I know that real estate freedom is the ONE thing everyone wants from real estate investing.
It’s NOT money.
Money, of course, will give us freedom.
So I’m not suggesting to ignore it, but real estate freedom is different from “freedom”.
And here’s the catch – YOU, me, EVERYONE already HAVE freedom.
It may not be the picture of freedom you have in your vision board…
With boats, cottages, cars, vacation spots and so forth, THAT’S real estate freedom.
YOU HAVE another type of freedom.
What is the other type of freedom you have?
It’s the freedom of choice.
That is, to choose what is right for you, rather than what you THINK and believe is urgent and pressing….
On your way to real estate freedom.
In my book, you meet Monika, one of my coaching clients who learned this secret of life after many sessions of challenging who she was racing against.
[thrive_text_block color=”teal” headline=”Get Free Chapters From My Book”] [/thrive_text_block] [thrive_link color=’orange’ link=’http://breakthefreedombarrierbook.com’ target=’_blank’ size=’medium’ align=’aligncenter’]Get Free Book Chapters[/thrive_link]Here’s what I mean:
In this real estate freedom game, I have found that so many of us racing against others, comparing ourselves to the ‘success’ of someone else.
Therefore, we make choices based on someone else’s life.
IGNORING our own ‘right and wrong’.
In ‘How to Win at Real Estate to Beak the Freedom Barrier’, I dedicate an entire section to this because so many real estate teachings overlook this important fact.
More importantly, if you’re pacing back and forth unable to think of anything else besides how OTHERS are doing better than you, I know exactly how you feel.
Because in 2007 when I joined REIN, I felt the same way. Pressing my lips together doubting my ability to be successful and achieve the real estate freedom everyone else had, it sent me down the wrong paths for me personally.
I managed to get myself into a real estate deal that didn’t fit my life.
Because it “made better money.”
Well, truth is, it was SUPPOSED to make better money.
After a year of bullshit and stress, I decided to pull the plug on this venture.
I chose to do something entirely different and align myself to what was ‘right’ for me.
And just like I lay out for you in chapter 11, ‘What Real Estate Niche is For Me?’, there are four foundations on which I believe are important to challenge yourself…
And to challenge the real estate you’re buying.
Here are the real estate freedom fundamentals:
- Cash Flow
- Appreciation
- Tenant Profile
- Location
(By the way, if you want to learn more about cash flow, here’s a great post)
These are MY foundations for this particular exercise, please don’t take them as the ONLY foundations for real estate investing.
For this exercise, however, it’s important to rank them in the order of importance to you.
Be careful – because most investors initial reaction is “cash flow”.
There’s nothing wrong with that – and I want you to spend a bit more time to put your priorities BASED ON TODAY’S LIFE…
Then go out to find the right real estate that fits what you’ve ranked.
Nothing is ever set in stone, it’s a starting point to your real estate freedom.
Here’s an example:
I’ll give you my list because I find it’s usually different from most people when they first see this list.
1 Location
2 Tenant Profile
3 Appreciation
4 Cash flow
This is the list of importance, on which I base all my real estate choices, at the time of this writing.
Aside from knowing they are ALL important, when you reflect on them at a deeper level, meaning how they AFFECT your life, I think your initial list will change.
Here’s why:
Perhaps you said that cash flow was the MOST important thing to you.
ARE you doing everything in your power to get the MOST cash flow from your investments?
Before you say “yes” or “that’s exactly what I’m trying to do Joey, and why I can’t find a property”…
let me ask you this…
What is your SECOND fundamental of importance?
And how does THAT relate to cash flow?
Again, let me illustrate:
Because location is the most important thing to me, and tenants the second thing, I WILL NOT buy in areas that will get me less than ideal tenants (based on my criteria of a good tenant) – EVEN if I can make more money…
You follow?
And for the record, “location” does not just mean “good location” – in the book I mention how location is, based on my own perspective, how FAR these properties are from where you live.
That’s a whole other discussion about “eggs in one basket” or not.
I digress, let’s get back to this:
Why would I choose location and tenants over money (cash flow)?
Two words…
Stress and laziness
I don’t want any stress, for me OR my property managers.
Because believe it or not, even if you have someone managing your properties taking all the “late night calls”, decisions still come back on you.
And that adds to mental stress even if you’re not dealing with the day-to-day (if you have properties that need to be constantly on watch).
Agreed, it’s less stress, but it’s still stressing if you’re anticipating the next call from your PM.
When I get a call from my PM, which is VERY RARE, then something’s up. Doesn’t mean I don’t get frazzled, but I’m not sitting by the phone “stressed” waiting for the next call to deal with.
Get me?
All because I try to alleviate that problem with great tenants and awesome properties.
What about laziness?
Truthfully, I’m a lazy investor.
I would rather spend my time reading, doing stuff I love, being with my family than going out looking at properties.
I would rather do personal stuff even if I have “crews” working on renos, flips or anything along that nature –
Again, this is MY personal real estate freedom plan…
How it fits MY life – so there’s no right or wrong here – just what I feel is right for me.
The point here is to give you my personal perspective so you can tap into your own and make the right choices from here on out.
Because in the end, this all comes back to freedom of choice and doing what’s right for you.
Even my coaching clients Monika and Vaughan learned this by working on this very same exercise.
Because I’m lazy, the least amount of work in my real estate business is the BEST investment for me and the way I live TODAY…
I don’t really care how Joe Real Estate Investor is doing.
My choices today are based on how I will continue to live now, not only on how I WILL live (which is also important).
Bottom line, you can’t STOP living just to create a better future of real estate freedom.
AND, it all relates to the other pieces of the puzzle.
Here’s what I mean.
I ask myself, “how do the tenants I want to attract affect the kind of properties I can buy? And where are those properties if I’m not willing to travel more than one hour by car from where I live? And based on that, where are the properties that will AT THE VERY LEAST , break even, so that me or my JV investors don’t have to put in any more money once we’ve purchased so we can live stress free without problem tenants, or any ongoing repairs or renovations so we can enjoy the appreciation, whenever it becomes available in the future?”
If you’ve read that entire paragraph, you can see how flips, renos or anything in low-income places doesn’t fit (for me)…
To conclude, can you see how important this exercise is to your real estate freedom?
Can you see the difference between the freedom of choice you already have and the real estate freedom you’re after?
I challenge you all the way through my book because I believe it’s really important for you to know who YOU are first, what you’re willing and able to do (not on the financial side here) before you strap your real estate kicks on and spend time racing against others.
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I know this was a long post, and I hope you enjoyed it – please let me know your thoughts below!