3 MAJOR AREAS OF PROPERTY MANAGMENT: 1 of 3 Attracting and Screening For Great Tenants

By: Mark Frentz
www.akerahomes.com
mfrentz@akerahomes.com

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Start of The Process

I have heard many people shy away from investing in real estate providing this one reason: "I don't want to deal with tenants". I want to say two things to start this post and mini-series.
1. There are a lot of bad landlords out there and I believe it is unfair to simply blame tenants for the lack of skill or care that a landlord brings to the table.
2. You have complete control over who you rent your property to!
In the spirit of doing something to change your tenant situation as well as your investing experience... Wouldn't it be great to have little to no problems with tenants ever? I purchase my first rental property at the age of 19 and I can honestly say that I've never had a tenant I had difficulty with. Now, the first couple of tenants I had were less than ideal but I've realized since that time that I handled the situations wrong. I have never once in my life had a situation where my tenants trashed any property I was renting out and I would like the same for you. Without further delay I give you the art of attracting and screening quality tenants. In the 2nd and 3rd posts I'll discuss how to keep great tenants and prepare for your next great tenant.

Attracting Great Tenants

Before you place an ad, you need to determine what your rental rates will be and create a great rental ad that stands out. To determine your rent you need to understand what market rent in your area is. This is difficult for some people. Here's my advice: Just because the property is yours and you want to make money in it does not mean it is worth the same as every other property out there. If you have difficulty being objective about this, have someone else help out. Once you have the average of market rents for your place in your area I would recommend lowering your rent by a little bit. I typically keep my rent at 10-20% below the market average. That way I have more people walk through the place to find that ideal applicant. Now, to create a great ad you want to take great pictures (hire someone to do this because you aren't as good at photography as you think you are). Once you have your ad ready... post it online (Kijiji and Craigslist are musts, but every local market has its own online rental websites and/or classified sites that are popular. find them and use them). Market your rental in other ways thinking about whether it is worth your time. Two days ago I saw a 'for rent' sign in the window of a house at the end of a culdesac. This won't get great exposure, so decide on whether or not it is worth you time. I've always found online ads work the best for myself. One last thing here... Try to post ads and begin showing the property at least 30 days before the potential move in date. I've found that a ton of really responsible applicants are looking for properties well before their current lease is up.

After having applicants contact you make sure to contact them back quickly and watch how long it takes them to respond to you. I once had a family that had a pet (and I was advertising the place as not being pet friendly). The person who contacted me let me know she was aware of no pets, but was wondering if I would make an exception. I told her I wouldn't in a respectful way. She responded by thanking for getting back to her and wishing me the best... Now, if you know typical rental communication you know that it stood out that she was making an effort to say thank you. I ended up connecting with her and giving her family a showing because of how she stood out. Then I ended up renting to them and they were a fantastic family. The place was in pristine condition when they left. If you want to stand out to the great tenants, treat every piece of correspondence with respect on your end as well. 

When you speak with a prospective applicant on the phone make sure to pre-screen them. Do they have enough money for the first month's rent as well as the security deposit on the day of the showing? If not, it's a red flag that this may not be a long term fit.  Only show the rental to applicants who strike you as responsible people. Race, age, ability vs. disability, gender, occupation... I don't care about any of these. What I want is to know whether or not these people are responsible and respectful of this contractual agreement. Make a list of questions and try them out. Find out what works for you to glean whether you think they can afford the rental and will take care of it. Some people are simply kicking tires. Unless they are interested it probably won't be a great use of my time.

Next, you want to schedule showings or even open houses. I like to show my properties in 15 minute intervals and spend time with each applicant. I get a great sense of who they are and often hear information that helps me in my decision making. I have often heard applicants complain about their current landlords and even once heard someone say they would do anything they could to hurt their previous landlord... I took that as a red flag. Show your unit and ask questions. Get to know people. Some investors charge a $35 application fee. I haven't done that, but I can see how it would only bring serious applications to the table and saves you a lot of time. Remember that when you are following up on prospective tenants you are working and can be compensated for your time.

Processing applications is so important. Do your background checks. Ask previous landlords what their experience was. Remember that you are entering an agreement with a very expensive asset. Treat it as an expensive asset! Rent it to an applicant that you feel will best be able to meet your criteria of paying rent on time and treating your property with respect. Make sure that you are consistent in your rental standards. If you are racist... you need to grow in your understanding of the world. Enough said. When you choose an applicant to rent to, ask for the security deposit and first month's rent in order to sign the contract. As soon as the contract is signed you also need to take the needed time to let every other applicant know they did not get the property. Know that there are times when two great tenants will apply and I can only choose one... In that case it is best to also ask to keep in touch with the declined applicant. 

Note: Keep in mind that what I have provided so far is an overview. There are different laws and regulations in each province and state and you need to know the laws in your area. 

Lastly, complete a lease checklist which should include:

1. The lease (initials on each page)

      -Explain every detail. The better both parties understand this agreement at the beginning, the better your relationship will be moving forward. Miscommunication can cause serious difficulties later on. Make sure everything is communicated fully.

2. Copy of driver's licenses

3. Security deposit

4. First month's rent

5. Provide emergency contact numbers

6. Go through your initial walkthrough and sign and initial this agreement as well

     -Explain this agreement and the importance from their perspective as well. Let them know what you consider normal wear and tear on a property. Again, communicate clearly.

7. Hand over the keys

Summary

The key word to all of this is: RESPECT! If you treat others well, you will be treated well in return. I know of many slumlords in and around the areas I invest in. They are awful people to deal with and typically find tenants that don't have many reasons to respect them. Be the person you would want. As a general rule you want to communicate well and give your new tenants some space. If you trust them, then trust them (with verification). Respect your side of the agreement as well.


Here's to your future of risk-averse investing!

If you would like to learn more about investing in real estate please contact me at the email address listed at the beginning of this article or go to my website at: www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html

How (not to) to retire well beginning when you’re 20-35 years old!

By: Mark Frentz
www.akerahomes.com
mfrentz@akerahomes.com

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If you are like the average Canadian I have something extremely important you need to know: You don’t really want to retire with a lot of money regardless of what you think.

Now, this may sound harsh, but it's true. Today's post will focus on priorities and my hope is that, over time, your retirement will become a higher priority than it currently is.

The are very few people reading this post who will fall into a different category; those who truly desire to retire well in every way (not simply with money, but also strong relationships with family and friends, feeling healthy and strong, and a leader in your field). For the second group... I would recommend not even reading this post because you're well beyond it and you will simply read what you've already known for quite some time.

How can you work to quickly destroy your dreams of retiring well? I'll focus in this post to change your mind, even if just a little bit, in order to provide you with something better now and in the future.

7 ways to quickly ruin your retirement at a young age:

1. Finance a new car

The reason this is a killer is that you take on terrible debt on a depreciating asset that keeps you stuck for years and addicted to ‘new stuff’. Owning a car costs way more than simply the monthly instalments and gas. Insurance and loss of value (both of which cost even more if it is new vehicle), wear and tear, winter tires, car washes, and many other small expenses that creep up cost a significant amount on a monthly basis. The fact is that a vehicle is always much more expensive than the advertised payments and drain your bank account each and every month.

Solutions?

Buy a less expensive used vehicle with cash. Don’t have enough cash? Don’t buy it.
Move closer to work and walk, ride a bike, or take public transit to work until you have enough cash to purchase a vehicle.

2. Rent OR purchase a home to live in by yourself or with only your immediate family

A mortgage is never an investment. At best it is a savings plan. When young it is best maximize your ability to invest rather than get stuck in a place with a large family. If you disagree with whether or not a house you live in is an investment, simply take time to read authors who specialize in investing in real estate. Robert Kiyosaki’s rule of thumb is: anything that costs you money each month is a liability and anything that puts money into your pocket each month is an investment. In other words… mortgage, taxes, insurance, maintenance, etc. all take money out of your pocket each month you own a property you live in.

Solutions?

Rent a property making sure you can sublet to roommates. This allows you to break even or even make money while learning to manage tenants
Purchase a duplex and rent out the other unit. Again, you can come close to breaking even and, when you are ready and have enough money to do so, you can keep the property as a full rental and move into another duplex. If you play your cards right and focus on property investments you can even eventually move into 4-plex, then an 8-plex, then possibly a 12-24 unit building. If you could do this (it isn’t actually too difficult if you know what you are doing) before you are 30, you can now marry, have kids, purchase your own property to live with just your family and the multi-unit property will pay you an ever-increasing amount each and every month for the rest of your life!

3. A financed degree

I could go on and on about this. I myself have a master’s degree in the field of psychology and love education, but borrowing money to do so is a terrible idea for most people. One of my degrees I paid for in cash and another with debt and I would never pay for a degree with debt again! The major reason not to finance a degree? You are spending borrowed money to not work for up to 4 years of your life (which is lost income of a 4 straight years!) in order to get a job that may not pay much more than the job you could currently gain with a few thousand dollars spent on informal education.

Solutions?

Work full time at whatever job you can currently get and use the next 4 years of your evenings to learn the skills you need to develop a successful business. This is well worth your time. During this period of time I highly advise you to hire a mentor/coach who will help you fast track toward success. Even an expensive mentor typically doesn’t cost more than around $10,000 as of this writing (though it can cost a lot more) and is often less expensive. There are less expensive options as well such as working for a person you desire to learn from for free in order to learn on the job. This is a win-win scenario because you will be learning from a master int he field and the only cost is your time. Sometimes you can even develop a relationship with this person and do business deals with them in the future.

4. Travel (because we've all heard it will be difficult later on in life)

The question is: Do you really do the best travelling when you are young? Would you not rather travel with your family because you have the money to do so? I have travelled straight out of high school and am currently planning a year-long trip to France with my family… Guess which of the two will be best remembered later in life?

Solutions?

Work hard when you are young so that when you have a family you can take more time off and do the things you want to do. Let’s be honest… If you really want something you will do what is needed to get it. If travelling is a top priority for you I’m positive it will happen. Practice some delayed gratification rather than spending $3,000-5,000 each year wasted in a week or two that really does not add a lot of value to your life and, instead, take $50,000-100,000 later on to create memories with your family that matter while educating them in cultures and languages around the world.

5. Work like a dog for your current company

This will kill you physically but, more importantly, it will kill your spirit. Do what you are paid for and work hard, but realize that life in the workplace for any company is tenuous at times and carries it's own risk. I have worked at a government job and can assure you that even those jobs aren’t as secure as every believes.

Solutions?

Develop a business on the side or invest with someone who does. When it is making enough money to quit your 9-5, you can then realize a completely different freedom than you have ever had with a J.O.B.
Invest in yourself; your own education and ability to do whatever you want.

6. Keep doing what others around you are doing and what is advertised daily to convince you it is the best way.

If you have doubts about whether ‘the heard understands how to live well financially’ simply Google 2008, 2009, 2010, or 2011 and read all you want about how well the largest banks in Canada and the US of A's bank's protect their assets and make safe decisions. The 'best' banks took advantage of average people (people who dream of mutual funds and stocks because that is what the banks advertise) in order to line their own pockets.

Solutions?

At the expense of sounding repetitive I will again recommend that you educate yourself. Hire mentors/coaches, spend some free time learning instead of watching hockey or the latest show that doesn’t matter and grow into the person you need to be to manage your money better than others around you can manage theirs.
If you honestly don’t have the desire to manage your own money you need to hire someone to do so. The best way to do this, in my opinion, is to enter into a joint venture partnership where your partner only makes money if you do. An example is that you put up the cash for an investment property and your partner finds and manages the property (only if they have a proven track record and this matters to them). This way they only make money if you make money and they will work harder and better for you and themselves.

7. Negative friends or, even worse, investing in a negative partner by getting into a long term intimate relationship without your eyes wide open.

If you are living every day with a negative person who does not hope in the future or has so much fear than s/he cannot allow you to pursue your financial dreams… this won’t end up well.

Solutions?

a. The simple solution here is to simply take your time. The world doesn’t end for anyone if you don’t have a serious relationship at the ripe old age of 25! Statistics I’ve read state that the wealthiest people are generally those who get into a long term relationship a little later (at least after the age of 30), have already set up their business, and then never separate from their partner. People with multiple relationship endings often find difficulty finding wealth in life (there are always a few exceptions).

Summary

Why sacrifice the enjoyment of now in order to work for your future? Because while our world typically sacrifices a lot for small thrills, deeper satisfaction from life ALWAYS helps more in managing the day to day if you believe in what you are doing... We come to another problem: What if you don't believe what you need to in order to feel deeply satisfied right now? That's another post (or many actually). Stay tuned!



Here's to your future of risk-averse investing!

If you would like to learn more about investing in real estate please contact me at the email address listed at the beginning of this article or go to my website at: www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html

WOULD YOU RATHER BE RICH OR WEALTHY?

By: Mark Frentz
www.akerahomes.com
mfrentz@akerahomes.com

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What's The Difference?

If you are rich it means you have a lot of cash coming into your hands. Typically the rich are those who have high paying jobs. Rich people also typically spend about as much as they earn, though not all of them. I have worked with and know people who earn about $250,000, after taxes, each year and spend at least that much. Actually, it isn't uncommon for people to make a lot and spend a lot, typically on liabilities.

If you are wealthy it means you have a lot of assets that actually are assets. Remember from my early posts that an asset, I agree with Robert Kiyosaki, is something you own that puts money into your pocket each month (cash flowing investment properties or business are the best examples) and a liability is something that takes money out of your pocket each month (vehicles, your own home, and material possessions that you may be able to resell, but do not cash flow or grow in a controlled or expected way).

Here's the thing... Wealthy people are often rich, but rich people are seldom wealthy. Think about the people around you; it doesn't matter whether they are athletes, dual income families where both adults have decent paying jobs, doctors, lawyers, dentists, wall street brokers, etc. These people look like they have the world by the tail and yet often are struggling financially in many ways to keep up the facade. These 'rich' people tend to drive the newest BMW or Mercedes and live in a very nice area of town. They dress well and go on lots of holidays, and yet they often are people who experience bankruptcy or, at the very least, have to work like dogs to make make enough in their 50s and 60s in order to retire in a way that keeps up the lifestyle.

Now think about some of the people you know who tend not to drive the newest vehicles or live in the newest houses yet hold a bunch of real estate investment properties or own a few franchises or even have worked a farm to pay off the debt they needed to purchase the land. This second group of people don't look like they have a ton of money and yet they typically enjoy longer intimate relationships with their partner, are far more rested when they take a day off and, when they choose to retire, live a comfortable life no matter how long they live. In my experience these people tend to live even better in retirement than they ever did during their working years. Many of them retire in the early 50s and spend a ton of time with their grandchildren. If you've ever read "The Millionaire Next Door" you will know exactly what I am talking about. Good research shows that those who have a lot later in life and live well are those who did not look rich for a lot of their lifetime.

So.... Back to The Question

I would much rather be wealthy than rich. I would much rather make certain sacrifices for the next 10 years in order to live like very few others do later in life. Most of the people I know tell their children to have a lot of fun in their late teens and early twenties because 'they won't get a chance later in life'. I completely disagree. I'm hoping to teach my children to work hard and make sacrifices early so that they can retire wealthy when they are 30 and enjoy marriage and kids and travel and giving to others and figuring out deeper purposes in life for the last 50 years of life. I believe we often have it backward and the statement that people won't get a chance to travel and enjoy life later on shows that many people around me do not believe they have a chance at wealth. With this mindset it makes sense to enjoy life as much as possible and as early as possible with very little focus on the future.

A Challenge

Here's my challenge to you. First you need to ask yourself what you want in life. Do you want a midlife crisis from working hard but without a true purpose in life? If so, pay no attention to posts like this (actually, if that's what you want you have already probably stopped reading). If you want more in life and you want to life like very few others live, then you need to begin asking yourself another question: What am I willing to sacrifice now in order to live well later on? It is a worthwhile investment to spend weeks or even months figuring out the answer to that question and to begin putting a plan of action in place.





Here's to your future of risk-averse investing!

If you would like to learn more about investing in real estate please contact me at the email address listed at the beginning of this article or go to my website at: www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html

MINDSET: WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE ABOUT YOURSELF? PART II

By: Mark Frentz
www.akerahomes.com
mfrentz@akerahomes.com

Remember: Please share this article if you find it enjoyable

Part 2: Self-Image

In my previous post on belief about self I focused on the basic idea that what we talk about has a strong influence on how we feel about people, jobs, and situations. In this post I'm hoping to develop an idea that is more difficult to understand. To get more out of this concept and understand more completely you can purchase the book "Psycho-cybernetics" by Maxwell Maltz. It is a classic that is under-appreciated in what it teaches. 

I recently heard a story about a person who asked Bob Proctor what the one thing he would most desire to pass on to the next generation. Bob said something along the lines of: give every effort in life to protect your self image. That's it, and from a man who has accomplished quite a bit in life and understands motivation and success on a greater level than any average person does. 

"Self image is so important. The way we see ourselves determines how we interact with others and, eventually, what we realize in life."  -Maxwell Maltz-

Each person typically has 2 images. One is an image we present to the world and hope others will see, a second is the how we see ourselves. A good question to ask yourself is: how do I view myself and is it any different than what I hope others will see? If the answer is that you present someone else to others, it most likely means you struggle with your own self-image. Now, I'm not saying this is good or bad or right vs. wrong. All I'm stating in this post is that it is helpful to understand this all better so that you can begin to realize more out of life than you may be experiencing right now. If you are experience shame when you see yourself you will not reach the same level in any areas of life (fulfillment in relationships, material wealth, success in a sport or activity/hobby that you enjoy, etc.).

The Secret

How you think affects your emotional state and outlook on life. It also affects what you get out of life. If you have watched the movie "The Secret" or read the book you could get the idea that there is a simple law to life and that if you simply think about something, you will receive it. While I'm not a hater of The Secret, I don't believe it portrays an understanding of life that is accurate. I don't believe there is a magical way to get everything you want out of life and I believe the movie suggests this magic. Here is how I believe what you focus on and think about affects you; how I believe the law of attraction works. 

Are you most likely to talk to a person on the bus or street that scowls at you when your eyes meet, or gives you a warm smile and asks "Isn't it beautiful outside right now?" Are you most likely to invest with someone who is upbeat and asks questions about you, or a person who simply talks about a product and never invests or even knows what you need? I know someone who is brilliant at her job and truly a genius in what she does, but she is extremely negative. She wonders, at times, why she isn't getting out of life what she wants and my simple explanation is that while I admire and respect her for the hard work she has put into her chosen field and believe she is excellent at much of her work, I typically don't want to spend too much time with her because I don't feel as good afterward. I don't think other people do either. It's pretty simple really.

I think the key to the law of attraction is two-fold. One part of it is that if you present yourself to others in a certain way, you are more likely to find people respond in a certain way back more of the time. The other part is that if you want to present yourself to others in a certain way, it will have to be genuine to get the best results and to be genuine you will need to actually think in a different way and have a different outlook on life. There is a third element to this, but it applies to more of life than simply the happy things we want out of it: confirmation bias. Confirmation bias basically means that we notice in life what we are focusing on. I'll give two quick examples:

1. If you are looking to purchase a certain make and model of a vehicle isn't it amazing that, all of a sudden, you start noticing that vehicle everywhere on the road... It almost seems as though every third vehicle is now the one you are thinking of buying.

2. You read a fortune cookie or read your horoscope and you begin to realize that it was extremely accurate in its prediction.





What is actually happening here is not that everyone purchased the same vehicle you are looking at purchasing last night and are now all driving them or that the fortune cookie has any basis in reality (sorry for those who love your astrology, but I don't believe there is any real accuracy to it).

While I could go on about the law of attraction at some length, for this post I simply want to present the idea. I sincerely believe that when a person changes the way they think about themselves they will begin presenting themselves in a very different way to others and they will begin realizing different results from what they are doing.

So What?

I had a professor who, after teaching us something about history or anything else would yell: SO WHAT?! What he meant was: information is important, but it is much more important to know what to do with that information. Here is a way you can begin to work on your own self image. This is simply a way to begin moving in the right direction and not the be all end all of everything you can do. Again, I'd highly recommend Maltz' "Psycho-cybernetics". It honestly is a classic.

1. Your subconscious mind is very much like a computer or guidance system in many ways. It will begin influencing you to go in the direction that is suggested by what you put into it. If you put in a lot of television you will be motivated to buy stuff and drink cheap beer. If you consistently put in statements like: you don't need money to be happy, or I'm not very creative, or there's something wrong with me... you will begin moving toward not having money, doing nothing creative, or consistently making poor judgement calls on anything in life. If, on the other hand, you begin to put in your head things that will motivate you toward the things you want: Money allows me to help myself AND others, or I'm learning new things and skills all the time, or I am becoming someone I'm proud of... you will realize the exact opposite.

I'll leave you with a final statement for today's post... It's already getting longer than usual. I think these last words are far better than anything I would come up with myself (even if I forget where I got the quote... probably Bob Proctor).

"Your results are a direct reflection of your image"



Here's to your future of risk-averse investing!

If you would like to learn more about investing in real estate please contact me at the email address listed at the beginning of this article or go to my website at: www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html

INCREASE YOUR PROPERTY'S VALUE

By: Mark Frentz
www.akerahomes.com
mfrentz@akerahomes.com

Remember: Please share this article if you find it enjoyable

Any Idiot

My apologies in advance if this comes across as rude... I don't mean it that way. Any person, regardless of their understanding of real estate or investing, can make money in an up trending market. Every person who purchased a property in Calgary in 2004 and sold in early 2007 made a ton of money even if they overpaid on the purchase price and got way less money than the property was worth when they sold (they could have even destroyed the property while they lived there and would have made a bunch of money or had tenants that didn't pay rent for half the time). It is extremely easy to make money in real estate when your property value increases, without any help from you, by over 35% each year! What every serious, long term investor really wants to know is how to make money in ANY MARKET. If you belong to this latter group keep reading.

Five Tried and True Tips

1. The first tip I will always mention to increase value is to underpay, or at the very least not to overpay for the property when you purchase it. I know a lot of people who overpay for their property. Here's a tip... find a local wholesaler of real estate (through your local investment clubs) and get a deal on the property. When you do this you aren't necessarily increasing the value of the property, but you are automatically increasing the amount of equity in your property which is basically the same thing.

2. When upgrading the interior, focus on only the most important features. a) paint the walls b) redo the flooring with laminate c) if the kitchen needs upgrading put in an inexpensive set from Ikea d) if your property is older and only has 1 bathroom, put another one in that is simple and functional (no granite counters!). All of these ideas give you the most bang for your buck. If any of these areas doesn't need upgrading... DON'T. The general rule is don't spend money on something that doesn't help your bottom line even you really like it. What you like isn't important when selling or renting out a property. What a majority of other people like is important.

3. Turn a bonus room into a bedroom by, again, purchasing a relatively inexpensive Idea set. When potential buyers AND potential tenants are looking at a 3 bedroom house rather than a 2 bedroom house, they expect to pay more for it.

4. If it is an older investment property that you are keeping for yourself think about suiting the property (this depends on the type of property you own; bungalows typically work best because it is easier to do and costs less)

5. Put in a garage. In Calgary this can cost around 15-20k, which is expensive. If you are paying 4% interest on borrowed money to put in a 20k garage your payments will be $800 each year. If you put in a double garage in the backyard you can now (I'll underestimate) charge at least $125 per side each month. This means you will end up making $3,000 each year in garage rental or $2,200 after the interest payments. You've increase the value of your property AND increased the amount you make every year on that property. You could put the other $2,200 against the borrowed money and after 9 years you would be simply putting the $3,000 into your pocket each month.

Why Add Value?

There are four reasons I can easily think of to add value to your property:
1. People will pay more for the property when you sell it
2. People will pay more to rent the property
3. You will attract better tenants if the property looks and feels better. These tenants will often be easier to communicate with on many levels if you are doing your job of managing the property properly
4. You can refinance your property for more money and put that money toward another property sooner

Last Words

Getting more value out of your property is not difficult, but it is very worthwhile if you want to retire and reach some of your dreams in life. The key to real estate is treating it like a business. In my opinion the vast majority of people who own investment property do not treat it like a business. If you are the one who is different and makes more money in the business you will stand out as someone different and become far more successful than the average investor. What is one way you can make a larger difference to both yourself and your community by treating your nest egg like a business this month?




Here's to your future of risk-averse investing!

If you would like to learn more about investing in real estate please contact me at the email address listed at the beginning of this article or go to my website at: www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html

MINDSET: WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE ABOUT YOURSELF?

 By: Mark Frentz
www.akerahomes.com
mfrentz@akerahomes.com

Remember: Please share this article if you find it enjoyable

What do You Believe about Yourself?

Why in the world am I writing a post about belief in self in a blog about real estate investing? Because what we believe about ourselves affects how we view our future and what is possible. If I believe I am an idiot and will always be an idiot, it doesn't make a lot of sense to learn about investing because I will most likely fail at it anyway. If I work on beliefs and become a person who truly believes I can retire at 50 with good cash flow and great investments, I will automatically work toward those goals and achieve them in much the same way I was avoiding them before. In this post I will simply discuss how our thinking affects our outlook on life. In my next post I will discuss how our thinking and outlook influence our behaviors and what we end up receiving in life.

First Things First

Before changing beliefs, we must recognize what we believe in the first place. What you need to begin doing is to start paying attention to how you talk about yourself and interact with others. Do you apologize all the time even when you haven't done anything wrong? What about what you say under your breath when you stub your toe, make a mistake, or drop/break something? Ask someone close to you how you talk about yourself (ask someone who is both safe enough to be vulnerable with as well as someone who cares about you enough to tell the truth even if it may sting a bit.

Another help in understanding how you judge ourselves is to begin looking at the way you think of others or talk about them to yourself. Do you call them names? Are you harsh? I'll let you in on a secret... The way we judge others is often a glimpse into how we judge ourselves. It's fascinating and sad to me that most people are so hard on themselves. Why do we need people calling us names when we are able to use much harsher words for ourselves?

Reality is Subjective

If you repeat something enough times you will begin to believe it even if it doesn't make sense. This is how our brains work and you can begin to use it to your advantage. Here is an experiment you can try for the next 60 days. Whenever anyone asks you about your job, your boss, your partner, or your kids paint a good picture and focus on the positives of what you are asked. The key here is not to lie "My kids are incredible! They never fight and one is most likely going to graduate from Stanford when she is 13 years old". Tell the truth and focus on the positives: My wife works hard for our family, I love that I am good at what I do for a living and I especially enjoy... I think you get the picture.

I learned this lesson well when I was working on my bachelor degree. I worked as a landscaper in the summers and one summer was struggling with my attitude. I decided to only talk well about my job after being confronted by a friend. By the end of my 4 months summer holidays I realized I was really enjoying this work again: I worked outside all summer, I had a boss who was easy going and tried to treat us fairly, I made decent money for what I did, I worked with friends, and I repeated just the positives of my job each and every time someone asked. I ended up working in that job for a bunch of summers and from that point really enjoyed my job. Was it a perfect job? Absolutely not! The reality is that what I focused on changed how I felt about the job. The fact is that our emotions are influenced by our thoughts and beliefs which are influenced by what is repeated in my brain through my own words or other people's words if I hear them enough.

Brainwashing Yourself?

Am I suggesting that you brainwash yourself? Absolutely! Am I suggesting you stifle uncomfortable emotions like anger, grief, and fear? No. Be honest with yourself and if you are feeling terrible, deal with it in an appropriate way (crying, telling someone who is safe to tell, etc.). In my experience it is the people who are always suppressing their uncomfortable emotions who also struggle with PRETENDING they are happy when they aren't. If you aren't happy, admit it to yourself... then work on how you talk to yourself.

Here are some ways you can begin to work on this area of your mindset so that you enjoy more of your time on this planet and get sick a lot less often:

1. Practice gratitude and watch how it affects your mood over a period of time
2. Talk about people, your job, and your current situation in a positive light. Not because it is perfect, but because often things aren't as bad as they sometimes seem.
3. Reframe how you look at experiences and situations: People who become strong in business are often those who are looking at problems as opportunities. On one hand it is terrifying to lose a job even if you didn't enjoy it in the first place... On the other hand, if it allows you the opportunity to do something you are actually passionate about there are positives there. Let the positive things motivate you even while you mourn the loss of your old job and deal with the frustration of putting out new resumes.
4.  Don't complain about something to someone who does not have the ability to fix it or help you with it. Do share difficult situations and emotions with people who are safe to do this with. If you don't have anyone safe to do this with... you need to start making a different kind of friend, but in the meantime pay a therapist to listen.

Summary

Basically what I am saying is that there is a fine line between lying to yourself and learning how to change the way you think about life on one side as well as suppressing emotions or dealing with them in appropriate ways on the other side. What I see around me each and every day is a lot of people who either whine about life or pretend to be happy when they are dying inside. There is a better way, but it takes a lot of practice. I currently have someone in my life who simply doesn't believe me when I say I'm doing well. That's her choice and her paradigm and I'm sad she doesn't currently see that I do have frustrations as well and do deal with them in healthy ways. My rule of thumb regarding uncomfortable emotions and frustrating situations was stated in #4 above.





If you would like to learn more about investing in real estate please contact me at the email address listed at the beginning of this article or go to my website at: www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html

WIN IN EVERY REAL ESTATE MARKET

By: Mark Frentz
www.akerahomes.com
mfrentz@akerahomes.com

Remember: Please share this article if it helped

Before I Begin

If you are thinking of investing in real estate you need to fully understand what you are getting into. The more you have prepared beforehand or can rely on by joining with and experienced investor, the better you will manage your risk and the more money you will make for the first day of investing. There are two aspects of real estate that most people I meet don't typically understand when thinking about investing in real estate. The first is that you need a ton of your own money to invest. This is simply not true. It is true you need money, but you can also help other people invest and provide a fantastic service for them by providing great returns and use this service to help build your own portfolio. The better you take care of others, the better you will take care of your own future. The second aspect that many people do not understand is that you only make money in real estate when the market trends up. This is absolutely NOT TRUE! In this post I will be growing your understanding of how to make money in real estate no matter what market you are in.

The Basics

To be able to determine which strategy you are going to pursue at any given time you need to understand where you are in the market. For the sake of simplicity and keeping this post short there are 4 basic parts to a market (you can see this from the picture above):
1. Recession is sometimes called a buyer's market and takes place when the market is down trending 
2. Recovery is basically the bottom of the market where it provides a solid base from which to grow for a while
3. Expansion is often called a seller's market and is when a market is growing in prices and building on the momentum gained from a market's recovery
4. Contraction is basically the top of the market where prices are about to turn downward (supply has grown beyond the demand for properties)

Types of Real Estate Transactions

While I won't go into deep detail here (I will explain these concepts in a later post). You need to come up with a basic real estate investing strategy before you begin investing. Where are you going to make the bulk of your money? There are two basic strategies when it comes to making money in real estate. The first is long term buy and hold strategies and the second is shorter term flipping strategies. Here are some examples of both and what you can do with them in different markets

1. Buy and hold

This is a long term strategy (For me a buy and hold needs to last over at least 7 years) and you can help yourself in this strategy no matter what the market is giving you
     -Recession: This is the time to purchase new properties at a discount! Even though the market may not be at the bottom yet, the money you are saving in a great deal and the security of knowing you got a great deal will make up for it in the long run. It isn't the person who hits the exact bottom with a purchase that wins, it is the person who consistently gets great deals, period.
     -Recovery: Paying attention to this end of the market pays off as well. If you have any capital left, now is the time to purchase another property or two. While the deals aren't as good as in recession, you can do something quick because it is most likely that you won't get a better chance for another 7-10 years or so. It's time to shore up your portfolio and get ready to focus on managing properties.
     -Expansion: The opposite, in many ways, to a recession market. Now is the time to refinance and/or sell certain properties you currently hold in your portfolio. Why would you sell at this time if your strategy is to hold? Because you may have started your portfolio with a single family home and want to pick up a suited place when the market trends down next time. Another example is offloading suited properties (maybe a few) and then getting in on larger multi-family properties later on (possibly a building with 8 or more doors). Expansion is also a good time to lock in some of your good tenants for a few years if possible at fair rates and find better tenants in the properties that have had less than ideal tenants up until now because this market is usually mirrored in the rental/tenant market; many tenants and less properties to choose.
     -Contraction: Now is the time to simply refinance your properties. Make sure not to over-leverage yourself (See my post on cash flow), but also make sure you are pulling money out of properties when the money is good so you can expand your portfolio in the coming few years.

2. Flips

There are a few types of flips. The most often used are: purchase fix and flip, rent to own, and wholesale deals. I don't consider flips a valid type of investing because they fit better into a simple business plan; I see these as viable business strategies to put cash in your pocket or into buy and hold strategies, but these aren't technically investing for me because they are simply cash and you are basically only making money on 2-3 of the 9+ ways to you can in real estate investing. If you want more information on all the ways to make money when investing in real estate please visit the many posts I have, to date, on the various ways to make money in real estate (see: 'Why Real Estate is The Best Investment' on the right-hand side of this page under 'categories').
     -Recession: Rent to own deals, if the focus is about a 3 year option at least, can be done at this time because they take a little while to set up and the purchase of a property for good rent to own deals (discussion for another post) in the best interest of the tenant/buyer can be picked up at a great price. Wholesale deals are ripe for the picking at this time in the market. You can pick up fantastic deals and, as long as you have your investor pipeline set up, you can immediately turn them around to people looking for good buy and holds. I would recommend holding off on fix and flip deals unless they are larger projects you are doing on your own with little help from outside contractors because fix and flip deals need to be short term to consistently make good money. An example of a fix/flip that works in recession is an infill. For early stages of infills, this can be a great time to get into a property.
     -Recovery: Now is the time to really move on purchasing any type of flip. Every strategy should work if it is purchased at this time because you make your money in a few months from now (for the most part) when things continue in stability or begin increasing in market value.
     -Expansion: Early expansion can be even more lucrative than recovery, but this is now a time to be closing down your deals rather than getting into them. There is no single individual on the planet who can tell you what the market will be in 6 months. An example of this in the Calgary market is that we were gearing up for later expansion when oil prices tanked. This sent us very quickly into the contraction market stage and now we are in recession. Again, take what the market gives and don't get greedy. There is always more money to be made if you are patient and take what the market offers. There will always be another expansion... just wait for an average of around 8-12 years.
     -Contraction: If you have any flips in your portfolio now is the time to get rid of them, even if it is at a discount. You NEVER want to be holding a flip on the way down in a market because you will end up chasing prices the hold way. I have two real estate agents in my family and they have told me multiple stories of many people holding out for another $5k and because they were a little too greedy didn't follow professional advice and chased the market all the way down. These people tend to lose tens of thousands of dollars (one example was about $150k) because of their greed.

Tip: One way to consistently make money in real estate for many years is to 'always leave money on the table'. I will always choose to lose a few dollars today to make hundreds of dollars tomorrow. If you squeeze people out of every penny a deal is worth you will ruin relationships and end up with less deals in the future. Remember that 50% of a smaller pie is always more money than 100% of a big deal that falls apart.

Summary

The biggest reason I invest and encourage others to invest in real estate is it's versatility. You can make money in every market in real estate and you can make money in many, many ways in real estate (again, read my former posts on the subject of the various dimensions of real estate because it is too much to cover here). If you invest in stocks, precious metals, or  you have very limited options compared to real estate. From the people I talk to it seems like average mom and pop type investors would probably disagree with a lot I've said here. I've made sound arguments that any market you are currently in is a great market... you simply have to take advantage of your opportunities by investing in your own education or paying someone who knows more than you to help you out.




Here's to your future of risk-averse investing!

If you would like to learn more about investing in real estate please contact me at the email address listed at the beginning of this article or go to my website at: www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html

GET RICH SLOW

By: Mark Frentz
www.akerahomes.com
mfrentz@akerahomes.com

Remember: Please share this article if it helped

A Simple Method Over 30 Years

A week ago I was helping a family with some retirement planning. They were strapped for cash and didn't have money to put into purchasing rental properties even though they understood how much their money could grow in real estate. The advice I gave them? Forget about saving for real estate! They already own one property and that property will multiply over the next 30 years to allow them to purchase more property without extra cash infusions. I'll explain this really soon, but for now I want you to realize that this family was ecstatic. Now they could begin to rest knowing that their future would be taken care of and what they needed to focus on was not saving every penny for their retirement, but rather simply doing life together as a family and allowing the retirement to grow as time continues to roll on. This is almost exactly the opposite approach that most people I know take toward retirement. People I usually talk to aren't stressed about retirement and are putting away a few dollars into their RRSPs every year. This is often actually killing their retirement because RRSPs were never even meant to help someone retire on their own. Because of the average person's lack of knowledge about how investing works and what their retirement needs are, the average family becomes more and more stressed about retirement as times goes by rather than, like the first family I mentioned, more and more relaxed. So... how can you retire after 30 years of getting rich slow?

Getting Rich Slow

Here's the plan for this strategy: How could you retire with over $20,000 each month ($240,000) in income from real estate investing in around 30 years without saving an extravagant amount of money each month? Before we get into it I want to warn you... Real estate is easy to do, very difficult to do well. If you have a great understanding of how real estate investing works this strategy is fairly simple and easy to realize. If, on the other hand, you have no idea what you are doing in real estate investing the only way to make this happen is by communicating and joining with someone else who does understand what she or he is doing. If you join with someone else, you will pay for their services and this won't look exactly the same... but say you only realized half of this each year and you had none of the work with finding and maintaining that real estate portfolio over the 30 years of this strategy? Would this still be appealing if you invested the original money once and then, 30 years later, you retired on only $120,000 each year? I'm guessing for most people this would still be pretty exciting. On to the strategy...

If real estate increases in value by 3% per year (this is conservative, but realistic) you can refinance your first property every 5 years and pull out enough money to purchase a new property. That means you portfolio doubles every 5 years! If you purchased a rental today, you could have 2 rental properties in 5 years, 4 properties in 10 years, etc. What this could look like is that you would own 16 properties in 20 years! Now, there properties would not be cash flowing by much.... they would be cash flowing a tiny amount and your extra money would be reinvested back into them. For the last 10 years you would simply keep putting all the cash you make on the properties. Also at the end of the last 10 years you would be able to sell around 4 of the properties to pay down the mortgages on the rest of them. That would leave you with 12 properties without any mortgages. At that point you would simply live on the cash flow from each property (today that would be around $2,000 per property per month if they are all suited). This would total far more than the $20,000 each month that I suggested at the beginning of this post. You would actually be closer to $24,000, but I like to play things conservatively.

Potential Problems

I've tried to use simple numbers and estimates, but there are some obvious problems with my example. The biggest is that the market does not climb in ANY city by 3% each and every year. There are dips and peaks in every market. The ideal is that no matter where the market is you can refinance the existing properties in order pay for new properties whenever it is possible... that will AVERAGE 5 years. It won't be exact. Another large problem that is obvious to me is that you may have some difficulties qualifying for 16 properties. If this happens the simple fix is to begin purchasing properties with over 8 doors in them. These properties will qualify themselves and isn't actually a big problem. You simply need to understand what you are doing or, as I mentioned earlier, you can pay someone else to take care of the larger details. Lastly, you may not have 30 years until retirement... If you have far less time you may need to put more money into properties each year, but the important point I'm making is that you need to make a decision to get into property NOW, not later.

Summary

The beauty of this basic plan is that if you have the will/motivation to save enough to make sure you get into property as early as possible you are then able to leverage your existing investments to grow your retirement each and every year. The last thought I want to leave you with is this: If it is too late to really take control of your retirement it typically is not too late for your kids or grandchildren! Teach them and guide them. If most 18 year olds spend the first few years of their working lives to purchase a property, they then can go to school or work or not and they have already make huge steps toward taking care of their own families and retirements.



As always:

Here's to your future of risk-averse investing!

If you would like to learn more about investing in real estate please contact me at the email address listed at the beginning of this article or go to my website at: www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html

FINDING MY WHY

By: Mark Frentz
www.akerahomes.com
mfrentz@akerahomes.com

Remember: Please share this article if it helped

Why Define Your "Why"?

Our subconscious minds work a bit like a radio tower that sends out a signal that, in turn, motivates us toward something or against something. Our focus tends to be heavily influenced by our subconscious mind and it is vitally important that we train our subconscious mind to send out the signals that will help us move in direction we want to move in. I recently finished a mini series helping people understand hinders and motivates us, but the series barely scratched the surface. For the purpose of today's post you can, at least in some ways, think of your subconscious mind as including major parts of your limbic system. Today I will use the term 'subconscious' because it is a word most people have heard a lot about and because it doesn't exactly line up with our limbic system in every way. The important point I want to make in this introduction is that our subconscious mind influences us an incredibly great deal and if we train this part of our mind in the right way we can be motivated toward our goals and dreams rather than toward what society tells us to focus on (the newest whatever to buy or simply that we don't look as good or seem as successful as typical media personalities).

The key to programming your subconscious mind the way you want to is to understand why you want what you want. I am a real estate investor and the biggest reason people usually tell me they want to get into investing is because of the money. While it is true that people invest for the money, there is always a deeper reason. In itself money is, at greatest, simply a tool. If you want to be really motivated toward your goals you will need to probe deeper than with the simple answer of money.

How You Define Your Why

As I just pointed out, in order to truly be motivated toward your goals you will need to delve deeper into your desires and values than simply getting what you want right now; money. I am about to teach you an exercise that goes a long way to understanding your deeper desires and what gets you out of bed each morning. When I do this exercise with people I typically need to ask the basic question at least 3 times. With some people I have asked the question 5-6 times before getting to the core of a person's desires. What I am teaching you is how to get down into your limbic system (centre of emotions and motivations among many other things). When you are done you should experience emotion! When I did this for myself the first time I ended up crying quite a bit by the end. While you don't necessarily need to cry I cannot emphasize enough that in order to get full benefit out of this exercise you will need to keep going until you experience strong emotion. One more tip before I get into it: This exercise should take time. If it takes you 5 minutes in total, you probably haven't done it very thoroughly. It can easily take 30-45 minutes of soul searching... and it's worth the effort!

1. Ask yourself why you want what you say you want (money, a certain job, a relationship, etc.). The first time you ask this question you can simply take the first thought that comes to mind.

2. Ask yourself why you want the answer you gave for the first question. An example here is maybe you said you wanted a job because it will give you money or security or you may have said you wanted a relationship because it will complete you in some way. You now need to ask yourself why you want the security or to be complete. The second time you ask this question the answer will be a little more difficult to discover. That's ok, work through it. If this step takes a few minutes it is well worth it.

3. You now need to continue asking yourself why in the sequence set above. Keep going.... This is the most difficult part. Each time may take longer to do all the inward processing that is needed. The good news is that this is the absolute least expensive good therapy you will ever receive:) For step three you need to continue asking why until you have reached a deep emotional place within yourself that you know is essential to who you are and want to be.

4. Once you have reached that deep emotional space you need to ask yourself: How will I feel when I realize the answer I am actually seeking deep down (the answer to the last time you had to ask 'why'). Connect to your emotions here. The more you emotionally connect with yourself the deeper and more solid your goals will be attached to your deepest desires.

5. Now ask yourself: What difference will achieving what I want and may need on a deeper level make in the lives of others around me?

6. Last question: When I see the difference this makes with those around me, how will it affect me? Again you are bringing things back to that which most connects with you on multiple levels.

I would recommend that you write these answers down because they can now form the basis for your own mission statement and will be the backbone of your goals and dreams moving forward. Your ability to achieve your goals will multiply when you do this. Not because it is magical or ingredients to some sort of mind potion. The best psychological research shows that there are clear connections between your deepest emotions and your motivations to do every day tasks that bring you toward or further from your goals.

Note: If practicing this exercise hasn't taken you to a deep emotional place... no worries. It simply means you aren't connecting with yourself in a deep way. Many people aren't able to get there right away and you need to be prepared to have emotions come up that will be uncomfortable. If you are terrified of uncomfortable emotions it may take a few times to feel relaxed enough to connect. Keep going and you will absolutely know when you have connected with yourself in a deeper way.

When To Review Your Why

If you've taken the time to go through these questions well, you have completed the most difficult and longest part of motivating yourself consistently. The second part is easier day to day, but will be difficult in a different way if you don't have a regular routine to your day. Almost every successful person I have ever met or read about has a consistent daily routine.

The last step to this exercise is to remind yourself at least daily why you are doing what you are doing. You don't need to go over the exercise again and again. You simply need to remind yourself of the final answers you came up with when doing the exercise. You may not see a lot of results in the first week or two, but by the end of the third week if you do this each and every day (once in the morning and maybe even once at night) you will begin to see a difference in how much you accomplish and how you are beginning to think differently. I sincerely believe that if you practice these reminders once or twice each day for two months you would be in a completely different place when it comes to making decisions that move you toward your goal.

Summary

I began this post by comparing our subconscious mind to a radio tower that send out signals. Even though it isn't always obvious to some individuals, the small decisions you make each day toward or away from relationships/money/specific careers are almost always influenced by your subconscious mind. I want to challenge you to work toward your dreams by taking a step back today and working on the part of your mind that will ultimately help work toward or against your goals. While there is much more to success than focusing on what you want, this is a very important early step.



Here's to your future of risk-averse investing!

If you would like to learn more about investing in real estate please contact me at the email address listed at the beginning of this article or go to my website at: www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html

WHAT MOVES ME FORWARD? part 4 of 4

By: Mark Frentz
www.akerahomes.com
mfrentz@akerahomes.com

Remember: Please share this article if it helped

Input Output

"You are what you think about" is a quote I have often heard. I have no idea who it comes from, but I believe it is true to a large degree. What we put into our brains largely determines how we act, communicated with others, and believe in. The question then is... What are you thinking about? What are you putting in your brain on a daily basis? Is it TV, light party conversation, or hockey? While there is nothing wrong with any of those three in themselves, if the majority of what you put in your brain is focused on what you get from those types of activities you most likely shouldn't expect too much from yourself when it comes to overcoming problems in life because they aren't the ideal training grounds for learning courage and pushing through barriers. Another timeless quote: "You reap what you sow"

Train Your Brain

Take a few minutes to think of how you would train yourself for a job like becoming a doctor or accountant or water treatment specialist. For any of these professions you would go to school to learn specific knowledge about these fields. Why do we think differently when it comes to our ability to overcome challenges in life? If you want to overcome challenges I plead with you not to go to the school of the latest movies or sitcoms. Look around you at Canada, or North America... do you truly want to think like and get the same results as the majority of people are getting? If so, please stop reading now and go back to the latest show on TV. If you want different results you will need to start training your brain in different ways.

The school of strong minds begins with you learning all you can about your mind through free blogs, like this, relatively inexpensive books, and internet videos. You don't have to spend a ton of money in order to learn how to think well, you simply have to introduce more helpful thoughts into your head than you get from around you each and every day. Here is a list of questions and ideas to help in beginning this journey:

1. Who do you spend your time with? Are these positive or negative people? Do they encourage you to be your best and tell you the truth or do they simply help you feel good about not accomplishing anything and being mediocre because they may struggle with high aspirations themselves?

2. Explore your spirituality: What do you value in life? What do you most want to accomplish in life? These questions can focus on your 'why' which was discussed in my last post in this series. What do you believe your purpose in life is?

3. Write out a mission statement. Take your time and develop this over weeks and months until it is something you fully believe in and want to strive after in life

4. Practice better self talk: Attempt to work on eliminating certain phrases and words you use that stop you from achieving and pursuing your goals and exchange them for those that do. An example of this is eliminating the word 'can't' and exchanging it with the question 'how can I find a way to...' Another example is how you talk about success or money. Exchange the term filthy rich for wealthy, or extravagantly generous.

5. Do things to push yourself and challenge yourself each and every day. Some of my favorites are: Taking a cold shower in the morning because I feel I have accomplished something difficult first thing each day and have more courage throughout the rest of the day. Take a trip on a plane if that frightens you. Speak in front of people. Eat something new.

6. Get into routines: The importance of a routine cannot be over emphasized. Every person I've ever heard of that has accomplished anything of worth has had a solid daily routine.

7. Put something into your head from a better brain than yours: There are so many resources out there that aren't expensive like podcasts, blogs, youtube videos, as well as books including biographies, texts in your field, and simply people who have thought a lot about things and are good at thinking in general. At the very least I would recommend spending time thinking other people's thoughts (all of the examples above) for at least 30-60 minutes each day to combat all the junk thinking around you each day.

8. Review the goals you have set for yourself on a daily basis and dream about these things to encourage you to work toward them instead of whatever chances your fancy in any given hour. 

Summary

It is true that you sow what you reap. If input 'The Bachelor', then you are going to reap far less than changing the world for the better. In short, put the stuff into your head each day that will give you the results you want out of life over a long period of time. Remember that your brain doesn't change for the better or for the worse in a few hours or days. It takes weeks and months of consistent work to get results and you have to decide whether it is worth it to move forward toward what you truly want in life.




Here's to your future of risk-averse investing!

If you would like to learn more about investing in real estate please contact me at the email address listed at the beginning of this article or go to my website at: www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html

WHAT MOVES ME FORWARD? part 3 of 4

By: Mark Frentz
www.akerahomes.com
mfrentz@akerahomes.com

Remember: Please share this article if it helped

Moving Past Fear

In the first post of this series I discussed the fact that our 'reptilian brain' or limbic system is very good at reacting to situations. One of the most interesting things, for me, about our limbic system is that it doesn't matter whether a situation is real or imagined, we react the same. A quick example before we get into what you can do to help calm this part of your brain: If you saw a grizzly bear when you were walking through the forest, what would you do? Now what if you saw a huge dog, but thought it was a grizzly... what would you do? What if it was simply a clump of trees, but you thought it was a grizzly? Last question... What if you are laying in bed at night and imagine walking in a forest and coming across a grizzly? What is interesting about our limbic system is that whether a threat is real or even simply imagined, we will kick our sympathetic system into high gear. What this means is basically that adrenaline and cortisol are released by our brains into our body. This has a few physical affects in our body which include: restricted blood flow to our 'thinking/logical' brain, increased heart rate and breathing, tunnel vision, and restricted blood flow to our digestive system. When you are in danger, these are great things in many ways. When you are not in danger, they are terrible. If your sympathetic system is often or consistently engaged you will use up a lot of things in your body you need and can actually get sick more often as your immune system is compromised.

The Answer to Your Problems

The answer to reacting instead of thinking is your parasympathetic system! This is the system in your brain that slows the entire process down and allows you to digest and think again. If you want to do research on this look up the vagus nerve and how to activate it. For the purposes of this post I will give you a few ideas that help in allowing you to think better in the moment as well as learn not to react in the same way in the future if it isn't helpful.

First, you need to understand that in the moment it is best to take good long deep breaths and be close to a person who is safe. By close I mean actual physical contact. If you are touching someone who you feel safe with and you do some good, deep, belly breathing you will most likely calm yourself quite quickly.

Secondly, if you find yourself reacting to situations and losing control of yourself often you need to learn to change this response. This does not happen overnight, but can be done if you work at it. If you have fairly good mental health I would suggest you begin with exposure therapy. I'll give a quick example: If you are scared of saying 'no' to people because you are afraid of conflict I would encourage you to practice cold calling or making sales calls for a while or even saying no to people at work or at home. This will be really difficult at first and you will feel the fight, flee, freeze response a lot. You will sweat and it'll probably stink like 'scared sweat'. If you do this over and over however, you will begin to feel comfortable in more situations in life. Another way to practice this is by giving speeches in front of people. You can sign up for 'toast masters' and practice doing things that scare you, but are actually quite safe. Eventually you will become used to these situations and overcome some of your fears.

*** note: if you struggle with mental health (depression, anxiety, PTSD, bipolar disorder, etc.) then it is best to see a psychologist and ask how to improve your mental health before you try exposure therapy... You'll have to simply trust me with this.

Third, understand that fear is a great short term motivator to stop doing something... it is a terrible motivator for long term goals like investing well over 15 years or building a business. It'll simply sap you strength over time. You need to find a motivator that will bring you to reach your goals in a healthy way. Is it healthier to build a business to avoid disappointing you dead father, or because you see the benefits of how it can teach your children, your family, the employees you hire, and the value you bring to your community? I truly hope the answer is obvious to you right now.

Using Your Brain for Your Benefit

With these steps in mind you will need to strengthen your ability to work for something rather than work to avoid something bad (disappointing someone). Remember from the first post... our limbic system is involved in motivation and our emotions and senses. The way to use these to your benefit is to start imagining what you really want in life. But don't simply think about it, you need to vividly imagine it! involve your emotions and your senses. If you dream of making a ton of money so that you can begin a not-for-profit organization that helps homeless people in a poor neighborhood you can begin by imagining what your organization will look like when it is finished; imagine the people standing in front of you thanking you for your help and ask yourself: what are they wearing, what does the place smell like and look like? I invite you to involved all 5 senses if at possible even to the smallest detail. Also, how will you be feeling in that moment? How will the people around be feeling? Again, involve your emotions. A great way to practice this is by asking yourself 'why' you want something many times until you actually become emotional. If you want help with this I can provide a few tips. Email me and I will try my best to help you out in your specific situation. If there is enough interest I may simply post a simple way to practice this yourself in the future. Again, if interested let me know.

Last, and Most Importantly

This exercise of imagining and involving your limbic system will help you only if you practice consistently. My recommendation is you do this twice a day; once first thing in the morning and once just before bed. If you do this you must give it time to take root in your limbic system or what a lot of people call your subconscious mind. You may not notice a huge difference in the first week, but if you practice this consistently and correctly you will notice massive changes in the small choices you make each and every day. You will begin to do things that actually work toward your goal rather than seeming to sabotage yourself.

While this takes care of a lot of your limbic system, you still need to work on your 'thinking brain' if you want complete results and reach your goals much faster and will far less mental effort. We will discuss this in my next post.




Here's to your future of risk-averse investing!

If you would like to learn more about investing in real estate please contact me at the email address listed at the beginning of this article or go to my website at: www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html

WHAT HOLDS ME BACK? part 2 of 4

By: Mark Frentz
www.akerahomes.com
mfrentz@akerahomes.com

Remember: Please share this article if it helped

A Quick Review

In my first post to begin this short series on how to push through hurdles I wrote on how powerful our emotional brain is. Once we learn certain reactions to scary situations we tend to continue to stick to those reactions and this can seem, at times, to control our behaviors. A major problem with this is that we will react to things that may seem scary to our primitive 'reptilian brain' even when we are in no real danger. An example is public speaking. A great percentage of people on the planet fear public speaking even though there is no great threat to them. Why? Read my previous post for the start of an answer.

Next Piece of The Puzzle

Our cerebral cortex, or logical brain, surrounds our emotional brain and gives humans the ability to think in more complex and nuanced ways than other animals. But just because our logical brain is pretty smart doesn't mean it doesn't have weaknesses. In the 20th century big companies became experts at using this part of our brain against us by filling it so much of the time with ads that we begin to believe. For example did you know that the great wall of China cannot be seen from space? The reason many people believe this is true is simply because most of us have heard it many times. Did you know that you don't need the latest iPhone to be happy or successful?

Did you know that the average Canadian comes across about 2,000-4,000 advertisements each and every day? With all of these ads does it not make sense that we tend to think about stuff to buy and stuff we think we need even when we really don't?

Does it make sense that you may believe you are not very smart or good looking or creative if you have heard yourself and others tell you these things many times in your lifetime? Does it make sense that you believe you can't do a lot of things simply because you've heard many people say some things are impossible? I'll give an example of this last question... Are investments that provide 20% returns riskier than investments that provide 5% returns? The true answer is that either investment can be risky and that many 20% return investments are safer than the 5% investments because you have more control over them. If you hear and/or tell yourself something over and over again you will begin to believe it.

If most of the people in your life don't have a lot of money and tend to be negative does it not make sense that you will think in ways that don't help you to be successful in money or relationships or jobs or whatever it is you desire success in?

There are other things in life that affect our logical brains. The big three are diet, sleep, and exercise. If you are hungry, tired, and lethargic/weak you will most likely not be thinking very well and making your best and clearest decisions.

Summary

There are two parts of our brains that tend to hold us back from the things we really do desire in life. The first is our emotional brain (limbic system) and the second is our logical brain (cerebral cortex). If we do not learn to manage how we think we will typically do the things we see others do around us. Is it any wonder you may have a lot of anxiety and stress and spend more money than you make or waste your money on gadgets and vehicles rather than investing in your family and financial future? I've heard it said that if you don't like the way your life is going, you need to do something different. Well, I'll expand this and say: If you don't like the way your life is going, you need to do something different than the people around you who are getting the same results. You need to learn to think differently. As you think differently you will begin to act differently and eventually you will receive the things you actually want in life rather than the things other people have told you that you should want.

In my next two posts I will focus on these two parts of our brains from a different angle. Now that we know what typically holds us back we can look forward and begin to understand what will change our lives for the better.




Here's to your future of risk-averse investing!

If you would like to learn more about investing in real estate please contact me at the email address listed at the beginning of this article or go to my website at: www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html

WHAT HOLDS ME BACK? part 1 of 4

By: Mark Frentz
www.akerahomes.com
mfrentz@akerahomes.com

Remember: Please share this article if it helped

What Does Hold Me Back?

A couple of months ago I was asked to speak at a weekend long real estate investing seminar by a friend of mine. This friend and I often talk about the psychology of investing and what holds people back from taking steps they really do want to take for their future and he wanted me to provide a presentation to explain the details further to those he was teaching. I am beginning a 4 post mini series on this topic. The first two posts will explain more about what holds us back and the last two will explain more about how to move past these hurdles to realize more of what you want in life. In case you are wondering... I have an advanced degree in psychology and work in the field, so the basis of what I am talking about comes from research that is current. I will try to explain enough to help people understand what I'm talking about, but won't provide as much as I want simply to keep things brief enough for a blog post.

Our Limbic System

Humans, and all mammals (and even 'lower life forms' on the evolutionary brain development scale), have a part of our brains that is called our limbic system. This is made up of a group of neurons that react very quickly to things that happen around us and one of the great purposes of the limbic system is to protect us. Some psychologists call this part of our brain "our reptilian brain" because reptiles also have this type of brain structure, but it is a very primitive brain structure. Reptiles can react quickly to things that threaten them, but aren't able to use higher level thinking. Humans do the same when we feel threatened. We can react quickly, but the part of our brain that is logical actually doesn't work very well because our brain restricts blood flow to those parts. The blood is used to fuel the limbic system so we can react. This is often called our flight, fight, freeze response. This partially explains why when you are arguing with someone you can say things you don't really mean and then later on (when your logical brain starts getting more blood again) you feel guilty about what you said.

This part of our brain reacts to fear. Fear is the strongest motivator for humans... at least for a short period of time (while blood is restricted to our logical brain). It often prevents us from things that are good for us and even things that we want because we are reacting in certain ways rather than thinking about and responding to decisions in front of us. The reason you typically react to fear with one of the three: fighting, escaping, or freezing is that your limbic system learned in childhood which response worked to keep you safe on some level. An example:

When you were a kid you learned to back down from parents or older siblings when there was tension in the house because you weren't hurt (emotionally or physically) as often when you backed down. If this was your response from a young age, you will most likely back down from situations when you feel tension as an adult even if it does not pose a real threat at all.

Our limbic system remembers our responses to tension or fear and tends to react in the same ways over and over again whether it helps or not. Again, this is a primitive brain structure that protects us in some ways, but isn't thinking logically about situations. The purpose of the limbic system is FAST REACTION. And it does this well. If you typically lash out at others, this is a pattern for you based on fear. If you freeze and don't say or do anything, this is a pattern for you based on fear.

Your Logical Brain Shuts Down!

Does it now make sense that if you fear almost anything in a situation or decision you may react by not doing anything? This is why fear holds us back. We fear others, ourselves, success, and failure. So again I will ask you: WHAT HOLDS YOU BACK? It is worthwhile to take enough time to become more aware of what holds you back from big and small decisions that will affect you. Begin to understand when you feel threatened by others or yourself. Once you become very aware of what you fear and how you react to fear you can begin to counteract that reaction (but I'm getting ahead of myself here).

Summary

Emotions have great power to motivate us to react to situations in certain patterns that we learn early on in life. Most of our emotional responses are based in fear. Even those people you know who are always really angry... fear is usually behind this response and anger is actually the reaction, not the cause. The great thing about this is that humans can react quickly to dangers in our environments. The difficulty is that we don't live in the wild any longer. We live in cities. In cities the same dangers don't exist and we are actually often held back by our fear response rather than helped as we used to be. The better you understand your own reactions to fear and what you typically fear the better you will be able to get past both your fears and your reactions to those fears. We need to know what we are dealing with before we can deal fully with it.

This post was focused on what holds us back emotionally. In my next post I will get into what holds us back in another major part of our brain. The two posts after that I will focus on how to begin to overcome these hurdles. While this isn't a quick fix, it will help you on your journey toward success and much more satisfaction in life.



Here's to your future of risk-averse investing!

If you would like to learn more about investing in real estate please contact me at the email address listed at the beginning of this article or go to my website at: www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html