RELENTLESS CONSISTENCY
Financial Freedom is rarely about winning a lottery, or inheriting from long lost Uncle Joe. Regardless of which vehicle we choose (stocks, real estate, crypto …), true wealth is most often built after years, or decades, of consistent work ethic. That’s why we’ve been posting this blog for over five years now.
Nope, it’s not sexy. Nope, definitely not glamourous either – just ask our favourite trolls who love to say we should stop, or be quiet.
As renovators and builders, we have over 15 years and over 450 unique projects under our toolbelt. There are very few general contractors that last this long in such a tough business. It’s truly shocking how many clients ask us to minimize or apologize for all this experience. And it’s no wonder that so many millennials are absent from the trades these days.
In addition, as real estate investors we don’t do millions of deals, but we consistently provide great opportunities and work hard for our partners. And we’re not magicians who can crank out the profits in a month, or even a year typically. Most of our investing business partners don’t even realize the work that went into their ROI (return on investment). We’re not in it for our ego’s, or recognition, or any other self-based agenda.
We’ve negotiated with the chippers (construction lawyers and other contractors will understand). We’ve worked around the “friendly” dogs at jobsites. We’ve dodged the clients who don’t even own a property (true story).
We admire the great investors in history, like Warren Buffett, who teach us about the power of consistency and systems and compounding interest. We continue to learn and improve our craft as new products and methods become available. And we learn the good, the bad, and these days even a bit of the ugly, from other real estate investors. Almost everyone has something to teach us if we listen closely enough. Even if it’s just about hiring a better lawyer, or writing a better contract, or doing better due diligence.
No one will ever ask us to speak on stage about our “100 properties in 100 days story,” because it doesn’t exist. That’s not our style. Boring, methodical, consistent—6 days a week. It makes us laugh to think about what the marketing geniuses would say about our “3 unique value propositions.” Probably their version of an advertising nightmare?!
We’ve noticed that many coaches, real estate seminars and investing clubs LOVE to feature the big, glamourous achievers. Recently, we’ve been listening to some real estate investors that attempted to follow the “go big or go home” approach, and are facing a lot of challenges these days.
So our little voice in the real estate community is here to say, there is nothing wrong with slow and steady. “Conservative” is a polarizing word these days, so perhaps we’ll call it “careful and cautious” investing has been good to us. Perhaps our mindset is different, because we wear both the construction hat and the investor hat? We’re ridiculously aware of all the unpredictable wildcards that can happen during any renovation or new build.
It is often said that people invest with people they “know, like and trust.” But knowing someone, because they were on stage, doesn’t make them a great investor. Liking someone because they dress well, or have the right friends, doesn’t translate in the real estate investment world. In contrast, years of experience in and around real estate is what sparks our trust in other investors. Add in a strong work ethic, and a willingness to admit that they’re still learning (every day!), and we’ll work with those business partners in a heart beat!
And so the story of this blog post lives on. It reminds us of the old children’s story of “Three Billy Goats Gruff.” Three goats must cross a bridge to reach greener pastures. But their journey is complicated by the troll that lives under the bridge and threatens to eat them. The first and second goats are able to outsmart the troll and continue on to their ideal feast on the other side of the bridge. The third goat invites the troll to engage in a battle on the bridge, then throws the troll downstream with his horns. His victory allows Goat 3 to pursue his gustatory freedom on the other side of the bridge, and opens up the bridge to other goats … until another troll comes along.
As long as the treasure on the other side of the bridge is worth the journey, we’ll keep rising to the challenges! We hope the same is true for our investing and building colleagues.
