Welcome to “Tarl's Weekly Insights," my take on real estate today.
In these newsletters, we'll dive deep into the real estate world, share valuable investment strategies, and explore the craziness that life has thrown my way. Whether it’s my struggle and journey of overcoming flipping, deciphering the insanity of the market, successful strategies being used in REI, or just me making fun of social media real estate investors...
I can't wait to share it all with you.
Am I building a business that is providing freedom for myself and my family? Or am I unknowingly building a self-made prison?
What do I mean by this? Many of us started our journeys in real estate investing with the intention of building financial freedom for ourselves and our families, yet somehow many of us wind up in a place where we built a job that requires us to show up every day not just physically but also mentally and emotionally, whether we like it or not. Not only did we build a job that sucks our mental energy, but also we created a business that requires us to 'keep going' whether we like it or not. We have to "feed the machine" and we MUST get that next deal in order to keep this thing moving.
Sometimes this is because we become dependent (and used to) the income, or it is because our overhead costs (employees) require us to keep buying/selling, or we need to keep our crews and contractors busy, or it is because we need this next deal in order to replenish the coffers due to how much capital we already have out! Whatever the reason, we force ourselves into a position where we MUST do this business, instead of choosing to do this business.
Now there are generally two camps of people when they get to a point where they MUST do the business. The first camp is the most common, and that is the camp of people who not only MUST do the business but they also MUST show up personally every day, or else the whole house of cards falls apart. This business owner typically has challenges with delegation, struggles with finding the right people to have on the team, typically does not have very many (if any) SOPs (standard operating procedures) for common tasks, drives the properties personally and regularly, involved in all steps of the process, and usually has quite a bit of stress in their lives...fun!
The second camp of people is a little less common when it comes to this business. They still have the same challenge where they MUST do this business, but they personally do not have to show up all of the time to make the business work. They have found a few great people for their team, they delegate well, they aren't making up the process all the time because they have well-defined SOPs that their team follows, they don't need to go to the properties unless they want to, etc etc. They still HAVE to do the business, typically for financial reasons (overhead, employees, paying for their standard of living, etc), but they have a bit more freedom in their lives, and it is easier for them to scale and grow should they choose.
There is a third camp though...people in this camp are like unicorns, very rare if not totally imaginary, and possibly just a fairy tale. These few people are the ones who have freedom in their lives, they have a business that can run without them there, and they have set themselves up financially to where they DON'T have to do the business if they didn't want to. But how the heck do you get to this point?
Most of us would love to be in camp two, and all of us would love to be in camp three. The question still remains, how do you get to a point where you have a business that actually provides you the freedom you really want?
This is blog, there is only so much I can write about this in one post. I chose this topic though because the answer to the question is simple. Doing the work to get the desired outcome is VERY HARD, but the answer to the question is still very simple.
The answer: Intention. What is your intention? Ugh! Damn it Tarl, that's a dumb answer! Oh..I know..but it is the right answer. Most of us never had a real intention when we started our businesses other than "make money! or quit my job! or extra retirement income! or freedom!" but what does any of that mean exactly? You see, I did not have a real intention for my business between 2010-2017 other than "make lots of money, and then make more money than I did last year, and then more than next, etc." That was it. It wasn't until October 2017 that my intention totally changed. My intention changed to where I wanted my business to be my vehicle to allow me complete freedom in my life, to travel whenever I wanted, to NEVER have to be physically at a property or with my team unless I wanted, to have the income that allowed me to do all my favorite things, to be with my wife EVERY DAY all the time (not everyone wants this, but I do), to never HAVE to do a deal, to be able to keep all the best deals, and on and on. These new intentions FORCED me to change how I did my entire business. How can I travel whenever I wanted, if I had to meet a contractor in person at a property? Guess what, new rule, I am not allowed to meet contractors in person...therefore we need to figure out a new way. How can I work from anywhere if I need to see the property personally before I buy it? New rule, I am not allowed to go to the property EVER, so we had to figure out a new way to analyze deals without me walking them.
The intention changed my perspective on everything, which allowed my team and I to come up with solutions that allowed me the freedom I was seeking. I have so much to say about this. Life is so much better when you are living your intention, trust me. I will write more for sure on this topic in the future. In the meantime, what is YOUR intention with this business?
I'm hosting a FREE webinar all about my outlook on flipping houses in 2024. Join me on December 14th at 7 PM ET to learn more!
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That's it for this edition of Tarl's Weekly Insights! Stay tuned for more each week!
Talk Soon,
Tarl Yarber
