For
Best Results
An
old adage says, “When all else fails, read the instruction
manual.” That’s certainly true. If you are trying
to bake a cake, follow the recipe and you’ll get
the best results. If you are trying to assemble
a child’s toy, you’ll get the best results if you
follow the assembly instructions. But you’d think
that some things are so easy that you wouldn’t need
instructions. Not so!
I
was brushing my teeth this morning and I noticed
some unfamiliar lettering on the toothpaste tube.
It read, “ For best results squeeze tube from
the bottom and flatten as you go up. ” Now
perhaps I had to be taught that when I was a kid,
but I really thought that was something that I figured
out on my own. I guess some people need help, hence
the instructions.
It
got me to thinking about how many things I life
really are so intuitive that you don’t need to have
any instructions to get the best results. There
are some pretty simple ones about which there are
differences of opinion. The British, for example,
eat with the fork in the left hand, and don’t switch
back and forth as Americans do. Dear Abby used to
have running arguments between people who liked
the toilet paper to come off to top of the roll
and others who preferred the bottom.
There
are many other issues where it is definitely not
intuitively obvious what to do to get the best results.
For example, when you look at the performance of
millions of 401(k)’s over the last three years,
it is obvious that people who invested intuitively
didn’t get the best results. They should have gotten
some instructions about how best to structure an
investment portfolio. The important thing is to
figure out which situations you will be able to
figure things out on your own and which ones will
produce the best results if you get assistance.
One
such area is real estate investing and the financing
of real estate. I have participated in over 3,000
transactions so I have had 3,000 people tell me
what they think they ought to do. Unfortunately,
many of them have simplistic belief structures,
or, worse, beliefs that are just plain wrong. It
seems as if they think that buying property or getting
a loan is a simple as getting toothpaste out of
a tube and that they didn’t need any instructions.
My
strongly held belief is that professionals who buy
and sell real estate for a living make mistakes
all the time, just as portfolio managers frequently
buy the wrong stocks. And these are highly educated
people, experienced in their field. The real experts
are right more often thatn they are wrong, but they
all realize that they simply cannot be right all
the time. What about you if you are only going to
buy one home and are only get one mortgage? Can
you say that your chances of making a mistake are
zero? I hope not.
Going
back to my 3,000 clients I can state forthrightly
that the overwhelming majority would make expensive
mistakes if they followed the beliefs that they
had when they walked into my office. The most important
thing I do with my clients is to get them to un-learn
some of those beliefs and to approach the problems
more rationally.
So
if you are about to tackle purchasing and financing
of a home, I hope that you realize that you had
better get prepared. I would buy a book about homebuying.
Several of them at featured at the Bookstore page
at my other website, www.loan-wolf.com.
I also think that you should buy my book
about real estate financing. Finally, align yourself
with two real estate professionals, one real estate
agent and a mortgage rep, who will be able to help
you through the process. I sincerely wish that you
get the best results, and if you prepare yourself
properly, you’ll will.
Good
luck!.
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