Your experience with multi-family dwellings cannot only improve your financial picture, it can improve virtually every aspect of your life.
A substantial increase in income provides increased security, more access to the things that make up “the good life,” and more quality time with your friends and family. Investing in real estate, especially in multi-family dwellings, really can change your life. For example, the instructor describes his business life not too long ago as being in “despair,” noting that real estate investment was an essential part of eliminating that despair. More than that, real estate has provided a means of securing a firm position today in that “good life” so many seek.
Most of us have heard of “the American dream”, and that is a worthy goal. Unfortunately, not many of us are exposed to the pitfalls and dangers associated with chasing that dream. This is particularly true for those of us just beginning the chase. That’s because seeking such a goal can create stress with your job, your family, and other aspect of your life.
The beginning of a career is often characterized by a bumpy start. As you make more money, your personal and business goals often change, and change is sometimes difficult to handle. Make no mistake about it: the American dream is achievable by anyone who seeks it. However, achieving that dream takes careful planning, hard work, and consistent effort over time.
There’s no such thing as a free ride. The real danger begins when you first start making a bit of extra income. There’s a natural desire to “keep up with the Joneses,” to buy a new car even though the old one runs fine – to move up, move out and move on – to spend more of that income. And that’s a totally natural feeling. Perhaps you’ve been to school, put in the years to graduate from college, and now it’s time to enjoy some of the perks, right? This is the point when you start paying attention to advertisements promising “low monthly payments” or “easy monthly payments.” It’s a terrific marketing ploy, but it’s also a trap. It’s so easy to buy things on credit and with credit cards that seem to be continually arriving in the mail. Before they realize it, the family with a little extra income has put themselves into a situation in which they have significant debt – all of it on “low monthly payments.”
One of the things that seems to happen with what we may perceive as success is the loss of quality time. Success in the form of promotions, raises, bonuses and perks comes along and you figure it’s natural to trade your time for those benefits. You even begin to think about moving out of your apartment and into that first house. Of course, sacrifices must be made so a spouse who has not been working suddenly has to become employed just to make ends meet. Spouses become the proverbial “ships passing in the night.” Is that how you really define quality time?
Real estate investing can help you put your financial picture and your family life back in sync. One of the best tools for making this change is leverage, which is basically achieving a lot with a little. Success can be yours, but you will have to make the commitment to put out consistent effort. Achieving the American dream really is simple, but it is not easy. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to achieve great success in real estate investing, but you do have to apply yourself and make consistent effort. Effort is necessary to achieve success over time. It may sound contradictory, but the more you invest in real estate, and in this case particularly multi-family dwellings, the more time you will find for building your business, investing in yourself, and spending quality time with your family. Time is one of our most important assets, and consistent effort and investment will help you to reap rewards in both time and financial assets.
Consider how many Americans “live for the weekend.” How many of us are excited only about a 48-hour period or a short two-week vacation as opposed to being excited about every day of our lives? Successful real estate investors know how to make every day a weekend or every week a vacation. It’s a significant change in attitude from the typical nine-to-five mentality so prevalent in our society.
The Second Estate can get you started on a sustainable path for changing your financial life.
Real estate investing is a powerful way to live, and it provides you with the opportunity to pursue real freedom: financial freedom, quality time freedom, and spiritual freedom. You’ll discover that you really can live every day to its fullest. Now that you’re educating yourself to support a real estate investing career, begin immediately to visualize your goals. See your new home, your new car, your vacations, your kids’ education, and your life not tied to a nine-to-five job. Write them down. Put them in front of you every day. Really see them. That’s going to be the fuel that will power you to your ultimate success.
There are two critical factors that you must stay focused on to achieve success in real estate investing:
• Your goals
• Your reason why setting goals is essential.
Goals must be achievable, specific and limited. It’s important to dream big, but do not confuse dreams with goals. Goals are the very practical steps that take us to our dreams. Goals are easy to understand, measurable and have a timetable. A goal is something you will accomplish within the next year, or next six months, or by next week. It is a specific target. Dreams are intangible. Goals are specific–the “stair steps” used to reach that dream. Big goals are often made up of several smaller goals. For example, if you want to buy and sell a multi-family dwelling, that’s a big goal.
Smaller goals leading to that achievement could be:
• Finding property within two miles of your office
• Researching the property and checking comparable’ s
• Approaching the owner of that property
• Negotiating a win/win deal for the property
• Acquiring financing
• Closing the deal
Each of these goals are easy to identify, easy to understand, and easy to measure. They are specific and limited. Write down your goals. There’s something about putting goals in writing that takes them out of the realm of the imagination and puts them into the real world of achievable.
There are two sound reasons for writing down your goals.
1. You can refer to them in the harsh light of reality. There are no rose-colored glasses that can filter your thought processes. When you write them down, they become real.
2. You can have them in front of you all the time. You can put them on note cards, sticky notes, pieces of paper, your calendar and any other number of prominent places.
It’s too easy for people to conveniently “forget” their goals if those goals are nebulous and not accessible. Keep them in front of you so that you can keep on the path to achieving them. Put then where you can see them several times a day, preferably in several locations. You’ll find that this constant reminder helps you jump over the flow of hurdles that will inevitably fill your day.
One of the reasons people fail in investing is that they become worn down by the little things that just keep on popping up during the day. Referring to your reason why will make a significant difference in the way you handle those little challenges. Your reason why needs to be strong and specific. You have to have a real passion for it. Otherwise there’s little long-term motivation. No one will invest time, energy and emotion necessary just to achieve an ill-defined reason “why.”
Your reasons why will also help you conquer the inevitable fear that comes as part of the package of great achievement. Think about how you communicate with yourself. Are you being negative or positive? Do you focus on what disasters might befall a deal or on the fantastic income a deal can bring?
Look at two key factors driving fear, security and scarcity, in a new way. Security and scarcity should be treated as positives, not as negatives. For example, if your ‘reason why’ includes quitting your current job, the idea of not having a paycheck every two weeks can be frightening. But if you have the investor mindset you realize that because you don’t have the paycheck you don’t have the job and that means you have time to create wealth. You can invest the time that can create something beyond a regular paycheck – true wealth. The limits on how much money you bring home aren’t dictated by some company, but only by the amount of energy and drive you put into your investments.
Once you find yourself adopting this way of thinking you’ll begin the process of transforming your life. The sooner you become comfortable in being uncomfortable, you’ll begin seeing the world in an entirely new light. You’ll be able to construct a world in which you can build true wealth and security. You’ll no longer have to wait for the weekend or the annual vacation to become excited about the day. Every day will be exciting and rewarding. And you’ll never be the same again. You’ll discover that you have a new passion for life. You’ll also discover that you can start directing your own life. Do you want to search for properties or spend the day with the kids? It’s up to you. Instead of dreading Monday mornings as the beginning of just another non-productive week, you’ll have a passion for everything you do. You’ll go from just having a job to designing a life. You don’t want to get caught up in making a living. You want to get caught up in making a life.
Five Keys to Success
There is a lot you can do, a lot to learn, and there are a lot of strategies and tactics to employ, but there are five keys to your real estate success to master.
Key #1 Understand risk.
Key #2 Overcome your fear of failure
Key #3 Accept responsibility Key
Key #4 Be willing to persevere Key
Key #5 Define your purpose
It’s important that you accept two essential facts. First, never let anyone tell you that you can’t create great wealth in real estate investments, especially multi-family units. And second, it’s important to have a sense of urgency so that you will take action when opportunity knocks.
Learn The best ways you can protect your assets
There are more techniques you can use for adequate asset protection. Contact The Second Estate and employ the best means for the assets you own.