First Rental Property

A controversial title, don’t you think?  Well, I personally don’t think so, and here’s why…

Christmas time in North America represents a lot of things.  More than anything, Christmas time is a time for family and friends.  It is one time of the year where family comes together, either willingly or forced in order to spend time together and celebrate the holiday season.

An unfortunate by product of investing in real estate that not many new real estate investors know about is that it can cause a lot of stress on family life and often pull families apart.

This happens when family members do not see eye to eye on financial matters, or when a real estate investor in the family compromises their family members in order to grow their real estate portfolio.

In a previous post, I have talked about people being more important than real estate. I really mean this because in my view, people and especially your closes family and friends will always be more important than real estate.

When you are down and out and experiencing tough times in your life, it will be the people that are closest to you that will come to your aid  — not a material object such as a rental property.  Money and the accumulation of it means nothing at the end of the day.

So what exactly do I mean that every real estate investor should celebrate Christmas?

• In my view, every real estate investor should take some time during Christmas time to spend time with and appreciate those people in their lives that they are closest to.
• If a real estate investor focuses too much on themselves and their own business endeavours,  this may serve as a warning sign for family trouble.
• By spending too much time on yourself, you may be allowing  your family to slip away from you.  Here is an example to help illustrate:

I have seen very experienced real estate investors focus so much time and effort on building their real estate business in an effort to make a better life for their families.  However, they lost sight of actually spending time with their family during the process of building their portfolio.  Further, they let the stress associated with managing a large portfolio of real estate envelop them.  This in turn had a negative effect on their family, as they were constantly stressed out whenever interacting with their family members.  Long term, this resulted in a lot of stress on the family and the eventual collapse of it.

• One of the most successful real estate investors that I know recently told me that if he could do everything all over again, he would have worked less, and spent more time with his family.  Only later in life he has decreased his workload and is spending a lot more time with his family.

Real Estate Investors should view Christmas time as an opportunity to connect with and spend quality time with family members and close friends. After all, these people are your greatest assets, not your real estate.

Best Regards,

Neil Uttamsingh.

ps: Learn from successful real estate investors on how to have work life balance.  Buy rental properties AND have a supportive and strong family unit.  Sign up to The First Rental Property Newsletter for tips on how to do this.