Summary: Are you interested in investing in real estate on your own? Do you feel like everything out there focuses on how to do it as a couple? We know there are a lot of you out there building portfolios by yourselves. In this post, we discuss the challenges as well as the advantages of running a successful real estate business on your own. We also present a couple of ideas about how building an investment community can help ensure your success.
You might be surprised to learn that a fair number of our Semi-Retired MD readership invests in real estate on their own without a significant other.
Some of you are still in medical school or residency, not yet thinking about marriage. Some of you are widowed or divorced. Some of you haven’t found the right partner yet. And some of you are in a partnership with someone who isn’t interested in real estate. Or maybe they’re even against you investing in real estate in the first place. No matter your situation, you all face unique challenges.
In this post, we’ll cover some of these challenges. However, if you know us and have been following our Tony Robbins work, you’ll know that we won’t let you linger in a negative mindset. What matters is your focus. Instead of viewing everything as “challenging,” we are going to focus on the benefits of investing alone and the ways you can connect with others who are on a similar path to help you on your journey.
We are all-powerful as individuals, but together, and not necessarily with a significant other, we can go much further.
If you’re on this journey by yourself, please reach out to the Semi-Retired MD community. You’ll find that there are many more like you with shared interests, challenges, and goals.
The benefits of investing on your own
Learning about real estate investing, building a portfolio, and then managing and growing that portfolio represents a significant investment of time and effort for a couple. So, when you’re an individual and all that effort falls on only you, it can be a challenge.
However, I am here to tell you that it is possible for you to change your focus. How about viewing this not as a challenge, but as a positive?
You might be asking yourself, “How do I do that?”
Look at this as an opportunity to learn EVERYTHING you need to know to build a successful business all by yourself. You don’t have someone to rely on, so you don’t have the possibility of a crutch.
You will be completely self-sufficient with all the knowledge of your real estate journey if anything ever happens and you have to start again from scratch. Of course, the hope is that this never happens to you, but if it does, you should have the confidence in your ability to do so.
Here’s the dirty secret of being in a couple. You naturally begin to divide the work by interest or by natural strengths.
For example, Kenji handles all of the day-to-day work of running our real estate business. I, on the other hand, don’t love dealing with all of the little details. Instead, I love searching for new properties. So I spend a lot of time searching on Redfin or talking to our network of agents. I source the properties and then Kenji does the work to buy and manage them.
While I know what Kenji does for our real estate business on a day-to-day basis, it’s not the same as being hands-on every day. Kenji knows everything to be able to completely recreate our business from scratch. If I had to do it, I’d figure it out, but it’d definitely be more effort. I’ve definitely used him as a crutch over the years.
So let’s celebrate the self-sufficiency that comes with building a real estate portfolio on your own, whether it’s because your partner doesn’t want to participate or because you don’t have a partner. That’s one of the benefits. It’s the power of one.
Decision-making as an individual vs a couple
When you’re deciding whether to purchase a property, do a rehab, or even renew with a renter, making that decision on your own in a vacuum can be difficult. Or at worst, it can lead to poor decision making. If you’re the only one investing in real estate as part of a couple or because you don’t have a partner, that can feel scary or isolating.
There are two things to consider though.
First, there is a downside to shared decision-making. If a couple can’t agree on a decision, often nothing gets done. You are at an impasse, stuck in analysis paralysis. This can slow progress, add stress, or even lead to the demise of a real estate business.
I know many of you who have a partner who has reservations about investing in real estate have been in that situation.
When you’re an individual, you don’t have to worry about balancing your decisions with another person and getting their permission to make a move. You can decide and move forward without interference.
The second thing to consider is that you are never alone. Many people who are investing as individuals feel isolated and alone when it comes to decision-making. However, that’s really not the case, if you don’t want it to be.
You can lean on your team, but only if you choose to do so. You can find a team (investor agent, property manager, contractor, lender, insurance agent etc.) that you trust and heed their recommendations and guidance. Plus, getting opinions from multiple vendors can help you make a balanced decision.
You also have a community at Semi-Retired MD, your friends, and fellow investors you meet at local meetups, for example. There is a multitude of like-minded physicians and high-income professionals investing in real estate. They are constantly trying new things, evolving, and learning. They are constantly building new relationships, making connections, and looking for ways to help their peers and colleagues find success.
We are truly all in this together.
If you feel isolated, consider reaching out and sharing your real estate struggles with the community. Showing vulnerability, asking questions, showing others that you may not know the answer to what others might consider an easy question can be scary and nerve-wracking. But, it is the most rewarding thing you can do, because it allows you to build deep relationships and learn from others’ experiences.
So, I encourage you, if you feel alone and like you need help with a decision, take the first step and reach out in one of our Facebook communities and put yourself out there! Then take the next step by starting to form relationships and creating your own mini-network of people to lean on in the future.
How about a little accountability?
Besides getting help with decisions, you might also consider forming an accountability group, too.
Having a small group that you check in with frequently to discuss wins and challenges will keep you moving forward and flush with ideas for how to get through tough times.
Kenji and I have several small “mastermind” groups that consist of 4 to 6 people. In our mastermind sessions, we help each other navigate different challenges, come up with new ideas and hold each other accountable.
This is one of the reasons we invest so much in developing communities. We not only have our public Facebook groups, but we also have separate communities for people who sign up for our course and for our membership site. We even have sub-communities for our Course and Membership site called Team Investing sites where our students investing in the same market convene and help each other by sharing local resources and providing encouragement.
Saving on taxes
This is the big one. We all know the additional tax benefits that you can reap as a couple if one member is able to meet all the criteria for real estate professional status. In fact, we have several students who are currently taking REPS into account when considering marrying their long term partners!
But what do you do if you’re investing solo?
There’s no doubt that it can be more difficult to achieve REPS status when you’re single. You have to do all the required hours AND make the money to fund your investment portfolio growth at the same time. In reality, what this often means is that it takes several years of real estate investing to achieve REPS because your real estate portfolio grows more slowly and you can’t afford to cut back until the source of income from your real estate investments is quite significant.
But can it be done?
The answer is definitely yes. As inspiration, I encourage you to check out the article I wrote about one of our friends, who started investing as a single mom by choice while she had student loans. She may not achieve REPS this year, but my hope is that at the very least, she’ll do it in 2021.
Investing while single and raising an infant, working as a physician and investing in multiple markets and with student loans?!? Yep, pretty impressive.
Let me tell you a little secret. You have the ability to be just as impressive too. It’s just a matter of believing it’s possible and unleashing your potential.
What are the steps?
So, what do the steps for being a successful real estate investor – by yourself – look like?
Build an “A” team that consists of vendors (e.g., investor agents, property managers, contractors) as well as a community of like-minded investors. The way to start is to put yourself out there, ask questions and make connections.
Most importantly, believe in your ability to do this. You can build a successful real estate empire on your own. Yes, it may take a little more persistence and ingenuity. But I bet you already have that in spades if you’ve made it this far!
Have ideas or questions about how we can help you and other individuals who are investing on their own? Please reach out to us at support@semiretiredmd.com and let us know how we can help!
Kenji and I are always doing our best to create content for our community to help everyone find success through real estate, whether you’re doing it alone or as a couple. This includes blog posts, our emails, our new podcast episodes, and our course. We know the current pandemic has shown most if not all of us just how important it is to have multiple streams of income, and we never want any of our fellow physicians to be in a position where they’re solely relying on a physician’s income again.
Let us show you how you can supplement it through the tools, tactics, and strategies we teach in our course, Zero to Freedom Through Cashflowing Rentals! The course launches on June 1st, and it’s only open for registration twice a year. If you’re interested, follow this link to get on the waitlist. You’ll also get a discount on the course when registration opens for doing so!
