Can I acquire 21 $200 per month doors in five years?

[Logan Jones]

I have been setting up my plan moving forward and I decided that in 5 years I want to be making $4,200 a month in passive income. I haven't found my first deal but it seems reasonable for me to hit this goal in five years. I just want to get a second and third opinion. Can I reasonably acquire 21 $200 per month cash flowing doors in my first five years?

[Scott Trench]

When many folks ask this question, they have a fundamental misunderstanding of how investing and compounding works, as it pertains to both business and real estate.

Most people approach getting to 21 doors in 5 years like this:

Year 1: Buy 4

Year 2: Buy 4

Year 3: Buy 4

Year 4: Buy 4

Year 5: Buy 5

Total - 21. 

In reality, the guy who achieves this goal is going to pursue a path that looks more like this:

Year 1: Buy 1

Year 2: Buy 2

Year 3: Buy 4

Year 4: Buy 6

Year 5: Buy 8

This is the power of compounding. The first property is a huge struggle to learn, adapt, DIY, grow, and make mistaks. The 21st property is just another cog in your system.

It's not just the dollars that you will have available to purchase real estate with that are compounding. It will be your ability to run a scalable real estate business that should compound as well, as you consume more knowledge, and gain practical experience.

If you apply yourself diligently to your pursuit of real estate you'll find that deals begin to present themselves to you, that lenders will be more willing to work with you to finance your deals, and that other individuals might be interested in giving you cash to partner on your purchases. 

So yes, it is possible to get to 21 doors like that in 5 years. Just expect the growth to be exponential, and to come at the tail end, not linear. It's unsatisfying at the beginning. But exponentially rewarding down the line.