Welcome to the blog, where today, I will give some advice on navigating the real estate maze. It sounds challenging, but following these four steps will help focus your mind and make things clearer. I started investing in real estate after my divorce. With very little savings and lots of debt, I needed a career that would provide me with financial security. I enrolled in many courses, but they did not give me the practical steps I needed to start. As a wealth advisor, I had met people in real estate who were financially rich but not wealthy in life-work balance and through experience, I learned the steps required to increase my wealth in Real Estate. I would like to share this experience now. Below are four steps to consider,
1. Know Your Financial Position
Draw up your financial balance sheet. Write down your assets and income in one column and your debts, expenses and liabilities in another. It’s essential to be clear about the amount of disposable income you have to play with before thinking about the next step.
2. Set Achievable Goals
Now that you have established exactly how much or how little you have to invest, start setting achievable targets and goals without putting pressure on yourself. A plan is very important because you need to identify what exactly you want from real estate investment. Do you want cash with a short-term return or a long term return? Do you want to buy to refurbish and flip the property and invest the profits into another and another until you have rolled enough yield to purchase a bigger property? These are examples of the questions you need to ask yourself to plan a detailed roadmap to achieve your goals.
3. Utilize Personal Strengths
Adapt personal strengths or previous work experience skills to achieve goals. Do you have a network of clients that you can contact? Do you have a DIY trade like painting that can help save you time and money? Do you have sales negotiating experience – an excellent asset to possess when dealing with suppliers and tradespeople. Interior design skills for refurbishing? Choose projects that appeal to your skills and expertise to help achieve your goals and make them easier to realize. This will also improve your work-life balance satisfaction.
4. Take Action.
It’s important to be busy and moving when investing in real estate. You can always be taking small steps forward with a view to achieving a long-term goal. If you only have a small budget or waiting to receive cash, rather than waiting, you could be taking a course or researching a book to improve your qualifications and knowledge. If you have a spare room in your house or apartment, you could start renting it out to earn extra income. Do everything you can within your means to get on the property ladder. This first step will instill confidence and the momentum required to take the next step and then the next. Before you know it, you have climbed many steps of the ladder.
So, these are four elements that you should consider when starting on your real estate investment journey. A roadmap will help to convert your goals and give you the momentum to move forward. You must keep moving, speed is not relevant, movement is. Remember the tortoise and the hare story? You will get there when you are committed and keep pushing forward.
I hope this blog helps you take your first step into real estate investment. If you require further details or help with devising a personal plan, please contact me. Thank you for reading, and stay tuned for more real estate investment tips next time.
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