How can some people build a rental empire of 100s of homes while others struggle to keep one home for themselves? Why do some people buy and sell homes like trading cards while others keep their homes forever?
The answer is simple—real estate is a mindset. Real estate is the best wealth generation tool available, or it is just a place to stay. You either take quick profits or enjoy the tax benefits, capital appreciation, and rental income for the long term.
Real Estate will make you rich if you are strong enough. Owning real estate is neither hard nor easy; it just is. If you understand the wealth-building aspect of owning real estate, then it is easy to hold it for a long time. If you just want capital gains, dealing with renters will piss you off every day.
Web Edition: The Biggest Book on Passive Income Ever!
My name is Josh, and my wife (Kristina) and I own three single-family properties. We are not crazy real estate investors; we both grew up poor and changed the outcome for our children. We understand that real estate is vital to our long-term wealth.
Was it always easy to hold these properties for the last 13 years? No, it was freaking annoying sometimes, but being broke is worse. There are two types of stress—life stress and business stress.
Life Stress is when you struggle to provide for the daily expenses and emergencies that occur. If your car breaks down and costs $1,000 to repair, this could lead to life stress.
Business Stress is when your life stress needs are taken care of; however, your business endeavors (dividends, real estate, crypto, business) cause friction in your life. When you have termites in one of the rental homes, that can lead to business stress.
Most people go through life attempting to avoid business stress. This is when you hear things like “I don’t want to get a call in the middle of the night about a toilet” or “What if the renter doesn’t pay the rent?”
Can You Live the Laptop Life?
I hear this about 90% of the time. These people also are chasing capital gains and say things like, “I can make $100,000 profit on my house.” They also think that $100,000 is a lot of money.
When you avoid business stress, you are guaranteed to have life stress. People try to avoid life stress by living below their means, which is smart. However, if you are not bringing in business, then you are on a fixed income. So now, to prevent business stress and life stress, they are living below their means on a fixed income (say $3,000/month). Does that sound fun?
Now, you can replace the terms life stress and business stress with “Financial Freedom vs. Financial Security” or “Earned Income vs. Passive income.” They all tie into the same emotions and mindsets. Fear is what prevents people from owning real estate. Fear leads people to work 45 years in the workforce and have no stocks or real estate investments.
How do we break our fear of owning properties, renting for the long term, and dealing with tenants? We read; we read a lot. Nothing that you will deal with in real estate will be brand new. Also, there are tons of ways to own real estate without ever dealing with a tenant. You have to read to understand flipping land, purchasing tax liens, holding billboards, or harvesting timber.
Let’s start with building our financial mindset first. You will want to read four books by Robert Kiyosaki first, Rich Dad Poor Dad, Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing, The Cashflow Quadrant, and finally Unfair Advantage. If you can read these books, your outlook on life and wealth will change dramatically.
How Would You Invest $300,000?
Now, we need to ensure our finances are in top shape. I recommend everyone to read I Will Teach You to be Rich first. If you are a couple, then follow that book with Smart Couples Finish Rich.
Now that your money and mindset are right, it’s time to jump into real estate. Wow, there are so many places to start, but I’ll narrow it down to three real estate books—this will be very hard.
I’ll start by recommending Sold. It is a book about becoming a top real estate agent; however, the information provided will be great for every real estate investor/owner. I love the in-depth look at the day-to-day operations of a real estate agent. It is a full-on business, and knowing how they operate can lead to considerable gains in your real estate career.
Next, I recommend the book 40 Ways to Increase the Net Income of Your Rental Property. This book will assist you with maximizing your rental income. You may find a decent deal, but it doesn’t cash flow very much money. You can add or adjust some things that could energize your income. Knowing these before you start investing in real estate will give you a leg up on others and assist you in seeing wealth where others see garbage.
Finally, I recommend The Book on Managing Rental Properties. It is a long book, but it will probably save you hundreds of thousands of dollars if you can finish it. Either by allowing you to manage your own properties or by picking the best property managers available.
Here are a couple of my articles that I recommend. “Mortgage Zero” will walk you through the mindset of paying no mortgage costs out of pocket—by making money with your primary residence.
The Business of RV Life?
“Should You Buy A Property in a Small City?” will help you pick a market that works for you, even if you are not physically there. After reading the book on managing rentals, you can select a better remote property management team.
“TAP Your Home Equity” will give you ideas on how to grow your portfolio by using leverage—in the form of home equity. Robert Kiyosaki asks a great question about the use of leverage “Is it easier to save $1 million or to borrow $1 Million?”
As you can see, that is a lot of Real Estate boot camp to get you started. I am a HUGE fan of reading. Once I started reading, my bank account started to grow exponentially. You will begin to see value where others see nothing. That is how you become rich—by being a first mover.
I’ll be back with the intermediate and advanced versions of Real Estate is a Mindset. You can never learn enough about real estate. However, learning won’t make you wealthy; taking action will. Enjoy and Happy (Real Estate) Investing.
- Build Passive Income: 21 Passive Income Ideas (book)
- Free PDF Downloads: Download FREE PDF books here
- Financial Mindset: Become CEO of Yourself (book)
- Retirement Planning: Retirement Planning at Any Age (book)
- Investing: How We Plan to Retire on Dividends (book)
- Cryptocurrencies: My First Book on Cryptocurrencies (book)
- Real Estate: Financial Independence through Real Estate (book)
- Business: Retire Rich, Retire Comfortable with a Business (book)
- Everything!: The Biggest Book on Passive Income Ever! (book)(Web Edition)
- I bought a Kindle Oasis: Check it out Amazon
- Read My Books for Free: Free Kindle Books Schedule
- Sign up to Access our “Hidden” Free Kindle Book Schedule
- My first Children’s book: A Child’s First Book on Passive Income (book)
- Book Reviews: 54 Takeaways from 54 Books (book)
- Want to Build Passive Income from Books and Affiliate Marketing? (Learn here)
- Writing: Can Grammarly Make You a Better Writer? (direct)
- My Favorite Chromebook: The Ultimate Chromebook (direct)
- Follow us: On our Facebook Page and Join our Facebook Group
- Amazon Author Page: Check out my author page on Amazon
Disclosure: I am not a financial advisor or money manager, and any knowledge is given as guidance and not direct actionable investment advice. I am an Amazon Affiliate. Please research any investment vehicles that are being considered. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
Leave a Reply