How watching Cinderella Man changed my life FOREVER.
When I got into Real Estate, (15 years ago, yes, it was THAT long ago), it was about creating a secure investment that would withstand time. That would still provide income for me, during the the stock market runs AND the stock market crashes.
I remember the decision so clearly. I was actually watching “Cinderella Man” when it all happened for me. You know the movie right, set in the Great Depression and all the people with money in the stock market LOST. IT. ALL?? Yeah That one. (Funny, doesn’t feel too far of Alberta the last 5 years). Those that owned Real Estate thrived and survived the depression. In that moment, from my couch, holding a bowl of popcorn, I decided, there was NO WAY I was going to be on the wrong side of the Great Depression. No, freaking, way.
Buying the first property was scary. I am not going to lie to you. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. Luckily enough, my Realtor was an investor himself and he assisted myself and my husband in creating our team of Real Estate Professionals. From day 1, everyone knew that our goal was to purchase 3 homes, and they were all on board with helping us get to where we wanted to be.
Why 3? We figured that if we bought 3 homes around $300,000, that eventually we would have close to $1M in assets. And let's remember, this is $1,000,000 in assets that SOMEONE ELSE is paying for. Sure sure, we had to come up with the down payments, but once we had that, the tenants were paying our mortgage payments.
Buying Real Estate was a tangible asset that I could control. If I ever needed to get out and regroup, I was in charge of when it was listed, of the curb appeal at listing, of pricing it appropriately to sell. There was no "fund manager " in my way, I was betting on myself to make the right choices.
As of 2019, average retirement nest egg is only $100,000. Honestly, that gives me anxiety. That is NOT enough to maintain the lifestyle that we want to live in Calgary. So the big question here is, how did we do it?
EASY. I am not even kidding. I was 24 years old when we bought our first suited home.
We lived in the basement and rented the upper floor. We banked everything we made from the rented suite and saved our pennies. We then bought the second property a year later and then the third one a year after that. We kept going with putting 5% down. We'd get the home up and running, stay a year, save, save, save, and then move on to a new home.
We get asked all the time is it possible to only put 5% down when buying your next home. The answer is YES as it is going to be your primary residence for a year or more while you build up your next downpayment.
You can choose to live upstairs. Rent the basement and rent the garage, just try to increase your monthly income where ever you can!
The vision is easy. The next step is making sure that you're purchasing the right property. We have been down this road several times - ask us what we think about your investment purchase!
