Reasons to Invest in Real Estate - What is Your Why?
by Christopher Levarek
“When you KNOW your WHY, you’ll KNOW your WAY.”
- Michael Hyatt
It finally happened, I broke the chain of writing this blog every week for the last two years. Last week I skipped writing the blog but I assure you it was for a good reason. Actually, my 2nd son was born last week! I am now the proud father of two healthy boys.
Me with my newly born son!
However, it got me thinking again back to a topic which I wrote around the time when my first son was born in 2018. The topic for today focuses on reasons to invest in real estate, or what is called your why. If you’ve read the book “Start With Why” by Simon Sinek, this might be familiar for you. However, I assure once you are aware of your why, the choices you make regarding your investments are far easier to make.
So we won’t focus on the financial reasons to invest in real estate in this article, I’ve written countless other articles like this one on that subject. No, today, after watching my 2nd son born into the world, I’d like to discuss the much more stronger why behind your actions and decisions with investments. This effort will be the core and fundamental reason for your success in investing regardless of the outcome.
Start With Why
So what does it mean to “start with why”? I am sure you might have heard by now, someone mention that “Their kids are their why”, I know I have! Yet, “your why” could be, to you, the reason why you exist or your life’s purpose. Perhaps it is your rock or pillar that supports you and helps you justify your actions or face challenge. For many, it’s the purpose that keeps them going when time gets tough.
However, “your why” is crucial to goal setting and ultimately investing into real estate. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve met people in my real estate journey and on the real estate forums who do not have a strong why. This is quickly apparent through conversation as investors back up their decision-making and motivations with purely logical numbers or property returns.
Now, don’t get me wrong, the financial and logical piece is super important to investing in the right deal. Yet, those elements are the “what” behind the investment, the details making it a good investment. They are not the “why”. Ultimately because of this, when the deal faces issues or perhaps even before the deal can be found, a person gives up.
Yes, you heard me, many people give up on their investment goals simply because it was too hard or the challenges appeared too great. This is a clear sign someone’s why is not present or not aligned with their action. Someone with a strong why is able to push through adversity, knowing the true purpose behind their action and knowing no challenge to prevent achieving their why.
This is why, pardon the pun, you should always start your investing journey by focusing on the why first. Why are you investing in real estate? What do you hope to achieve? What would that do for you and your family? Where do you hope to end up in 10, 20, 30, 40 years time? What would real estate investing solve for you and your children? Who are doing it for? What experiences are you trying to provide for your future and your children’s or family’s future?
Asking these questions gets the juices rolling and starts to build that core reason for action. Now once you have that, let’s stoke the fire.
Repeat Your Why
All too often, many set goals with dreams of owning multiples units of real estate yet, they never attain those goals. I speak with many real estate investors on BiggerPockets who ultimately get side-tracked from investing goals by other life events or even end up never even investing in their first deal.
Trust me, I get it! We all have multiple things throughout our life that demand attention whether they be career, passions, hobbies, family, etc. Clearly, those elements of your life are also important. I would also say, it is not wrong to focus on those either. They are not more or less important then anything else. Or are they? How does one continue to ensure they do not lose sight of their why amongst the sometimes overwhelming and many times conflicting priorities of life?
If you find a why strong enough, it will be resonate with you throughout your life. In order to keep it at the forefront however, It simply requires that you “repeat your why” daily. Hearing your why each day, strengthens your resolve against any challenge or undesired action in your day. This is a simple journal entry at the start of the day, listing out your why. You can combine this with your goals for the quarter, year or even 5 year goal.
So if you are just waking up at 5 AM and questioning why you are waking up so early? (Since you’ve forgotten and who wakes up at 5 AM?). This is might an example entry in your journal first thing after waking up :
Daily Journal Entry :
I am waking up at 5 AM to achieve my goals and align with my why. My why is my family. I want to spend more time with my newborn son and three year old boy. I wake up early to achieve my investing goals and spend more time with my kids when they are awake.
By waking up early, I know that I am working towards financial freedom and ultimately having more time with my family.
You can even make this into a Weekly Journal Entry. Start your week off right by re-focusing not only on your goals but on your why. So, if for example, you are trying to invest in your first deal but seem to be lacking the motivation frequently, a weekly reset that refocuses your why could be just the ticket.
Here is an example entry…
Weekly Journal Entry :
This week I am going to reach my investing goal for the week by analyzing 1 passive investment opportunity and 1 active deal for acquisition. I will do this on Tuesday and Thursday. I am working on these investing goals because of my desire to be successful in life. I want to be able to provide for myself and others in abundance whether family, friends or colleagues. These goals align with my why, being successful, and so I will achieve them because they matter to me.
See not so hard! Find your why behind your real estate investing efforts and then keep that why present in your mind through daily or weekly repetition.
In Final
There is great power setting and repeating your why. By doing the above actions daily and weekly, you strengthen your why and do not get sidetracked by other priorities which demand attention yet might not be the most important to you. Even if you do get sidetracked, re-focusing each day or week on that why will continue to give you reasons to invest in real estate.
That, my friends, is the ultimate purpose(at least for this article). I hope this helps you, the reader, and I wish you much success on your investing journey. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to my why and spend some time with my newborn son. ;)
Happy Investing!