Staying on Target, Working on Skills

I really did not want to exercise a few days this week but I did it anyways. I have not missed a day in the last 50 or so. What I do skip sometimes is logging on to BP and updating my Goals to keep the streak alive. I am old school, so I keep a physical day-timer with my notes and important things I need to get done. I am trying to put checking BP as one of my daily activities.

In the last three weeks at work, I have ordered 2 dishwashers , 1 washer/dryer combo, one fridge and one stove and two hot water tank for buildings and single units I manage. It is interesting that for tenants, the bulk of the work is minor, but typically more urgent. In Strata or HOA, there is a lot of regular maintenance that goes on and when a major item needs attending, it is usually related to common property and has an extra layer of approvals by the Board or Council to get approved and done

I finished reading "What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know about Cashflow...and 36 other key financial measures" After that, I switched it up and read an easy book "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho. I am now reading Millionaire Success Habits by Dean Graziosi.

In this book I came across a concept that gets into what it takes to become really successful. Some say work on your weaknesses, others say focus on your strengths so that you don't get mentally defeated when you realize your skills are crap in a certain area. So which is it?

This is a continuation of the previous blog on Weak/Strong link activities. I think that any activity that can set you back by 10 years if you make a wrong decision is a weak link activity and you need to focus on that first. It is funny that I can draw analogies to arguments I had with my kids when they were going up. I told them that If anyone endangered their lives I would yell at them, especially if it was themselves. A simple example would be skateboarding without wearing a helmet. The chances of an accident are small, but the possible results could be fatal if they did not take the proper precautions. That is why I made my kids learn to swim. They enjoyed it, but in my mind the goal was to get them to be able to fall off a dock or into a swimming pool and be able to swim back to the dock / or pool edge and get out.

In real estate terms this may be buying your first investment property without a home inspection or title insurance. There may be no issue at all, but a serious problem in that first deal can end your career as a real estate investor.  Motivational speaker Les Brown tells of his first home purchase and how he did it without title insurance; great speaker; great story. 

I believe once you have some level of security and confidence that your weak links will not cause a complete failure, then you should work on your strong links. Improving your Strong links is where you can excel and make the real money. Whether that is in renovations or negotiating deals, it will turn a good situation into a great situation and set you apart.

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While I am writing this I have looked forward and can see that my leads generation will be the next area for me to work on. I am slowly building the blocks for this activity by connecting with other investors and all persons related to real estate. It is slowly building up. I now get about one request per month to look at an investment opportunity.

The last 4 investments were

a Rental pool in an new Stratified development in Edmonton.

Storage units in Ontario

Storage units in Vancouver

Single rental units in the Okanagan (BC interior)

All of the proposals have their pluses and minuses, but I will likely pass on them all.

The proposals are not bad, but the properties that I have reviewed on my own have better returns. I addition, I will be in control of the project start to finish.

Control is something I value highly right now and all of the projects that I was invited to invest in have a fixed amount of time before I would be able to withdraw from the investment. 

I am carefully watching the stock market, the long term bond rate and most importantly the inflation rate. I really want to have a high confidence level of success when I do pull the trigger on my next investment. I will leave inflation and my current outlook on the equity markets for the next blog.