What Gets Investors To Allocate Into A Real Estate Investments Into A Very Basic Level?

The following Q&A was completed as part of our conversational Commercial Real Estate FAQ Interview Series, we hope you find it helpful.

When just stepping into the real estate investing space, it’s important to prioritize education and learning about the markets you’ll be investing in. The right education builds trust and allows these new investors to make informed and confident decisions as they step out into this realm. Educated investors are safe investors, and it’s these investors who will have the most successful journeys in the real estate market. 

Richard Wilson: Let’s start out with the first question here – having run your investor advisory practice for several years now, what gets investors to allocate into a real estate investment on a very basic level? 

Dr. Forrest Bryant: Great question. You know, a lot of times our new clients are coming in and their background and experience is in the public market. So it’s not unusual; a lot of doctors, the investment advice that they get is about putting that money in the stock market and, and so when they hear about what we’re doing sometimes there’s a big leap of faith that has to happen there. So I think the answer to your question is really two things: it’s trust, and it’s education. Trust is going to be where, you know, they have to trust me and the advice that our team is making, and I think that’s supported by trust in the team and meeting with our sponsors and finding out about their track records. And also, the social proof that comes from the live events and meeting other doctors that are in the same position as they are and have made investments with the same sponsors and the same types of investments. So that really builds on the trust side, and then on the education side we have a saying that an educated investor is a safe investor.

So, you know, I always recommend that people do not invest in things that they don’t understand, and a lot of times if someone is not coming from a real – if you’ve got a neurologist, or an endodontist, and we’re looking at private lending or investing in self-storage, and that’s not something that they’ve done – a lot of times there’s a lot of education that needs to take place there. So we really work towards making sure that they feel educated and that they’re never in a hurry to, there’s never any pressure to pull the trigger on something they don’t feel educated on before they’re ready to make that investment. 

Richard: Right, makes sense.