Great progress Nik!  Good to see that everything is working out.  Are you doing that on a full time basis, or do you have a "day job"?  That seems to be my biggest challenge - building my portfolio while doing it on a part time basis.

Hey Gerry,

Still have my "day job".  It's hard to do both, but not impossible.  If I can continue to do both, I will.  My pension benefits and health insurance etc, are pretty valuable to me.  I would have to be generating a pretty good cashflow to replace that and my wage.  My motivation to produce a cashflowing and appreciating portfolio is long term wealth creation as well as to afford some of the finer things like travel both during my working years and in retirement.  I also have an inner intrinsic motivation to do this in order to prove to myself that it can be done.  In fact, that may be the strongest motivator for me.

Nik

Yep, hard work doing both.  Hopefully we could meet up in one of these Winnipeg meetings, if one is ever organized.  Always looking for potential partners on projects!

fumbrunner

Yep, hard work doing both.  Hopefully we could meet up in one of these Winnipeg meetings, if one is ever organized.  Always looking for potential partners on projects!

Troy MacDonald, local REIN member and real estate agent, is the organizer.  Unfortunately, he has some surgery planned presently and won't be able to start the meetings up again until later in the winter or spring.  Once the River Heights reno I am doing is done, undoubtedly I will be looking to something else.  Maybe another mult-family.  Stay in touch.

Nik

Does it make you feel better about yourself when you minimize someone else's accomplishments?  Sounds a bit like junior high. Congratulations Nik

Congratulations Nik,
Both my wife and I are full time teachers here in Labrador City but we use real estate investing as our hedge to the future.  Like yourself, we continue to use appreciation in properties to provide the initial downpayment for properties, thus no pressure with finding cashflow properties.  As you have stated, building an investing team consisting of a Realtor who "gets it", a lawyer who looks out for your best interests (well compensated) and local management teams (we prefer husband/wife combos) is a must.
I challenge you to continue to work as hard as you have done in year one and make it 2 million in year two.

Fraser Drover
droverproperties.ca

fdrover

Congratulations Nik,
Both my wife and I are full time teachers here in Labrador City but we use real estate investing as our hedge to the future.  Like yourself, we continue to use appreciation in properties to provide the initial downpayment for properties, thus no pressure with finding cashflow properties.  As you have stated, building an investing team consisting of a Realtor who "gets it", a lawyer who looks out for your best interests (well compensated) and local management teams (we prefer husband/wife combos) is a must.
I challenge you to continue to work as hard as you have done in year one and make it 2 million in year two.

Fraser Drover
droverproperties.ca

Thanks Fraser!  Good to see some other teachers branching out.  I think that the majority of teachers out their like to play it safe when it comes to investing.  Most of my colleagues are comforted by the fact that there is a pay scale that is followed and they will know exactly how much they will be getting paid for the rest of their career or their retirement.  Although comforting on some levels, I find it somewhat of a trap.  The challenges of teaching are high and getting higher everyday and the burnout level and stress leaves seem to be increasing, but the very fact that teachers are required to plan and make thousands of decisions per day, seems like a great training ground for going beyond the classroom and establishing businesses.  I commend you for doing so!  Good luck on your journey.

BTW, we seem to have more in common than just teaching.  My parents were both teachers in Morton's Harbour, Newfoundland before coming out west.  Newfoundland has a special place in our hearts and I think a great future!

Nik

 It was not intended as an attack - my apologies if it came off as that - Please view my previous post as an invitation for more you to provide more information....perhaps other readers (myself included...) will be able to derive benefit from this and be able to emulate some of what you've done to apply it to our own lives....  So to ask - What have you accomplished?

No. That was not my intention. Purchasing something - even a million dollars of it - is not an accomplishment.... perhaps just a difference in frame of reference between us?

scott2500

Does it make you feel better about yourself when you minimize someone else's accomplishments?  Sounds a bit like junior high. Congratulations Nik

 

housingrental

 It was not intended as an attack - my apologies if it came off as that - Please view my previous post as an invitation for more you to provide more information....perhaps other readers (myself included...) will be able to derive benefit from this and be able to emulate some of what you've done to apply it to our own lives....  So to ask - What have you accomplished?

Honestly, nobody understands what you are talking about!  

Nik 

Nik.  Thanks for the detailed description of how you went about this.  It is generous and helpful and puts such accomplishments in a manageable framework.  I'm a high school teacher too, and you're the only other one I know of doing this.  I'm a real estate investor partially because teaching is so demanding that I want it to be something I want to do, rather than have to do.  For me,  the number of papers I have to mark is falling as my real estate investment business grows.  Having some success, or a lot as you have, in real estate investment allows us to "buy" choices we might not otherwise have had.  Thanks again for your outline of how applying what REIN tells us works has augmented your freedoms. 

Robert 

Congrats!  Your success is a result of taking action and I needed a good reminder of that today - so thank you for taking the time to share.  As an ex-winnipeger its is also nice to hear that things are good in the Peg! 

Congratulations on the success guys.  I am a teacher and my wife is a former teacher who founded and directs a non-profit group for kids with special needs(www.adaptabilities.ca).  We see Real Estate as a way to enjoy some of the finer things in life and to privide a secure future for us and our children.

Keep up the great work.

 Hi Nik,

Congrats!  Please also remember to appreciate yourself and do a "resource update" in your mind to acknowledge your accomplishment.  Many people sometimes forget to slow down and tell themselves, "I did a really great job and proud of myself"  I do this often, no matter how small the accomplishment.  This builds mental "kahoonas"  aka BALLS. 

That truely is a great accomplishment. You gave me some great insight that I will likely use in my own endeavours. Cheers and congrats on your success!