some advice for beginner please

General Real Estate Investing
1

greeting,

I have been an architect for the past few years. My interest in building industry has lead me to where i am. Though i must admit that what I am currently doing is no where near financial freedom. Architects, in my observation will probably finally reach its independent at average age of 40.

Honestly, there is no way i can wait that long to start up my own practice. I have had a terrible accident in the past that made me belief that tomorrow is not too early to make your dream come true. or if I can wait, by then, I am probably too secure with my salary and not having the guts to start off on my own. Not to mention having wife and kids.

I am here looking for an opinion.

Options are really in front of my eyes. Like I previously mentioned, I could stick to where I am and live my 9-5 job and wait for the next 10 years to be able to start on my own. That’s option 1. The other option is to sell what my parent has inherited to me, which is a small property in downtown area where i grew up, in my hometown in overseas.

I am sure that everyone here can picture the future of my first choice. I am pretty good at what i am doing and working for a starchitect.

However, second choice would be a challenge for me. In return, I have to leave the country where i live now, pack myself back home. I have no problem with that. I miss the beaches and people. But morally, I fear the failure. not only that i am ‘playing’ with parent’s money. With this money and some savings I have, I could start a small development company, building a couple of small homes and sell them. And hopefully I could catch up with the latest trend villa developments in 5- 10 years time, or whatever is happening by then, if everything goes smoothly. However, if things went wrong, most likely, I will be back to where I am writing this post now and owe my parents more than ever.

I would appreciate to hear from those who has been thru this in life. No matter you did it or not, a lesson will worth more than anything. I 'd like to know if it is all worth the effort to engage your financial freedom yet your dreams, no matter if its a failure or a success stories.

heaps of thanks!

2

Buying (building) and selling things won’t get you to financial freedom. As soon as you sell the property you don’t have the income anymore. Multiple streams of income will get you there. What you want to do is build or buy as many properties as you can and rent them out. This makes a steady stream of income from each until they equal your expenses. I continue to work because I enjoy my job. I buy rental properties to cover my living expenses and then my salary becomes extra money to do with what I wish. That is financial freedom.

3

I think I may be mis-reading your post, but why is this an either or proposition? Many people on this board started out building their business on the side to the point where they could walk away from their 9-5 and run their business full-time. Are you in the US or not? If not, why can’t you invest in RE there? If you come to the US, where are you going to live? Where are you going to invest? What is your business plan? What will you specialize in? What are your goals? How are you going to get there? These are the questions you have to answer plus about a million more. REI is not something you can just do because you have money, and it’s not just building some villas either. Our goal here is to give you a realistic view of what you can expect and what you need to do to succeed. Welcome and I hope you can learn a lot.

4 
 One of the things that all investors need to ask themselves is "What am I willing to risk?"  "What am I willing to lose?"  You stated that this is inheritance money and that you have children.  What you should do next should be an answer that comes from within.  There are definitely conservative stategies that hedge against risk, and you will find this website to be helpful in that regard.
 I know a developer, and from reports, land costs money in taxes and must be maintained from a financial standpoint while you are waiting to develop it.
 Also, many developers are cash poor, having very little money of their own because so much of their own net worth is tied up in their projects.
 Good Luck
5

Good point.

I have a friend who was a civil engineer. He fixed up the house he lived in and bought another. He made money on the first one so he fixed the new house up and started building one from scratch on a vacant lot. Then he sold both of those and rented an apartment while he built two more. He quit his job last year to invest full time but only after he learned the business and had built it to the point that he knew it wasnt’ so risky.

6

It all depends on the amount of risk you are willing to take.