The 5 Biggest Real Estate Investing Mistakes That Nearly Broke Me (And How You Can Avoid Them)
Jun 12, 2025
Listen, I need to get real with you about something.
Real estate investing nearly destroyed me. Not because the market crashed, not because of bad luck, but because I made five massive mistakes that cost me years of progress and possibly millions of dollars.
But here's the thing—and this is what I want you to remember—your mistakes don't define you. It's what you do next that does.
So I'm going to share these five mistakes with you because smart people learn from their own mistakes. Geniuses learn from other people's mistakes. Be a genius today.
Mistake #1: I Thought HGTV Was My Real Estate Education
Oh my goodness, this one makes me cringe.
I was obsessed with those home renovation shows. Flip or Flop, Property Brothers, House Hunters, you name it. I genuinely believed that watching hours of HGTV meant I knew what I was doing. I thought real estate investing was just buying a house, making it pretty, and flipping it for profit.
I was so wrong.
I had no idea how to analyze deals, calculate return on investment, or choose markets that actually made sense. I could fill a library with what I didn't know, and that ignorance was expensive.
What to do instead: Get real education, not entertainment. Learn to run the numbers. Understand strategies and exit plans. Build skills that make you money, not just make things pretty.
Mistake #2: I Believed I Could Only Use My Own Money and Credit
This limiting belief kept me playing small for years.
I thought I was stuck with whatever cash I had in the bank and whatever credit the banks would give me. Since my husband and I weren't W2 employees at the time, banks wouldn't even loan to us, so we were buying properties outright with cash.
I had no idea there were other options. Hard money lending? Never heard of it. Seller financing? What's that? Getting investors? Impossible.
The game changer: A mentor told me, "You could bring a group of investors together and purchase a 100 or 200 unit apartment building." My mind was blown. We went from two doors to over a thousand doors in one year once I learned to raise capital and use other people's money.
What to do instead: There are 21 different ways to finance a deal - only one of which is using your own money. Stop limiting yourself.
Mistake #3: I Thought I Had to Invest in My Own Backyard
Living in Los Angeles, I assumed I had to invest where I could drive to my properties and self-manage them. LA is expensive, but I thought that was my only option.
Then my mentor said something that changed everything: "Live where you want to live. Invest where the numbers make sense."
Mind. Blown. 🤯
What to do instead: Invest where the numbers work. If that happens to be where you live, fantastic! It's easier that way. However, if you live in an expensive area with unfriendly laws towards landlords and limited property options, consider investing in a more financially sensible location.
Mistake #4: I Chased Appreciation Instead of Cash Flow
For years, I had rental properties in LA that made me zero profit. Actually, I had negative cash flow. 😔I was subsidizing my tenants because I was focused on appreciation, not cash flow.
Here's what I learned the hard way: Cash flow is the path to freedom.
Financial freedom is when your passive income equals or exceeds your expenses. At that point, you're working because you want to, not because you have to. That's the game we want to play.
Appreciation doesn't pay the bills. Income pays the bills. The excess cash flow after you’ve paid expenses —that’s cash flow and your path to financial freedom.
What to do instead: Focus on cash flow. When your properties generate monthly income that covers expenses plus extra, that extra goes in your pocket and can be used to buy even more cash-flowing properties. That's how you build wealth.
Mistake #5: I Tried to Do It All Alone
This one might have been the single biggest mistake.
My husband and I were stumbling through deals with no roadmap, no mentorship, and no community. It was just us and HGTV (which we've established was a terrible teacher).
When you don't know what you don't know, you make expensive mistakes. I had limiting beliefs driving every decision, and nobody to help me see past them.
Everything changed when we found community and mentorship.
We got real education, learned from people actually doing deals, and modeled their success. But I noticed something - most real estate investing communities I found myself in were dominated by men. In commercial real estate, only 2% of owners are women.
That's why I created a community specifically for women investors. We need more women on the ownership side. We play the game differently. We tend to invest in ways that leave our properties and communities better than we found them.
What to do instead: Find your people. Get mentorship. Join communities of people who are where you want to be. Stop trying to figure it out on your own.
The Bottom Line
These five mistakes cost me time, money, and nearly my sanity. But they also taught me lessons that led to massive success.
If you've made any of these mistakes, remember: it's not about the mistake - it's about what you do next.
Get educated. Think bigger about financing. Invest where numbers make sense. Focus on cash flow. Find your community.
Most importantly, don't let mistakes keep you out of the game. I wanted to quit multiple times, but I didn't. I kept going, kept learning, kept growing.
You can too.
