The Unfair Advantage

The Unfair Advantage

If you follow real estate blogs, you will probably hear many people talking about the “unfair advantage”. I also talked about it in my previous blog. What it is? How could unfair be an advantage?

Real estate is no rocket science, so is the word “unfair advantage”. It is basically taking what you think is unfair and turn it into your advantage. Indeed, it is a plus for the one that was born in a family that his or her grandparents were already real estate investors. You might think it is unfair for you to play in the game of real estate because you don’t have anyone that hold your hand and show you what to do. Instead of complaining, you could turn those unfair things into your advantage.

I asked one of my friend the reason why he always wanted but would never invest in real estate. He told me that he was not “lucky” like me because he came to the US late, and did not have the chance or support to do the thing I did. He told me that if he was “lucky” like me, he would have invested in real estate and has a much better position in life. I have no idea where he pull the word “lucky” from. For me, spending your time in other country, especially hardship country will give you some serious advantage over other investors:

By not spending my childhood at the United States, it gave me the opportunity to analyze and compare the Real estate between Vietnam and the US. I had the opportunity to see that a 2 bedroom condo in Vietnam that is worth $200,000 can only rent for 800$. Because of that, when I saw a $80,000 3/2/2 house in Houston Texas rent for 1200$, I bought it with my eye closed, while other investor was crunching number, and trying to figure out if this was a good deal or not

By growing up in another country, the consumer credit card concept was not embedded in my head. In my country, the concept of borrow the money to use for your daily expense, and pay it off later does NOT exist. We only buy what we can afford, and we hate to own anyone money. While other people love to rack up their card and decide to pay later on in life. I have zero balance in my credit card every single month ever since I applied for my 1st credit card.

When did kids start to  learn about shopping smart, finance, budgeting, or accounting? May be in college? When I was little kid, my mom gave me 10$ to go buy meat at the market and told me to keep the different. I already knew as a kid to shop around for the good “supplier”, negotiate to lower the price so that I can keep the “spread”. I learn to save for rainy day while other kids rely on credit card.

Last but not least, by staying in another country, I learned to appreciate and not to take thing for granted. You have to travel around to see how lucky it is to stay in the United States, to appreciate the infrastructures and opportunities it is providing. My previous generation risked their life on boat to come to the US while I traveled here on a nice airplane. While others might take thing for granted, I appreciate every moment I’m breathing here. I will seize all the opportunity I could to push myself to the next level

The world is never fair. It is your responsibility, and opportunity to turn those unfair into your advantage and help you reach your goal.

What is your unfair advantage? I would love to hear about it.