So you have earned some disposable income, and probably wondering what to do with it. Conventional wisdom would be to put it in a high yield savings account. If you’re feeling a bit adventurous, maybe you would consider investing in a stock or bond instrument. If you’re feeling particularly reckless, you may go out and buy that jet-ski you always wanted but will never use! I use this example purposely as I cannot tell you how many times my son playfully threatened to buy a jet-ski. Bit of background on my son… he can count the number of times he has been to the beach on one hand!
But what about real estate investing? Perhaps that’s something a parent or relative has droned on to you over many a family gathering. It was certainly something I pestered my son about, if nothing but to defer the jet-ski delusion! My wife and I were thankful that our pestering worked, because he buckled down and bought 6 properties over 7 years. He ended up achieving this all before turning 28.
My foray into real estate investing lacked such “counsel”. In fact, my mindset had me diametrically opposed to home ownership, let alone real estate investment. I mentioned in another post that we built our first home shortly after arriving in Australia. However, if it were not for a generous grant of $14,000 from the Australian government (and, for the forceful encouragement of my wife), I would have been content with renting for the rest of my days. Looking back, the economic value of that grant was significantly higher than $14,000, as it led me down a path towards real estate investment.
I will devote a large portion of my blog’s ‘real estate’ (excuse the pun) to real estate investing. I will cover topics such as securing financing, understanding equity positions, analysing and interpreting location metrics, and developing sustainable landlord-tenant relationships, just to name a few. However, before ‘walking’, your ‘crawl’ process must involve evaluating whether real estate investment is the correct decision for you. I encourage anyone who is interested in real estate investing, to consider the following points below:
Understand your short-term and long-term objectives
I interpret real estate investment in its most literal form: invest. I built new homes with the sole intention of keeping them forever. When that no longer becomes naturally possible, I plan to pass on my properties to my beneficiaries. So you could say that my real estate investing aligned closer with my long-term objectives than short-term goals.
I do not subscribe to the concept of ‘flipping’ homes and recognising gains over a short time horizon. I acknowledge this approach has merit and yielded success for many. However, I personally do not find this success to sufficiently compensate an investor for the heightened stress and uncertainty caused by flipping homes.
With real estate, you must ask yourself if your place greater emphasis on the income or the asset. This is why it is imperative to first address your short-term and long-term investment goals. If you are someone who values fluidity in your investment preferences, and would prefer to have a sizeable amount of liquidity on hand, then perhaps real estate may not align with your objectives.
Alternatively, real estate is a winning strategy if you are comfortable parting with your money for a long time. By doing so, you will trade-off potentially volatile short-term gains for more stable long-term returns.
Where are you in your life professionally, personally, and emotionally
Real estate investment has a prominent barrier to entry compared to other asset classes. Specifically, you need an initial deposit to purchase a home, something you don’t need when purchasing shares. Possessing financial stability and maturity to save this deposit is critical, and requires a great deal of contemplation and measure.
Therefore, your decision to invest in real estate should have regard to your professional circumstances, namely:
- Is your career presently stable and is expected to be stable in the short-term?
- Are you expecting career advancement in the short to mid-term?
- Are you unsure of your career trajectory?
A response to these questions will certainly impact your ability to invest in real estate, and will of course change over your life journey.
There are also other milestones and events that may make it a practical impossibility to invest at this life juncture. For example, if you are considering starting a family or if you have to take care of an elderly family member, taking on an additional stressful commitment such as real estate may not be the most prudent course of action. When weighing up your options, I find it helpful to choose one major life decision per year.
Finally, ensure that you are emotionally prepared for this investment decision. Do not let the current highs and lows of the property market sway your decision into purchasing an investment property. Remember that it is easy for others to tell you that the market is hot right now and that you would be foolish not to invest. Also remember that these same people will not be around once you make that commitment and it turns out to be more challenging than what was advertised.
Understand your flexibility Levels
Throughout my real estate career, I interacted with numerous individuals, couples and families who were seduced by real estate investment and its apparent promise of relatively safe and stable returns. The seduction was strong enough to distract them from appreciating the sacrifices that are needed with owning this asset class. To make one thing clear, just because real estate investing provides an objectively stable return, doesn’t mean that it is not an incredibly labour and time-intensive asset.
Some of the individuals I spoke to were comfortable with putting in the work. Some weren’t. Almost all seemingly ignored the fact that real estate ownership will require a significant shift in your lifestyle preferences. I cannot tell you the number of times I had people complain to me about budgetary costs and ongoing maintenance fees. What was more frustrating was that those same people felt it was necessary to take at least three vacations a year, drive expensive European cars, and perhaps my biggest pet peeve, indulge in $4.50 mocha lattes everyday from the local cafe.
Control your Spending!
How do you respond to setbacks?
Speaking from someone with too much of these negative experiences in his life, believe me when I say that there will be setbacks. These may include objectively minor delays relating to the construction of your home, or waiting a few extra weeks to find a replacement tenant. They may also include those types of setbacks that shake your resolve, such as mass-scale property damage, devaluations in property prices, or building a property portfolio with retirement in mind, only for the market to remain in a prolonged depressed state.
The above issues are certainly a drawback to real estate investment. You are effectively locked into a 25-30 year commitment (depending on the term of your mortgage), with almost no visibility on the extent and scale of issues that you will face during this time period. You can certainly prepare for this through home insurance policies, rigorous tenant selection process, flexibility in your home loan terms, etc. However, none of these mitigation strategies matter if you do not possess the mindset to deal with these problems when they arise.
I cannot state to you that I am a consummate professional in dealing with setbacks, because in reality, I am not. Nonetheless, I perhaps had the benefit of starting my real estate investment journey much later in life, at a point where I had already gone through a number of setbacks. This allowed me to appreciate that, whatever the consequences may be, there will always be an outcome that I can live with, however painful it may be to get to that point.
I was in a position to retire at 55 because of my real estate investment decisions. While I could have allocated my capital to other asset classes, real estate was and remains the most attractive option given my knowledge base, experience and investor appetite. I’m confident it would be a suitable option for many of you reading this post. But like any decision that has long-term implications, I encourage you to complete your diligence and determine for yourself if it is the right decision for you at this time. If it is, I look forward to sharing more detailed insights on real estate investing with you in subsequent blog posts!
The content outlined above was written, edited and published by the Lost Realtor. The author has over 20 years or real estate sales and investing experience in the Australian property market. He has held senior positions in Australian building companies, including being the General Manager of the residential sales division of Collier Homes. His qualifications include a Bachelor of Commerce degree and a Graduate Diploma in Building and Construction Law.