As Donald Trump once said, if you’re going to dream, you might as well dream big. No one enters real estate to settle for mediocre portfolio or claim they’re only doing it to make ends meet.
If you’re entering the real estate industry, you’re taking on its challenges because the very thought of owning millions of square feet of commercial real estate gets you excited. And your idea of success is being the owner of a lot of rentals, office space, self-storage, or trophy buildings with your name on it.
One thing I have personally learned from some of the biggest names in real estate today is that anyone can build an empire. While it’s true that real estate is a notoriously dynastic business with property and assets being passed down from one generation to the next, you can come from nothing and still build an empire, as so many have proven.
So how do you build an impressive portfolio of revenue generating properties and make your first billion in real estate?
One property at a time.
Growing your real estate empire demands sacrifice, risk, and rationalization of financial commitments. You need to learn how, when, and where to buy…and sell. Allowing your funds to stay idle for too long could mean missing out on investments that will appreciate in the next few months.
At some point, you’ll be buying and holding or fixing and flipping so many properties that you’ll lose track which property is at what stage. But for now, building your empire means starting from the ground up with your first purchase that you have to decide whether you’ll hold or flip.
Here are the top strategies for assembling your real estate portfolio and building your wealth:
Flipping
If you want to realize a quick gain by creating additional value in a property, flipping houses is an excellent starting point. The possibilities are endless when it comes to flipping – from buying a dilapidated building, renovating, and selling to taking a perfectly beautiful $1m home and redesigning it to later sell for three times what you bought it for.
Flipping involves a lot of risks but thanks to forced appreciation, it’s a quick gain once you master the art of turning trash into treasure.
Long-Term Rental Property
Long-term rentals take many forms – from the commercial real estate, multi-unit residential buildings, to single-family houses or apartments.
Simplified, long-term rental estate means buying property, making the necessary renovations, holding on to it, and renting it out. The beauty of long-term rental is that your tenants finance the property that you will ultimately own. And should you decide to sell in the future, you’ve already gained from long-term property appreciation.
Land Investment
As you grow your real estate empire, take your available funds and invest in underdeveloped plots that you feel have potential. Because there’s low interest in developing property on these lands at the moment, they’ll come relatively cheap. But at the pace that populations force cities to grow, you could own property that will be in high demand someday.
And while you may not enjoy the fruits of land investment in your lifetime, it’s certainly something you can pass on to your kids and grandchildren. After all, what’s an empire without a legacy?
Now go and make a killing.
By :� Ziad K Abdelnour
Ziad is also the author of the best selling book� Economic Warfare: Secrets of Wealth Creation in the Age of Welfare Politics (Wiley, 2011),
Mr. Ziad Abdelnour continues to be featured in hundreds of media channels and publications every year and is widely seen as one of the top business leaders by millions around the world.
He was also featured as one of the� 500 Most Influential CEOs in the World.
