Real estate investing is the classic wealth vehicle that has taken people from living hand to mouth to the pinnacle of wealth.
It's the vehicle of choice because it's accessible to all of us. Everone has a least rented a house or apartment, and most of us have bought a house. So knowing what it's like to be renter or homeowner we have first hand knowledge of our customers when we set out to be real estate investors.
The classic real estate investing model is buy a bunch of houses, rent them out and in 30 years the mortgages will be paid off, the properties will have at least doubled in value, the rents will be twice what they were when you started ... with no loan payment.
The goal sounds inspiring. Imagine having 10 properties you bought 30 years ago, each for $80,000, now be worth $350,000 apiece as a result of a average annual appreciation rate of 5%. You would have a portfolio worth about $3,500,000. Monthly rents, on the low side, of $1,200 per house would give you gross monthly rents of $12,000. After T&I you probably put $9,000 in your pocket.
I think you would agree this is an extremely modest goal, but what a payoff!!
What a payoff indeed ... for those who actually stick with it. You see there's a problem with the above scenario, and that is the early years are really tough.
Cashflow is slim, expenses are high, and most investors who take this on don't make it through.
They run out of cash.
The short-term solution is to change your focus from buying and holding to quick-turning houses for cash. Quick-turning houses, getting them under contract super cheap and flipping them to another investor for $5-20,000 or more will take care of your cashflow needs today while you hold your rental properties for long term growth. This is great ... money, cash!
But you are not out of the woods yet.
Your new short-term problem is management. If you are buying houses to hold for the long term you must be prepared for the fact that you will be managing them yourself, whether you take on that job as an individual or create a management company to do it. The fact remains that at some point your occupation will change from real estate investor to landlord.
And I'm afraid gentle reader, landlording is dirty, smelly business. One you do not want to be in.
There are worse things in life than being a landlord, most definitely, but that's not why you got into real estate. You got into real estate because you want the big dollars. The really big ones. The 'buy your own island' big dollars, the 'house on each continent' kind of dollars. The nine figure net worth.
Didn't you?
That net worth is available, in fact it's waiting for you to claim it, but you won't achieve the growth necessary to get there buying single family homes. As a growth vehicle they are very inefficient.
>From a real estate investing standpoint the purpose of a single family home is to give you experience doing deals, and to take care of your immediate cash needs.
After you've paid off all your debts, have 12 months living expenses in the bank, and have a kitty of say, $100,000 to $200,000 there isn't much further use for single family homes.
Unless, of course, you want to be a landlord.
As soon as you are debt free and have some starting capital you should move straight into buying apartments.
There is all kinds of leverage to be achieved by changing your wealth vehicle from single family houses to apartment buildings.
- from a value standpoint when buying apartments you are dealing with much bigger dollars, so as the years go by, you make more through appreciation.
- apartments have a much higher rent per square foot compared to houses, so property management can be brought in take management out of your hands in a cost effective manner.
- apartment buildings make sense from a business standpoint so it is no difficult to attract partner capital. - there is an abundance of apartment financing available from lenders up to 80% loan to value.
- there are many profit centers, like repairing units and increasing rents, filling vancancies, that can be capitalized on to capture upside value.
Also, because apartments are not reliant on your personal attention and can be effectively managed by property management companies you are not restricted to buying in your own local market.
By becoming aware of market cycles and tracking them closely, you can buy quality properties in any market in the US at the bottom of a cycle, and ride the appreciation to the top of the market, where you sell (or exchange out) and take huge profits.
Of course, providing you live in a market (like CA) that appreciates rapidly in an up cycle, you can achieve this with single familiy houses too. But which property would you rather have appreciating at 15% a year, a $300,000 house, or a $10,000,000 apartment building.
After 10 years a $300,000 house will turn into $1.33M. Nothing to sneeze at. But during the same 10 years in the same market a $10M apartment building will turn into $44.4M.
Which would you rather have?
It's an easy choice, and one you simply need to make.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Goals in Real Estate
I want to ask you two questions. One, do you have a Will? And two, do you have written goals for the next one, three, five and ten years? If you answered yes to the first question but no to the second, you are planning more for your death than you are while you are here. Think about it. I want to challenge you to start setting some goals, but remember if a goal is not in writing, it is simply a conversation. It must be in writing and it must have a deadline. Here are a few guidelines for setting goals. Oh, by the way... you need a will also.
Goals Must be Specific
I want you to be specific and include details but start rough. When you start rough for example, you want a Mercedes. You do not have to get into the details about what color, what options, that sort of thing, just write it down. Make your list huge, what kind of home do you want, what you want for your family, college education, spend more time, travel, anything you can think of. You can come back later and prioritize them and set them up as to what you want in one month, three months, six months, twelve months, then three, five, ten, twenty, thirty year goals. The more goals you have, the happier you will be, the longer you will live, and the more prosperous you will be.
Goals Must be Believable
Remember this, your goals must be believable, by you, or you will not pay the price. They must be believable, they must be just out of your reach, but you must know you can reach them, if you really strive to do it.
Goals Must be Measurable
You cannot set a goal to be financially independent. There is no way you can measure that. You need to set a goal for the amount of income you want per month, per year, the amount of equity that you want in properties – one, three, five, ten and twenty years. It must be measurable. That way you can break it down to what I call “reduce it to the ridiculous”. If you know you want to earn $100,000 a year, you know that is $8,333 per month. That’s just one deal a month where I live. One of the things I have learned is, successful people set their goals quickly and they make adjustments as they go along. Just like successful people make decisions quickly, they do not vacillate in indecision or what I call sometimes; get mixed up in a funk of negativity.
Goals Must be Congruent
Your goals must also be congruent with your actions. You cannot set a goal to work harder, longer hours AND a goal to spend more time with your family. Those are not congruent. They must be congruent with your actions.
Visualize What You Want
Another good thing that will help you with your goals is to visualize what you want. If you see yourself as already having achieved the goal, you will fake out your mind and your mind sees the goal as already having been achieved. It’s called “fake it till you make it”. I used to do this all of the time. Just take a minute or two each day and think about life as it is with your goals already accomplished. It’s really easy when you get used to it.
Work Your Goals
The next thing you want to do is work your goals, work on the priority that moves you closer to your goals every day.
Number Your Goals
Number your goals in the order of importance. Not only is the goal important but so is the reason. Sure your want a car, but why do you want the car? Sure your want more money, but why do you want money? You want to be able to spend more time with your family, you want to be able to travel, you want to buy a Hummer, and you want to have an ocean front condo or send your children to the best college. Whatever it is, the reason must be there. The reason is more important than the goal itself.
Review, Monitor and Make Adjustments
Another thing you need to do is review, monitor and make adjustments on your goals. You have to be flexible. Some things are not going to happen, you have to face that; but you need to continuously strive to get better every day. If you will work harder on yourself than you do on your job then you will always be growing. Remember that last sentence and write it down as it is worth repeating.
The Goals Must Have a Deadline
As I mentioned first, your goals must have a deadline. A goal without a deadline is just a conversation. When beginning to set your goals, I want you to set your goals in four basic areas:
Financial
You will set goals based on income, equity or net worth and cash flow. All of these are financial goals.
Fitness
This is your health. If you don’t feel good, chances are that you are not working at your maximum capacity. So, I want you to set some fitness goals to stay healthy. Remember “an apple a day”? What if this is right and you are not doing it? Start small though, you don’t try to tackle all of these at once; but you need to be healthy not only for you but for your family as well.
Family
Set family goals. What is an example of a family goal? Maybe you want to take four vacations a year. Maybe you want to visit a new state, three times a year or five times a year. Maybe you want to go see the Grandparents two or three times a year; but maybe not. Anyway, you get the point.
Faith
You need to set some spiritual goals, some faith goals. I am not going to get into a lot of detail about that but that will help you along your way. Remember, if you slip in one area of your goals, you are probably slipping in some other areas. Another thing I want you to think about is the people you associate with. Take a minute and think about this. If you think about your ten closes friends annual salary and divide it by ten, then that is pretty close to what you make. I’m not telling you to get rid of your friends, all I’m saying is whom you associate with, is who you are like, so please keep that in mind. Don’t get rid of your friends, just get some more that are where YOU want to be financially. Most of the people I hang out with now, we all make over $500,000.00 a year. That just blows me away. I never imagined I could make that kind of money…. Well I guess I could, as we are talking about goal setting and visualization aren’t we?
Goals Must be Specific
I want you to be specific and include details but start rough. When you start rough for example, you want a Mercedes. You do not have to get into the details about what color, what options, that sort of thing, just write it down. Make your list huge, what kind of home do you want, what you want for your family, college education, spend more time, travel, anything you can think of. You can come back later and prioritize them and set them up as to what you want in one month, three months, six months, twelve months, then three, five, ten, twenty, thirty year goals. The more goals you have, the happier you will be, the longer you will live, and the more prosperous you will be.
Goals Must be Believable
Remember this, your goals must be believable, by you, or you will not pay the price. They must be believable, they must be just out of your reach, but you must know you can reach them, if you really strive to do it.
Goals Must be Measurable
You cannot set a goal to be financially independent. There is no way you can measure that. You need to set a goal for the amount of income you want per month, per year, the amount of equity that you want in properties – one, three, five, ten and twenty years. It must be measurable. That way you can break it down to what I call “reduce it to the ridiculous”. If you know you want to earn $100,000 a year, you know that is $8,333 per month. That’s just one deal a month where I live. One of the things I have learned is, successful people set their goals quickly and they make adjustments as they go along. Just like successful people make decisions quickly, they do not vacillate in indecision or what I call sometimes; get mixed up in a funk of negativity.
Goals Must be Congruent
Your goals must also be congruent with your actions. You cannot set a goal to work harder, longer hours AND a goal to spend more time with your family. Those are not congruent. They must be congruent with your actions.
Visualize What You Want
Another good thing that will help you with your goals is to visualize what you want. If you see yourself as already having achieved the goal, you will fake out your mind and your mind sees the goal as already having been achieved. It’s called “fake it till you make it”. I used to do this all of the time. Just take a minute or two each day and think about life as it is with your goals already accomplished. It’s really easy when you get used to it.
Work Your Goals
The next thing you want to do is work your goals, work on the priority that moves you closer to your goals every day.
Number Your Goals
Number your goals in the order of importance. Not only is the goal important but so is the reason. Sure your want a car, but why do you want the car? Sure your want more money, but why do you want money? You want to be able to spend more time with your family, you want to be able to travel, you want to buy a Hummer, and you want to have an ocean front condo or send your children to the best college. Whatever it is, the reason must be there. The reason is more important than the goal itself.
Review, Monitor and Make Adjustments
Another thing you need to do is review, monitor and make adjustments on your goals. You have to be flexible. Some things are not going to happen, you have to face that; but you need to continuously strive to get better every day. If you will work harder on yourself than you do on your job then you will always be growing. Remember that last sentence and write it down as it is worth repeating.
The Goals Must Have a Deadline
As I mentioned first, your goals must have a deadline. A goal without a deadline is just a conversation. When beginning to set your goals, I want you to set your goals in four basic areas:
Financial
You will set goals based on income, equity or net worth and cash flow. All of these are financial goals.
Fitness
This is your health. If you don’t feel good, chances are that you are not working at your maximum capacity. So, I want you to set some fitness goals to stay healthy. Remember “an apple a day”? What if this is right and you are not doing it? Start small though, you don’t try to tackle all of these at once; but you need to be healthy not only for you but for your family as well.
Family
Set family goals. What is an example of a family goal? Maybe you want to take four vacations a year. Maybe you want to visit a new state, three times a year or five times a year. Maybe you want to go see the Grandparents two or three times a year; but maybe not. Anyway, you get the point.
Faith
You need to set some spiritual goals, some faith goals. I am not going to get into a lot of detail about that but that will help you along your way. Remember, if you slip in one area of your goals, you are probably slipping in some other areas. Another thing I want you to think about is the people you associate with. Take a minute and think about this. If you think about your ten closes friends annual salary and divide it by ten, then that is pretty close to what you make. I’m not telling you to get rid of your friends, all I’m saying is whom you associate with, is who you are like, so please keep that in mind. Don’t get rid of your friends, just get some more that are where YOU want to be financially. Most of the people I hang out with now, we all make over $500,000.00 a year. That just blows me away. I never imagined I could make that kind of money…. Well I guess I could, as we are talking about goal setting and visualization aren’t we?
Invest in a Hot Real Estate Market
A frequent question I am asked is:
"How do I find deals in a hot real estate market?"
Actually, there are several ways to find real estate deals in a hot market. The answer depends on your investment goals and the level of risk you are willing to take. Personally, I'm conservative in a hot market. I may make less money than others who speculate and buy just because the market is hot. But your goals and risk-tolerance may be different.
Here are some different temperaments of real estate investments and how they approach finding properties:
The Speculator: In a HOT market the speculator is a genius. A speculator can do no wrong, because whatever he pays today there will be somebody willing to pay more tomorrow. And, just like the stock market, when you're hot, you're hot and everybody's a winner.
The downside for the speculator happens when all good things must come to an end. And sometimes when it does, the speculator might be stuck holding the bag. I have no personal objection to people speculating, but I have zero patience or tolerance for whining when the ride is over! It's like Russian Roulette; your odds of winning are 5 in 6 and that's pretty good, isn't it?
On the upside, a lot of money can be made speculating. If you are in and out quickly, your risk is limited to your holdings at any given time. The flip side of this is that markets often give back some of the artificial profits. There is a risk you could find yourself having paid more than a property is worth, and if the markets turn around quickly it is an ugly position to be in.
In a hot market, many investors are willing to pay retail price and then turn around and sell at higher new market values that result from the rush of buyers. Hopefully you can see the danger in the game. If you choose to play, make sure you understand the risks. I used to trade commodities, and that's a game all about managing risks. With the risk comes the reward, and my hat is off to those that win. :)
The Investor: A market that is on fire is a speculator's dream and an investor's nightmare because methods that used to work no longer get the same results. Your marketing efforts will see decreased efficiency and you'll have fewer opportunities to purchase properties at the discounts you are accustomed to. It's frustrating because even though your marketing results are plummeting, the answer is to market more and become better at marketing!
A hot market can deliver a real blow to an investor's self confidence. It makes the investor stop and ask if they are doing something wrong. They're not, but changes need to be made. Since marketing is less effective in a hot market, more time must be spent on marketing to generate sufficient leads. A possibility is to specialize in a field and dominate a niche.
A few possibilities:
• Pre-foreclosures (and yes, it is a dog-eat-dog world)
• Bankruptcies
• Divorce Filings
• Eviction Notices (disgruntled landlords)
• Quit Claim Properties
• Death Notices
• Tax Liens Filed
And, when the market is hot, look for opportunities to buy "subject to" properties that create cash flow. Anytime property cash flows it's hard to go wrong long term!
What do I do in a HOT real estate market? Personally, I've sold many of my properties to realize cash profits. I am now anxiously waiting for the markets to turn. I know when it does, most investors will be running for cover while I'll be one of the few to pick up deals. The entire investing game changes at this point and I'll explain what to do in this type of a market later.
However, don't think I've stopped buying houses. No way! We're still wholesaling houses and most of the time the profits are a little smaller, but we're in and out the same day and making cash money without risk. Nothing wrong with that and there's still plenty of deals out there.
When will the markets turn? The answer is, "Who knows?" and, "Maybe they won't." And, it doesn't really matter if you know how to invest in your current market. But, let me tell you why I believe the markets will change:
1. Markets Cycle - Nothing is immune to the ups and downs of a market and cycling is a natural part of the process. When there is not enough housing, there is a rush to build houses. Then too many houses are built and everyone stops. Then there are not enough and on and on the cycle continues.
2. Interest Rates - As interest rates rise, consumers will be able to afford less and less of a house. This will affect the market demand, prices, and construction of new homes. When the market turns, some smart investors will be looking to buy entire subdivision projects from bankrupt developers. In a hot market many houses are pre-sold, but when this dries up, many developers are in BIG trouble because they were dependant on deposits and profits from pre-solds when construction is completed.
3. The U.S. Economy - I didn't plan on covering this topic, but it is important to at least note. For the last 100 years, the U.S. has been the financial powerhouse of the world and has been able to push its weight around (and during this time the U.S. markets went through many natural cycles). But, this is changing quickly and the new currency of the world is the Euro. This is demonstrated by the Euro's strength and the number of countries scaling back U.S. dollar investments (T-bonds, etc.) and moving into Euros. In short, the U.S. dollar has taken a beating.
Combine this data with a $50 billion per month deficit, and you should see that something is wrong. Put those two together and you might see a bigger picture beyond just a hot market.
In addition to the US Economy a lot of work is finding its way overseas through services such as www.elance.com. It's an entrepreneur's dream come true, because it is a free market economy, but to the American employee it is a brutal wake-up call.
Will the markets turn? Always, and when they do we'll adjust our investing strategies to the market and make great profits.
"How do I find deals in a hot real estate market?"
Actually, there are several ways to find real estate deals in a hot market. The answer depends on your investment goals and the level of risk you are willing to take. Personally, I'm conservative in a hot market. I may make less money than others who speculate and buy just because the market is hot. But your goals and risk-tolerance may be different.
Here are some different temperaments of real estate investments and how they approach finding properties:
The Speculator: In a HOT market the speculator is a genius. A speculator can do no wrong, because whatever he pays today there will be somebody willing to pay more tomorrow. And, just like the stock market, when you're hot, you're hot and everybody's a winner.
The downside for the speculator happens when all good things must come to an end. And sometimes when it does, the speculator might be stuck holding the bag. I have no personal objection to people speculating, but I have zero patience or tolerance for whining when the ride is over! It's like Russian Roulette; your odds of winning are 5 in 6 and that's pretty good, isn't it?
On the upside, a lot of money can be made speculating. If you are in and out quickly, your risk is limited to your holdings at any given time. The flip side of this is that markets often give back some of the artificial profits. There is a risk you could find yourself having paid more than a property is worth, and if the markets turn around quickly it is an ugly position to be in.
In a hot market, many investors are willing to pay retail price and then turn around and sell at higher new market values that result from the rush of buyers. Hopefully you can see the danger in the game. If you choose to play, make sure you understand the risks. I used to trade commodities, and that's a game all about managing risks. With the risk comes the reward, and my hat is off to those that win. :)
The Investor: A market that is on fire is a speculator's dream and an investor's nightmare because methods that used to work no longer get the same results. Your marketing efforts will see decreased efficiency and you'll have fewer opportunities to purchase properties at the discounts you are accustomed to. It's frustrating because even though your marketing results are plummeting, the answer is to market more and become better at marketing!
A hot market can deliver a real blow to an investor's self confidence. It makes the investor stop and ask if they are doing something wrong. They're not, but changes need to be made. Since marketing is less effective in a hot market, more time must be spent on marketing to generate sufficient leads. A possibility is to specialize in a field and dominate a niche.
A few possibilities:
• Pre-foreclosures (and yes, it is a dog-eat-dog world)
• Bankruptcies
• Divorce Filings
• Eviction Notices (disgruntled landlords)
• Quit Claim Properties
• Death Notices
• Tax Liens Filed
And, when the market is hot, look for opportunities to buy "subject to" properties that create cash flow. Anytime property cash flows it's hard to go wrong long term!
What do I do in a HOT real estate market? Personally, I've sold many of my properties to realize cash profits. I am now anxiously waiting for the markets to turn. I know when it does, most investors will be running for cover while I'll be one of the few to pick up deals. The entire investing game changes at this point and I'll explain what to do in this type of a market later.
However, don't think I've stopped buying houses. No way! We're still wholesaling houses and most of the time the profits are a little smaller, but we're in and out the same day and making cash money without risk. Nothing wrong with that and there's still plenty of deals out there.
When will the markets turn? The answer is, "Who knows?" and, "Maybe they won't." And, it doesn't really matter if you know how to invest in your current market. But, let me tell you why I believe the markets will change:
1. Markets Cycle - Nothing is immune to the ups and downs of a market and cycling is a natural part of the process. When there is not enough housing, there is a rush to build houses. Then too many houses are built and everyone stops. Then there are not enough and on and on the cycle continues.
2. Interest Rates - As interest rates rise, consumers will be able to afford less and less of a house. This will affect the market demand, prices, and construction of new homes. When the market turns, some smart investors will be looking to buy entire subdivision projects from bankrupt developers. In a hot market many houses are pre-sold, but when this dries up, many developers are in BIG trouble because they were dependant on deposits and profits from pre-solds when construction is completed.
3. The U.S. Economy - I didn't plan on covering this topic, but it is important to at least note. For the last 100 years, the U.S. has been the financial powerhouse of the world and has been able to push its weight around (and during this time the U.S. markets went through many natural cycles). But, this is changing quickly and the new currency of the world is the Euro. This is demonstrated by the Euro's strength and the number of countries scaling back U.S. dollar investments (T-bonds, etc.) and moving into Euros. In short, the U.S. dollar has taken a beating.
Combine this data with a $50 billion per month deficit, and you should see that something is wrong. Put those two together and you might see a bigger picture beyond just a hot market.
In addition to the US Economy a lot of work is finding its way overseas through services such as www.elance.com. It's an entrepreneur's dream come true, because it is a free market economy, but to the American employee it is a brutal wake-up call.
Will the markets turn? Always, and when they do we'll adjust our investing strategies to the market and make great profits.
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