I’ve been intrigued by real estate for years. I first saw it as a way to accelerate my path to early retirement. More recently, I’ve considered the benefits of diversifying out of paper assets due to high stock valuations and low interest rates.
But I’ve never been able to pull the trigger. I’ve been stuck on the sidelines for two reasons.
First and foremost, I hate having debt. You can invest in real estate without debt, but it requires tying up capital with little diversification.
Second, real estate investing seemed labor intensive. I was fearful real estate would become another full-time job.
Last summer, my wife and I found a home with the amenities, location, and price we were seeking for early retirement. The problem was the house was in Utah and we lived in Pennsylvania.
I had commitments to fulfill to finish my job, we needed to sell our home, and we wanted to allow our daughter to finish preschool. So we were a year away from being ready to move across the country.
We decided to buy the house anyway. We rented it out for a year, giving us a chance to dip our toes in the water as landlords. In the process, we learned five valuable lessons that will shape our future decisions related to real estate investing that will help others sitting on the sidelines pondering whether investing in real estate makes sense for them.
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