When I started investing in real estate, I was scared. I had already had a failed business before and didn't want my wife to have to go back to teaching in order to support our family.
But I was scared! Scared of the unknown. Scared to take the leap. Scared of failing. Yet my desire for freedom was so strong, I decided to take the leap.
Well, things didn't go exactly according to plan. After 6 months of hard work and spending about $20,000 on education from a guru who promised the world, and gave me very little in return I still had nothing to show for it, and started to wonder if my dreams of creating a life of abundance for me and my family were just a mere fantasy.
But I had not choice, I had to make this work. There weren't any other options. Then finally it happened. We closed on our first deal and made a $17,000 profit! We soon came to the point where we were able to do about a deal a month and we felt like we were on top of the world! We were living the dream!
Then in 2010 we moved, the market was changing, and the way we were doing transactions just wasn't working the same so we had to make some changes, and needless to say that year was a very tough year for us.
I decided to start buying rental properties with a goal of buying 50 so we could produce enough income to pay our monthly expenses and get out of the "rat race" and become "financially free."
We purchased 12 rental properties and life was good. However when I went to buy property number 13, we and our investors were completely out of money. Since the rental properties weren't yet bringing in much income, and we weren't sure how we were going to be able to pay our bills, we were left with no choice but to sell 4 of the houses.
However when we sold those 4 houses something INCREDIBLE happened! Not only were our returns MUCH higher than they were from the rental properties but we made enough money to pay for ALL of our expenses for the next 12 months!
For the first time I knew what it was like to be financially free for an entire year, and it felt good!
Then I had my "ah ha" moment! What if we could do that ever month? What if we could make more money than we would need for an entire year EVERY SINGLE month! and what if we could do it with systems that would work for us rather than us doing all the work ourselves? So that is what became my main focus, and in 2011 we ended up flipping 60 houses and our life was forever changed!
Since that time we have been flipping over 100 houses a year and have created systems that allow this machine to work for us so I can focus on spending more time with my family and doing the things I love.
I still remember that day when I had my breakthrough. I'll never forget the feeling I had when I realized my life would be forever changed and I could call my own shots.
There is nothing like that feeling of FREEDOM!