By Cam McLellan
First thing (I should mention) is that I am now an adopter of modern technology. In fact it’s well known that I love sharing lots of bits and pieces on property investment through social media.
This is not a Facebook bashing. But you need to be very aware of one factor when educating yourself on investment.
Social media is a means not the end.
I learnt to use a PC in my early 20’s after my girlfriend at the time Felicity (now my wife) taught me how to double click a mouse. I then went on to build and sell a successful IT company and then also a successful telecommunications company; so I hope I’ve proven that I am in the modern age.
When I started investing in property there were mobile phones, but no camera phones or text messages. There was certainly no internet on handheld devices. I had used a PC by this time but I didn’t own one.
So where did I learn about investment?
I’m talking about getting back to basics people! Face to face interaction. To succeed as a property investor you need to get out and talk to real people.
Internet research and social media like You Tube, Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn all provide valuable information.
But I’m very sure that I would not have learnt to be a successful investor if I had relied entirely on the information in cyberspace.
Think about the way people interact on Facebook for example. People writing on their wall all of a sudden become philosophers providing deep and meaningful sayings that would make them sound ridiculous if they said such things standing around the BBQ.
People post snippets of their over glorious lives that would make us think their days consisted of seeing a sunrise after a morning run knocking out a PB, then a picture of a dinner plate at a nice restaurant.
Not many understandably share the bad stuff that happens in life through social media.
But as investors we need to see the bad stuff. We need to understand risk. There is lots of worthwhile information on the net, but I don’t believe the internet alone provides accurate representation/insights in to the risks of property investment.
To become a successful investor you need to dig a little deeper. Go back to basics. Do the hard yards and get out and grab a coffee with someone who has succeeded as an investor.
Hey what’s the worst that could happen? You waste an hour of your Facebook trawling time.
Take care and safe investing!
