All Forum Posts by: Simon Delony

My wife absolutely hated real estate once I bought my 3rd or 4th rental house. I begged her for me to get rental #5. Then promised her my 10th rental would be my last. Then more deals fell in my lap. I was buying and holding 2 houses a year for the first 5 or 6 years. She went nuts on me for doing it anyway without her being on board. I wanted to create generational wealth, have a hedge against inflation with my $ and diversify my wealth, vs being 100% in the stock market. It was so bad, the kids would even tell me to stop buying rentals because they would hear her complain to me every time I bought a new house.

Fast forward to now, 10 years since we bought our first rental. She retired 3 years ago due to the mailbox money being well above her income which was 65k/year. The real estate profit is around 240k/year now. I bought her a couple brand new cars in the last 5 years to keep her happy. And to show her that real estate isn't so bad and allows us to have more time off to do whatever we want and not worry about finances ever again. And I just bought her a 350k condo in AZ for us to enjoy on getaways and not rent out. She's on board now, but she still demands me to quit buying. lol. I told her I'm done. 29 SFR is enough. This was my journey with getting my wife on board. It wasn't easy and I'm not sure she ever was on board. But she now sees the rewards of buying and holding rentals after 10 years.

My advice is to spend money on her along the way. Don’t vomit her with real estate shop talk if she’s not really into it. Keep the conversations about RE minimal unless she initiates it. And when you have major cap ex issues that come up, keep some of it or all of it on the down low. Spending money on cap ex still freaks out my wife. It’s just part of the business so I don’t even flinch. But it stresses her out. Good luck! And hopefully she teams up with you and gets into it. If my wife was more on board with RE investing, I think I could be making two or three times the cash flow. But I’m cool with what I have and now a happy wife, so I’ll stop buying rentals and stay away from Zillow. lol

@Simon Delony 

My wife is my partner on all of our deals, that doesn't mean that she is involved in much or any of the day to day, and she only listens to the podcast if I have it on in the car, but I do run everything by her and explaining deals to her and asking if she is good with it makes me understand the deals even better. 

Since your wife will probably never want to learn as much as you do about real estate investing I would use it as an opportunity to really make sure you understand it by explaining it to her, if you can teach it to her you will gain a much deeper understanding for yourself.

My question is though, if you want to be a real estate investor, why did you sell your only real estate investment to become a renter? You don't build a portfolio by selling. I would recommend that you start with buying a primary residence using a low down payment loan, like a 5% down conventional loan, live in it for a year or two and then keep it as a rental when you go and buy your next primary residence using another 5% down conventional loan. Keep buying properties and borrow money against them, don't sell them.

"So, I did the only thing I could do to acknowledge, empathize, and help her; I filed for divorce, and later married a women who didn’t have the same security needs."

@Don Konipol so your answer is, "Divorce her if she is not on board." What?!? 

They are just piles of sticks and bricks meant to advance your financial goals. If it puts stress on your marriage, work to find common ground. Index funds and compound interest are also incredible investment vehicles that, as much as we hate to admit it, outperform a large percentage of real estate investments. And they don't have evictions, busted furnaces, or the hassle factor of property.

Hello, I am very new, I just started educating myself last Monday. My wife and I have been talking about doing something like this = rental properties, flipping, house hacking, etc. for some time and after we sold our house towards the end of last year (made a good profit) are finally in a position to pursue it.

I am super-focused and excited on wanting to learn as much as I can and start this journey to financial freedom. I have been soaking in (and making pages of notes) where as my wife struggled to listen to the one Podcast I sent her during the week. This has created an issue in discussing any topic as I have read not to over-whelm your partner with your knowledge, and she seems to know everything (sound familiar🤣) . How do I move forward with this venture? I do not see the point in trying to continue putting together a team when we haven't sat down and worked out our strategy, because she doesn't understand why we need it. 

I'm stuck in the mud.

Thanks for any positive advice.