In the previous posts, I have been going through how you can create wealth and develop yourself. I have gone through the various steps of acquiring knowledge and investing in yourself.

In this post, I am going to move onto the next stage. Now you need to start in something tangible. This is where real estate comes in, and I am going to go through the importance of investing in real estate. You can start investing in real estate sooner than you think, which is one of the biggest investments you can make in your life.

How Do You Do It?

For me, when I was living in Uganda and working from the age of 12, real estate made sense. I wanted to work, make money, buy land and build a house, I wanted to show my dad that I was a man and building my own house was my own way to prove to him that I am now a man, at 12 years old that sounds so funny, but that was my reason. When I relocated and got to Britain however, the concept of owning your own house is totally different than in Uganda and seems almost impossible.

There is a general understanding that real estate is unrealistically expensive in the UK and most people just don’t bother looking at buying a home. I felt the same way until someone wanted to invest in my business idea and that some was working for me and was going to take money out of one of her house to invest.

I was surprised to hear that someone who didn’t earn as much as me and had several investment properties! This is what changed my outlook to owning property. One of the biggest things to keep in mind is that everything you want to do, someone has done it and can teach you.

So, I started going to seminars to learn about real estate and investing in property. Don’t get me wrong, it cost a lot a money, but I learnt how uncomplicated and simple it can be to get into real estate.

There Is No Losing In Real Estate

Real estate is one of the biggest retirement buffers for you and your family. After traveling in 60 countries and speaking to more than half a million people I never met anyone who has achieved financial security and has not invested in real estate. Everyone who currently is wealthy and has established themselves has invested in property at some point.

The trick is, it’s not about you not having the money, it’s about you not having the know-how. Property goes up all the time, actually properties doubles in value every 10 years in some countries. The value of property will never decrease over ten to twenty years.

Owning assets is a decision; and owning real estate is actually owning a tangible asset.

 The population is continuing to grow, and like I already said homes actually double in value every ten or twenty years. This is why, buying into property investing will mean that in twenty years your tenant will buy that house for you.
The question I have for you: Are you buying your own house or buying a house for someone else? (your landlord).
Ask yourself why are you not investing in real estate and why are you not learning how to invest?
Many Advantages of Real Estate Investing.
      • It is the safest investments. It is real and tangible and always in demand. In fact, it should be the next investmentafter investing in yourself and in your company or job.
      • It isactually easy to get into. In fact, it’s easier than you think! You don’t need special knowledge like you would to trade on the stock market. You can start researching today how to get into real estate.
      • It has leverage. The ROI (Return on Investment) is key. Real estate beats most investment strategies. Stock markets are a lot more volatile as it can go up, or it can drop completely. Leverage here means doing more for less and using OPM (Other People’s Money). When you give your money to the bank, they give it to someone else who is investing, and can make them money. They are not investing in the person, they are investing in the property itself, Banks trusts the property and the fact that it can be taken back or sold. Property investors actually make up a smaller part of the property market as most people buying property are buying homes for themselves.

One the best things that you can learn in property is to negotiate.

An example here is a property that is worth $120,000 and you want to rather negotiate to $110,00 or even $100,000. One way to negotiate is by finding a motivated seller.

Motivated sellers are people who are looking to get rid of the property quicker than others.

      • They want to upgrade or downgrade and because they have found something, they want to move fast;
      • Something has happened in their life like divorce or death;
      • They are facing repossession or foreclosure.

So, you are giving the bank10% ($10,000)and the bank is giving you the rest90%, depending on your credit, and in this example, $90,000. Let’s say in a year the value of the property goes up by 10%. So, you have only put in $10,000, you are using other people’s money to invest in this, so you have just made a profit of $32,000 in one year!

Real estate is the only place where you can make this kind of money and see this type of ROI. Let’s take it further, if you have bought property and the interest rates are lower on real estate, and you are renting it out to a tenant. The tenant can be paying the interest on your property use the balance to save.

If this is the case, you can make almost 220% on your investment in a year.

Different Needs

People have different needs and reasons for buying property:

      • Some people flip the property;
      • Some people buy for long term investment;
      • Some buy to live in.

Look for something that you can simply invest in, and not at just about affordability. Look at something that you can afford to buy and then rent it out. Make it an extra source of income. Look at it like a box that you are putting money into, rent it out and let the tenant help you pay 0ff the mortgage from the bank. I personally use real estate to give me power to leverage and build my other business.

I don’t look at it like a beautiful building, I look the property like a stable investment so that I can carry on running my other businesses. Many people don’t know this, but governments actually encourage people to buy property.

Government actually assist you in buying property especially by trying to keep the interest rates stable and by giving you tax breaks, so make sure that you learn about this to start maximising your investment.

Let’s Summarize

Firstly, there is a massive demand as the population will keep growing and people need to live in homes and houses. Make sure you learn your local market and know that you can always get someone to invest with you. Use a property to leverage your wealth. If you cannot buy in the very expensive area that you are in, buy somewhere cheaper and get a tenant to help you pay it off and then move to buy into other markets.

Lastly, use the government to help you! Research and understand how to buy property with the right interest rates and find out how to take advantage of those tax breaks.