As I glanced over my left shoulder, I could not believe how close the bus was to me. I was about 6 inches away from being hit by it. It was moving at a speed at which if I was hit, I probably would have been run over by it. It would have been lights out, game over for me.
This happened to me when I was in University. I was minding my business and walking along a sidewalk parallel to one of the main streets in my university town. I had my Walkman on and I had music playing which prevented me from hearing any other sounds around me.
I felt the urge to step down from the curb and onto the road, in anticipation of crossing over to the other side of the street. I had planned in my mind that once I had stepped down onto the road I would be taking off my Walkman, and looking behind me so that I would be able to hear the sounds and see the oncoming cars before I crossed the road.
The planned step would only have taken me 6 inches away from the curb and the sidewalk that I was walking on, and far out of reach any oncoming traffic….so I thought.
Little did I know that at the same time, there was a bus pulling up o the curb to make a stop and to drop off people.
For some reason, unknown to me to this very day…I hesitated in stepping down onto the road. Had I not hesitated and had I stepped down onto the road, the bus would have hit me and I would have been easily run over.
What does this have to do with buying your first rental property?
This has a lot to do with real estate and your first rental property.
Before I make the connection, I would like to thank Henrik Edberg of The Positivity Blog. Henrik made a great suggestion in one of his posts titled, How to build a somewhat successful blog: 16 Lessons I have learned.
Henrik made me realize how very important the first few lines of every blog post are. As a result, I am going to spend time making sure that I have an impactful introduction for every article that I write.
Thank you Henrik!
As many of you reading this embark upon your real estate investing careers, you will be faced with many tough decisions. Very honestly, some of you will succeed in buying your first rental property, and some of you will not. In fact, a number of you may chose to develop a real estate portfolio bigger than just one rental property. There will be a certain number of you that will put an extreme emphasis on buying real estate and growing your portfolio as much as possible or as fast as possible…
…This is completely fine and there is nothing wrong with that. However, I will caution you on one important matter, in the hopes of helping you identify a potential problem before it actually occurs.
My caution to you is to not lose focus of what really matters in life. It is great to be ambitious and it is great to invest in real estate. There is no better way at building wealth than by investing in real estate. However, never invest in real estate at the detriment of the people and relationships that are important to you.
People will always be more valuable than real estate, and you should never do things to compromise these people.
You never know how long you will have some people in your life, so you better make the most of it while they are still around.
Investing in real estate should be secondary to investing in people.
Don’t lose focus of this. If you do, you will end up leading much of your life pursuing real estate goals while distancing yourself from the people that matter to you the most.
Best Regards,
Neil Uttamsingh
PS: To keep up to date with my blog, enter your e-mail address on the LEFT hand side of the blog. To receive The First Rental Property Newsletter, enter your e-mail address on the RIGHT hand side of the blog. In the newsletter, experienced real estate investors will share with you tips and tricks in order to help you purchase your first rental property.
Absolutely. People definitely come first, and most importantly, family trumps all. Nice message, Neil. I know you guys don’t celebrate Thanksgiving up North, but the timing of this couldn’t be better for your readers down here in the States.
Hi Josh,
Thank you for your comment.
We had our Thanksgiving up here in Canada earlier in October. I am glad you enjoyed the message.
I have seen that the most successful real estate investors, are the ones that truly understand the work/life balance.
All the best Josh.
Regards,
Neil.
You’re on fire with your posts this week Neil. Must be one of those ‘revelation’ weeks huh? It’s all good and makes life so much more enjoyable when you can truly appreciate those around you. Thank you for bringing this to the attention of the world and reminding me what’s important also!!!
Hi Joey,
Thank you for your comment.
Yes, I do feel like I have been putting out some good content this week.
I hope that I can keep up this high level continuously.
Another thing too, I am sure you have noticed this as well, however it seems that the most successful real estate investors, seem to have the work/life balance really figured out. They just seem to ‘get it’.
Hope all is well Joe.
Talk to you soon.
Neil.
Great post Neil. This is a quote to keep: People will always be more valuable than real estate, and you should never do things to compromise these people.
Hi Julie,
Thank you. I enjoyed writing this post.
I am going to keep a note of that quote.
All the best,
Neil.
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Julie Broad, Neil Uttamsingh. Neil Uttamsingh said: Why People Will Always Be More Valuable Than Real Estate http://bit.ly/gvogeW […]
Hey Neil, you’re right…I do love and appreciate this post 🙂 Often times people realize this in retrorespect….after they’ve neglected the important people for YEARS and unfortunately sometimes it takes losing a loved one before people “get it.”
The truth is, that while sometimes you have short periods of serious hustle and late nights, those should be exceptions and not the norm.
Very nice post, Neil. Thanks!
Great points Neil, and I love that you linked to the Wikipedia walkman page (for the youngins’ in the audience). It’s been an important part of building my business, and part of why I’ve only done a handful of transactions, because I’ve put my family and other important people ahead of the money and portfolio growth.
Hi Chris,
Thank you for your comment.
I completely appreciate the way you approach things.
People are important, and going gangbusters and buying 100 properties plus is not for everyone.
A very sound real estate portfolio can be obtained through slow and steady acquisitions.
This is the same strategy that I am using.
All the best,
Neil.
[…] 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 […]