The 5 Foundations to Becoming a Millionaire in Real Estate

I believe the most sure way to become a millionaire is through Real Estate Investing. Below are the 5 Foundations to Becoming a Millionaire in Real Estate.

#1 What gets measured gets improved

I think this is one the most foundational keys to any success. The first step to know where you are going is to know where you are at! So sit down, pull up a spreadsheet and create a simple Personal Financial Statement or Net Worth Tracker. Write down all of your assets and liabilities. Then do this every single month for the rest of your life and I guarantee you it will grow because you are looking at it every single month. Do not miss one month, do it consistently at the beginning of every month. What gets measured gets improved.

Every month does not need to be a huge deep dive into all of your real estate assets, stock portfolios, etc. But I would suggest quarterly or bi-annually to deep dive into each asset and see how it's doing. Do you need to sell or refinance a property you own? What asset class, type, area is performing the best for you? See which months have had the greatest increase in your net worth and ask what did I do this month (or the months leading up to this month) to get such a large increase to my net worth and keep on doing those activities! What's really fun to see once you get some rental properties going is to see how much principal is being reduced every month. Right now on all of my loans combined, I am paying off $930,000 in debt which equates to about a monthly $1,200 in principal pay down. It’s pretty amazing to have your net worth passively increased every month by my tenants! Even better is most of my loans are in the early stages of their maturity so each month that principal pay down amount increases.

#2 Investor Mindset - why are you doing this? Where do you want to go?

There are several psychology books and articles on this but you need to sit down and create a vision for yourself. Write down your goals for the next 10 years. Then Break it down into smaller pieces from 3 years, 1 year, 1 month, next week and today. Then every day you wake up briefly consider your future targets and narrow it down to today. What do I need to do today that will get me one step closer to x. Do not go past this day that it will get way too overwhelming. Then annually you can reframe your vision and adjust but do not do it too often as you will get into analysis paralysis and shiny object-titis. Get a crystal clear vision of what you want your life to look like in the future. I created a vision board with some pictures that key me into my goals for the future. You need to really deeply passionately feel tied to the goals. If you do not feel a burning desire it's something you need to work on or the goal isn’t meant for you. To work on gaining this burning desire I would suggest reading “Think and Grow Rich” and “The Four Spiritual Laws of Prosperity”.

Write down what your life will be like when you accomplish your goals. Paint the picture of the future in your mind and it will be so. Treat the challenges that come before you as an exciting game to beat. See them as building blocks for the next horizon ahead of you. Adapt an abundance mentality that there is plenty of help, money, resources available to you. You have unlimited potential and energy. Also write down what you will be missing out on if you do not accomplish your goals. Learn to harness your emotions to drive you toward a life filled with passion for what you do and where you are going.

#3 Write down all the resources you have

What are your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in order to get these goals accomplished? Make a list of all the money you have available to you in your retirement accounts, cash in bank accounts, equity in real estate or other assets. Then you need to think beyond the monetary resources you have and consider and quantify the time, knowledge, relationships, credit and creativity resources you have. I actually believe more valuable than anything is your knowledge, energy and relationships. Think about what you know and how it can benefit others. What value can you add to other people? If you don’t have the value yet go and figure out what you can learn or do to have that. Write down all the lenders, agents, wholesalers, rehabbers, other experienced investors you know and be in contact with them.

#4 Get educated and network

When I first started out I had very little cash but I started learning and going to REIA’s and meetups. I would follow around others who were doing deals and having them tell me the numbers on the deals they were doing. I would follow their deals so I could define what a deal was when I saw it. You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time around so I purposefully spent time around people who were at the level I wanted to be at. I made partnerships with people who I knew we could both greatly value from each other and learn from each other. You now officially should never listen to music while driving and commuting to work until you are a millionaire. You need to constantly be listening to 2-3 different podcasts about areas you want to grow in. You should be reading a book a month and applying the principles you are learning.

#5 Take massive imperfect action

Tell everyone what you are doing and what you want to do. If you believe in God or a greater being tell Him every night what you want and ask for guidance and direction. I firmly believe that what you ask for consistently you will eventually get exactly what you are asking for. Hence why figuring out what you want in section #2 is important to do. Go and make offers and analyze deals. Go and mess up and make someone mad that you offered them way too low for their house. Go get that first deal done it is the single greatest barrier to success.