RE Investing Full-time?

[Thomas Beyer]

QUOTE (Trizzy @ May 28 2010, 03:53 PM)
.. I dream, and I dream big.


sounds great



I say: dreaming .. planning .. action !



.. dreaming is the easy part. Action is easy too once planning is done properly. Most folks fail at a realistic plan .. or in its execution !

 

[Trizzy]

QUOTE (ThomasBeyer @ May 28 2010, 08:09 PM)
sounds great



I say: dreaming .. planning .. action !



.. dreaming is the easy part. Action is easy too once planning is done properly. Most folks fail at a realistic plan .. or in its execution !




Very true, I sometimes get lost in the clouds when I look up

Just bought a duplex, closing date is on the 28th.



I definitely have the dream, I have a short-term plan(still needs fine tuning), and I am taking action. Now comes the reality check, my first mortgage payment..

 

[housingrental]

Congratulations on your first purchase!

Maybe you can post a thread on info on it - purchase price, rent, expenses, etc. to show others what type of deals can be found in 2010 in Kitchener




QUOTE (Trizzy @ May 28 2010, 10:24 PM)
Very true, I sometimes get lost in the clouds when I look up

Just bought a duplex, closing date is on the 28th.



I definitely have the dream, I have a short-term plan(still needs fine tuning), and I am taking action. Now comes the reality check, my first mortgage payment..

 

[gwasser]

QUOTE (housingrental @ May 29 2010, 10:12 AM) Congratulations on your first purchase!
Maybe you can post a thread on info on it - purchase price, rent, expenses, etc. to show others what type of deals can be found in 2010 in Kitchener

There is the misconception that once you are independantly wealthy you can do what you want. This is wrong!
First whatever you do, including as Phillip McKernan says when following your passions, any activity is dependant on people around you and you create obligations to those people to do the job right.

E.g. if you own rental properties even with lots of money you have the obligation to provide safe and appropriate housing. Although it may be your passion to provide such housing you still will have days you don`t like especially when you come across a nasty renter or a poor property manager. You still will run into obligations that keep you from wandering of to Belize whenever you please!

Secondly, when you live of investments you will have to track them and reinvest the proceeds you don`t need for living. Once you`re investments stagnate they tend to go down. So you will have to stay involved until the day you die.

Wealth gives you the means to do what you want, but you always will have to do things and quite often those things may turn out not as pleasant as you imagined them to be. To be honest, that is life and life is a learning experience. If you would do everything right from the get go you obviously know everything and you would not be learning - awfully boring!

Wealth is not doing all day nothing or doing things without thinking. Just think of the Eaton`s family, the Bronfmans and recently the Aspers. If you don`t know what you`re doing or you make mistakes you can lose your wealth awfully fast.

In my view, everyone has the resources that he/she is capable of handling. You are the stewart of your assets for the rest of mankind (or if you believe in aliens) for the rest of the universe. If you handle your assets right, you`ll get more if you don`t manage you assets wisely you will lose them. However, wealth also leads often to a very satisfying life and live style.

 

[housingrental]

I`m assuming you replied to my post by accident?

A nice post Godfried.......On "However, wealth also leads often to a very satisfying life and live style. "

Maybe this might be better: lack of wealth leads often to a very unsatisfying life and live style.

 

[2ndstory]

I am a part time investor. I teach in the public education system full-time. I started investing because I don`t think I`m cut out for the typical life of a teacher (I`m too interested in other things and exploring my potential) and I don`t want to teach until I am 55+. I want to retire early. I know it will hurt the pension I get (one advantage to this career is an excellent pension plan), but retirement for me will be the transition into full-time RE. I am 38 years old this month, and hope to retire at 49. Having 2 months free in the summer allows me to spend time with family as well as do RE full-time during the 2 month period. My wife is a teacher too, and banks and lenders seem to like that.

Nik

 

[Thomas Beyer]

QUOTE (housingrental @ May 30 2010, 11:14 AM) I`m assuming you replied to my post by accident?

A nice post Godfried.......On "However, wealth also leads often to a very satisfying life and live style. "

Maybe this might be better: lack of wealth leads often to a very unsatisfying life and live style.
indeed .. I`ve been rich and I`ve been poor .. believe me: rich is better ! (as it gives you more options)

 

[bizaro86]

Being rich will not automatically make you happy, unless you have a fulfilling way to spend your time. Money does not guarantee happiness, and won`t solve all your problems, and being poor doesn`t guarantee unhappiness.

That being said, being poor limits options, causes problems, and can add stress to your life. So while money isn`t the end all be all, it doesn`t hurt either.

Michael

 

[lilbuffet]

If I were to ask anyone in the office at work if they would rather be doing something else....100% of the people would say YES. Now if I were to ask people who are financially free and did it by doing what they love. If I asked them to stop doing what they do, they will say hell NO.
Doing what you like and becoming financially free while doing it is essentially a drug (a good one of course) versus people who just work to work and hate what they are doing, but do it for the pay cheque.

Once you have the time and money to do what you like, you can do anything in this world!

And thats Freedom!

 

[invst4profit]

I worked for 35 years and many many days hated going to work. However I valued the paycheck far too much to allow my personal feelings to interfere with my goals. I have now achieved my life`s goals of early retirement where by my RE income supplements my pension income to the level prior to retirement. Wealth is relative in my opinion and although I have all the wealth I presently need it does continue to grow.

In my opinion having wealth equates to having more choices/options in life.

Poor people are restricted to sitting on there rented porch, drinking beer and complaining about there lot in life while those with money can sit by there Olympic size pool, drinking champagne and complaining about there lot in life. Or they can fly to there home in Belize.

(Which reminds me my brother has a triplex in Belize for sale if anyone is interested. I have few details on the property but if interested I can put you in touch with him.)

 

[MikeMcC874]

QUOTE (invst4profit @ Jun 6 2010, 02:06 PM) (Which reminds me my brother has a triplex in Belize for sale if anyone is interested. I have few details on the property but if interested I can put you in touch with him.)

Lol, 10 points for a good seque...

 

[MarkKruse]

Your job in retirement is to manage the assets that allow you to be retired!

By managing our RE (and other) investments now, we are getting a good pool of experience for our second career: managing those assets.

 

[Thomas Beyer]

QUOTE (MarkKruse @ Jun 7 2010, 08:47 PM) Your job in retirement is to manage the assets that allow you to be retired!or is it managing the asset allocation and managing the asset managers that manage your assets ?

 

[westboundventures]

QUOTE (Trizzy @ May 25 2010, 11:04 AM) The thought came to my head and I wondered - how many of you do RE investing full-time? That is, how many of you solely rely on RE investing as your primary means of income? If you choose to work a 9-5 or part-time for entertainment purposes, that is not applicable.

If you do not rely on RE investing as a primary means of income, what is your profession?

I`ve been investing for about two years, and I`ve been able to turn the $90,000 of my own cash that I started with into about $6000 per month in positive net cashflow right now. I do not have a job or any other source of income.

While many of the posters are correct in saying that RE investing is not a full time job, the reason I`ve managed to get to where I am in only two years is partly because of the tens of thousands of hours I`ve been able to invest into research, RE education, etc. With a full time job I`m not sure I would have had the time or energy to do this.

One challenge many new investors face is learning how to generate any significant positive cashflow. One thing I learned early on is that the key to positive cashflow is NICHE marketing. If your plan is to rent two bedrooms suites to good tenants, then good luck to you I say. That is what every other landlord is doing. Pick a very specific niche for your rental business, and you will decrease your competition, increase your selling points, and increase your cashflow. Examples of niches are:
- student rentals
- furnished rentals
- corporate/executive rentals
- assisted living for seniors (many varying degrees of this)

All of these examples take more management work and more expertise than "standard" rentals, but can yield MUCH greater cashflow.

My personal niche is providing quality affordable housing for seasonal workers, staff accomodation, and extended working vacations in Whistler, BC. This took quite a bit of work for me at the start, but it is now systematized to the point that I could work less than 4 hours per week if I want to, and had no desire to continue growing my business. (If you haven`t read it yet, I highly highly recommend the book "The Four Hour Workweek" by Timothy Ferriss)

There are tons of ways to make money in real estate, but my personal experience has shown that picking a specific niche and doing it better than anyone else is the fastest path to replacing your income with cashflow and quitting your day job. Some experienced investors will disagree my approach, and that is fine. Everyone has different goals and opinions on best practices and strategies. There is no one "right way".

I`m not going to describe my exact business strategy in exact detail online on a public forum, but I am always happy to talk privately with people.

Happy Investing!

 

[Dan_Eisenhauer]

In another thread here, I outlined an experience I am going through with a "troublesome" property.

One of the lessons I am learning from this experience is that I gave up my day job WAY TOO EARLY. It was one of about 6 factors, all arriving at the same time, that have come back to bite me in the ass. My career has always been in one segment or another of real estate, giving me a very broad knowledge of the industry. However, my belief that I could quit a day and make sufficient money to sustain my lifestyle was misplaced.

Do not give up a day job until your real estate income is sufficient to let you live the lifestyle you want for yourself, AND to cover any cash calls you may get from unexpected events.

I am now looking for that day job, while working to repair the damage that is being done to my credit rating and self-esteem. Experience has shown me several ways to rebuild my credit rating fairly quickly, and put money in my pocket too. My goal is to give up the new day job within two years.

 

[Thomas Beyer]

QUOTE (Dan_Eisenhauer @ Jun 22 2010, 03:45 PM)
One of the lessons I am learning from this experience is that I gave up my day job WAY TOO EARLY. ...



Do not give up a day job until your real estate income is sufficient to let you live the lifestyle ...



.... years.




Well said .. It also took me almost 8 years from buying an initial rental pooled condo to about 6 buildings to replace/exceed my annual software and consulting career income ... and that is counting cash-flow and equity growth .. as cash-flow is tight if one counts required initial and ongoing R&M and property upgrades !



Most money was made through equity i.e. value improvements .. and equity upside is not liquid .. i.e. can be tapped into only two ways: via sale or via re-finance .. and to this day it is hard to make a living on cash-flow alone unless you



a) have very low leverage (say 50%)

b) do a lot of the work yourself that should/could be outsourced, say property management, painting, cleaning, tenant selection, accounting, property scouting ..