This blog will be about our real estate journey. We will write about what happens, however, not every day, but more when specific events occur. To give you an idea of why we started and how we came to the conclusion that this was the path we would take, we must go back a few years.
2014 – 2015
Emelie, who always had a great interest in real estate, renovations and interiors, tried to persuade me (Nana) that we should buy and renovate and then sell real estate here in Sweden. However, It was hard for me seeing it being profitable in the long run, which made us relinquish.
2017
June
We found out that we were going to be parents for the first time and the thoughts of what our future would look like began to wander. What do we want to give our children and our family, the answer was TIME.
July
We travel to the US (Washington DC, Los Angeles, San Diego and New York).
In LA, I (Nana) went on hiking in the mountains every morning and during these walks, I started thinking about what I want to do with my life? What do I want to focus on? What do I want to pass on to our children? How should we be able to give our family the time we want?
I quickly realized that it was no longer just about me and Emelie.
I start to think about what I would like to do for the rest of my life that could also give us what we most wanted, TIME.
Emelie’s friend introduced us to many people, most of whom were successful entrepreneurs. I decided to take advantage of time we spent with them socializing. I asked lots of questions and listened to their answers and the experiences they shared.
I noticed that all these successful people had one thing in common, they all owned real estate in one way or another.
Autumn
Once I came home from the USA with new energy and inspiration then it was time to explore everything I heard. I started listening to podcasts with entrepreneurs, Youtube clips and read lots of books.
I heard about the FIRE movement (Financial Independence, Retire Early) but realized that it is not in me to cut down on all the costs for several years and then live a simple life for the rest of my life.
I wanted something more sustainable and that suited me as a person and I knew that is also what Emelie wanted. Everyone who knows us knows that we enjoy travelling, eating good food, getting new experiences and attending events.
I then looked at day trading both in shares and FX trading but it was not my thing, we already save money every month in shares and funds but day trading is completely different.
I also looked up Dropshipping which is when you have an internet store but no goods in stock, but you make an agreement with the supplier for the same product at a lower price but they send the products directly to the customer. The difference (after all costs, of course) is what you earn.
We felt we were on the right track when we started looking at something called turnkey real estate in the US.
Turnkey is a service when they do the whole job for you as an investor and then take a fairly juicy cost for the property. They buy demolished houses, renovate them, find a tenant and then sell the house to you. You get the passive income which is something we are looking for.
The problem with this model is that it is difficult to sell with a profit if it is needed because the company has already sold for market value to you as a customer, and when the property is newly renovated it becomes difficult to increase the value of the house more.
May 2018
After researching everything above. I attended a seminar on real estate investment in the UK. I got hooked and bought a 3-day course that Emelie joined. After the first day, we decided. This is what we should be doing! In the UK, the possibilities of real estate are almost endless. It is also close to Sweden which also appealed to us.
The fall of 2018 was mostly about educating us. We read books, listen to podcasts, had Skype calls, webinars and talk to our mentor.
It was a very intense but educational period and we developed both in terms of knowledge in real estate and on a personal level.
– Nana