The Why and How Much of Real Estate

Starting out in Real Estate, or in any business for that matter, the most important thing to focus on is

your “Why.” You have probably heard that mentioned before. Speakers will ask, “What is your why?”

That being the case, lets discuss the “why” and also expand it a little further into the “How Much” that

isn’t discussed as much.

When my wife and I were expecting our son, our first child, I was medically retired and living on

disability income. It was then that we sat down and discussed our situation and determined that Dad

being home all day would not be a good example for him. That isn’t the example that God would like for

me to set for him. So that is why I pushed through my own medical struggles and have and am building

my own business.

For you, your story may be completely different. Your why doesn’t have to be your spouse, your

children, your faith, or anything in particular. What is great about living in such a diverse society is that

we really are all different. Your why could be to attain a certain standard of living. It could be to leave

your mark/leave a legacy behind. It could be that you really want to be able to afford a certain house or

car. In my experience in meeting with people, when we drive down their why to the base; it does

normally come back to family. But, if that isn’t true for you, that doesn’t make you or your why wrong.

It is all about finding what it is that will motivate you to do what is necessary.

You need to look inside yourself and find what it is that will help you to sacrifice to make progress; what

will help to push you to do the things that are necessary to grow your business. And it is important. It is

important because life happens. Life is going to slap you in the face and tell you that you aren’t good

enough. Life is hard. Life is going to give you a flat tire when you’re already riding on the spare.

Struggles happen in life.

It isn’t easy. But, it is possible. It is possible that you can be a success. It is possible to fulfill your dream.

I’m reminded of a story in the Bible about Peter when Jesus came walking on the water towards the

boat. Jesus told Peter to come out to him on the water, and Peter did. He walked on the water towards

Jesus. But once he got distracted and focused on the crashing waves and wind, Peter began to sink.

You need to focus on your why the way Peter needed to focus on Jesus. If you let your extended family

or “friends” or coworkers tell you that you can’t do it, then it’ll become your reality. If you put your

head down and focus on your why, then it’s possible that you can accomplish your dream.

Once you have realized what your why is, then you start to think about “how much.” It is a question of

“how much is enough?”

Going back to my time as a financial adviser several years ago, one of the questions we needed to help

clients answer was just that question. How much is enough in retirement. We didn’t just start with the

how much question. We started with what they wanted the same way I encourage you to start with

your why. The question then is “how much does it take to allow you to fulfil your why?”

This can be as complicated and diverse as your why. For some people that are trying to blaze a trail and

want their names remembered, it will be a lot. For others, they just want their loved ones to be able to

quit their job. That may not take as much.

All that said, the how much isn’t as pivotal as the why. What is important is that you don’t lose sight of

why you’re building your business while you’re pursuing building towards the how much. That is

probably why speakers don’t focus on the “how much” as frequently as they do your why. If you lose

sight of why you’re doing what you’re doing, you can make major missteps.

For example; with my situation when I went back to school then started working, I did lose sight of my

why for a while. I was starting my business as a financial adviser at the same time that I was working at

building the Real Estate business. I was essentially working through startup of two businesses at the

same time and going home to give my family leftovers. That wasn’t okay. It defeated the whole purpose

of me going back to work to begin with. Fortunately for me, I have a wonderful wife that helped me

remember why I started back in the first place. I had to let something go, so I stopped being a financial

advisor.

It is very easy to get addicted to the excitement you get into the next deal. And it can be easy to get

bored with doing one aspect of a field that you’ve gotten very good at. The new and different is always

going to be enticing and exciting. That is because it is different. What I can say from my experience

running my real estate business is that boring is good. When things are too exciting, it can get really

expensive.

My thing was buying rentals. I had gotten very good at buying a rental property, getting it fixed up, and

getting it leased out. It was a process that I was building systems for. It was something that was

repeatable. All my houses looked the same and I had a great team working with me on it. It got boring.

I wanted to do something different.

It was then that I had the thought, “All the houses I bought had to be remodeled, I should just start

flipping.” And it was exciting… until it wasn’t. It was different. It was very different. The timelines, the

stress, and the potential for loss were all different. And it did get expensive. I was overconfident and

broke some rules that I had set for myself in Real Estate. (I’ll discuss setting rules for your business in

another article)

It seems this is getting rather long, so I will wrap up.

There is no one right answer to the above questions. The answer will be different for everyone. You

must spend some time with yourself thinking about what is really important to you. That is how you will

be able to begin to find your why. And that, is the start of everything.