Stone - Real estate investing for everyone: a guide to creating financial freedom

REAL ESTATE INVESTING FOR EVERYONE

A Guide to Creating Financial Freedom

Martin Stone

Mineola, New York

Copyright

Copyright 2019 by Martin Stone

All rights reserved.

Bibliographical Note

Real Estate Investing for Everyone: A Guide to Creating Financial Freedom is a new work, first published by Ixia Press in 2019.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Stone, Martin, 1948 author.

Title: Real estate investing for everyone : a guide to creating financial freedom / Martin Stone.

Description: Mineola : Ixia Press, 2019.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018024179 | ISBN 9780486820859 (paperback) | ISBN 0486820858

Subjects: LCSH: Real estate investment. | Investments.

Classification: LCC HD1382.5 .S758 2019 | DDC 332.63/24dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018024179

Ixia Press

An imprint of Dover Publications, Inc.

Manufactured in the United States by LSC Communications

82085801 2019

www.doverpublications.com/ixiapress

Contents

Introduction

A simple Internet search uncovers more than thirteen thousand books available on the topic of real estate investing. Regrettably missing from the lions share of those books are chapters devoted to discussing the reasons to investthat is, recognizing what the true and long-term financial benefits are to owning income property and then, most important, learning how to use those benefits to fund the kind of life and, ultimately, the kind of retirement you truly desire. Our plan here is to tackle this missing piece of the real estate investing puzzle head-on.

The birth of this book came about from lessons learned in my everyday business as a real estate broker, selling investment property to people like you for more than forty years. The lessons Im going to share with you here are the same ones my colleagues and I have been preaching to our own clients for all these years. These lessons have helped to create wealth and stability for them, and they can do the same for you too.

Visit any online source or walk into any bookstore and you will see shelves full of titles promising to make you wealthy using this or that system. In fact, lots of books offer sound advice on how to build wealth in many arenas, not just real estate. We concluded that the problem is most books on this subject are offering a road map to riches to people who arent committed to the trip.

For many busy working people, saving money and thinking about setting up a plan is the last thing they want to consider. They are pulling in a decent paycheck every week, spending it on bills and pleasure, and because they are young and energetic, they are confident they can keep that train running for as long as necessary. Hopefully, something kicks inlets call it maturityand they realize what a dead-end merry-go-round they are on. Now, investing a portion of their salary toward a fruitful future becomes a top priority. Better late than never, right? With clients like this, we no longer talk about retirement planning. We focus on investing to find the financial freedom to live their life the way they want to live it.

Statistics show that for almost 95 percent of all retirees, there is no golf club membership, no exciting vacations to be had and, literally, no rest for the weary. Sadly, the blessing of abundance in our country has created a generation of people who believe everything is going to work out just fine in the end. The sad truth is it is not.

Many people spend a good deal of time planning the profitability of the companies they work for yet do nothing to create the same kind of security for their own families. Often it is not until they get the boot because of company cutbacks that they realize it is too late. Or, worse yet, they do not wake up until after they get a gold watch and a round of For Hes a Jolly Good Fellow.

Everyone has read about the golden parachutes that top executives get when they leave major companies. Those executives plan for those parachutes when they start their jobs. In fact, without a guarantee of one on the way out, they refuse to take the position. Now check with the human resources department where youre working. Did anyone create a golden parachute to help protect you when your tenure is over? Of course not!

The truth is, there is probably the equivalent of a teeny, tiny umbrella set aside for you, if there is anything at all. Two weeks of severance pay for years of service is hardly what anyone would call golden. And you will get an even smaller umbrella from Social Security. This is not very comforting after a lifetime of paying into the system!

My plan in this book is to show you how to create your own golden parachute via investments in real estate. It can be done. Ive done it for myself and have helped countless others do it for themselves too.

I will educate you in the same conservative investment techniques that I have espoused to my clients for the past forty years. Here, I will teach you that success in real estate does not take smoke, does not include mirrors, and does not require luck. Rather, success here simply requires a well-thought-out road map. The good news is the nucleus of your road map is now resting in your hands.

Thomas Jefferson said, Most people believe that theyll wake up some day and find themselves rich. Jefferson got it only half-right. Eventually people do wake up. Unfortunately, when they do, it is usually too late. My hope is you grab the ideas in this book, couple them with your own dreams and actions, and make something fantastic happen for yourself.

Why real estate? you ask. Dont most people invest in the stock market or mutual funds? The answer to that is yes. I disagree that it is a good strategy, but more about that in a later section. The reason I believe in real estate so strongly is it is a basic necessity of life, the others being food, clothing, and shelter. Everyone needs these basics, so by investing in real estate you are banking on something that people will always need. The food and clothing industries do not lend themselves well to passive financing, but the real estate industry does. When I say passive investing, I mean that you can outsource most, if not all, of the work necessary to manage one of these investments.

For the purposes of this guide I am not talking about single-family houses but about rental property. In most metropolitan areas there is a definite need for rental housing for all the people who cannot afford to buy their own homes. Its no secret that in those same areas the population grows every year as families add more children, people move in from other areas, and older housing is removed to make room for new housing.

Along with all this demand, most cities, counties, and states are making it tougher every year to build new housing. The codes are getting tougher, the zoning is getting more restrictive, and the costs are increasing at all levels. So, we see a growing demand for housing and less and less construction. All this drives up the cost to buy and to rent. This sounds bad, unless you are in the business of owning a basic commodity that everyone needs and one where competition is slowing down because government is making it tougher to build.

I have made a point of urging my clients to get more involved in managing their own affairs. I advise you to do the same: at least put as much effort into that as you put into your career (where you trade your time for dollars you make to pay the bills). I also understand that, despite all the advances in life, we are busier than ever, so time is precious to us.