How to ensure you NEVER lose in real estate

People always say you make money when you BUY real estate, not SELL. While this has some merit of course, the value of a real profit is only realized when you actually sell the property.

Values go up, and values go down. This is how ALL markets work, including the real estate market. But 100’s of years of unequivocal data shows that in the long run, real estate always goes up.

So here is what I do to always ensure I profit:

1. Buy properties that break even through cash flow (even small loss is ok) so that you are never in a panic to sell. People lose money when they sell at a loss. Period. I see investors lose money all the time because they simply sell at the wrong time and get nervous.

2. Look for ways to increase value (renovations or change of use) or buy under value. This ensures that there is built in equity to offset any potential loss if you are forced to sell for any reason.

3. Get in the game. I have friends that have been thinking of buying property for 20 years and never have. They are concerned with down turns not realizing that in the long term, and by law of averages, their assets will go up. Put differently, they lose on the increases while trying to avoid the decreases. This is simply the wrong mindset.

I have bought and sold 54 properties in my 10-year career and haven’t lost yet. I simply refuse to accept a loss and will hold on to a property if I can’t make a profit.

Tomorrow, I am accepting offers on a property I bought in 2017 for 370k. I put 125k in renovations and tried to sell it two years ago for a profit. It didn’t sell. So I waited. Tomorrow I expect to sell for approximately 900k. I essentially made the profit come to me by simply waiting on the market increase which is historically guaranteed.

Math and data never lie.