Why Most Property Investors Fail

Welcome back to The Secret Property Club Podcast. I am David Oliveira, and today we are talking about something that might be uncomfortable to hear, but it's actually absolutely essential to understand. I have been working with property investors for a few years now, and I have noticed a pattern that is happening again and again. For every successful investor I meet, there is always a few that never get started. Or maybe I can even go a step further and say that most of them never get started. Buy one property and then they stop, or even worse, they lose money and don't do anything at all. They just give up. But here's the thing: it's not because property investing doesn't work. It's not because they didn't have enough money or the right connections or the right knowledge. The reason most property investors fail just comes down to one fundamental issue, a foundation, and today I am going to share what that is and exactly how you can fix it. So what it is that is leading investors to fail? What is the number one reason for property investors to don't succeed? They treat property investing like it's a hobby instead of treating it as a business, and that is a problem. I see this all the time in our community. Someone gets excited about property, maybe they read a book, they go to an event, or just watch a webinar, and then they think that it's a really easy and quick way to make money, but it's not like that. So they go, they get their first property, or they go to their first viewing, or they just look on Rightmove and then absolutely nothing happens. They're just waiting to magically get rich. It's not going to happen because if you don't go and do the hard work yourself, nobody will do it for you. And while you are doing absolutely nothing, or maybe just scrolling on Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and all of the social media apps that you can think of, Netflix— while you are doing that The successful property investors are taking action, making progress, and they are making money. So let me give you an example. Last month I spoke to two different investors. They both got their first property around the same time in similar areas, and they even had similar budgets. Richard, a guy that I met a couple of years ago, when I started at Progressive Property, he got his first property, which was great. It was a buy-to-let property. He did a couple of inspections on the property. He receives his monthly rent, but he doesn't do anything else. It's almost like he forgot that he has a property business. He hasn't looked at the numbers. He hasn't really done anything apart from putting tenants into the property. However, Sarah, who I have met 3 or 4 years ago now when I was still working at a state agency, she does absolutely everything. She reviews her portfolio every month, she builds relationships, she's got a mentor, she's got a power team, she goes to monthly networking events, and she's actively looking for properties all the time. Now she has already 4 properties. She's a portfolio owner and she's growing her business. So guess which one is actually building wealth? Is it Richard or is it Sarah? Of course Sarah is the one taking steps consistently every day or every month, every week, and she's gonna grow a large business. But what does it mean to treat your property portfolio like a business? There's 3 things to look at. First, you need systems. Successful investors, they have systems for everything. You need to have tools to analyze your deals, to manage your tenants, to track your expenses, your income, and a plan on what you're going to do next. You can't just wing it. Your way to success. Second, you need to work on your property business rather than working in your property business. And that means that you need to regularly be reviewing your numbers. You need to be learning about the changes in the market, learning about new strategies. You need to build your network, your power team, and you need to plan your next moves. What is it that you're going to do? What is the direction that you want to go to? And then third, you need to be consistent. You need to work on your business all the time. And I don't mean all the time 12 hours a day, but I mean all the time at least half an hour a day. You can't go buy a property and then ignore your business for 6 months or for a year. Successful investors, they're gonna make steps every day. To improve their business, or at least every single week, even if it's just 30 minutes every day, or maybe 2 hours every week, 2 hours in the weekend. That would be sufficient for you to at least get a business going. There's a simple fix: schedule it. Put it on your calendar, half an hour a day or 2 hours a week, and that's the minimum that I would recommend you do it. And I'm really serious here, you need to get your calendar out right now, put pause on this podcast and block 2 hours every week for your property business. Every month you should review your business, so add it on your calendar, your finances, financial review on the 1st or on the 2nd of every month. And if you do those 2 things, work on your business every week, or half an hour every day, and you do every month a financial review, then you are already a step ahead of 90% of the property investors. You need to educate yourself, so read the property news, get Google Alerts, listen to podcasts just like this one, research new strategies, plan your next moves, find an accountability property partner. And that's it. 2 hours a week. But here's the key: you have to actually do it, you have to be consistent, you have to be willing to do it every week, every month, without fail. I have started doing this a few years ago and it has completely changed my property business. It happened when I joined the Progressive Property Academy. I got a mentor that would guide me and help me create a plan on what I have to do every single month, and it really, really helped me. I went from being reactive and only dealing with problems as they came up to being strategic and to being proactive, so I was ready to any problems that could arise in my portfolio. I stopped being emotional towards my decisions and they started making decisions as a professional. I started making business decisions rather than emotional decisions, if that makes sense. And if you want to grow even faster, all you have to do is to join a community of other property investors where everyone is treating their property journey like a business. And that's exactly why I created the Secret Property Club. to give investors a serious place to learn, to network, and to hold each other accountable. So there you have it. The reason most property investors fail isn't because they don't have enough money or enough knowledge. It's just lack of discipline. And you know how you can fix that. You need to block those 2 hours every single week in your calendar. Do that now. Do that today. Treat your property investing like it's a business, and then you go watch how quickly things can change. If you found this information useful, then you need to go right now to secretpropertyclub.com, join our free Facebook group that has over 900 investors, and check out the website for a membership plan where you can get access to useful resources and guides to help you get those tools that you need to grow your business. And remember, property isn't a get-rich-quick scheme, it's a business, so treat it like one and you will see the results. I am David Oliveira, thanks for listening, and I'll see you on the next episode.