One of the surest ways to make money in any endeavor is to follow in the footsteps of other successful people. Astronaut Neil Armstrong followed in the steps of John Glenn. Comic actor Ben Stiller followed in the steps of his show biz parents Stiller & Meara. The same is true in real estate. Plenty of people have gone before us.
Buying lower-priced fixer-upper houses, using your own time & effort to fix them up, and renting them out has been a tested and true path to generate wealth & security.
The four chief benefits of purchasing fix-up houses are:
1) if you buy a house in need of repair, a fixer upper house, you pay less for it than for a house in good shape. Since you paid less, you can take out a smaller loan and have lower monthly payments.
2) By doing repairs yourself (as much as you are able to), you save the money you would have paid others, and you learn new repair skills.
3) By renting it out, you get a house that is constantly increasing in value (by an average 5% per year) the same time the rents are going up.
4) When you get older, your loans will be paid off (or close to it) and the rental income you receive are like a pension for your retirement.
Granted, it is hard work to find a house, make repairs and learn how to deal with tenants. But you also learn valuable technical and people management skills that you can use in other parts of your life, and pass along to others. Mostly, there is a great sense of satisfaction in your accomplishments, a stronger sense of security, and more income, which means more freedom.
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