NBC hit gameshow, “Deal Or No Deal”, hosted by Howie Mandel. The show is somewhat addicting, and an interesting game built around statistics and odds. I’m sure you’ve probably seen the show at this point, and tonight’s show was a mother and her family in the audience, looking to win “big” and change their lives. She got down to having 5 numbers left on the board — 4 small ones, and the $500,000. It was extremely emotional for her and her young family, choosing to remove one more number from the board, to go down from 5 to 4. She chose a small number, leaving the $500,000 as a possible outcome. Each time she was successful in removing a small number, there was an explosion of excitement and emotion. She finally chose to “take the deal” when she had removed all but 3 numbers — walking away with $151,000. As it turned out, the next number she was going to choose, had she continued, would have knocked out the $500,000, and left her with nothing. For some reason tonight, what struck me most was the amount of life-changing emotion that happened to this lady and her family. It was interesting to watch HOW MUCH it meant to this family to come into $151,000 — and how emphatic she was that it would literally change their lives. I mean, $151,000 is a lot of money, but what’s amazing for me is that in real estate, that really ISN’T a lot of money. A lot of people work their whole lives, and the idea of having $151,000 CASH in their bank account is a dream they’ve like never have happen for as long as they live. With so many people addicted to instant gratification and taking on debt to enjoy lifestyle and comsumption, sadly, the average person is set up to fail from the beginning. I am so lucky to be not only involved in an investment that isn’t very hard to understand and capitalize on, but I happen to be in a real estate market here in Alberta where it has been almost impossible to go wrong for the last year or two. We have a large number of properties that have increased in value more than $151,000 in a couple of years – each. Some of the bigger ones, we’ve seen over a million dollars of value increase in each of them. Watching the show tonight, what occurred to me is that you never see real estate investors react like this lady did. And I think that’s because real estate is NOT an overnight riches story. One of the first things I tell anyone about real estate is that it’s simple .. but it’s not easy. It’s kind of funny, but real estate wealth sort of sneaks up on you, and before you realize it, your net worth has really expanded, or even exploded. Until a few months ago, I hadn’t done my net worth statement for quite some time — over a year — while at the same time, our real estate market underwent huge increases (40%+ year over year). As part of a financial review, I updated my net worth statement and had to check the Excel formulas to make sure I wasn’t counting anything two or three times. I literally was struck by what had happened to the numbers. No, you’ll very rarely see a real estate investor jumping up and down, crying and hugging their family, because they just received a new appraisal on their property, or got the closing cheque from their lawyer or title company. Perhaps that’s why for some people, real estate really isn’t that exciting of an investment, or wealth-building strategy. But what I WILL say is that of almost ANYTHING I know, real estate has the most powerful Lag Effect of anything I can compare it to. The Lag Effect is simply the concept that you do something today in terms of taking action or making commitments, and the results from your actions tend to lag behind the actions for some period of time. The actions I took 3, 4, or 5 years ago in real estate investing are now having incredible impact on my life and net worth. Had I NOT taken action back then, I wouldn’t have been “planting the seeds of my money tree”. I could have easily found other things to spend my time and money on, but if I would have done that and fallen for the “instant gratification” of a fancy new car, toys I didn’t need, or other “ya-ya” (my friend Keith Cunningham‘s way of referring to depreciating, wealth-robbing JUNK), I would have missed out planting those little seeds .. and would have simultaneously betrayed myself of any chance that those seeds could grow into massive trees. Because I did take action, built my education and knowledge base, bought some properties and continued to execute a plan, I’m now in a position where I could stop planting seeds. The rows of trees I’ve planted trees over the past several years will still keep growing, and bearing fruit — and will continue to do so indefinitely. The lesson I’ve learned, and the point of this all, is that you have to plant seeds. Think not about what your real estate investing will do for you today, tomorrow, or even next year. Instead, think what could happen if you just DECIDE to take action, and buy ONE property. Just ONE house, or ONE condo. Whatever it is, JUST BUY ONE. One investment property is all it takes to create long-term financial freedom. I’ll write a lot more about this concept in the future (it’s the subject of a book idea I’ve been throwing around for a couple of years). ALL IT TAKES IS ONE! If you buy ONE piece of real estate NOW.. and develop a plan to manage and hold it for the long-term.. that ONE property will be able to support you in the future. Of course, if you DO buy one, chances are you’ll get addicted and buy more (and be in even better shape long-term). And then, you’ll never have to “hope and pray” to be selected as the next contestant on the gameshow of the week in order to live financially free!]]>