Never Lose Money in Real Estate
My goal for Real Estate Investing for Professional Men and Women is to help professionals from all walks of life make and keep more money and grow their wealth. That’s why I bring in guests from all sorts of backgrounds who have great knowledge and incredible strategies that can help you do just that. Sometimes my guests will be real estate experts, and sometimes they will specialize in other areas of investing, finance or the business world, but they will always have some remarkable wisdom that you can implement in your own life to further your financial growth.
For this episode of Real Estate Investing for Professional Men and Women, I sat down for a conversation with real estate investor Paul Morris. Paul is an award-winning entrepreneur, trainer, author, and business consultant who has developed a system to ensure that he never loses money on his investments. Using his strategies, he has been able to grow a remarkable portfolio, safely and strategically.
As a business professional looking to invest your hard-earned money, I know that real estate can be a powerful vehicle to grow your wealth. But, and this is important, you have to invest your money the right way if you hope to use it as a wealth creation tool. Minimizing risks and creating opportunities is critical, and Paul Morris is an excellent example of the power of smart investing in real estate.
Smart Investing
As Paul explained to me during our discussion, he uses three rules that guide his investing and help him minimize risk and maximize gains. His three rules are: buy where you know, value add, and cash flow. By sticking to locations you are personally familiar with, you have “insider knowledge” into the neighborhoods that can help you avoid hidden problems. Adding value means making upgrades to a property to make it more attractive than competing properties in the same budget range, such as adding security lighting, making it clean and safe, and ensuring that everything is working properly. The goal isn’t to turn the “worst house in the best neighborhood” into a show home. Instead, the goal is to make your property more attractive to people who are looking to get into the neighborhood but are priced out by more expensive properties.
The final rule is cash flow, in other words taking steps to ensure that your property begins renting as soon as possible to start bringing in income and paying for itself. Paul slightly under-prices his properties compared to the going rate of a neighborhood, to ensure that his properties fill almost immediately. Remember, you don’t start recouping your expenses on a property until you can fill it; a vacant property is only costing you money.
Opening New Doors
One truly valuable piece of advice Paul shared during our discussion is his simple but powerful script: “what would it take to earn the right?” As Paul explained it, people have a hard time saying no to a request when you frame it this way. Paul shared the story of asking to study with a mentor by saying “what would it take to earn the right to study with you for twenty minutes?”
By doing this, and by ensuring that the other party knows he’s fully prepared and isn’t wasting their time, Paul is able to create new opportunities for himself. Phrasing a request in this way shows that you are aware that the other person’s time is valuable and that you want to earn the experience of working with them, and it truly is a great way to frame a request.
Paul Morris is an expert at creating opportunities for himself. As he explained, growing wealth isn’t his goal, but the freedom wealth creates that allows him to do what he wants is what motivates him. That is a concept that should resonate with many of the Real Estate Investing for Professional Men and Women podcast listeners. I hope you are able to take Paul’s ideas and strategies and implement them in your own investments. If you would like to learn more about Paul Morris, you can find him on Instagram @paulmarkmorris or email him at paul@forward1.com. And for more episodes of the Real Estate Investing for Professional Men and Women podcast, featuring other informative guests from across the business world who can help you create wealth, please visit me at www.myinvestmentservices.com/podcast/.