How To Get Out of Real Estate...?!

[Ben Leybovich]

Everyone is asking how to get into RE.  I want to know - how to get out?  It was fun while it lasted, but I'm kinda done...Any ideas?

I've had oil on my mind lately, and Serge is no freaking help.  Should I maybe buy some calls and hedge long or with gold.

Or, here is another idea - I could always just focus on my guru career.  I'm so good-looking and well spoken.  Thoughts?

@Brian Burke , @Serge S. , @Bill Gulley 

[Brian Burke]

Don't blame @Orion Walker for summoning me to this thread, @Ben Leybovich , you started it (see your original post!).  LOL

Ben, what does investing in real estate mean to you?  No, not "it means everything to me" or "it means nothing to me".  I mean, what does it look like?  If investing in real estate means syndicating a large Multifamily deal, I can see why you are asking how to get out of RE.  In that event, you are asking the wrong question because getting out of buying something requires no instructions--just don't buy anything.

I used to have a small fish pond in my side yard.  It was a nightmare.  The water would turn green.  I'd drain it and put in new water.  Green again after a week or two.  Got an ultraviolet filter.  Didn't help.  The fish were dying, I didn't know how often to feed them, so I tried different feeding schedules and food.  Turns out that raccoons were eating the dang fish, it had nothing to do with me.  No matter what I tried I couldn't get the pond you see in magazine pictures--the sparkling water and colorful fish swimming around.  The pond is now a patio.

Real estate is not some 'thing' like a raggedy couch that you need to summon your friends on BP to help you move out of your living room.  No...it's an entire ecosystem, like my crappy pond.  To get the pond in the magazine picture you need the right filters, aquatic plants, bugs, specific fish and food...all in the perfect proportions combined with talent and skill.  And perhaps most importantly, an absence of raccoons.

There are so many ways to exist in the real estate ecosystem...different strategies to employ in different locations at different times.  If you are just bored but seek success within the system, figure out which combination of strategy, location, and timing is most likely to produce a positive result.  Don't fight Mother Nature.  If your "fish" are getting eaten by "raccoons", move your "pond" or go into the raccoon trapping business.

If you've ever wondered why I've done SFR flips, holds, Multifamily flips and syndication, land development, homebuilding, commercial real estate and real estate brokerage...it isn't because real estate means only one thing to me. Instead, to me it means employing the right strategy, in the right location, at the right time. I haven't always been right with my selection, but I've learned from each and it's hard to be bored when you are learning.

If it's really just about finding something else to do, focus on your music, be a stay at home dad, get on The Amazing Race, ghost write my book, take up golf or fishing, or move in with @Brandon Turner and help him fix up his rentals.