Young or young at heart? Make smart, financial, real estate investment decisions
We’re all gonna age.
We’re all gonna get old and turn grey.
True story. There’s no escaping it, hard as we try to put this off to a time that we never want to come.
That time our eyes are weary and vision blurry, when our hip and legs and legs don’t locomote as good as we want them to, when we’re popping endless pills for endless medical conditions, how terrifying to think about the stage of life when we’re past senior citizen years.
So, what remarkable thing have you done with your bloom of youth? What feel-good thing or decisions have you made or are you making right now before your hairline is pretty much non-existence. If you’ve made this happen, then you can sip a lil easy in old age.
But seriously, what’s the uphill to investing in real estate in Nigeria pretty early? Well, there’s the problem of the buck. Very little money – Let’s face it – most young people are pretty broke, and it’s mostly due to lifestyle choices, or low income earning from a single source. Maybe you’ve got a good job and have so much disposable income you don’t know what to do with it, but chances are – you’re living pretty close to paycheck-to-paycheck.
The life experience needed to know better and do better with finances and property investment is probably a handful at this stage of life.
Also, check your social circle in your youngling age. How many folks in that circle are deeply interested in real estate investment business? They most likely simply don’t care. Hence, it makes it tough to find motivation to get into real estate when you don’t have a community that fosters financial education and growth. Plus, the allure of splurging in gadgets, toys, the ladies and vice versa, the accessories, etc? Very strong!
Nevertheless, what’s a young person who needs to break this stereotype set to do, to get cracking in investing in real estate, and do it young?
To start with, let’s do a draw-up of all the tools, and resources you have in your arsenal going for you. Let’s harness what you’ve got.
The compelling incentive: So I’d take it for granted that you’re a reader. You’re about that knowledge gathering life. You’re a collector of knowledge and information, especially as we live in an age defined by information. If you’re reading this blog, then it attests to this fact as well. Put to good use this motivation that you already have.
Use that. If we’re being honest, the older you get, it seems, the less motivated you are. As people get older, they seem to get more complacent in their situation, and no longer shoot for the stars. Motivation has got a strong, compelling power when you’re young and not so brittle.
Tech Know-how: You’ve got a firm grasp on how the internet works, how to handle social media, how to use a smart phone, and how to make a spreadsheet. Even if you can’t do everything – chances are you’ve got a friend who can get it done for you. Use this. You’ve also got online resources: Blogs, business finance articles, Youtube, name it. Sadly, our parent’s generation didn’t have this wealth of knowledge and community – but we do. Use it. Technology can be a force for terrible time-wasting, or for terrific growth. Which will you use it for?
Time: Finally, you’ve got the most powerful force and resource in the universe: time. You aren’t looking at forced retirement in five years. You’ve got the next twenty or thirty years hopefully to crush it. If you create a solid plan now, and simply follow that plan, you are going to have to work hard not to retire a millionaire.
Now, what’s going to be Your First Investment?
Well, this is largely going to depend on your situation. For most people, your first investment (besides investing in yourself through reading a TON of books, blogs, and forums) should be your primary residence. There are options open to you.
When starting out, you could:
Start small. Find the cheapest home you can buy, in a relatively strategic location that’s easy to get taken up by tenants, and do a have a live in-rent out situation. An ugly, run down, dishevelled home, yes, buy the cheapest house that you can find for almost next to nothing after weighing your location options carefully, and then over the course of months you can begin to carry out repairs at your own pace: painting, flooring, new improvements, etc. Eventually you can resell the property years down the line after appreciation has set in with a nice property, and then buy your next property with change left.
The beauty of this is that since you have to pay to live somewhere anyways, there are effectively no “holding costs”. You could take three months or three years to sell it – but in the end, you’ll profit.
Buy/build a small 2 apartment home: This will enable you to live in one apartment while renting the other half out. Doesn’t have to be anything fancy. This will enable you to live rent free, decrease your expenses as you are no longer paying rent, and maybe you can go into investing full time with the extra money you’ve saved up from your prudent investment decision. Additionally, the experience you’ll gain in ‘land-lording’ will help you for the rest of your real estate investing career. It truly is a great first step.
This you hear always, but really, start building relationships: A fact most young people don’t know is that older people are drawn to passionate, ambitious young folks. This most probably stems from the fact that there is something truly rewarding about helping an ambitious young person achieve their goals. Older ones see themselves in these young ones and are reminded by them about a particular timeframe in their lives, and then things they did right then, or things they wish they did differently.
Whatever the reason, it is a fascinating and powerful phenomenon. Use this to your advantage! Begin to build relationships with the older real estate investors who have come before you and graduated from the school of hard knocks. Let their failures teach you to avoid (or fix) your own. There are two great places that you can start building these relationships today: locally in your community and online.
Locally, there are probably dozens of old-time landlords, real estate investors, and agents in your area who may take you under their wing to help mentor and train you. These relationships are often simply a friendship, built over many cups of coffee and helping with errand-run for the investor.
Online, these relationships are built every day on social media investor forums and, where investors from a vast spectrum get together to help answer questions, build relationships, make deals, and improve the lives of everyone involved.
Where do you go next? Best believe you’re not going to have it all together, for starts. What is truly important is that you start anyway with the aforementioned. Time is ticking. You are getting old, fast. Evaluate where you are, where you want to be, and the path you need to get there.