Originally, I had this blog hosted on another URL, but I decided for security reasons, it was best to reveal as little personal information as I can. I already had an old email account of mine compromised in the past, so I am a lttle suspect when it comes to divulging too much personal information.
My old blog had four entries, starting with November 30, 2004, so I'll just repost them here. Here was the first entry ...
This is my first entry in my Real Estate Investing blog even though I've been active now since late September of this year. Instead of just picking up from today, I thought I'd waste some bandwidth and go through my experiences to this point.
Late September/2004
I am an active member of an NBA message board. I converse daily with other fans about my team (the San Antonio Spurs), other teams, and the NBA in general. Sometimes the threads go off-topic and we talk about other facets of life. Several of us were discussing the economy at the time, and one person responded to a post I made by saying I should read Robert Kiyosaki's Retire Young, Retire Rich - one of the books from his Rich Dad's series. I procrastinated that week, but finally went to Barnes & Nobles and picked me up a copy. I read the book in two days. The author makes the point several times that the book isn't a "how-to" book, but rather a "why-to" book. I got the same feeling after completing the book, however, it does generalize some "how-to" concepts that I have further researched.
October/2004
I spent the majority of the month reading the Rich Dad's discussion forums. From there, I gathered a more knowledge of Real Estate Investing (REI). I also purchased the Rich Dad Cashflow(tm) E-Game for $99. It's a game that tailor's the player's mind into thinking more about cashflow, assets/liabilities, good/bad debt, etc. I have come away from the game with a bitter-sweet taste. While I laude its ability to teach the player how to look at finances, the e-game is not at all configurable. You choose a pre-set occupation (complete with pre-set income and debt levels), play with pre-set opportunity cards, and play a game that has pre-set (and, to me, sometimes unrealistic) options. My biggest beef is that I cannot configure the stock market. This can lead to a very unrealistic game. For example, a player can land on an opportunity space, draw a stock market card that allows them to purchase stock for $1/share, whose trading range is normally $5-$40. The player can then buy whatever amount they want - even getting out a bank loan to do it - as long as their cashflow stays positive. A few rolls later the same (or another) player can land on an opportunity space, draw a card in which the stock price is now $20, $30, or even $40/share. Boom! Now the player can make 20x, 30x, or even 40x profit. This happens to me (or a computer player) at least half the time I play. For example, one time I played as a fireman and had $3,000 in-hand. I hit this space, got a bank loan for $2,000, and bought $5,000 worth of $1/share stock. Several turns later, another player landed on an opportunity space and the price for the same stock was now $40/share. Since anyone with the stock can sell it, I sold mine and made $200,000. A couple turns later, I bought a "Big Deal" that increased my passive income enough to allow me to get out of the rat race. To me, at least, this is a very unlikely scenario. I'm sure there are $1/share deals that appreciate to $40/share at times, but they are probably as rare as hen's teeth. But getting back to my other experiences ...
I found a lot of good web sites to help investors. I've read all the "how-to" articles, and perused as much of the discussions as I could in the limited amount of time I have outside of my JOB. Here is a short list:
Creative Real Estate Online
Real Estate Investment Club
Lease2Purchase.com (soon to be L2P.com)
Rich Dad
November/2004
My step-father passed away at the beginning of the month, and I put a lot of things - REI, included - on hold. With Thanksgiving also during the month, I didn't spend a lot of time researching, but I did manage to find two more good web sites:
Dealmaker's Cafe
Joe Kelley's REI Blog
Some Other Issues
During my recent REI venture, I have come across two stumbling blocks: fear and my wife. The fear is something I've heard all RE investors go through. Will I say/do the right thing? What if I fail? What if I go into more debt? Do I have enough knowledge? Do I have the best resources available? And so on. As one person said, no one knows everything about every RE situation. And another said that you WILL fail initially - you will probably fail 99% of the time. Its to be expected. Take the failures as learning situations. And remember, once you do your first deal - whether it succeeds or fails - you are now a RE investor.
The second issue I have is with my wife. I like how Joe Kelley creates his venture by saying it is his mistress. That is much the same thing I have with my wife. She thinks all this REI stuff in nonsense, and even if it isn't, I should not get involved since I know nothing about it. So much of what I do, I try to do not so much in secrecy, but as a hobby. I will be drafting a rather detailed battle plan that will go over just about everything I plan to do the next 5-10 years with regards to REI. When I have it in rough draft form, I am just going to present it to her one day soon and say this is what I am going to do. So much of our lives are spent doing things for others without knowing what it is we really want for ourselves. We go through life living each day as it comes rather than living it as we've planned. We are subjected to intereference that funnels us through traditional roles and paths. I will not be subjected to it any longer. From here on out, I will have a plan - a map - of what/when/how to achieve my goals in life. Stay tuned.
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