My wife and I took the step towards a more rewarding future in 2002, when we bought my first house to renovate, repaired it and rented it out.
What motivated us to embark on home renovations was the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. Funds for environmental projects, like the ones I was working on, were being redirected to military activities, and the future of my work looked shaky.
Respond to a newspaper ad
Before that, I had read about real estate investing and when my wife and I saw an ad in the newspaper for a property to fix in a relatively nice neighborhood, we made an offer and ended up buying it. We didn’t have a lot of knowledge about what we were getting into, but we had a lot of enthusiasm. We learned as we went.
Jacks-of-One-Trade
In the home repair business, we became jack-of-all-trades, learning to fix almost anything in a repair house. But, in our fixer-upper niche business, we were jacks of a trade. We stay focused on what we do best: buy, repair and rent. And, if you do something often enough, you get pretty good at it.
We worked like dogs, we slept like logs and we ate like pigs! But, now we have routine and earn a lot of money with less effort in our repair business.
Investing in repairers is a great way to start a business in your spare time. It can allow you to gradually build financial security and eventually transform into a career where you are in control of your destiny.
Is it the wrong time to invest?
When I bought my first house, many thought I was crazy. After 9/11, there was a lot of uncertainty about what was going to happen next. Would the country go to war? Would I lose my job? Would the economy fall down the toilet?
Today, because of the possibility of a recession, people are making the same arguments. But remember that you don’t make money buying houses when the economy is strong. The prices are then too high. You make money when the economy is weak and housing prices are low and negotiable.