Growing up, my mother always told me to save my money so that I could own a home some day. I always followed my mother's advice. I worked during high school and during college in order to save as much money whenever I could. As a teacher, I lived a modest and frugal life, but I made it my goal to continue saving until I had at least a 10% down payment for a $100,000 house. At the time, a $100,000 house was considered a decent home, especially on a teacher's salary.
One day, a financial planning company came to the school where I was teaching to present various 401k and 403B retirement plans. It was during this presentation when I realized that I would take the opportunity to schedule a private appointment to meet with one of the representatives about investing my money in real estate. When I met with the planner, my focus was to have a road map that would afford me to purchase my first home. She gave me a one-year recipe to follow. After one year of following her advice, I was a proud owner of my first real estate property.
Owning my own home meant that my real estate investment was multiplying and increasing on a daily basis. Once I experienced how my investment was positively working in my favor, I began to look into purchasing a second home. It was about two years later when I owned my second home. A few years after, I bought my third home.
One never knows what life has in store for them. It turned out that I had always wanted to live near a beach. It was destiny that took me to Florida. I sold my three homes in Texas and made my move to Florida. I took the profits I made from my Texas homes to purchase real estate in Florida. I bought Florida properties right before the market begin to sizzle nationwide, so I was fortunate enough to have bought cheap. It created a nice portfolio for me, but not aware that it was positioning me to retire before retirement age. Unfortunately, the real estate market crashed and many home owners lost their homes. Those who were able to hang on to their homes saw a deep decrease in home values. I was one of those home owners that was able to hang on to my properties, but with a great deal of disappointment and frustration.
In the stock market, the rule of thumb is to buy low and hold on to it as long as you can, the rewards will show up later. I applied this rule of thumb to my real estate investments. It was difficult and it took sacrifice, but I held on. I had bought low, so I knew that if I could simply hold on to my properties, the dividends would pay off later.
Forwarding a few years, the real estate market began to show signs of a stronger market. It was during this time that I realized that if I cashed in my properties, I would be able to significantly profit from them. I had been able to buy low and now it was time to sell high. All the signs of a healthy real estate market were visible at the time. I knew that opportunity was knocking at my door. We all know the saying, "opportunity only knocks once," but I did not hear the knock, I heard a door bell. Answering the door bell led me to selling my properties for a sizeable amount of profit. The profits afforded me to retire, purchase my new home in cash, and now I live a comfortable life without having to report to work or pay rent to a Landlord.
Ownership generates power, value, and success. These three key ingredients will begin to fertilize and sprout your future rewards.
