When starting a new venture, I like to remind myself of The Power of Inertia. Inertia is defined as: “The resistance of any physical object to any change in its velocity. This includes changes to the object’s speed or direction of motion” In layman’s terms, when something starts moving it doesn’t stop moving unless it is stopped by an outside force. As people, this principal of movement and energy can be applied to many different parts of life such as investing in real estate. Once you start moving towards your goal and working on tangible results, whether it is going to the gym, spending more time with family or investing in real estate, you will build momentum and keep moving forward with less and less effort.

If you want to invest in real estate but are hesitant to get started, you need to start with a small task. Once that task is complete, you can move onto another small task. One good initial task is identifying your criteria that you want to invest in. A second task is getting approved by a lender and a third task can be attending a local real estate investing networking event. By completing these three small tasks you now have identified specifically what you want to invest in, have started building a team that will work with you to achieve your goals and started a new network of peers who will be able to assist you on your journey. Those three small tasks that won’t take more than a couple of hours each have already pushed you down a path towards success.

If you can complete one small task per day the workload will continue to feel easier. Even if you complete one task per week, you are in motion on a straight line moving towards your goal. Given the example before of identifying your investment, getting approved and attending a meetup, your week four task can be to sit down with a realtor that you met at the networking event, explain to them in detail what you are looking to purchase and that you are prequalified. Now is when the power of inertia really starts to kick in. At this point the agent will start sending you leads to properties that fit your buying criteria and the fear of the unknown gets smaller and smaller.

Now it’s week 5 and your new task is to underwrite a potential deal. Your realtor sent you two listings so you can pick your favorite of the two and dive into the numbers. You spent some time researching how to underwrite an investment property and in week 6 you underwrite another deal. At this point you can feel the momentum you have built and you feel like you have time to add a second task to the week. In week 7 you underwrite a third potential deal and attend the networking event again. This time you meet an attorney who you think you could work with and an investor you got along with very well. You and the investor have very similar investing criteria and business values and fortunately they have some experience to help you with the process.

Now your realtor and your investor are both sending you potential deals, you are listening to real estate investing podcasts on the way to and from work, while you’re cooking dinner and even on the treadmill. Fast forward a few weeks of moving forward with momentum, it’s only 11 weeks into your journey (less than 3 months!), and you and your new partner are submitting an offer on a triplex. Your partner already works with the same attorney that you met at the networking event and you are ecstatic about purchasing your first investment property with your new team. Everything feels like it fell into place perfectly. In less than three months you went from dreaming about investing to being an investor with a property under contract. Looking back, you realize that none of this would have happened if you didn’t start with completing that one small task. After that, the power of inertia took over.

Written by: Stephen Pearse