If you start telling people you are interested in Real Estate investing, get ready for the well intentioned, but often misguided, unsolicited advice that will start coming at you from everywhere.
Sometimes in education policy people think because they went to school once, they should have an equal seat at the table. Same goes with RE Investing. Because Uncle Joe invested once, or because Karen once owned a home herself, they will give you a lot a data points to consider that may or may not be very confusing.
With all this advice, it is going to be very hard to find the perfect house that doesn’t screw up someone else’s business plan that they have written for your investing career.
I think this type of mindset prevented my friend Tim from leaving the sidelines for many years.
It was Tim, one of my mentors, who gave me the best advice I have probably received. Focus on the base hits, not the home runs. Meaning, buy a deal that works, and then move onto the next one. Don’t worry that someone else got a better deal last year or last week. Focus on your “buy box” criteria only.
As with so many things in life, it is the small progress that builds to something significant.
Most real estate investments do not look like amazing deals when they are made. They typically just “make sense”. But, over the long term these average deals will make you look like an investing genius.
Because, don’t forget you make money 4 ways in real estate:
- Cash flow
- Appreciation
- Debt paydown
- Tax write offs (interest, depreciation, business expenses)
So, stop hunting unicorns, they don’t exist. Instead, opt for a nice horse with a cone strapped to his head. He will do just fine.