Post #5 - I'm Bored 'til She's On Board

Investors,

Have you ever argued with someone about who the 35th U.S. President was?  Or what the square root of 169 is?  It can be very frustrating because these are provable facts and you KNOW you are right.  

I have similar feelings when talking with my wife about buying rental properties.  I am very blessed to have a hard-working, beautiful, & intelligent wife with an open mind.  At the same time she can be very careful and skeptical - especially about money.  I can't fault her skepticism too much.  We have no historical data or experience with buying or managing rental property.  On top of that, we have been Dave Ramsey ("Debt is Dumb") fans for a while now so we instinctively cringe when we hear "mortgage" or "financing".  With these beliefs combined with our inexperience, real estate (on the surface) seems like a huge risk.  On top of that, we were both raised with the mindset of real estate being a rich man's business and too complicated for the rest of us.  However, the more I learn from business/REI books, listening to helpful podcasts (BP Podcast), and collaborating with former colleagues (current RE investors), the more I see real estate investing as a method to achieving our financial goals.  No, it is not an absolute proven fact, free of risk.  In other words, real estate doesn't ALWAYS make you wealthy but it definitely CAN make you wealthy.  

Until just recently, I viewed her cautious nature as a huge roadblock to our first rental property purchase.  Every time I found and analyzed a property that I thought was a great deal, I had to convince her of how great it was.  I thought, it would be a lot easier if I said, "I found a property and we're going to make money from it" and she replied, "Great, sounds good."  That's not how it happens and I am (now) very thankful.   The cool side of this situation is that our system now has another filter (did I just call my wife a filter? sorry, babe) to run our deal through.  Now, when I can find a great property, present it to her, answer her questions, and the numbers are solid, I know the deal is golden.  Additionally when this happens, my wife gets less anxious (even excited) and she's on board with pursuing that property.

We are still getting started so the nervousness and fear are still there when going to an auction or calling a potential seller.  But I have a suspicion that once we purchase a wonderful property and the numbers on the analysis sheet start to materialize in our bank account, she and I will gain confidence and get a huge boost.  Yes, we are being selective but just think of the quality of the deals that we will add to our portfolio while we are working as a team.  It took me too long to see that her skepticism could be a good thing.  Now she is an integral part of our Deal Analysis system.  And the best part is we are working on this REI thing together.

Getting spouses on board is a popular topic in real estate investing.  Please share your success or failure story in the comments. 

Trent

P.S. JFK & 13, if you were wondering.