stars and experts in online forums are doing. They've been at it for a long time. Naturally they can do more. And you will too if you don't allow your investing to get too complicated.

4. Focus on one aspect of investing for six months

What are you really interested in? Foreclosures, Buy and Hold, Short Sales?

How is the market doing in your area of interest? Concentrate on one type of investment and soak up everything you can about it for six months. Not only will you become an expert but it will be almost second nature to you.

5. Design your investing around your strengths and weaknesses.

Okay, this is the challenging one.

We've been taught all our lives that winners do what they hate. It's a conditioning process. In order to get it done, we've got to make ourselves do the dog work.

That's okay for football or high school algebra, but real estate investing is different.

You need to like it. If there are parts of it you don't like, don't get bent out of shape about it. Sub those parts out. Out sourcing is one of the most valuable lessons you can teach yourself.

Don't get upset about landlording if it's not your thing. Out source that too. The most important point is to invest. That's where the money is.

6.Stop analyzing and buy something

There are investors who paralyze themselves to death with market analysis. Another way of putting it is they are fearful of doing it. Jump in. Get your feet wet. Sure, you might make some mistakes but if you read the right real estate materials and study the right courses, as well as networking, you can cut those mistakes down to miniscule small potatoes.

7. Set aside some properties for your lifetime profits.

This is your own personal bank. Whether you're a flipper, wholesaler, rehabber and you want to move those properties fast, this advice still applies to you.

It's amazing to me how some investors let perfectly great properties get out of their hands because they want to make a quick profit. Occasionally, keep a few of them. Hold on and watch them appreciate. They may truly pay for your old age.

Alice Stevens is a real estate investor with 19 years experience in property management. She writes regularly for the lively and quick-witted blog, Real Estate Windfall. http://www.realestatewindfall.com