The very term conjures up an image of hundreds and thousands of pounds of investment, millionaire lifestyle, no work and a life of sun and sand. At least thats the image being marketed by the huge number of property seminars currently in the business. The seminars can be under different names : real estate seminars or courses, wealth creation, positive cash flow, passive income. All are preying on the same desire of an average human being to become wealthy. Given what these seminars charge for their courses, at least someone is fulfilling his desire to become wealthy, at the expense of the attendee.
Yes, property investment is about the safest investment one can make. Its also about the biggest investment an average person is ever going to make. And this is the home he or she is going to buy in their lifetime. They will spend their life paying off the mortgage. Once the mortgage is paid off, the individual is near the retirement age and sells the house at a fabulous profit, buys a smaller place and settles down for their retirement. Fair enough, majority of the people are inclined to do that.
However, some people are more adventurous, like myself, who chafe under the thought of having to slave away for the next 20 to 30 years and having only a house to show for it at the end. People like myself desire financial freedom, freedom from having to get up every morning, get in the car or train, commute 2 to 3 hours a day, work at a dead end job & return home in the evening. Repeat this process year on year and its clear what a monotonous life it can be.
The reason for doing this is because almost everyone has to support themselves and their families. To avoid this rat race, you need to start thinking of a way out, a way to have an income that precludes the need to work day in, day out. This income is called passive income. Its passive as its being generated no matter what you are doing, sleeping, fishing or even working on your day time job !
How do you get this passive income ? You could buy a lottery ticket ( chances are 1 in tens of million that you win the jackpot ), bet on the races or gamble ( extremely risky ), buy or sell shares ( very risky) or invest in property. Out of the methods mentioned, property investing is the least risky, which is great as the last thing you want to do is to lose your all your savings in a dodgy share or racing tip. So what is property investment ?
Property investment is an excellent way to create wealth. For the beginner it is buying a place and renting it out for a couple of years and then selling it at at profit. For the experienced investor, a property provides passive income or several properties can provide multiple streams of income. This gives them the financial freedom to further pursue this business. A property will give the investor a passive income, provided its bought at the right price and it will appreciate in value over a number of years. It will give you a retirement fund as well but thats towards the end of your useful life. You want to enjoy your life now, not in 20 or 30 years from now and you want to spend quality time with your family.
How do you go about becoming a property investor? This brings us back to the seminars mentioned earlier as this is the type of financial freedom and lifestyle that they market. Its very attractive and people sign up in spite of thousands of pounds that is charged as seminar fees. What these seminars have done is to collate publically available information into fancy folders and presentation slides and have an extremely eloquent individual fronting the presentation. Plus they have some employees who are usually brought in as “previous clients and now successful investors” to further present the rosy picture.
My question, if they were that successful, why bother even signing up to do presentations, that too on weekends. Thats not the type of financial freedom I am interested in. I would like to spend my weekends at a beach or fishing. There is a lot marketing going on all the time at these seminars in order to get you to part with your money.
The point being made is that these seminars present only the better side of the property investment business.
If you have been to any of these seminars, at the end of it you will think why didnt I look that bit of information up. Its not that they give false information. Its fairly accurate but what they don’t tell the attendee is that it is not that simple. Property investment requires money, time and effort and can be extremely frustrating at times. And it requires more money then these seminars tell you initially. Some seminars also have follow up seminars, yes, you have to pay to attend those, to get further information. Then there is additional fees before you can join their property club and have access to best deals. Not to mention that you have to sacrifice weekends or perhaps even take time off from work to attend the seminar.
Wouldn’t it be better if its easier to get this information from the comfort of your home or office (in your spare time of course) ? Thre is at least one website that is providing this service, Property Exchange Network (http://www.property-exchange.net). Registered users or members are provided all the information they need to make informed decisions about property investment. It provides background information property market, finding a property, negotiating, financing, purchasing, renting and finally selling the property. There are tips on how to save on your property taxes. All this is available for a fraction of the cost of the property seminar. Plus the fact that the idea is to have a community of like minded individuals seeking financial freedom.