Real estate requires real business skills and a business mind. Real estate is management intensive. Many real estate dreams turn into real estate nightmares, not because real estate is bad, but because the investor’s business skills are bad.
Stock, bond, and mutual fund investors can get away with being “do it yourselfers.” Real Estate investing is about rules, regulations, laws, records, repairs, losses, and management.
Real estate is about debt. And debt can be a loaded gun. Debt can make you very rich or kill you.
Real estate is a business that requires debt financing and professional management… which is why real estate investing is a team sport, played by a team of professionals. Professional real estate investors must have a bookkeeper, lawyer, accountant, and insurance agent on their team.
Real estate investors must have a handyman on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, unless the investor enjoys fixing toilets at midnight.
No matter where you live in the world, stock prices of companies and funds go up and down all the time, so it’s difficult to predict how much money you’ll make or lose on any particular day, month, or year.
Not so with real estate.
Except under extreme circumstances, like a disaster or a depression, revenue derived from real estate investments is very predictable every month. This helps you sleep at night.