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real estate or owning a business? which one to go with????

lobster

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hi, since im getting very sick of working for someone else, im deciding which is the better way to go with? im cant decide is it better to go investing in real estate, by this i mean buy one piece of property and then rent it out for income after it gets paid off in a few years. then buy another and so on. it will be a slow process one by one.
or my other idea would be be open my own business like a resturant ( most likely a franchise) but not sure yet.
im having alot of debate between which way to go with, so what are your suggestions and which one would be better for the fastlane? thanks for any suggestions. :smx8:
 
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Inphinity

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Imo both can work, and work very well. Theres numerous people on here who've followed both paths and been very successful. Don't make the decision based on "which one will make me more money", make it based on "Which one do I *want* to do?".
 

Runum

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hi, since im getting very sick of working for someone else, im deciding which is the better way to go with? im cant decide is it better to go investing in real estate, by this i mean buy one piece of property and then rent it out for income after it gets paid off in a few years. then buy another and so on. it will be a slow process one by one.
or my other idea would be be open my own business like a resturant ( most likely a franchise) but not sure yet.
im having alot of debate between which way to go with, so what are your suggestions and which one would be better for the fastlane? thanks for any suggestions. :smx8:

Good job Lobster. You are starting to see that there other directions to go in life. The way you just presented your 2 options results in both being slowlane. You acknowledge as much about the RE idea. Investing in RE will get you there but you have to think bigger than one house and it is quite challenging.

As far as a franchise business goes, you need to talk to KungFu Steve. Also, you might take a look at this thread:

http://www.thefastlanetomillions.com/mindset-motivation/15779-you-driving-fastlane-riding.html

Right now you might look into an online business of some sort. It's pretty easy to get into. You don't have to have any bank's approval. You are in the driver's seat. Or you might try options investing or Forex. Again, with all of those you call the shots. Good luck. +++speed for your questions.
 

djs13

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I was initially interested in real estate investing, until after I did alot of reading I found out that with my small amount of funds it was pretty slowlane. Like Runum said, you want to be the guy starting the franchise, not the guy buying into one. The internet has leveled out business for the most part, but you should do more reading besides RDPD to help you make your own decisions.

BTW, Runum, I never even considered Forex/Options trading. I used to always think that the stock market was typically slowlane if you didnt have a large amount of funds like myself. I'll do some more reading.
 
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Runum

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What JScott said is true, investing is not totally automated and passive. The advantage, to me, is that you are in control and you don't need anyone's approval. Be careful though, there is a huge learning curve to any venture. You might also check out Snowbank's posts on online gambling. He does real well at it.
 

PEERless

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The way you just presented your 2 options results in both being slowlane.
Absolutely right! Most "real estate investors" are really just home-owners. Most "entrepreneurs" are just franchisees. I will be the first admit that I closed on my first investment property while I still had a slowlane mentality. The result? I have a beautiful, expensive condo that collects only enough rent for about 75% of its expenses. Most of my friends and family still consider it a brilliant "investment." But to a fastlaner, it's an alligator gobbling up my money.

Read the thread that Runum mentioned. Franchisees are passengers in the franchisor's fastlane. Don't buy into a franchise. Just don't.

I'm a firm believer that being a trader *generally* can't be fastlane
I feel the same way.

"Which one do I *want* to do?".
That's the ticket you're going to read over and over on this forum. It may seem like fastlaners are driven by money, but that isn't enough. It can even be counterproductive. A fastlaner is driven by a passion for entrepreneurship which I define as an ability to recognize problems, and a desire to solve them.

Find a problem. Solve it. The money will come.
 

yveskleinsky

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I have done both: owned a restaurant/night club and owned (own) single family homes. Knowing what I know now, you couldn't pay me to do either again.

Everyone's path is different, and I encourage you to read a minimum of 800 posts before you decide to do anything.
 
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PEERless

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Ah, yes. I forgot to point out that they are not mutually exclusive. Start a business and do real estate. One will fund the other.
 

EasyMoney_in_NC

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IMHO the only real answer to your question is...............

We have no idea which way you should go. I personally don't know a thing about your circumstances, which would be quite a huge part of the equation as to which way to go. If you make a lot of $$ in your day gig and can afford rental property, now's probably a great time to buy (geographic location dependent).
Questions that come to my mind are:
- what talents do you have?
- what do you know?
- what do you do well?
- do you have money?
- do you have time? to loose, gain, learn, prosper?
- have you done RE or restaurants before?
- do you have good network of contacts or people to look to for support (monetary or other).

These "what should I" questions always make me think that's like asking whats the meaning of life...........different for each person. Like has been said, its good that you are seeing the light and want to get out of the slow lane. If you haven't answered the above questions for yourself, that's where I'd start, then ask your "what" question after coming up with those answers and making anyone here reading them aware. Thats the only fair way (to you) to answer your questions.

For me, I took what I knew (and things I didn't) and went the RE construction of rentals route. But I also have a couple of local small businesses and they all cash flow. May not be the most fast lane since I have to participate in each of them to some degree, but it certainly pays for my life and each business supports different aspects of my life (play money, day to day expenses, retirement nest egg). And if I can get anyone of them to end in a big payoff.........I'm done, set and time to retire. And ultimately thats where I think everyone like us want to be.

Hope that helps, GL.
 

marktech101

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I agree with most other posters here in that I feel you should find what you love and apply fastlane concepts to it. I believe that the old adage 'find work you love, and you never work another day in your life' applys even to the FastLane. The following quote is part of MJ's success story:

PhxMJ said:
The beauty was this: I didn’t feel like I was working. I enjoyed most of it.

Good luck!
 

FreeYourMind

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I started out by doing single family investment properties and a franchise at almost the exact same time about 4 years ago. As other members have suggested, really try to focus on the fast lane mentality so you aren't creating yourself another full time job - truely passive income is the goal. Because I didn't focus on this objective from the start, I've paid the price in terms of time spent working IN my businesses, rather than ON growing my businesses.

Having had the same questions as you do currently, my best advice would be to make certain that you know what you are getting into before your jump. Do a very thorough and honest analysis of all your options and consider your strengths and passions before you jump. If you can get more concrete details (i.e. your current financial situation, startup costs associated with you are considering, etc.) and share them, I'm guessing that you will get more insightful responses.
 

RealOG

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Sounds like you are still in the learning stage. I would invest more time in finding out which avenue is of more interest to you.

The hardest part is in the beginning. You will put a lot of effort (money, emotions, time) in building your strategy and perfecting it before you see any benefits (free time and cashola). You need to find what you enjoy so when the going gets rough, you are able to keep putting in the efforts and focus to make it successful. Research the negatives of each avenue and decide which one is more exciting to you.

Keep in mind, the avenues you chose are very broad. There are subsets of each avenue. In fact, there are subsets of subsets of subsets. Maybe you want to focus on property management of smaller garden class-c apartment value plays in metropolitan areas.

The more you specialize in an avenue, the greater your chance of success.
 
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TaxGuy

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Absolutely right! Most "real estate investors" are really just home-owners. Most "entrepreneurs" are just franchisees. I will be the first admit that I closed on my first investment property while I still had a slowlane mentality. The result? I have a beautiful, expensive condo that collects only enough rent for about 75% of its expenses. Most of my friends and family still consider it a brilliant "investment." But to a fastlaner, it's an alligator gobbling up my money.

Great post Skylar!

That pretty much defines me- I own my home and pay for it through some rental income and the business I ran was basically a franchise spin-off of the franchisor's business who dealt with vendors and overhead, I basically ran the business d2d operations and collected checks, not very fastlane IMO, but still stepping stones on the way to where I want to be :coolgleamA:

As for cashflow, I have a friend who owns about 6 SFR's and has a graphic design biz that pays the bills, I know his goals aren't too crazy and he is seeing how these SFR's work out before going any further. When I first started helping him w/ maintenance and work I had the "slowlane" mindset of "how does he afford these?" and "how much money can he really make after expenses?" as opposed to "what resources does he use for financing?" and "how much positive cashflow is each property producing?" :smxB:

It is the slowlane mindset too that has kept my family from progressing despite sitting on a gold mine w/ a 3-unit rental in a great neighborhood on the North Side of Chicago and using it to obtain more units like it in the neighborhood(my dad had a chance to buy a few of the neighbors 2/3 flats, but didn't jump at the opportunity :nonod:)
 

rxcknrxll

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I have done both: owned a restaurant/night club and owned (own) single family homes. Knowing what I know now, you couldn't pay me to do either again.

Everyone's path is different, and I encourage you to read a minimum of 800 posts before you decide to do anything.

very smart post.
 

rxcknrxll

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Real estate IS a business, if you do it right anyway. Don't look for the best opportunity. No such thing. There are only good plans.
 
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lobster

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I have done both: owned a restaurant/night club and owned (own) single family homes. Knowing what I know now, you couldn't pay me to do either again.

Everyone's path is different, and I encourage you to read a minimum of 800 posts before you decide to do anything.

any details as to why you dont like either one? it might be useful info, coming from someone who tried both and dint like any of them. who knows, im sure some of us here might like them either if we knew some of the reasons. :huh2:
 

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