As I sit here writing this, it hits me. I’m now retired! Well not really. I have a lot of projects on the go, but I have officially left my corporate life. My husband Joseph is also enjoying “semi-retirement”, which basically means that he works when and how much he wants to.

We made this change a few years early. Trust me when I tell you that this was not expected and not in the cards for us just a few years back. What changed? Real estate.

Sometimes life gives you a kick in the pants. That’s what happened to us. And it wasn’t one of those nice little “let’s get going” kicks. It was a gut-wrencher. A medical issue. We suddenly found ourselves in a situation where we needed to make our money work for us in the long term so that there would always be funds available should we need them. We had to do something, and we did. Something unthinkable in our circle - we sold our family home of 20 years, and we paid rent to live in someone else’s property. When you grow up in a family where home ownership is the golden goose, we literally sold the golden egg. Or so people thought. 

My work involved dealing with corporate clients and many that were financially successful seemed to have one thing in common. They owned real estate. And the idea to invest in property was born. We just didn’t know how to go about it. Thank goodness for Google. During my “how to make money with real estate” search, I came across two brothers, who were a bit off the wall, but seemed to know what they were doing. I took every ounce of free stuff that I could get from them and after a while, I figured out that they were for real. At that point, I convinced my skeptic of a husband to go to a live presentation and when he was convinced, I knew we had found a winner. Rock Star Real Estate. 

We started late, or so we thought. We were in our fifties when we started investing and found out later that many considered it a terrible time to buy property. Thank goodness for ignorance, I guess. A few weeks after joining Rock Star, and with the help and guidance of our superhero coach, we used the proceeds of the sale of our home to buy our first rental property (a student rental). Student rental property number two came a few weeks later. By then we were both sure of the path we needed to take, and we became VIP members. They say that you are the average of the five people that you spend the most time with. We figured that if we spent time with hundreds of successful real estate investors, and Tom, Nick and our coach, our average was bound to go up. In a few short years, we had purchased five properties. A couple of years later we had eight. Our portfolio consisted of student rentals, annual rentals, joint ventures, short-term rentals and a rent-to-own property. Yup, we tried it all. We also purchased a lifestyle property – a beautiful apartment overlooking the mountains and coastline in Southern Italy. Life was good. 

Things were going great and then we got another kick in the pants. This time it was great! Our first grandchild was on the way. Our daughter and son-in-law asked if we would move closer to them so that we could spend more time with the baby (aka free babysitting). We were thrilled to comply. We stopped being tenants, sold some of our rental properties and used the proceeds to once again buy a golden goose (our own home). We also refinanced the remaining properties to take advantage of the high appraisal values and that provided us with funds for both retirement and future investments. The best part is that our son and daughter and their spouses obviously paid attention and they too have become real estate investors. 

We’ve come full circle now. We thank God that the medical situation is totally under control. After five years of renting, we again own our own home. Only now we also have rental properties. They have provided us with not only a way to retire early but also with enough funds to be able to look for future opportunities.

Success in real estate definitely depends on time in the market and not timing the market

Surround yourself with a great team of professionals from your real estate team right through to your lawyer and accountant.

Don’t worry about what others say or think. If it’s right for you, do it.