Posted by phil fernandez on July 07, 2001 at 19:53:46:
Monique,
I could tell you were addicted on creative real estate when I met you at the last CREOnline convention in Atlanta. LOL.
about how much are you making each year? - Posted by garza
Posted by garza on July 06, 2001 at 17:34:17:
If there are any of you who have been investing for over one year, how much do you make in a typical year of real estate investing. I realize it will change from year to year.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus… - Posted by Eric C
Posted by Eric C on July 07, 2001 at 14:36:34:
… but that doesn’t mean that there will be any presents under the tree for you!
Hi -
Sorry for the sarcasm, it rarely translates well anytime and it most definitely doesn’t travel well over the net.
Anyway,
I think the question is a valid one, but your phrasing leaves a lot to be desired.
Will an attorney do well after law school?
Is a physician “set for life” when he finishes his residency?
Do most politicians make more than they’re worth?
The answers are:
- It depends.
- It depends.
- Absolutely.
I didn’t come to the RE field because I thought money was lying around on the ground just waiting for me to pick it up.
I began in RE because I found it interesting (fascinating, actually). And after I started, I found I was… “captivated” is the only word that can describe the attraction.
I read everything I could get my hands on about RE. I talked to everyone I could about RE. I spend every cent I could find on RE courses and seminars. I even dreamed about RE.
Has it paid off? Yep.
Do I feel the same way now, after 20+ years in the biz? I’m typing a message to you about RE right now, aren’t I?
And I’ve already had a breakfast meeting (about RE). I’ve got a 2:30 appointment with Alex G (Austin) to talk RE. And tonight I’ll be meeting with some others (in downtown Austin) to discuss even more RE.
So what do you think? Am I into this stuff or what?
And that may be your best answer. If you don’t love what you do, you probably won’t make it through the rough times that every occupation runs into from time to time (and RE is certainly not immune from those).
What skills and talents do you now have that you can bring to bear on your “new” chosen field?
How much time and effort are you willing to put into learning about this subject? So far, I’ve got a few years on you.
Do people make a lot of money in this field? Some do.
Do others find it difficult? Some do.
What will happen in your case? I simply don’t know.
And neither does anyone else.
What you become is entirely up to you.
Yours,
Eric C
PS - and about that money just lying on the ground? Well, wouldn’t you know it really was waiting for me after all. I just had to learn to recognize it for what it really was. Take care.
If “you” think you can… - Posted by gwtx
Posted by gwtx on July 07, 2001 at 07:17:31:
You’re right, You can.
If “you” think you can’t,
You’re right, "you can’t.
- Henry Ford -
There are those… - Posted by David Alexander
Posted by David Alexander on July 07, 2001 at 01:46:36:
That make a little… maybe by doing a deal or two a year… or maybe they buy and hold and wait sorta like saving… that could be picking up a property or two and making 20k a deal or so.
There are those that do better, maybe they make a 100-200k a year or so and also pick up some property here and there for long term holding.
There are those that make in a month what few make in a year…
And those that make in a week what others make in a month…
Absolutely NONE of this should be a concern of yours… You should only be concerned about what you can do.
It doesnt matter whether your doing RE, Selling hot dogs and lemonade on the corner, or running an internet business, you can make the money any way you choose.
It’s not the business, so if your still looking for the right business then start learning more about the fundamentals of business and less worry about how much you will make… the money will come with that knowledge.
But all in all after you get good at making money, put some into buying assets such as RE, or business and learn to work for passive and portfolio income…
Why most can’t comprehend that large sums of money can be made is because they are stuck thinking in terms of earned income… How does that guy make that much a year? It’s funny when asked to fill out a credit app nowadays and you see usually the top amount on the list is a 100k…
The next hurdle to overcome is that your time is worth something…
Recently I was with my dad, he was leaving town after a visit and his car broke down on the way out… I went to his aid… It was a Sunday… I said lets just push the car to a neighboring autoshop… and we’ll spend the day together, go catch a movie. Instead he wanted to work on it, to save some money… About a $100 dollars and 4 hours later the car still wasnt running.
We pushed it to the autoshop left a note and waited for a call the next morning… they fixed it in a couple hours the next day… for about $70 bucks.
We never did see a movie. My dad believes his time is less valuable than the money it would have cost him to fix the car… just the way he was brought up, Heck the way he brought me up…
Make your time valuable, leverage others time, leverage money others and yours and concentrate on income other than earned and you will make large sums of money… and you to will laugh when that question comes up…
Life can be great.
David Alexander
Past perf. is no indication of future returns - Posted by Potash
Posted by Potash on July 06, 2001 at 23:28:19:
i have averaged $140,000 over the last 4 years. Email me if you would like an early crack at my IPO. nasdaq symbol PKOH.
Perhaps you should ask… - Posted by SCook85
Posted by SCook85 on July 06, 2001 at 23:14:01:
questions such as:
Is it possible to make $xxx per year in real estate investing?
Can I expect to replace my income from real estate investments withing one year (2 years, 3 years etc…)?
Do you make more as a real estate investor then you made with your job?
You may get answers to these questions. I and no one else wants to disclose our incomes to anyone let alone the whole internet via this newsgroup.
My response is similar to Phils. “Enough and then some”
Steve
Rephrase your question. - Posted by CR TX
Posted by CR TX on July 06, 2001 at 20:56:50:
I thought you might get some testy responses to that post. If you’re like me, you want to know before you commit to full time REI just how much you might expect to be making after a year or two full time.
So how about this? Ask “How much can I expect to make, if I work very hard and get a few breaks, after a year in REI fulltime?”. I hope you get an answer.
I’d like to know myself.
Carolyn
More than most people you know ! (nt) - Posted by JT - IN
Posted by JT - IN on July 06, 2001 at 19:46:53:
$$$
Journey from the Emerald City - Posted by Eric C
Posted by Eric C on July 07, 2001 at 16:33:16:
Hi David -
I couldn’t agree with you more. But some of us don’t really understand what it takes to become successful in the RE biz.
Instead of learning, we concern ourselves with business cards, telephone lines, answering scripts, and web sites when there are other more important things we should be tending to.
Most of us (speaking again of the RE biz) will end up working alone. And as Martha Stewart says, that is a very good thing. But it does have its drawbacks; one of those is lack of relevant experience.
For many, the only exposure we?ve ever had to the real world of business is our ?former? life in Corporate America, or as I like to call it, the ?Emerald City?.
Life in the Emerald City may be interrupted from time to time by periods of fear, loathing, or even joy, but most of the time the prevailing sentiment is pure tedium. Boredom to the extreme.
I believe that specialization is partly to blame. You might be part of a ?team?, a small part of ?the big picture?, or a just a piece of the ?whole enchilada?, but all the while you are never alone. Except maybe when the time comes for your performance review. And then your beliefs in those aforementioned principles may be severely tested.
Maybe you type reports, tally numbers, log phone calls, deal with customers, manage factories, or invent ad campaigns. Heck, you might even be the boss.
After all, in every Emerald City there is a resident wizard – the guy with the microphone standing behind the curtain. I should know; I was once a wizard myself.
My point is that whatever responsibility you once had, no matter how great that responsibility was, you probably dealt with only a small part (in most cases) of the company?s business. If you were a planner, then someone else was responsible for executing those plans. If sales training was your thing, then strategy was a whole another department. And so on, and so on.
In the RE biz, things could not be more different. You are alone.
Nobody to plan for you and no large company to hide behind. No one to take credit for your achievements and no one to blame for your mistakes.
No salary. No benefits. No pension. No identity.
Is it any wonder that we often try to recreate our ideas of ?corporate success??
That we try to become mini conglomerates complete with a marketing department (us), sales department(us), legal(us), and human resources (wonder of wonders, us!) departments too. We simply don?t know any other way. We fold, spindle and mutilate until we have web addresses, email accounts, corporate logos and stationery (for each of our various corporate identities), etc., etc.
Wasn?t this what we were supposed to leave behind? Weren?t we tired of all the corporate bu$$sh*t?
Are we any happier?
Now, to be honest some of us are happy. We like being somebody, anybody – whoever and whatever our most current business card says.
But does it help us get to where we need to go in the long run?
Are we making progress?
If not, why not?
I believe that it comes down to a lack of understanding. An imprecise target. A fuzzy goal.
The idea of leaving the Emerald City is often so seductive that we sometimes forget that our original wish was simply to get home. And not just anywhere will do. We,… well most of us, have a definite destination in mind.
We do like the freedom. Or, at least we like the idea of freedom.
And we like to make deals. Oh, how we like to ?do deals?. Making things happen (we think). With us the center of attraction (we like to think).
Again, I ask you: is this what you wanted?
Or, instead of the appearance of freedom, how do you feel about the real thing? Freedom to choose not just how to spend the day, but how to spend your life.
And instead of pretending to be someone of worth, you become a person worthy of respect (yours as well as that of others).
Rather than working for a living, you find your life?s work.
All of these are possible. And all are on my roadmap to success. I can?t speak for yours.
These may be small differences in semantics to some, but I tell you the differences are vast.
I no longer try to mold myself after some ?corporate? ideal. I don?t attempt be more than I once was. I realize that I can?t be everything to everyone. And I no longer have the power of the corporation behind me either. I can?t command personnel to achieve my goals, or hold press conferences to announce my intentions. ( I guess I could, but in each case, no one would pay the least bit of attention any more).
Most importantly, I can?t drive the business any longer. Instead, I have to adjust my aim and make sure that the work I want comes to me. Attraction is the key. Find the thing you love and make it work for you. Instead of choosing your projects try letting the projects choose you.
It will work.
It just requires you to think differently. And act differently.
But the results are more than worth the trouble.
Yours,
Eric C
Beautiful Observation - Posted by PeteH(NYS)
Posted by PeteH(NYS) on July 07, 2001 at 13:21:14:
… of the way time can be worth more than money, and how that’s so easy for folks to overlook. Thanks.
Re: Enough nt. - Posted by garza
Posted by garza on July 06, 2001 at 18:28:00:
Anon, if you don’t want to tell me then why did you reply? It was merely a question. Get a life.
Thanks for a GREAT POST ! - Posted by JohnG
Posted by JohnG on July 08, 2001 at 01:11:21:
Wow -what a great post.
Its midnight on a Sat night and I just came on for a quick look and what you have written is just pure gold.
I know something of where you are coming from. We leave the corporate world and plan to go it alone - and the next thing you know we are up to our eyes in business cards, websites and all the rest of that “stuff” that we make up to make us look good - but that provides nothing in the way of substance.
Tonight, for 3 hours, my wife and I drove around town in my convertible 911 with the top down and the tunes blaring - now that is a much better use of our cash flow than all that other “stuff” !!! And its deductible to boot !!! Now, that will do more for you than all the business cards and websites and coporate logos combined.
Therein lies the problem; we are so used to all the trappings of corporate life that we feel naked and exposed without them. Instead, we should, as you so eloquently put it, look inside ourselves and take the time to find out what it is we really want and who it is we really are.
Too many of us just want to look good, smell good, and be broke !!
Again, thank you for a wonderful post. Very much appreciated.
John G
Re: Journey from the Emerald City - Posted by phil fernandez
Posted by phil fernandez on July 07, 2001 at 18:07:05:
I’ve always called real estate investing more of a lifestyle than anything else. You wake up thinking real estate. Your thinking real estate while you’re having your morning coffee. You can’t wait to jump on the CREOnline website to see what is happening.
You go out to lunch with your real estate buddies. Notice I didn’t call them competitors. There’s always enough to go around.
You can’t wait to do the next deal. For the educated investor there will be a deal. And the money will follow.
Later in the night you hop back on CREOnline. Then you go to bed with your mind turning and churning with what you will be doing tommorrow. Exciting sure. Sometimes to the point where you can’t wait for the light of the morning so we can do it all over again.
Yup. Definitely a lifestyle for me.
Awesome! - Posted by Andrew
Posted by Andrew on July 07, 2001 at 18:01:35:
Eric,
Every now and then there is a post that really hits the spot. You’ve certainly posted some gems in the past, but this one is awesome! Thanks Eric, hope to meet you one of these days.
-Andrew
Re: Enough - Posted by Blane (MI)
Posted by Blane (MI) on July 07, 2001 at 09:18:18:
Garza,
That was Phil’s nice way of saying it’s really none of your business. You just smartmouthed one of the nicer and well known folks on this site. You could learn a lot from him if you get rid of that snotty attitude.
Blane (and what I make is none of your business either)
Re: Journey from the Emerald City - Posted by SueC
Posted by SueC on July 08, 2001 at 13:05:42:
So Phil can I quote you when I try to convince my husband I’m NOT NUTS? Actually, he just keeps saying, You really love this stuff don’t you??
So how can you spend the summer on a little island away from the action? 
Re: Journey from the Emerald City - Posted by Dee-Texas
Posted by Dee-Texas on July 07, 2001 at 21:14:05:
I never had any training in real estate in my life nor really wanted to until I came upon a site called creonline…All of a sudden things starting changing for the best. I always go after things hard and fast, studying everything I can get my hands on and talking to people…yep…creonline was the link…it’s people…meeting you Phil, David, HR and Terry Houston in Arlington. That’s what set this wonderful part of my life. Listening and learning…always learning.
Thank you my friends for the love that you share in what you do. It’s contagious.
Dee-Texas