tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-85570533280673277812024-03-13T07:58:16.138-07:00Investment Education 101Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205345890908852362noreply@blogger.comBlogger65125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557053328067327781.post-77119493791403807622016-07-13T11:11:00.001-07:002016-07-13T11:11:49.219-07:003 MAJOR AREAS OF PROPERTY MANAGMENT: 1 of 3 Attracting and Screening For Great Tenants<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8ai0WkfZYh49RkD1zVokyyVazLVzeZ9Xey0QAW3MgK3YRPfIubJNlFLXbGgTU5uQ6FO8-TnzHV2KfvbPOBOwpRL5dD11tQUopMUrk6PwFMftQpu61smgl7jCz-OVAVF5o3w6MDBUlHfM/s1600/now+renting.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8ai0WkfZYh49RkD1zVokyyVazLVzeZ9Xey0QAW3MgK3YRPfIubJNlFLXbGgTU5uQ6FO8-TnzHV2KfvbPOBOwpRL5dD11tQUopMUrk6PwFMftQpu61smgl7jCz-OVAVF5o3w6MDBUlHfM/s1600/now+renting.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">By: Mark Frentz<br /><a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/">www.akerahomes.com</a><br />mfrentz@akerahomes.com<br /><br />Remember: Please share this article if you find it enjoyable</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Start of The Process</b></div>
<br />
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.<br />
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.<br />
2. You have complete control over who you rent your property to!<br />
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.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Attracting Great Tenants</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
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. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
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. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
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. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
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.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
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. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
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. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Lastly, complete a lease checklist which should include:</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
1. The lease (initials on each page)</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
-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. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
2. Copy of driver's licenses</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
3. Security deposit</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
4. First month's rent</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
5. Provide emergency contact numbers</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
6. Go through your initial walkthrough and sign and initial this agreement as well</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
-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.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
7. Hand over the keys</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Summary</b></div>
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
<br />
Here's to your future of risk-averse investing!<br />
<br />
<div>
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: <a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html">www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html</a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205345890908852362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557053328067327781.post-15419488503809891872016-05-23T14:58:00.004-07:002016-05-23T14:59:31.502-07:00How (not to) to retire well beginning when you’re 20-35 years old!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOJlc3opSRbdGm8kJfoy5M22BcUhmTQuaAf74FsguRMUMsx8r-vG8rFGwzEj_txP6OipR1Siu3CES-fUCtZPFkU1ztFOyG0xSBDgVUIt2YltBr3tkjshyLbSyL8gd_huQ3nfY0djg95Ss/s1600/wealth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOJlc3opSRbdGm8kJfoy5M22BcUhmTQuaAf74FsguRMUMsx8r-vG8rFGwzEj_txP6OipR1Siu3CES-fUCtZPFkU1ztFOyG0xSBDgVUIt2YltBr3tkjshyLbSyL8gd_huQ3nfY0djg95Ss/s1600/wealth.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">By: Mark Frentz<br /><a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/">www.akerahomes.com</a><br />mfrentz@akerahomes.com<br /><br />Remember: Please share this article if you find it enjoyable</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
<b>7 ways to quickly ruin your retirement at a young age:</b><br />
<br />
1. Finance a new car<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
Solutions?<br />
<br />
Buy a less expensive used vehicle with cash. Don’t have enough cash? Don’t buy it.<br />
Move closer to work and walk, ride a bike, or take public transit to work until you have enough cash to purchase a vehicle.<br />
<br />
2. Rent OR purchase a home to live in by yourself or with only your immediate family<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
Solutions?<br />
<br />
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<br />
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!<br />
<br />
3. A financed degree<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
Solutions?<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
4. Travel (because we've all heard it will be difficult later on in life)<br />
<br />
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?<br />
<br />
Solutions?<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
5. Work like a dog for your current company<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
Solutions?<br />
<br />
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.<br />
Invest in yourself; your own education and ability to do whatever you want.<br />
<br />
6. Keep doing what others around you are doing and what is advertised daily to convince you it is the best way.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
Solutions?<br />
<br />
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.<br />
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.<br />
<br />
7. Negative friends or, even worse, investing in a negative partner by getting into a long term intimate relationship without your eyes wide open.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
Solutions?<br />
<br />
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).<br />
<br />
<b>Summary</b><br />
<br />
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!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Here's to your future of risk-averse investing!<br />
<br />
<div>
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: <a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html">www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html</a></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205345890908852362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557053328067327781.post-59263512533555626092016-04-21T17:59:00.001-07:002016-06-02T15:44:10.508-07:00WOULD YOU RATHER BE RICH OR WEALTHY?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj85geWjgIH0BshuJt_Q9ViU511-SQlMCbwPR_RlpQ3GiNViSIggDabmU35YJiFpXoFzgw1vfDFF4j5io1vdpVuDFbjpZg7gYGb_TXLr9z-ppDR3Kyj649GYboaayebQQYe7vFL4idCrQ/s1600/rich+or+wealthy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="104" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj85geWjgIH0BshuJt_Q9ViU511-SQlMCbwPR_RlpQ3GiNViSIggDabmU35YJiFpXoFzgw1vfDFF4j5io1vdpVuDFbjpZg7gYGb_TXLr9z-ppDR3Kyj649GYboaayebQQYe7vFL4idCrQ/s320/rich+or+wealthy.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">By: Mark Frentz<br /><a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/">www.akerahomes.com</a><br />mfrentz@akerahomes.com<br /><br />Remember: Please share this article if you find it enjoyable</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>What's The Difference?</b></div>
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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).<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>So.... Back to The Question</b></div>
<br />
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 <u>wealthy</u> 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.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>A Challenge</b></div>
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Here's to your future of risk-averse investing!<br />
<br />
<div>
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: <a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html">www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html</a></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205345890908852362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557053328067327781.post-73016131132831236552016-03-24T18:48:00.001-07:002016-03-24T18:48:13.363-07:00MINDSET: WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE ABOUT YOURSELF? PART II<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMorCZBe0lpylv8izy-mtzbanNA9E4mYj-Rj1wCere2eSA046ggGch_gFQHQXRuKK2ky8JlTY0FqM57K7EzbBrrsM41RErANvi5bvnFjE67YdtPqr9o9zM6iDhmnn-EZ9mdvrWVaEpEkY/s1600/self+image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMorCZBe0lpylv8izy-mtzbanNA9E4mYj-Rj1wCere2eSA046ggGch_gFQHQXRuKK2ky8JlTY0FqM57K7EzbBrrsM41RErANvi5bvnFjE67YdtPqr9o9zM6iDhmnn-EZ9mdvrWVaEpEkY/s1600/self+image.jpg" /></a><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">By: Mark Frentz<br /><a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/">www.akerahomes.com</a><br />mfrentz@akerahomes.com<br /><br />Remember: Please share this article if you find it enjoyable</span><br />
<div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Part 2: Self-Image</b></div>
</div>
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>"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-</b></div>
<br />
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.). <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>The Secret</b></div>
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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:<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
2. You read a fortune cookie or read your horoscope and you begin to realize that it was extremely accurate in its prediction. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
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). <br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>So What?</b></div>
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
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). <br />
<br />
"Your results are a direct reflection of your image"<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Here's to your future of risk-averse investing!<br />
<br />
<div>
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: <a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html">www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html</a></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205345890908852362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557053328067327781.post-24406250893297931012016-03-19T15:59:00.002-07:002016-03-19T15:59:41.197-07:00INCREASE YOUR PROPERTY'S VALUE<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCANn7RWfzDSRyH0UXqjNCYvkD6h5aZipZIXJgM77dOnPWOj1-LnOTO2pOfy-4A6h25mCZV1C_3aAQZTrKQlTF09d2AUs785JEazEfDgq28Fr-AZsyRB22ryjp5mJEz3eRWXDIN9S9jvc/s1600/property+value.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCANn7RWfzDSRyH0UXqjNCYvkD6h5aZipZIXJgM77dOnPWOj1-LnOTO2pOfy-4A6h25mCZV1C_3aAQZTrKQlTF09d2AUs785JEazEfDgq28Fr-AZsyRB22ryjp5mJEz3eRWXDIN9S9jvc/s1600/property+value.jpg" /></a><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">By: Mark Frentz<br /><a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/">www.akerahomes.com</a><br />mfrentz@akerahomes.com<br /><br />Remember: Please share this article if you find it enjoyable</span><br />
<div>
<br />
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Any Idiot</b></div>
<br />
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! <b>What every serious, long term investor really wants to know is how to make money in ANY MARKET.</b> If you belong to this latter group keep reading.<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Five Tried and True Tips</b></div>
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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)<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Why Add Value?</b></div>
<br />
There are four reasons I can easily think of to add value to your property:<br />
1. People will pay more for the property when you sell it<br />
2. People will pay more to rent the property<br />
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<br />
4. You can refinance your property for more money and put that money toward another property sooner <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Last Words</b></div>
<br />
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?<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Here's to your future of risk-averse investing!<br />
<br />
<div>
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: <a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html">www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html</a></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205345890908852362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557053328067327781.post-90926157604843183372016-03-12T18:58:00.003-08:002016-03-24T17:29:36.684-07:00MINDSET: WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE ABOUT YOURSELF?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP5tMsABHmr7ihrioeFfxGAFL_7ObnJtnfMSKW2XDCVoCUtrrucoLXZ3zLvnuqMkqIXYnk5NxZ7gweClryXzXk_lF7rOXtvfq4kK5Z3vbcLmLD2Y1VPxlhkZF4UCJqnE5uYfsmxXmDyNs/s1600/self+beliefs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP5tMsABHmr7ihrioeFfxGAFL_7ObnJtnfMSKW2XDCVoCUtrrucoLXZ3zLvnuqMkqIXYnk5NxZ7gweClryXzXk_lF7rOXtvfq4kK5Z3vbcLmLD2Y1VPxlhkZF4UCJqnE5uYfsmxXmDyNs/s1600/self+beliefs.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">By: Mark Frentz<br /><a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/">www.akerahomes.com</a><br />mfrentz@akerahomes.com<br /><br />Remember: Please share this article if you find it enjoyable</span><br />
<div>
<br />
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>What do You Believe about Yourself?</b></div>
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>First Things First</b></div>
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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? <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Reality is Subjective</b></div>
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Brainwashing Yourself?</b></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"></span>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.<br />
<br />
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:<br />
<br />
1. Practice gratitude and watch how it affects your mood over a period of time<br />
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.<br />
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.<br />
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.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Summary</b></div>
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
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: <a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html">www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205345890908852362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557053328067327781.post-8189306863039154542016-03-05T11:03:00.001-08:002016-03-19T16:02:51.559-07:00WIN IN EVERY REAL ESTATE MARKET<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7HPFUXzlAJ3dkTQp-aJPwox1OEQfD-utZPTYzqaw7WQwb-B1_CGmYt9XDvJgmpW5KfQdTv0rTuWQYsuhdBkK4SLHqMBzaMlmrvqlN8O9qUAs8Knxzbwb7HX-eChsJ68EsB8G_8p9OyTI/s1600/market.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="148" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7HPFUXzlAJ3dkTQp-aJPwox1OEQfD-utZPTYzqaw7WQwb-B1_CGmYt9XDvJgmpW5KfQdTv0rTuWQYsuhdBkK4SLHqMBzaMlmrvqlN8O9qUAs8Knxzbwb7HX-eChsJ68EsB8G_8p9OyTI/s320/market.png" width="320" /></a><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">By: Mark Frentz<br /><a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/">www.akerahomes.com</a><br />mfrentz@akerahomes.com<br /><br />Remember: Please share this article if it helped</span><br />
<div>
<br />
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Before I Begin</b></div>
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>The Basics</b></div>
<br />
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):<br />
1. Recession is sometimes called a buyer's market and takes place when the market is down trending <br />
2. Recovery is basically the bottom of the market where it provides a solid base from which to grow for a while<br />
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<br />
4. Contraction is basically the top of the market where prices are about to turn downward (supply has grown beyond the demand for properties)<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Types of Real Estate Transactions</b></div>
<br />
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<br />
<br />
1. Buy and hold<br />
<br />
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<br />
-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. <br />
-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.<br />
-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. <br />
-Contraction: Now is the time to simply refinance your properties. Make sure not to over-leverage yourself (<a href="http://physicalinvestments.blogspot.ca/2013/06/1st-dimension-cash-flow.html" target="_blank">See my post on cash flow</a>), 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. <br />
<br />
2. Flips<br />
<br />
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 <i><u><b>investing</b></u></i> 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'). <br />
-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. <br />
-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.<br />
-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. <br />
-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.<br />
<br />
<b>Tip</b>: 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. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Summary</b></div>
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Here's to your future of risk-averse investing!<br />
<br />
<div>
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: <a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html">www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html</a></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205345890908852362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557053328067327781.post-31051279188687148012016-02-27T16:42:00.003-08:002016-03-19T16:02:42.003-07:00GET RICH SLOW<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4jSEcWedp2YeyLX-sQzoajtgQfQF16hxR-xV4inq9zHMhoTvAVGWfZYyqTLh8fBHs_Yj3-n4Eb4F2i_vXErCIFgZroiLL7xUJ6HmC3esaFRvj1NLvN9vnXVo4nYPqpEvf5mgQF3XlQsg/s1600/retirement.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4jSEcWedp2YeyLX-sQzoajtgQfQF16hxR-xV4inq9zHMhoTvAVGWfZYyqTLh8fBHs_Yj3-n4Eb4F2i_vXErCIFgZroiLL7xUJ6HmC3esaFRvj1NLvN9vnXVo4nYPqpEvf5mgQF3XlQsg/s1600/retirement.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">By: Mark Frentz<br /><a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/">www.akerahomes.com</a><br />mfrentz@akerahomes.com<br /><br />Remember: Please share this article if it helped</span><br />
<div>
<br />
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>A Simple Method Over 30 Years</b></div>
<br />
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?<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Getting Rich Slow</b></div>
<br />
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...<br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Potential Problems</b></div>
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Summary </b></div>
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
As always:<br />
<br />
Here's to your future of risk-averse investing!<br />
<br />
<div>
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: <a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html">www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html</a></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205345890908852362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557053328067327781.post-73897287332111891302016-02-20T19:38:00.000-08:002016-03-19T16:02:33.936-07:00FINDING MY WHY<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ13UBUYWmu7t7zP-Kzkhi14xHL1VEnjDauIFscgLKAyyA4FiAMBphFO_Ga1APCPDzWoGjCPS7hg0KklGqrOvZ9M8PLSds9rQw0-ew3yDA9ZUxUIkYRoc5ZPEtAj45nKqOGuEjOk41wBI/s1600/why.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ13UBUYWmu7t7zP-Kzkhi14xHL1VEnjDauIFscgLKAyyA4FiAMBphFO_Ga1APCPDzWoGjCPS7hg0KklGqrOvZ9M8PLSds9rQw0-ew3yDA9ZUxUIkYRoc5ZPEtAj45nKqOGuEjOk41wBI/s1600/why.jpg" /></a><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">By: Mark Frentz<br /><a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/">www.akerahomes.com</a><br />mfrentz@akerahomes.com<br /><br />Remember: Please share this article if it helped</span><br />
<div>
<br />
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Why Define Your "Why"?</b></div>
<br />
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 <a href="http://physicalinvestments.blogspot.ca/2016/01/what-holds-me-back-part-1-of-4.html" target="_blank">finished a mini series</a>
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). <br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>How You Define Your Why</b></div>
<br />
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). <b>When you are done you should experience emotion!</b>
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! <br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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?<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>When To Review Your Why</b></div>
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Summary</b></div>
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Here's to your future of risk-averse investing!<br />
<br />
<div>
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: <a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html">www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html</a></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205345890908852362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557053328067327781.post-14353727437655563512016-02-10T18:22:00.000-08:002016-03-19T16:02:16.611-07:00WHAT MOVES ME FORWARD? part 4 of 4<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitrWdYOn4-lZaD-kQ4tZcqB4qtdLTmNd3rkP2S5fNnI40ac4j8qXxLsFIGVYLLxYEBZLiML0o7eXkOhIb6FawzTGtbeidp41yMy_6yO5k3d6woCIHDBXTJsXPM1TyicnyqtPVU_L7bGYw/s1600/moving+forward.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitrWdYOn4-lZaD-kQ4tZcqB4qtdLTmNd3rkP2S5fNnI40ac4j8qXxLsFIGVYLLxYEBZLiML0o7eXkOhIb6FawzTGtbeidp41yMy_6yO5k3d6woCIHDBXTJsXPM1TyicnyqtPVU_L7bGYw/s320/moving+forward.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">By: Mark Frentz<br /><a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/">www.akerahomes.com</a><br />mfrentz@akerahomes.com<br /><br />Remember: Please share this article if it helped</span><br />
<div>
<br />
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Input Output</b></div>
<br />
"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"<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Train Your Brain</b></div>
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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:<br />
<br />
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?<br />
<br />
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?<br />
<br />
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<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Summary</b></div>
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Here's to your future of risk-averse investing!<br />
<br />
<div>
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: <a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html">www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html</a></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205345890908852362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557053328067327781.post-15420039472630686242016-02-08T19:50:00.002-08:002016-03-19T16:02:11.355-07:00WHAT MOVES ME FORWARD? part 3 of 4<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7ENaWgKDE0KmVfR9EDYCPMT0HTPix9QAYlQ51CuxOGaQA50f5ijL1PH053yqVpeeEOJ_3En8tGfqAkBo4Hy8Zf0GDH6gnE-DYM6qejb2JVOc3X9RkCSFuDXGFRaO8Dean1HQu6TwTXGE/s1600/move+me+forward.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7ENaWgKDE0KmVfR9EDYCPMT0HTPix9QAYlQ51CuxOGaQA50f5ijL1PH053yqVpeeEOJ_3En8tGfqAkBo4Hy8Zf0GDH6gnE-DYM6qejb2JVOc3X9RkCSFuDXGFRaO8Dean1HQu6TwTXGE/s1600/move+me+forward.jpg" /></a><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">By: Mark Frentz<br /><a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/">www.akerahomes.com</a><br />mfrentz@akerahomes.com<br /><br />Remember: Please share this article if it helped</span><br />
<div>
<br />
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Moving Past Fear</b></div>
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>The Answer to Your Problems</b></div>
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
*** 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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Using Your Brain for Your Benefit</b></div>
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Last, and Most Importantly</b></div>
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Here's to your future of risk-averse investing!<br />
<br />
<div>
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: <a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html">www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html</a></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205345890908852362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557053328067327781.post-30688174324324218132016-01-11T18:18:00.001-08:002016-03-19T16:02:05.189-07:00WHAT HOLDS ME BACK? part 2 of 4<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht3_TALQMEffYozBfQ-IPE1WQ_iFaPdEtM0tztLrIpzLbyv7PLWjRp5NNjVNE9abmBKQeW_lRXUiivh5EeJoimvS8OEl6WZjVVlTGr-asiyAVu7WOQg1NVMaN3Dw6DIryVuThbKDCmkDU/s1600/holding+back.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht3_TALQMEffYozBfQ-IPE1WQ_iFaPdEtM0tztLrIpzLbyv7PLWjRp5NNjVNE9abmBKQeW_lRXUiivh5EeJoimvS8OEl6WZjVVlTGr-asiyAVu7WOQg1NVMaN3Dw6DIryVuThbKDCmkDU/s1600/holding+back.jpg" /></a><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">By: Mark Frentz<br /><a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/">www.akerahomes.com</a><br />mfrentz@akerahomes.com<br /><br />Remember: Please share this article if it helped</span><br />
<div>
<br />
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>A Quick Review</b></div>
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Next Piece of The Puzzle</b></div>
<br />
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 <u><b>cannot</b></u> 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?<br />
<br />
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?<br />
<br />
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 <b><u>safer</u></b> 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.<br />
<br />
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? <br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Summary</b></div>
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Here's to your future of risk-averse investing!<br />
<br />
<div>
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: <a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html">www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html</a></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205345890908852362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557053328067327781.post-18210411637757618542016-01-02T07:30:00.001-08:002016-03-19T16:01:59.855-07:00WHAT HOLDS ME BACK? part 1 of 4<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLDl3E8J7aV2RUk_zQzcB8A8KW3Py-cWUZ4GyoYfrE67RPu1V47kxkvszijOlNODYbrRhyrjaCW7rIjIky0q-PWOYPsldYhBVReDnKxr0veExOpd0TNetUK3ev95V-Wxb3Bvugj_1pC0E/s1600/holiding+me+back.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLDl3E8J7aV2RUk_zQzcB8A8KW3Py-cWUZ4GyoYfrE67RPu1V47kxkvszijOlNODYbrRhyrjaCW7rIjIky0q-PWOYPsldYhBVReDnKxr0veExOpd0TNetUK3ev95V-Wxb3Bvugj_1pC0E/s1600/holiding+me+back.jpg" /></a><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">By: Mark Frentz<br /><a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/">www.akerahomes.com</a><br />mfrentz@akerahomes.com<br /><br />Remember: Please share this article if it helped</span><br />
<div>
<br />
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>What Does Hold Me Back?</b></div>
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Our Limbic System</b></div>
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
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:<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Your Logical Brain Shuts Down!</b></div>
<br />
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: <u>WHAT HOLDS YOU BACK</u>? 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). <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Summary</b></div>
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Here's to your future of risk-averse investing!<br />
<br />
<div>
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: <a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html">www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html</a></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205345890908852362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557053328067327781.post-26887937930425173622015-12-28T18:47:00.000-08:002016-03-19T16:01:44.797-07:00HOPE FOR EARLY RETIREMENT PART 3: A SIMPLER AND BETTER IDEA<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdoQCxApEdyUDhrw9Hrh80kVO6XoreXA6m1NyIzku71dPLA7TLWc8KEfYAWwxlPPXVe8XMo4XE9PPPvy0GV8S-RzKtJHwJ0mr49dCgYqpYASx0F9SDg112Uq9wDyw7DjB55NhKD_N7SGo/s1600/3+homes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdoQCxApEdyUDhrw9Hrh80kVO6XoreXA6m1NyIzku71dPLA7TLWc8KEfYAWwxlPPXVe8XMo4XE9PPPvy0GV8S-RzKtJHwJ0mr49dCgYqpYASx0F9SDg112Uq9wDyw7DjB55NhKD_N7SGo/s1600/3+homes.jpg" /></a><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">By: Mark Frentz<br /><a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/">www.akerahomes.com</a><br />mfrentz@akerahomes.com<br /><br />Remember: Please share this article if it helped</span><br />
<div>
<br />
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>A Simpler Way</b></div>
<br />
In part one and two of this mini series (this is the third and concluding post) I used numbers and math to show people how they can retire using traditional methods of thinking about saving and investing.Today I would like to present something so much simpler than the above methods. I will still give some numbers, but want to present an option that most people simply don't know. My desire is to educate as many people as possible to make their futures exciting rather than scary.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>One More 25 Year Plan</b></div>
<br />
In my former examples I stated you would need to be saving and investing from $15,000-$40,000 each year for 25 years in order to retire well. Here is a way to invest less and yet have more at the end of the 25 years.<br />
<br />
In the first year I would recommend using $15,000 to purchase a $300,000 bungalow with a basement suite. This can easily be done in Calgary (although you won't be living in the wealthiest of neighborhoods). You could live in this house for 4 years and rent out the other suite (which would make it much easier to save up money for the next 4 years). In this scenario, you would simply have to save another $4,000 each year and at the end of 4 years you could purchase another property with 5% down and move in. I'm skipping a step here to make things simple... but for those who understand newer CMHC rules this can still be done quite easily, trust me.<br />
<br />
Now, if you repeated the process and did this a total of 4 times you would own 4 suited properties and be living in one of them. You would now be 12 years in the future and each property would have some debt in the form of mortgages. At this point you would stop saving up $4,000 each year and simply use the extra money from the rent of the other 7 suites to pay off the mortgages quicker for the next 13 years.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>What Would You Have at The End of 25 Years?</b></div>
<br />
-You have own 4 properties with no debt!<br />
-These properties would be worth (in normal markets) around $2.5 million! Which is way more than you had saved in either previous scenario<br />
-These properties would be bringing in the equivalent of around $7,000 each month in rent after all of your expenses are paid! This means you could work your job for one more year, purchase another house for yourself with no suite, and then make $8,000/month for the rest of your life which totals almost $100,000 each year. This is a much higher number than either scenario as well.<br />
-This is not the last point. But it is the last I will make today. You will also not have to pay full taxes on the $100,000 you make each year which means you would be able to keep much more of it and continue to invest or simply enjoy the money for the rest of your life!<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Summary</b></div>
<br />
If you want the same retirement as those around you, do the same things they are doing. That means that if you want to work at Walmart as a greeter, don't think about your retirement at all. If you want to scrape by and make ends meet with the help of family members, invest in RRSPs and hope in CPP, OAS, and your company's pension plan. If, however, you want to retire well and enjoy the rest of your life... start doing things that others don't. Know that the above scenario would take discipline and sacrifice! So did the other scenarios! Do something to take action and take charge of your future today!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Here's to your future of risk-averse investing!<br />
<br />
<div>
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: <a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html">www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html</a></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205345890908852362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557053328067327781.post-58451967935919281082015-12-19T18:21:00.004-08:002016-03-19T16:01:20.969-07:00HOPE FOR EARLY RETIREMENT PART 2: HOW YOUR FINANCIAL ADVISOR MAY 'ADVISE YOU'<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHf2ogZqARP802fHrUekCWprIBWKv-9HUPzGITt3z9eC_oycbB4DBewVhN5-tig2vf6dhEwgXer8Him7uq4U-GcuL_x5t3EpMArhItVkVrrE2SJGgwVZeEGuoEd57lHCF1gKSrsEUWOMU/s1600/1FA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHf2ogZqARP802fHrUekCWprIBWKv-9HUPzGITt3z9eC_oycbB4DBewVhN5-tig2vf6dhEwgXer8Him7uq4U-GcuL_x5t3EpMArhItVkVrrE2SJGgwVZeEGuoEd57lHCF1gKSrsEUWOMU/s1600/1FA.jpg" /></a><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">By: Mark Frentz<br /><a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/">www.akerahomes.com</a><br />mfrentz@akerahomes.com<br /><br />Remember: Please share this article if it helped</span><br />
<div>
<br />
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>What Are You Most Likely to be Told?</b></div>
<br />
I've written about financial advisors before and will give a brief summary here. Basically, I believe that, like every other field on the planet, most financial advisors do an ok job, some do a terrible job, and a few do a fantastic job and actually advise you on financial matters in your best interest. Here is what my experience has been with financial advisors (my experience hasn't been good).<br />
<br />
If your experience with a financial advisor is like mine you will most likely be asked for the amount of money you want to retire on, then will need to figure out how much you will need to save every year in order to meet that goal. Let's use an example. Let's say <b>you would like to retire on $50,000 each year</b> for the rest of your life in retirement, you are now 35 years old, and you want to retire when you are 60 years old (doesn't sound like early retirement, does it). You will have to decide on how much interest you will likely achieve each year in your retirement. The going wisdom right now is that you would make about 4-6% in safe investments (that's actually high for going wisdom, but let's play along). Let's use 5% for this example. You will need to save $1,000,000 before the age of 60 in order to retire on $50,000 each year at 5%. You have 25 years to save $1,000,000. That means you will need to save an average of $40,000 each year to have $1,000,000 by the age of 60. Some may argue that you don't have to actually save this much because you can invest it, but even at an average annual return of 9.25% (including the cost of money managers for mutual funds and inflation of 3%) you will need to save $25,000 each and every year until you retire. If you want an actual early retirement, you will need to invest $48,000 each year with the same returns to retire by the age of 50. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Problems With This Scenario</b></div>
<br />
The most you can invest in an RRSP for 2015 is right around $25,000, but in order to be able to put that much away, you would need to make $140,000 (you can only contribute up to 18% of your annual income). <br />
<br />
Mutual funds require you to pay the money manager before you take out any money. The average tends to be around 1.25% of your portfolio. That means for every $1,000,000 saved you will be paying the money manager around $12,500 even if your portfolio losses money that year. If your portfolio makes 5%, then after your payment to the money manager AND the erosion of your money to inflation (let's say 3%), you will have made only 0.75% on your money. The reality is that you will need to make much better returns than you think you will need to. In retirement you may actually need to make about 9.25% in order to have the $50,000 each year you originally wanted. <br />
<br />
You are taxed fully on each dollar you 'make' in retirement. So, under this year's tax requirements you would lose about $9,350 to taxes if you live in Alberta. That means you only have just over $40,000 left to live on. <br />
<br />
Inflation eats away your money's worth each year. What this means is that in 25 years you will need more than $100,000 each year to equal the amount $50,000 buys you this year.<br />
<br />
The average financial advisor makes money only if you invest in certain mutual funds. This makes it difficult to make the best decision for yourself because you have limited options. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Summary</b></div>
<br />
While this post isn't that much different than my first in this mini series, it illustrates how difficult it is to retire early for most Canadians. In my next post I will give an alternative where you have to invest less and you will retire with more than either of these first two posts. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Here's to your future of risk-averse investing!<br />
<br />
<div>
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: <a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html">www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html</a></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205345890908852362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557053328067327781.post-66969155922470418452015-12-05T17:03:00.006-08:002016-03-19T16:01:06.716-07:00HOPE FOR EARLY RETIREMENT PART 1: A SIMPLE WAY TO RETIRE IN 24 YEARS (or less)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf2ft4RoCbbxA9oTTTNdaFLtuzqA_0ShLhC-gDhT98fc8F3cjKurhm1fcegNvKqocQwM4KyAZZmh26GZtEzopN1Rbya4xWz3kCoNxzTMhUfjUwth1iSFAhwxZYUF8qP0mFEWKUV_8YWK0/s1600/retire+young.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf2ft4RoCbbxA9oTTTNdaFLtuzqA_0ShLhC-gDhT98fc8F3cjKurhm1fcegNvKqocQwM4KyAZZmh26GZtEzopN1Rbya4xWz3kCoNxzTMhUfjUwth1iSFAhwxZYUF8qP0mFEWKUV_8YWK0/s1600/retire+young.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">By: Mark Frentz<br /><a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/">www.akerahomes.com</a><br />mfrentz@akerahomes.com<br /><br />Remember: Please share this article if it helped</span><br />
<div>
<br />
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Is it Realistic to Retire at 35?</b></div>
<br />
Yes and no. While it is completely possible for the average person to retire in her/his mid-30s, it is not easy. Having said that, it is actually quite simple and not too difficult to retire in 24 years. Today's post is dedicated to show how you could realize early retirement whether that is 24 years from now or 20 or even 10. This is the first post in a mini series focusing on educating people on how to understand some basic rules of planning for retirement. If you want examples without all the math, then just skip to the bottom of this post where it says "For Those Who Hate Math". <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>The Rule of 72</b></div>
<br />
There is a rule of thumb for making it simple to understand about how long it takes money to double. It is called the 'rule of 72' and work like this: if you want to know how long it will take money to double when invested at an interest rate of 10%, you simply divide 10 by 72. The answer is that it will take about 7.2, or 7 years and just over two months, to double. Another way to do this is by figuring out how long you want your money to double in. For example, if you want your money to double in 12 years, you can divide 72 by 12 and know that you will need to make an average 6% return over that time in order to reach your goal in 12 years.<br />
<br />
Note: The rule of 72 really works best when using interest rates between 6-10%. Higher interest rates will become less and less accurate. Keep in mind this is simply a help to do quick calculations in your head. If you want to use a more accurate rule for lower percentages, try the rule of 69.3. While still not perfect, this will give you a number so close to perfect that you don't have to spend a load of time setting up a spreadsheet to know how long it will take to double your money. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Some Assumptions (this gets a little technical)</b></div>
<br />
I am assuming certain things in the numbers I will be using in today's post. The first is that these numbers will allow you to retire with the same amount of income you are making <u>right now</u>. The second assumption is that the interest you receive on your investments are calculated annually. If you are able to receive interest payments at 3% every 6 months it will speed the process. If you receive a flat 6% at the end of the 24 years, it will take much longer to reach your goal. I won't go into details about how this works right now. Third, I assume that you are comfortable with a base retirement income the same as your income at 20 years old (if this isn't the case... as it isn't me, then you can simply increase the interest rate, the amount you invest, or wait a little longer). Fourth, I am not adding in taxes right now. While they are an important part of every retirement plan, I will explain how to not worry as much about taxes in a later part of this mini series. Fifth, I am assuming that there is no deflation, which is ridiculous on many levels... Again, I'm simply attempting to make a point that helps people understand a basic concept. Lastly, I am assuming you begin when you are young and have a lot of disposable income. The older you get, the more you get used to a certain lifestyle and the more difficult it is to put money away into an investment account rather than spend it. At 20 years of age, it should not be difficult to invest 25% of what you make each year, but it will be really difficult to invest 25% of your income if you are maxing out your income at 35 years old with a partner and a couple of kids! I will present a few options to help explain other ways to do this based on your ability and willingness to invest money.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>How it Works (this gets even more technical)</b></div>
<br />
Example 1: At 20 years old, you begin to invest 25% of your income each year. If you realize a return of 6% on that money it will double in 12 years and then double again in another 12 years (total of 24 years). What this will provide is an annual retirement income the same as when you were 20. Not only that, if you continue to invest 25% of your income in retirement you will continue to have the same income <u>forever</u>!<br />
<br />
Maybe you say: That's great Mark, but I want to retire in less than 24 years or I want to retire with more than 75% of what I was making at 20 years old or I want to invest less than 25% of my income each year. Fair enough... I'll give a couple more examples.<br />
<br />
Example 2: If you want to retire in less than 24 years you have two options. The first is to invest more each year, the second is to increase your ROI (return on your investment). I'm assuming here the first option isn't exciting, so I'll work with the latter option. If your investments make 8% each year instead of 6% you will now retire on your current income in 18 years (72/8=9 years to double, then double again in another 9 years). This also fixes the problem of wanting to retire with more money. If you wait 24 years at 8% returns you will retire with 160% of what your income was at 20 years of age. For example, if you are making $45,000 (and living on 75% of that; $33,750) at 20 years of age, you can then retire on a lot more money for two reasons: your money has increased faster and you you don't have to invest as much each year in retirement. In 24 years you would have $71,100 each year. With that money you would only have to invest 16% of your income ($11,376) for the rest of your life to maintain an annual spending income of almost $60,000 ($59,724 to be precise) which sounds a lot better than living on the $33,750 you were living on before. Another factor here is that you will most likely increase your income over your working years and this extra income you could simply enjoy spending on your family or whatever else you have as a priority and still enjoy the $60k in retirement for the rest of your life.<br />
<br />
Example 3: If you want to retire in 24 years, but you want to invest less than 25%, this is easy to figure out. Do you want to invest only 15%? Then you will need to realize consistent returns of at around 8.5% rather than 6%. If you want to retire in 24 years while investing 10% of your income, you will need to realize a ROI of just over 10%. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>For Those Who Hate Math</b></div>
<br />
I will give some simple summaries for those who hate all the numbers above:<br />
<br />
If you want to retire in 24 years on your current income... invest 25% of your income each year at 6%.<br />
<br />
If you want to retire in 18 years on your current income... invest 25% of your income each year at 8%.<br />
<br />
If you want to retire in 24 years at almost twice your current income... invest 25% of your income at 8% and know that after 24 years you can retire and only need to invest 16% for the rest of your life.<br />
<br />
If you want to retire in 24 years and don't want to invest 25% of your income, you can invest 15% of your income at 8.5% and still reach your goal. Or you can invest 10% of your income at 10% and reach your goal. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Final Comments</b></div>
<br />
Maybe you have looked at these numbers and you believe making 8% or even 6% is unrealistic. If you believe this, it is a dead giveaway that your only education about finances and investments comes from banks and very average financial planners. I encourage you to seek out better help in understanding how to invest in ways that make more than the returns banks and poor financial planners suggest. To begin on this journey please start by reading my other posts in this blog or, at the very least, wait until next week and read my second part of this series on retiring earlier than you believe possible. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Here's to your future of risk-averse investing!<br />
<br />
<div>
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: <a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html">www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html</a></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205345890908852362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557053328067327781.post-62132526617425255632015-12-01T09:45:00.002-08:002016-03-19T16:01:00.716-07:00WHY AREN'T YOU CASH FLOWING?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghyphenhyphenF9j_t_sNEX55F5kJsMJhbChHyZocRUs8p6NP3O0tvGR-3LmLn8gaF_P7GkdpRXMHWWNSaB26kCUzas_IP-i5Ifx8EfnzNblyncNUbx2ZvolUl-zZILZc6H5MuPQDX_ZobCN8VI4oys/s1600/cash+flow.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghyphenhyphenF9j_t_sNEX55F5kJsMJhbChHyZocRUs8p6NP3O0tvGR-3LmLn8gaF_P7GkdpRXMHWWNSaB26kCUzas_IP-i5Ifx8EfnzNblyncNUbx2ZvolUl-zZILZc6H5MuPQDX_ZobCN8VI4oys/s1600/cash+flow.png" /></a><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">By: Mark Frentz<br /><a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/">www.akerahomes.com</a><br />mfrentz@akerahomes.com<br /><br />Remember: Please share this article if it helped</span><br />
<div>
<br />
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Moving from a 'mom and pop' mindset to an investor mindset</b></div>
<br />
If your day job is paying in any way for your properties after the initial down payment, you are doing something wrong... and very dangerous. You are putting your family at risk. I have discussed this in previous posts, but for today I would like to take a look at 4 reasons the average buy and hold investor is not cash flowing.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>1. Your purchase price was too high</b></div>
<br />
Always remember that if you pay more money for a property, it doesn't necessarily mean you will make more from that property in rent. I talk to relatives who consistently purchase expensive properties, don't make a lot from rent, and then complain about the market or properties in general. Here is a quick understanding of how I think about the purchase price of a property vs. the rent. While the purchase price of a property can very widely, rents typically do not in any market. I'll give you an example. In my city of Calgary a purchase price for a single family detached home can range from about 250k to 10 million dollars. Rent, however, hits a low around $700/month and a high of around $5,000/month (furnished). There are vacation rentals as well, but for our purpose today these numbers will suffice.<br />
<br />
If you purchase a property for 300k, suite it, and then rent out both top and bottom for around 2,800 total, you will most likely cash flow. If you purchase a 'nicer' property for 500k, suite it, and then rent out both top and bottom for around 3,500, you will probably not cash flow (after all expenses). Always keep both your potential rental income as well as all of your expenses in mind before purchasing a property. Some areas rent for more than others, but generally speaking it is best to purchase smaller and less expensive properties and enjoy the fact that there is a basement to rental prices and that you will not make less than the low everywhere else.<br />
<br />
For more on this it is good to learn about and run a quick "Rent to Value" ratio. This is equivalent to the 'earnings-price ratio' of publicly traded companies. You add up ho much rent you make in a year, and divide by the purchase price of the property (or property value if you already own it). This number should give you a basis from which you can quickly see where value is in the buy and hold market. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>2. Lack of equity in your property</b></div>
<br />
If you debt ratio is too high, you will also be in danger of going cash flow negative. Maybe you purchased a property at a great deal and own it for 20 years, but now you pull out as much equity as possible for other purchases or investments and you no longer cash flow. Keep in mind that if you are wanting to purchase properties with 20% down payments, you may be tight or not cash flow at all. This is where you will need to purchase a less expensive house (get a good deal by speaking to a wholesaler in your neighborhood). If, however, you refinance you may want to be careful about how much you pull out of the property. Is it ok to sit with 35% equity as long as everything is cash flowing? Absolutely!<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>3. Your turnover is too high </b></div>
<br />
If you charge the absolute highest possible rent or don't take care of your tenants (slumlords), you may have a high turnover rate. This can often kill cash flow because each time tenants turn over you have to clean the property, fix at least something even if it's just holes in the wall, or redo flooring and paint. Unless your tenants are consistently ideal or you are doing all this work yourself (not ideal), these costs will add up and crush your cash flow. Another expense when rehabbing your property is that it may sit empty for a month. Now, there are ways around all these problems, but this is what I see from investors who don't understand how to make their money work for them.<br />
<br />
My hint: Always take care of your tenants and it can often pay quite a lot to have one family stay in a property for 3-5 years even if you make $50 less in rent each month. Something to think about. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>4. You may be spending too much or too little on maintenance</b></div>
<br />
There is a balance to wise maintenance of a property. If you always wait for something to go wrong or break you will be paying professionals to fix these problems and it will be more expensive than regular cleaning and maintenance of your property. Even worse, you may have one problem that goes unnoticed, life a roof problem, that leads to massive problems, like an unnoticed leak for 3 months.<br />
<br />
On the other hand, if you always only install marble counter tops and hardwood flooring in your properties, you will eventually have big maintenance costs because tenants typically don't treat your property as well as you would yourself (unless you are a slumlord... I hate slumlords!).<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Summary</b></div>
<br />
I will keep this summary VERY short. If you aren't cash flowing it means YOU are doing something wrong. Please don't blame others or real estate investing in general... simply change what you need to in order to cash flow. These are simple fixes. If you want more information join an investing club in your city or community and ask questions. You will be surprised how many people are willing to give you really great advice and tips when it comes to planning your retirement through investing in real estate. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Here's to your future of risk-averse investing!<br />
<br />
<div>
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: <a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html">www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html</a></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205345890908852362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557053328067327781.post-71305997796349880192015-11-23T20:12:00.001-08:002016-03-19T16:00:54.172-07:00LEARNING HOW TO INVEST FROM THE ORACLE OF OMAHA<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsp5oWtRf0tsOzxetuKzkoKdCi9ZtRdESG4CEBghcayTFgZPDjwNuOzdRNjca7B1TRNAfe_isv4ZfFh9w5OlM-XwgUQjttqknkkIqvhTJ9JxzOki9akFpSFvzcCp0OQ0FrJcAp9AVE1_M/s1600/Buffett.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsp5oWtRf0tsOzxetuKzkoKdCi9ZtRdESG4CEBghcayTFgZPDjwNuOzdRNjca7B1TRNAfe_isv4ZfFh9w5OlM-XwgUQjttqknkkIqvhTJ9JxzOki9akFpSFvzcCp0OQ0FrJcAp9AVE1_M/s1600/Buffett.jpg" /></a><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">By: Mark Frentz<br /><a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/">www.akerahomes.com</a><br />mfrentz@akerahomes.com<br /><br />Remember: Please share this article if it helped</span><br />
<div>
<br />
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>What Can We Learn about Real Estate Investing from Warren Buffett?</b></div>
<br />
Buffett has a ton of great quotes and explanations of how to manage money. Not just with the asset classes of business or stocks, but with any asset class including real estate. Buffett has even praised the value of real estate as an investment. Today I would like to glean some wisdom with you from a few of Buffett's more famous quotes.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>"Rule #1: Never lose money. Rule #2: Don't forget rule #1"</b></div>
<br />
The obvious way to apply this rule to real estate investing is that your first way to invest is to purchase buy and hold properties, for a long period of time, and each investment MUST cash flow using the rules I've outlined before. When each property you own is cash flow positive after ALL expenses you have no need to worry no matter what happens. You could be injured or even die and your family would be taken care of. You could lose your job and yet not have any concerns about your rental properties.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span class="s1">“Price is what you pay; value is what you get. Whether
we’re talking about socks or stocks, I like buying quality merchandise
when it is marked down.”</span></b></div>
<br />
Again, the application for real estate is obvious. When you purchase real estate you buy it at a reduced price. There are two easy ways to do so: 1. Purchase real estate when the market is down trending or in the basement because everyone else is selling and this is called a 'buyer's market' 2. Purchase real estate from people who are motivated to sell quickly. For many reasons a person can want to sell quickly and to help someone with this desire you can purchase a property at a discount.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span class="s1">"Even now, Charlie [Munger] and I continue to believe
that short-term market forecasts are poison and should be kept locked up
in a safe place, away from children and also from grown-ups who behave
in the market like children.”</span></b></div>
<br />
Again, purchasing real estate for the long term is a way to take care of enormous amounts of risk. Don't take my word for it... take Buffett's.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Last Thoughts</b></div>
<br />
While Buffett is rich for quotes and there are many others I could discuss in this post my intent was simply to point out that investing wisely and with a focus of lowering risk can be learned from many sources. My belief is that real estate delivers more bang for the average person's buck than stocks or business, but I also recognize that those with wisdom and experience in investing in ANY asset class should be well heeded and there are few better to learn from than Buffett. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Here's to your future of risk-averse investing!<br />
<br />
<div>
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: <a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html">www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html</a></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205345890908852362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557053328067327781.post-72690998328979069142015-11-10T06:32:00.004-08:002016-03-19T16:00:48.730-07:00EXCUSES, EXCUSES, EXCUSES!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGwC5lbBAwiLoXbK5itEcCYc1z6IkfV1DVfbmSABtrsTzZHMOad7EanNnTGLLcMtPl4Pf3-4TCUYsl46tHNzozfihktdTdgCCklX_PmWP_fY-j-nJrqEeOYBY72xvz_pA_eYHqRPQyL90/s1600/excuses.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGwC5lbBAwiLoXbK5itEcCYc1z6IkfV1DVfbmSABtrsTzZHMOad7EanNnTGLLcMtPl4Pf3-4TCUYsl46tHNzozfihktdTdgCCklX_PmWP_fY-j-nJrqEeOYBY72xvz_pA_eYHqRPQyL90/s1600/excuses.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">By: Mark Frentz<br /><a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/">www.akerahomes.com</a><br />mfrentz@akerahomes.com<br /><br />Remember: Please share this article if it helped</span><br />
<div>
<br />
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>We All Have Them</b></div>
<br />
The purpose of writing this particular post is not to heap shame onto anyone. Most of us deal with more than enough shame for a few people. Rather, my intent is simply to bring awareness to some of the ways we attempt to cope with fear. Fear is a powerful motivator for a short period of time, particularly when it comes to NOT doing something. <u>Fear is a terrible long term motivator for positive change in our lives</u>. In today's post I want to hit on a few excuses I hear all the time from myself as well as others around me and how you might be able to work with your fear.<br />
<br />
Excuse #1: I'm too young<br />
<br />
Fact: I have a 6 year old daughter that has an equity interest in a property already. She purchased this interest a year ago when she was 5 years old. If she isn't too young, you aren't. While I realize you may be in school you can can still do so much in real estate if you are willing to learn. My daughter had help with her first real estate deal and, truth be told, her equity share is a very small one. That's ok, isn't it? Is it not ok to learn and grow in your investing? You have to start somewhere. <br />
<br />
Excuse #2: I'm too old<br />
<br />
I know quite a few people who began investing in their 50s and are doing quite well. I actually know a couple people in their 60s just starting and we have a plan in place for them to retire and have their money work for them in just 5-7 years from now! Keep in mind that the average life expectancy for both men and women is in your late 70s to early 80s now. This means that if you are in your 60s you could have about 20 years to invest. Also keep in mind that the work you do now may change your life in 10-15 years as you may struggle with health later on. It is exciting to be only in your 60s and still have a significant amount of time to make a difference in your life.<br />
<br />
Excuse #3: I don't have enough money<br />
<br />
This is the oldest, most well worn excuse I have heard. While this excuse may simply come from our cultural norms. So many of us heard when we were kids and asked something of our parents: "Sorry, we don't have the money". While we may come by it honestly, it is still almost always an excuse. For a very few people this may be accurate. I worked at a homeless shelter for a year and believe I have some kind of handle on the oppression of poverty in multiple ways, but I am also someone who had to basically start from ground zero when I first came back from 7 years in China. I had owned property before moving to China, but came back with no money, a wife, and a newborn child. Please don't use this excuse with me because I have been in a place of having no money at all (actually being in debt) and yet finding ways to invest in real estate. For this excuse I may just refer you to some Kiyosaki books as they often focus on doing real estate deals with partners. This is a legitimate way to help someone else and yourself. <br />
<br />
Excuse #4: I don't know how to real estate works (I lack knowledge or experience)<br />
<br />
This is actually a legitimate excuse... for a few days. Take a few minutes right now and think about how much TV you watch each day or week. Now think about a future where you don't have to worry about finances. At the end of your life would you rather say "I watched every episode of The Big Bang Theory", or "I spend a couple hours each week investing in my future and now don't worry about money"? I like the latter rather than the former even if I really like The Big Bang Theory. It is about priorities, pure and simple.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>So, What Can I Do About It?</b></div>
<br />
There is a quote attributed to Henry Ford that I love: "Whether you think you can, or you think you can't - you're right". It explains the important psychological concept of Locus of Control. Our beliefs are powerful and affect every minute of our lives. I have consistently asked successful people what the difference between success and failure are. The answer almost every individual gives me focuses on two things: a plan and persistence. I want to encourage you to do three things.<br />
<br />
1. I want you to start taking an honest look at the beliefs you have that limit you and your dreams. If you need help with this it can be useful to spend time with a counsellor, psychologist, life coach or therapist of some kind. While they don't have all the answers, they can help journey with you for a time that allows you to begin working to change certain beliefs that prevent you from living.<br />
<br />
2. I encourage you to take about 2-3 hours on a day off and spend the time dreaming about what you want in life. While these posts can sometimes look like they are all focused on money, they are actually about encouraging people to dream about what money gives you in other ways: Time with those you love, extra health care when needed, an ability to learn and grow as a person the way you desire, or the time, energy, and life experience to invest in other people the way you see fit. Write down a list of dreams you have for yourself and your family. Then begin to spend time each and every week (even if just 10-15 minutes each time) to think about these dreams and begin thinking of ways in which you can realize these dreams.<br />
<br />
3. If you have children I plead with you to think differently than many people around you. Do you ever catch yourself using the words: "You can't", or "You are so stubborn"? Please change these statements to "How can we figure out a way to do that" and "You are so persistent/determined and I love that about you because it will serve you well in the future"!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Here's to your future of risk-averse investing!<br />
<br />
<div>
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: <a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html">www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html</a></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205345890908852362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557053328067327781.post-32514981853568187472015-08-09T18:51:00.000-07:002016-03-19T16:00:42.332-07:003 WONDERFUL WORDS TO AN INVESTOR: DEBT, EXPENSES, AND LOSSES?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlcNw_p5b8xMirjBqJDXTSzmB2_GesrZZgPtI7eGKAGUL5ORjpegR_o3AFAMe_Z8Ryp2jBDedngn8UpwLCVhtfAI7cIhgC8g9up4rUhUUKATiP3fS5HtfgoWTX8gjD3GSOS_6uhRTEdAE/s1600/debt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlcNw_p5b8xMirjBqJDXTSzmB2_GesrZZgPtI7eGKAGUL5ORjpegR_o3AFAMe_Z8Ryp2jBDedngn8UpwLCVhtfAI7cIhgC8g9up4rUhUUKATiP3fS5HtfgoWTX8gjD3GSOS_6uhRTEdAE/s1600/debt.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">By: Mark Frentz<br /><a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/">www.akerahomes.com</a><br />mfrentz@akerahomes.com<br /><br />Remember: Please share this article if it helped</span><br />
<div>
<br />
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Can Debt, Expenses, and Losses be Good?</b></div>
<br />
Absolutely! Understanding the differences between good and bad debt, good and bad expenses, and good and bad losses is what separates investors from people who gamble their money away. Now, I've given credit to others before in my posts and acknowledged that most of what I present is not original, even if presented in my own way. This post in particular is not original in any way, shape, or form. I was recently reading a book by Robert Kiyosaki titled "Rich Dad's Guide to Investing" and was struck with the truth of a few paragraphs he wrote on these differences.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Good Debt</b></div>
<br />
If you don't know the difference between good and bad debt this is vital information in a nutshell: Bad debt is dangerous because a turn in the economy or market can put you in a place where you not only lose your investment, but are now in the hole. An example is purchasing a property that doesn't <a href="http://physicalinvestments.blogspot.ca/2013/06/1st-dimension-cash-flow.html" target="_blank">cash flow</a>. If an investment doesn't cash flow and you lose your job or your life or your ability to work for any reason, the bank will foreclose on your property as soon as you stop making payments. I am excited about each and every investment that I own because I know that if I die, or lose the ability to work due to an accident or anything else, my investments will continue to pay money to my family as long as they live. Again, the key is <a href="http://physicalinvestments.blogspot.ca/2013/06/1st-dimension-cash-flow.html" target="_blank">cash flow</a>. Good debt increases my ability to make money. If the housing market appreciates at an average of 3% per year for the next 30 years, by investment grows by much more than that because (again, only if I am <a href="http://physicalinvestments.blogspot.ca/2013/06/1st-dimension-cash-flow.html" target="_blank">cash flowing</a> each month) I can receive around 80% of the money needed for the property from the bank in the form of debt. 80% debt allows my money to grow at a rate of 15% each year if the average appreciation is 3% for the property. To make all these numbers very simple: I purchase a 100k property and put down 20k (the bank lends me 80k). The property is worth 103k after the first year which gives me 3k on my original investment of 20k (15%). There are two important factors here:<br />
<br />
1. Cash flow each and every month to protect my investment<br />
2. Long term focus to smooth out the peaks and dips of a market<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Good Expenses</b></div>
<br />
I love certain expenses when I invest! One example of a fantastic expense is hiring the services of an expensive investment lawyer or accountant who is worth each and every penny. Why do I get excited about these expenses? Because I learn so much when I spend time with these professionals. I go into each meeting prepared with a ton of questions I want to ask and make use of every minute I have with these people. If there is a new tax law that helps me keep more money they will know about this and help me understand it as well. I can focus my time and energy on investing and spend a few hours each year with these people who supercharge my investments and money management. A good accountant or lawyer will cost a lot of money, but make me so much more than that by helping me structure my investments in ways that can save me tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars over just a few years!<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Good Losses</b></div>
<br />
While I don't often come across ideas for good losses, they do in fact exist. I will provide the example that I help my partners understand each time I meet with someone new who wants to invest with me. <a href="http://physicalinvestments.blogspot.ca/2013/08/4th-dimension-depreciationtaxes.html" target="_blank">Depreciation</a> is a loss that puts more money into my pocket. What I choose to do with that money is fundamentally important, but the fact that realizing depreciation losses on a property puts money into my pocket today is important to understand because it can be a very, very good thing and make an enormous difference on how much my net worth increases over the next few years. Some accountants will discourage people from realizing these losses. It is important to understand when realizing these losses is a good thing and when it is a bad thing. I'll give examples:<br />
<br />
1. If you are going to sell your property in a few years, then it may hurt you rather than help you to save this money in taxes today.<br />
<br />
2. If you are using the money saved in taxes to purchase a new truck or big screen TV that will lose much of its value within months of the purchase, then I would strongly discourage realizing these depreciated gains<br />
<br />
3. If, however, you are planning on keeping a property for a decent amount of time (the actual amount of time will be different depending on how much you make on your invested money that you have gained as well as your long term plans) AND you plan to reinvest the money into an asset that pays out more than taxes will hurt you.... then depreciation can make very profitable sense (pun intended). If I save $5,000 in taxes this year and use that money to invest at even a very limited rate of the 15% example above (where I purchase a property with debt), that money will double in value just over 6 years' time. If you add in the cash flow amount, the other tax savings, and the principle pay down the rate of return jumps by quite a bit again. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Summary</b></div>
<br />
Be careful about the words you hear often because they tend to take on specific connotations. For example, debt, expenses, and losses can be terrifying words to most people on this planet when they think of their investments. Savvy investors realize that there is more to the puzzle than simply one view of these three words. Like many people in Canada, it terrifies me to think about government debt, mutual fund expenses, or the loss of half my investments in a large stock market crash. Unlike many people in Canada I have been blessed to learn that debt, expenses, and losses can be fantastic for me long term if I equip myself with the knowledge and team I need to make my money work hard for me rather than spinning my tires working hard for my money. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Here's to your future of risk-averse investing!<br />
<br />
<div>
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: <a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html">www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html</a></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205345890908852362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557053328067327781.post-52395044548688882522015-07-14T08:35:00.000-07:002016-03-19T16:00:35.985-07:00HOW TO PREDICT REAL ESTATE CYCLES<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgofxvB3NpLQ90hqsvQdXJDDgBm8cr6LAqS_xLHVS18f8mHq257W_DI9J_iq6jnKYqM2xRh7NJycFrlrRyDoYheWwOM1fnmO9tPXoIToAQ1rPlKxWNv2cIxpN7W_NX5Y5uUJ2UFAkz-zJY/s1600/REcycle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgofxvB3NpLQ90hqsvQdXJDDgBm8cr6LAqS_xLHVS18f8mHq257W_DI9J_iq6jnKYqM2xRh7NJycFrlrRyDoYheWwOM1fnmO9tPXoIToAQ1rPlKxWNv2cIxpN7W_NX5Y5uUJ2UFAkz-zJY/s400/REcycle.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">By: Mark Frentz<br /><a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/">www.akerahomes.com</a><br />mfrentz@akerahomes.com<br /><br />Remember: Please share this article if it helped</span><br />
<div>
<br />
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>A Guaranteed Way to Predict The Next Cycle...</b></div>
<br />
simply doesn't exist! Yes, there are ways to expect a dip or rise in any given market, but even these are not consistently reliable. The reason a real estate cycle is so difficult to predict is that there are so many factors that influence a market. A quick example is Calgary both in 2007 as well as this year. In 2006 every educated real estate investor understood that a dip was coming, but nobody knew exactly when it would hit. The reason informed investors knew a fall was coming was because of how fast the market was rising combined with new builds in the city as well as how long listings were staying on the market. These are three factors didn't tell the entire story, but they did follow basic supply and demand rules. Informed investors did well in 2007-2009! This was partially due to understanding market trends and partially due to plain old luck... When the US financial market hit such hard times in 2008 the fallout affected Calgary and prices fell below what they would have without the financial crisis. While it paid to be informed... most informed investors did not comprehend the extent of how bad the US mortgage crisis actually was. <br />
<br />
This past year has been fascinating. I do not know one informed investor who predicted that oil prices would tank and then stay low for more than just a couple of months. I have heard many people talk about how Calgary would fall extremely low immediately... That didn't happen. Calgary has been relatively stable because, among many other factors, while oil prices affect us here we are also affected by the loss of jobs in northern Alberta and the trickle down of people looking for work in Calgary and needing a place to live.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Complexity</b></div>
<br />
A wise individual once said (this is a paraphrase) that simple answers given before complex situations are more fully understood are pretty much useless answers. However, simple answers given after a person has wrestled with more complex ideas can often contain great wisdom. This world is complex, relationships are complex, addictions are complex, bullying is complex, and real estate markets connected to economies and financial markets are also complex. To come up with very simple explanations only helps the masses of people who want to be comforted instead of go through the process of wrestling with complex ideas and situations. I have spent innumerable hours looking through data and setting up models that help me understand the Calgary real estate market. Does this allow me to make decisions that contain absolutely no risk? No. They do predict norms and trends and high percentage guesses.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>If No Guarantee... Then What?</b></div>
<br />
Last night I was in a bank and the teller asked me what I do. I stated that I help people understand real estate investing and sometimes work together on real estate deals to maximize time and money efficiency with families. She asked me if the market is good for real estate right now. The way I responded surprised her. I said "Every second of every day is a good time to invest in real estate no matter the market".<br />
<br />
I've written about this before, but I will recap here. Down trending markets are great for purchasing properties for very little money (supply is high, demand is low). Up trending markets are great for selling properties (low supply, high demand). This is an oversimplification, but I have at least 2 investing strategies for every type of real estate cycle and this allows me to take advantage of where the market is, not where I want it to be. This allows me to make money on real estate almost no matter what real estate does for even long periods of time. Read my previous blogs if you are interested in learning more about what I mean. The key to real estate is understanding that appreciation of a property is one of many ways to make money, and the least reliable in the short term... With that in mind it is now time to look into other strategies for making money with real estate and if that can be done, then appreciation is simply icing on the cake rather than a do or die lottery.<br />
<br />
One quick note: Flipping properties is not investing! While programs on TV make this idea look extremely sexy and easy to do, it is a business at best if done properly, but not investing. Investing is longer term than a few months.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Here's to your future of risk-averse investing!<br />
<br />
<div>
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: <a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html">www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html</a></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205345890908852362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557053328067327781.post-81842642196220675492015-07-05T16:10:00.001-07:002016-03-19T16:00:26.217-07:00A FEW THINGS TO THINK ABOUT BEFORE INVESTING WITH SOMEONE<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTEg8jWg0U5JSwI1Xwsp-hFI1IAPtyDGIByekn8W-lE7PRbmXL61aBs6I0IjclV-UJX6-Qb_ccvHUCnM6ojW78vK3wPndSb-xBl9srkLUe1zIYOhT4tmAhVSzOdRxvYSjOSSuK1fdldRI/s1600/forethought2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTEg8jWg0U5JSwI1Xwsp-hFI1IAPtyDGIByekn8W-lE7PRbmXL61aBs6I0IjclV-UJX6-Qb_ccvHUCnM6ojW78vK3wPndSb-xBl9srkLUe1zIYOhT4tmAhVSzOdRxvYSjOSSuK1fdldRI/s1600/forethought2.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">By: Mark Frentz<br /><a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/">www.akerahomes.com</a><br />mfrentz@akerahomes.com<br /><br />Remember: Please share this article if it helped</span><br />
<div>
<br />
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>3 Potential Problems</b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
I realize that many people reading this are hoping to invest for yourself, but there are probable a few out there that simply want to understand real estate and then invest with someone else; a professional who does this as their full time job. There are 3 potential problems when handing your money over to someone else. The first is that they may lack integrity. I often hear or read of news stories where a local 'real estate investor' has taken advantage of people who trusted her/him enough with their money. Secondly, even if the person has integrity, they may simply not know enough about real estate to consistently make your money grow. Thirdly, even if you find an intelligent and knowledgeable investor who would has fantastic integrity... you are still paying them a cut for doing the work for you. This third problem actually isn't the largest problem, but it is still something to think about. It is common for a real estate investing professional to charge 50% of the earnings in a property for doing all the work which includes: Finding a great deal through her/his network, taking care of putting the deal together, managing the problems in the property as they arise, and managing the people in the property throughout the process. These are significant headaches for a lot of people who want to focus on their own jobs and family and not worry about the 'tenants and toilets' of property management. A question you must ask yourself is: How much money am I now making in my investments? If you know this number and you are able to make more by investing with a professional (even after her/his cut is taken) it makes sense to me that you would invest with the professional, but only after looking into this potential partner and making sure you are investing with a knowledgeable and honest person or company. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Many people see the world in a pessimistic way. You will know you are this person if you scoffed when you read that a managing partner would make 50% of the profit from a property for managing the deal from start to finish. Let me provide another way of looking at the scenario. If you are able to find a way to make 7% return on your investment working on it yourself and a company, after taking their cut, can pay you a steady 10-12% return and also free up your 'investing time' to focus on your family or other work... what is the better option? Is it not usually better to take a smaller piece of pie if it is a much bigger pie and you will end up with more? </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
On the other hand, you need to know that if you have both the skill/knowledge and time to invest in real estate, you will always make more money by doing it on your own. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
I'm not saying one way is better than the other, I'm attempting to challenge those who fear others doing well even if it helps you. The metaphor in my mind is an oft heard anecdote that if you put a few crabs in a shallow pot every time one attempts to get out the others will pull it back in. If you want to do well in the investing world, or even simply in the world at all, it is good to begin thinking of how you can work together with people to create win-win scenarios rather than only thinking about how you can win regardless of how others do. This holds true for both those who will invest on their own (and build relationships with wholesalers and others to maximize their investments) as well as those who trust someone else with some of their investment money. The wealthy of this world tend to think in ways that help others AND themselves concurrently. Having said all this... make sure if you are going to invest with someone (it bears repeating) that they are both a savvy and honest investor.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Other Potential Problems</b></div>
<br />
Alright, what if you truly don't know about how someone may manage your properties for the next 10-15 years (at least) because, face it, you don't have a crystal ball? Here are some ways to mitigate risk when investing with someone else even if you know them and trust them.<br />
<br />
1. Make sure you have a share in the decision making of the property<br />
<br />
While it may make sense for the managing partner to make decisions on area to invest in and the flooring to install in the property, you should have a say in the exit strategy. You should have an ability to buy out the partner if you decide to do things on your own. You should also have an ability to keep the managing partner accountable for the commitments they made to you from the beginning. The best way to accomplish this is to draft a Universal Shareholders Agreement (USA) with the help of a real estate lawyer. This agreement details all the potential problems and how you will manage these problems. I call it a "What if" agreement; a term my mentor taught me.<br />
<br />
2. Your name should be on title<br />
<br />
A fantastic way to keep your managing partner accountable is to have your name on title. This way, if something sketchy starts happening you will be notified. An example is if the managing partner begins to take equity out of the property by replacing equity with a second mortgage that takes the loan to value ratio right up to 100% or higher.<br />
<br />
3. Make sure all documents you sign are first seen by your own real estate lawyer.<br />
<br />
Don't use a run of the mill, do everything lawyer and don't only use the lawyer your managing partner uses. It is always healthy to have an unbiased second opinion from a professional when you are investing tens of thousands of dollars. <br />
<br />
4. Interview investors<br />
<br />
Just as you would interview a few realtors before selling or purchasing a house or interview a few doctors before you trust your long term physical health to one or interview a few psychologists before entrusting one with your psychological health... wait... you don't interview professionals who are managing your most valuable assets? Welcome to North America where we will interview a bunch of people for a deck costing $3,000, but not a doctor or a realtor who have a huge influence on assets worth so much more than $3,000. Remember... don't miss the hundred dollar bills in life because your focus is on the pennies on the ground!<br />
<br />
When you invest multiple potential investment partners you will find that some ask you more questions than others and match your goals with a strategy that meets those goals while others simply attempt to force one investment strategy on you. You will also become better at asking questions because you will hear different perspectives on the same basic strategies. How can it hurt to invest 10 hours of your time meeting with 5 different people/companies before you trust potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars with them?<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Summary </b></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">
<br />
It is worthwhile to think through whether you will trust someone else with your money and have the potential to make more while also spending more time with your family and hobbies or, like many, work hard to educate yourself and take the time to manage your own money. If you do choose to trust someone else, take your time and make a decision that has a greater chance to protect your money for many years to come. There are many good, honest, fantastic investors out there if you are willing to put in a few hours to find them. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Here's to your future of risk-averse investing!<br />
<br />
<div>
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: <a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html">www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html</a></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205345890908852362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557053328067327781.post-76257649675638935112015-06-27T19:43:00.002-07:002016-03-19T16:00:18.340-07:00Handling Tenant Problems<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk0TH7usGC4VZIylivSYLRaXV2U9sAg9nfmCMXsIMR5xYJA22ABD0IS8BjLA63gHaivsJoMg_llRKc0KKpPi9FDZaOIifRTcwDsvZpyeGfNhVibNN3ZsIgaJHxygP-0hXUsQK7T19UVxk/s1600/tenants.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk0TH7usGC4VZIylivSYLRaXV2U9sAg9nfmCMXsIMR5xYJA22ABD0IS8BjLA63gHaivsJoMg_llRKc0KKpPi9FDZaOIifRTcwDsvZpyeGfNhVibNN3ZsIgaJHxygP-0hXUsQK7T19UVxk/s1600/tenants.jpg" /></a><br />
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">By: Mark Frentz<br /><a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/">www.akerahomes.com</a><br />mfrentz@akerahomes.com<br /><br />Remember: Please share this article if it helped</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>The Real Problem!</b></div>
<br />
I'm sorry to do this to you (well... there's a good reason I'm doing it even while I'm sorry that you've had tenant problems), but I'm going to get it out of the way before I write anything else. The real problem with having problem tenants is YOU. You may think of yourself as someone who is extremely unlucky, but if you are completely honest with yourself you will admit that the reason you keep having problems with bad tenants in your property or properties is that you simply aren't very skilled at managing your property. What I'm not saying is that you are a terrible person or treat others poorly or that you lack intelligence or even that sometimes even the best landlords may have a bad tenant here and there. What I am saying is that if you really want to have better tenants you will take the time needed to learn how to be a great landlord. In reality there are both good and bad tenants and good and bad landlords. As you become a good landlord you will find that good tenants magically appear everywhere and are willing to rent your property from you. Following is a list of practical suggestions anyone can use to become a better landlord, which in turn will lead to better tenants. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>The List </b></div>
Note: Keep in mind that this is a cursory look at this issue. Each of these 5 tips should be explored more fully.<br />
<br />
1. Screen Properly!<br />
<br />
Seriously... this is the best way to get rid of your tenant problems. There are always TONS of people and families who are excellent to rent to. They are responsible and will both take care of your property and pay you on time. The key is to find these people (I'll most likely post on this next week so that you have more to go on).<br />
<br />
2. Work toward a good business relationship with your tenants every chance you get<br />
<br />
This is often overlooked. Keep in mind that these people are basically taking care of an asset of yours worth enough to look after you in your retirement. A good rental property should be giving you a very good return on your investment. Is it not worthwhile to develop a relationship with the people living in the property? If there are problems, negotiate. If there are maintenance issues, take care of them in a timely manner. I personally like to give gifts to my tenants on occasion to thank them for taking care of the place (If a $100 gift once a year keeps my property safe and secure it is more than worth it in the long run and I consider these gifts investments). Remember that it is the small stuff that makes large differences in relationships. Having said all this... tenants are not your friends. This is a business relationship and should remain a business relationship. <br />
<br />
3. Follow up on how this is a business, not a friendship... always both set and enforce boundaries in the relationship<br />
<br />
Make it clear from the beginning that each and every time rent is late the eviction process will begin. Make sure there is a paper trail each and every time a tenant does not pay the rent. If tenants know you are serious about enforcing the contract then there is less room to push boundaries. Long term this will save you from tenants who may think about taking advantage of you, but won't because they don't believe they have any opportunity to do so. <br />
<br />
4. Pay people to leave if things are getting bad<br />
<br />
If relationship has broken down, it is now time to figure out a way to have the tenants leave as soon as possible without any more problems. I am more than willing to pay my tenants to leave having them remain is costing me money. A few hundred bucks can go a long way because money really does talk. A caveat here... If you are going to pay them to leave make sure they understand that they must first be up to date in rental payments and have vacated the premises before they will be given cash. <br />
<br />
5. When all else fails, hire a landlord/tenant specialist in your area<br />
<br />
Remember that you get what you pay for with lawyers and that paying for the services of a specialist will generally give you much more bang for your buck than a lawyer who is your parent's friend, and handles divorces, and helps with real estate transactions, and sometimes works on accident cases and getting people off of tickets. Why? The answer should be self explanatory. If things get to this point in the relationship between you and your tenant the previous tip of documenting each and every time rent wasn't paid on time or other responsibilities were not lived up to will come in handy. Remember, if it isn't documented, it didn't really happen. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Summary</b></div>
<br />
The most important point I want to make is that each and every property you own is a miniature business and should be handled as a business; professionally. I am consistently told by people or overhear others stating "real estate is a terrible investment because of the tenant headaches". I would respond by stating that often real estate investing ends up being terrible because of all the terrible landlords that exist. If you are one of these terrible landlords, take heart; It is a fairly simple process to learn some skills that will make you a great landlord.<br />
<br />
Lastly, running a property while you are building your portfolio should not be a charity. I'm not saying you should be a jerk to people. My dream is to have a large portfolio and then help people with problems and sometimes give people breaks that I might not now give because there will be less risk to my entire portfolio at that time. Until you can miss a few months of rent and it doesn't put your portfolio at risk, you'll need to be shrewd (in the healthy sense) with your portfolio and make sure that you take good care of yourself so that you can better care for many more families later in life when losing a few thousand dollars simply doesn't make a big difference to you. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Here's to your future of risk-averse investing!<br />
<br />
<div>
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: <a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html">www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html</a></div>
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205345890908852362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557053328067327781.post-12534006445023791712015-04-19T16:35:00.001-07:002016-03-19T16:00:09.959-07:00Risk vs. Risky<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGf8IRnDAPblN80GO3HqRzlEXKlKA8qmuvxXmcNrlSH6AHArCo6myfsPzJVEWPRhM379_vKxVoOcHrZzNY6fI2UUmIfMeQZQ7HPMhz-77JftqvGprdX6_khfYjGWyNUKsSt1CmaBBF_pg/s1600/Risk+vs+risky.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGf8IRnDAPblN80GO3HqRzlEXKlKA8qmuvxXmcNrlSH6AHArCo6myfsPzJVEWPRhM379_vKxVoOcHrZzNY6fI2UUmIfMeQZQ7HPMhz-77JftqvGprdX6_khfYjGWyNUKsSt1CmaBBF_pg/s1600/Risk+vs+risky.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGf8IRnDAPblN80GO3HqRzlEXKlKA8qmuvxXmcNrlSH6AHArCo6myfsPzJVEWPRhM379_vKxVoOcHrZzNY6fI2UUmIfMeQZQ7HPMhz-77JftqvGprdX6_khfYjGWyNUKsSt1CmaBBF_pg/s1600/Risk+vs+risky.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiifh-h2sVYnNmY65i9rhAC3mOZXyxMcxTyOz-DUXDfD0AJ-50dxEa1Njf9-M3-bZBRoJPLugdzh6uXnvZiXYv5dX_qLA0IxaWYXEazbtAwK1dlxn79Qc9Bi4F9TQ8HUlRdsORyc8DsdvQ/s1600/risky.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiifh-h2sVYnNmY65i9rhAC3mOZXyxMcxTyOz-DUXDfD0AJ-50dxEa1Njf9-M3-bZBRoJPLugdzh6uXnvZiXYv5dX_qLA0IxaWYXEazbtAwK1dlxn79Qc9Bi4F9TQ8HUlRdsORyc8DsdvQ/s1600/risky.jpg" /></a><br />
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">By: Mark Frentz<br /><a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/">www.akerahomes.com</a><br />mfrentz@akerahomes.com<br /><br />Remember: Please share this article if it helped</span><br />
<div>
<br />
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>But isn't Investing Risky?</b></div>
<br />
I love the pictures I chose for this week's post. Are the mountain goats doing something risky? What's your opinion? It certainly looks risky, doesn't it? Would it be risky for you to make the jump either goat is making?<br />
<br />
I met with a friend for lunch this past week and we discussed what risky means. It's something I find many people struggle with, especially when it comes to investing. So we will define both terms; risk and risky and my earnest hope is that you come away from today's post with an understanding that will serve you better in the investing world. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Risk</b></div>
<br />
There is risk in absolutely every action we take every day of our lives. A worst case scenario that would be catastrophic for ourselves and our families. For example, did you drive to work today? The risk involved in driving on a street with other vehicles is I could die or I could kill someone else. It is the same risk that exists each and every time I drive. With driving there are other, less substantial risks as well. My car could blow a tire and I could be late for work. Something could go wrong with my engine and I could get stuck on a main street and have to pay both for a tow truck as well as for an alternate way to get to work.<br />
<br />
What about the risks of a relationship? There are massive emotional and psychological risks involved in relationships (as most of us know too well even before leaving our family of origin) including feeling abandoned, physical or emotional abuse, even financial ruin.<br />
<br />
Lastly, what is the risk of investing no matter what type of investing you do? You could lose money. Period. That's the risk of investing. <br />
<br />
My point is that risk is involved no matter what you do and that the risk remains no matter how you attempt to change how you drive, who you spend time with, or what you invest in. The risk is always there.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Risky</b></div>
<br />
While risk is a term that I'm using to describe the potential difficulty or struggle or discomfort that <u><b>always</b></u> exists, risky is a term that refers to how much control we have over risk. Whether or not something is risky depends on 3 things: our experience, our skill, and our knowledge. Let's refer to the three scenarios above for examples.<br />
<br />
Driving: I have driven for over 20 years now in multiple countries and invest in AMA insurance just in case I do have car trouble (my experience). I have learned to check my mirrors and be aware of both the driving conditions of any day as well as potential erratic behavior of drivers around me (skill). I have also taken driver's courses to learn how to drive safer and know that driving a certain distance behind others at certain speed affects the potential of getting into an accident (knowledge). In these ways I mitigate the risk of dying or killing someone else on the road. Do these ways take away the risk? Absolutely not. They simply mitigate the risk; decrease the chances of realizing these risks.<br />
<br />
Relationships: I have experienced both healthy and unhealthy relationships with others. I have listening to others and relating to others in healthy ways including assertiveness and using boundaries which help both parties. I have worked with various groups of people in the three countries I've lived in and have studied 5 languages now. All of these activities have contributed to my skill in relating to others. And I have learned in many ways how to relate to others well through a master's degree in counselling psychology. Does this mean I can't hurt others or be hurt by others? Definitely not, but it does change the possibility of my getting into a relationship without knowing that there are some red flags screaming danger.<br />
<br />
Investing: I invested in my first property when I was 20 years old and have invested in multiple properties since that time. I have learned, often through my experiences, how to manage tenants, set up accounts to take care of surprise maintenance costs, and negotiate with sellers in order to get great deals. And I have spent more money learning about investing than I have spent on both my bachelor and master's degrees. Does this mean I can't make a mistake or lose money? Again, no. It does mean my chances for making money rather than losing are constantly getting better. In fact, I have a mentor in real estate who has never lost a dollar on any investment he has made and he has purchased almost 200 properties in his investing career! You don't have to lose money to learn to invest well. <br />
<br />
For me, driving, relationships, and investing in real estate all contain risk. They aren't very risky however because of my own experience, skills, and knowledge. The difference isn't in the car, the person, or the property, the difference is with me.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Final Thought</b></div>
<br />
Look again at the pictures above. I'll ask again: are the mountain goats doing something risky? My guess is that the mountain goats, even the kid, have been making leaps from rock to rock multiple times a day for months or years already. These mountain goats have the same risks as I would making the same leaps. The difference is that the goats are experienced mountain climbers and jumpers with a different skills set than myself. My guess is that these leaps aren't very risky for the mountain goats and I know they are much more risky for me. Again, the difference isn't in the distance of the rocks or the height but rather the individual taking the action.<br />
<br />
I encourage you to grow in experience, skill, and knowledge when you make any investment. If you lack in these areas, work with someone who is strong in these areas to start with. My suggestion is that if you have little to no control over your investment you are doing something very risky because you are depending on situations and people outside yourself to invest unless you know and can trust that person and they are accountable for their actions. Did you know that a mutual fund manager makes you pay the same percentage of money regardless of how the portfolio preforms? That's risky to me (also because I don't know each and every stock in the portfolio intimately). Grow in the areas we've covered this week so that you can become an investor who consistently mitigates your risk. <br />
<br />
If you have questions please feel free to connect with me, even if it isn't about real estate specifically, through the link below. It will take you right to one of my websites.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Here's to your future of risk-averse investing!<br />
<br />
<div>
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: <a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html">www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html</a></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205345890908852362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557053328067327781.post-21234460735138346932015-04-12T10:43:00.001-07:002016-03-19T16:00:03.635-07:00WHY DO I WANT TO BE WEALTHY?<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFdn1KYolZ56kLCLNgi9K24RqbOkoBc264fc4pM0Ks2_6h0GYJCSj_obnOQTrcJi04bopQuCjqmEW8qkIHYBEjY3OONFqOOjcAfjeCVOn9EB5XN8Mix3e-RtFl__OsuZuxsQlc1XSLnSI/s1600/beauty+from+wealth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFdn1KYolZ56kLCLNgi9K24RqbOkoBc264fc4pM0Ks2_6h0GYJCSj_obnOQTrcJi04bopQuCjqmEW8qkIHYBEjY3OONFqOOjcAfjeCVOn9EB5XN8Mix3e-RtFl__OsuZuxsQlc1XSLnSI/s1600/beauty+from+wealth.jpg" /></a><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">By: Mark Frentz<br /><a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/">www.akerahomes.com</a><br />mfrentz@akerahomes.com<br /><br />Remember: Please share this article if it helped</span><br />
<div>
<br />
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Money is a Tool</b></div>
<br />
I grew up believing there was something wrong with money. Having too much of it would corrupt and eat me from the inside. While these weren't statements my family or people around me made, it was something we all inherently believed to a degree. Terms and statements such as 'filthy rich' and 'money doesn't grow on trees' in our culture all influence us to a degree.<br />
<br />
I've come to understand that money is simply a tool. Nothing more or less. Just like a hammer has the ability in the right hands to create beauty and safety or kill money is powerless without someone handling it. I'm hoping to give you three reasons I sincerely desire to be wealthy. I have not shared two of these desires with a lot of people outside my closest friends and family, but I believe it may be of help on some level for those who read this post to have a differing perspective from those around us whose focus is so much on money every day rather than what money can be used for. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Wealth Frees me to Chase more Important Dreams</b></div>
<br />
Reason #1: Having wealth frees me to think about goals I dare not dream without money. For example, think about Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. They are extremely wealthy... to the point where having a goal for more money is pretty much a complete waste of time and energy. Wealth has freed these individuals to think about larger problems in life than how they will be able to take care of their next bill or overdue debt payment.<br />
<br />
When a person or family has little, money takes up a lot of thought time. We tend to place too much focus on the thing that we believe will fix a lot of our problems. People tend to also discredit others who have money and look for the evil in them rather than the good because it helps to vilify those who have something I want; somehow I can feel more content with my situation (no money) if the other situation (having money) isn't all that much better (people become evil).<br />
<br />
I want you to think back to when everyone farmed on the planet. What changed culture for the better? Tools for farming allowed one person to cultivate more food, which freed others up to build cities and think of new ideas that had the potential to improve life in many ways. Money has the same ability in the 21st century. If you have enough money to feel safe regardless of bills or payments of any kind, now you will have time and energy to think about greater purposes. Again, money is simply a tool. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Learning to Handle Wealth Allows me to Better Help Others</b></div>
<br />
Every since I was about 4-5 years old I can remember wanting to help people. My ideal jobs were always along the lines of doctor or vet or, one job I have now, a psychotherapist. One beauty of having wealth is that I am not longer governed by how others want to help people. An example is that if I am a psychologist and am employed by the government or some other employer, I need to buy in to what that employer wants me to do and I need to help others in the way the employer tells me to help others. When I am independently wealthy I can now choose to help others the way I believe really best meets their needs.<br />
<br />
My greatest purpose for the past 20 years is to become a sage; a person who has wisdom and has learned how to help people so that I can truly offer the help that is needed in various situations. I am passionate about learning about human nature because it allows me to better understand what any person's needs are, often I can see what a person needs and then I help them see it as well. I passionately desire to become someone who young people can come to for wisdom, guidance, and advice without forcing them to do anything. I want to throw myself into other people and how they can improve their lives and the lives of those around them. I also want to do this on a greater scale than simply my own family and friends.<br />
<br />
Some people may dream about retirement as a time with no responsibilities on a golf course somewhere. If that is your dream I would like to challenge you today. Humans without purpose tend to lead very empty lives. If the highest purpose someone has is playing golf 24/7 I am willing to place a very large wager that the person feels pretty empty after a brief time of living out that dream (and I have nothing against golf, just in case you are wondering). This is why people with wealth tend to seek out a greater purpose. This is why Bill Gates and Warren Buffet commit their later years and almost all their wealth to making others' lives better.<br />
<br />
Wealth allows me to dream big and then pursue those dreams. This has two benefits: It allows me to be satisfied with life knowing I am doing something worthwhile in life and it enriches the lives of others. I meet people daily that struggle with mid life crises or the frustration of living without very much purpose. I believe living without purpose is one of the most difficult things a person can attempt, yet most people do. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>While becoming Wealthy I can Enrich Others' Lives</b></div>
<br />
One truly beautiful and almost magical aspect of wealth is that when we begin to work toward wealth we can do this by enriching other people's lives. The more value I bring to others and the more I help them, the more wealth I can gain. I truly believe this is magical on some level because I can realize my dreams that wealth allows me to live out while I help, in part, make the lives of those around me better. This is another reason I am so excited about real estate; shelter is a basic human need and there are a lot of terrible landlords out there. I can actually make more money long term than slumlords when I truly take care of the people who live in the properties I own (this is just one example). <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Final Thoughts</b></div>
<br />
I would like you to take another look at the image I chose for this week's blog post. This is a metaphor of what wealth means to me. Wealth allows a little seed of ideas to become a great tree that, when fully grown, provides shelter and shade and rest and even nutrition and safety for both the people and environment in general around it. This great tree can grow in wisdom through it's experiences of growing fully and then share this wisdom with everyone and everything around it. It can become a pillar of a micro community that helps all. There is magic in every oak, maple, apple, or fig seed and there is magic in ideas that can be given full ability to grow with the tool of wealth. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Here's to your future of risk-averse investing!<br />
<br />
<div>
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: <a href="http://www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html">www.akerahomes.com/investing-in-real-estate.html</a></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205345890908852362noreply@blogger.com0