Most people know that real estate has made more ordinary people wealthy than any other investment vehicle.
But they don’t know how.
Real estate is a “multi-dimensional” investment class. This means that you’re paid multiple ways simultaneously. Five, in fact!
Let’s briefly explore each of your five with a simple example, and we’ll add up your rates of return to see how much you’re paid at the end of Year One.
You’ve carefully purchased a $100,000 rental single-family home where the rent income exceeds the expenses. (Yes, you can find these in the U.S. Midwest and South.) With a 20% down payment, that leaves you with an $80,000 loan. The property is already tenanted.
- Appreciation. Your property appreciates from $100,000 to $106,000, commensurate with real estate’s historic appreciation rate of 6%. Your $6,000 gain is based on your down payment of just $20,000. That magic of leverage means your return is 30%.
- Cash Flow. Your rent income minus all the monthly expenses (mortgage, property tax, insurance, property manager, repairs, vacancy, etc.) leaves you with $150 of residual income. That $1,800 divided by your $20,000 down payment is the portion we call the Cash-On-Cash Return. That’s another 9%.
- Loan Paydown. Unlike your own home where you pay this, your tenant pays the monthly principal portion of your $80,000 loan on this property! At a 5% interest rate on a thirty year mortgage, that’s $1,176 that the tenant pays down for you annually. Divided by your $20,000 of “skin-in-the-game” means that’s another return for you: another 6%.
- Tax Benefit. We’re talking about both the mortgage interest deduction and something called “depreciation” that you can typically use as a tax write-off against your income. This means you typically don’t even pay tax on all of your rent income. Your return here can be hard to measure because it’s based on your situation, but we’ll conservatively call this investment tailwind another 3%.
- Inflation-Hedge. This fifth way is one that even some advanced investors fail to consider. Just like inflation erodes the value of your lump of savings, it erodes the weight of your mortgage debt balance just the same. Your $80,000 loan today has its “drag” diluted over time as more & more dollars circulate in an economy. It gets easier to “pay back.” We’ll call this benefit a return of another 3%.
You add up your return from the five ways you’re paid, and your Year One return from this income property is a whopping 51%.
Let’s note some limitations. We didn’t factor in your buyer mortgage loan closing costs (which the seller can often help pay for you.) If you buy property in a losing job market or hire the wrong property manager, your entire investment could go south.
Let’s note some positives as well. In #2 above, your property management cost is considered, meaning that your income is passive. “Passive” means you don’t have to work for it. We’ve also accounted for property hazard insurance, shielding you against some big losses.
This is investing. Things not only can go wrong; they will go wrong. The month that you need to spend $500 to replace a fence section won’t feel so great.
Isn’t it remarkable to finally plainly see all the ways you’re paid as a real estate investor? I talk about this weekly on the Get Rich Education podcast.
Even if a lot of things go wrong and half of your 51% return is wiped out, a 25% annual return on investment sounds pretty good to even the most savvy investor.
If you understand what’s in this article and put it into practice, it can truly change your life and your family’s life for generations.
Most people don’t start in real estate investing because of an emotion: fear. Education dispels fear.
Let’s hope this quick dose of education helped dispel some of your fear and gets you on the road to learning more and becoming a successful real estate investor.
You genuinely have the ability to build more wealth than you ever thought possible.
Thought getting your money to work for you creates wealth? It doesn’t! That’s a myth. My international best-selling E-book is now 100% free, 7 Money Myths That Are Killing Your Wealth Potential. Get it here for a limited time.
Thanks on your marvelous posting! I actually enjoyed reading it, you’re a great author.I will make
certain to bookmark your blog and will often come back someday.
I want to encourage you to ultimately continue your great posts, have
a nice afternoon!
Nice post, keep it up.
Hope you are well in the current situation.
Hi Kent,
Thank you for reaching out. Things have certainly been interesting here with the pandemic; as it has across households in the U.S. I hope you and your family have fared well and are looking forward to a rewarding 2021.
Great post, thanks for sharing.
Thank you very much and happy New Year to you and your family!
That’s interesting, you have done a great job. Thanks for
For the first time I learned about such ways of earning money, I will try to start myself, thanks in advance to the author
The content writing was fantastic. Following my visit to your blog, I learned more. Thank you for providing this information.
This is so helpful for me. Thanks a lot for sharing.
This is an outstanding piece of work. I enjoyed reading the post and found it to be very informative. Thank you very much for sharing this helpful information with us.
I loved reading this blog post. Very unique and Informative .I will definitely refer my friends to read this. Thanks for sharing with us.
Great points. One thing to consider is the 6% sales cost on the overall cost of the property when you decide to sell the property. 6% overall cost relative to the initial investment(downpayment) can be significantly higher.
What are ways to minimize sales cost?
I found this is very helpful. Thanks to you.
I enjoyed reading the post. Thanks for the awesome post.
Successful people don’t become that way overnight. What most people see at a glance-wealth, a great career, purpose is the result of hard work and hustle over time. I pray that anyone who reads this will be successful in life..
impressive article. Thanks alot for sharing.
This is very unique post. It really helped me. Thanks for sharing with us
I really liked the content which is very helpful for me. Thanks for sharing.
There are so many blog i read right know but any one of them satisfy me but this one is so informative blog.
very interested article! Thanx!
Great informative post. Thank you for sharing this with us.
Great post, thanks for sharing
It really helped me
Amazing way to present words on internet highly recommend that content
Great blog! Thank you for sharing this article about 5 ways to know that money is being paid to real estate investing. I enjoyed reading it.
It’s a great blog, and I appreciate you giving this information regarding 5 ways you’re paid real state, which can benefit any company. Pleased to read it.
I just wanted to leave a quick note to express my appreciation for the content on this platform. The information and insights shared here are truly valuable, and I always find something interesting to read. Keep up the good work, and I’m looking forward to more great content in the future!
I appreciate your effort. Great content. Thankyou for sharing.
It’s a Great post! Thank you for sharing.