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  • Writer's pictureAJ Shepard

Investing when you have a hesitant significant other


Speaker 1:

Here talking about how to invest in real estate with a hesitant, significant other. This is something I have dealt with personally. So, first, you got to sell the idea. So if you have a hesitant, significant other that may be a little bit more cautious, or analytical, is not as ADHD is yourself, explain why real estate investing will help your financial future together, not just yourself, you guys are a team, so make it about the team.


Speaker 1:

Show the numbers to support your claims, because numbers don't lie. Use real-life examples of friends/acquaintances. This can be good if someone is a little bit hesitant. You can use examples of your friends or people that you know that have done it before, and show why it is a good idea. And then my favorite question is, "well, why not?" If there's a lot of objections say, "Well, why not? Why not do that? Why don't we do that?" Oh, I guess I skipped a slide.


Speaker 1:

We're going to combat a common objection, "I don't want to live in an apartment." You see a lot of people buy their first house and they post pictures of their single-family house, and as an investor, sometimes you have to live in multifamily properties, which can be considered apartments. A couple of ways to handle that is, you will pay the same amount, or less, as someone else that's renting, or owning a single-family house, and usually, you can get a larger asset.


Speaker 1:

One example of that is, I had a buddy renting a 462 square foot apartment, downtown Portland, paying $1700 a month in rent, and my personal [inaudible 00:00:02:13], I pay $1600 bucks for the payment and utilities a month for a $600,000 property. So I pay less than my buddy who's renting, and I have an asset to show for it. If you don't, "I don't want to live in an apartment," you can also find a more updated multifamily property, so the living conditions are more desirable than say, an outdated two to four-unit property.


Speaker 1:

"This unit is gross and outdated." Well, one way to handle that is, we could update the unit and make our property worth more in the future. This is a great way to force appreciation and increase the value of your property if you are willing to live in an outdated unit that needs some cosmetic love. And the other piece of that is if there is a unit that is updated, and you can get your significant other on board with living in the non-updated unit, you can usually get more in rent for the nicer unit, or the larger unit, depending on the type of property.


Speaker 1:

"My friends just bought a nice house that has a yard, open concept, blah, blah, blah." Your friends bought a liability. So we combine income-producing asset, with favorable financing that will work for us when we move out, instead of buying a liability in a single-family house right out of the gate, and we can also buy a house in a few years and have our rental units pay for that single-family house that you want, dear.


Speaker 1:

The other piece to it is, listen, listen, listen. Listen to what your partner's concerns and comments are because there's usually a way to answer those concerns or comments, and find a way to compromise. One example that I ran into was, my wife, didn't want to necessarily live in a gross apartment. So what I did for our first one was we found one that was updated. She could see herself living there, even though it was a duplex, and it was a lot easier to convince her to move into that because it was updated.


Speaker 1:

And then be understanding and handle the objections with logic and empathy, or sympathy, depending on the situation. Obviously, everyone has their concerns and their hesitations, so just understand where they're coming from and see if there's a compromise that can be made about those. And then numbers do not lie. Like I said, the duplex that we lived in, was updated, good location, a safe neighborhood, and we can build our future wealth all at the same time.


Speaker 1:

And the other part is, just get your first deal. If you have to make that sacrifice and buy, maybe, not as good of an investment as your first one, because your partner's willing to actually take the leap and go for that one, just know that investing in real estate is extremely addicting, and once you get the first one, the next one is only a matter of time. So as long as you get the first one done, you can usually convince them to do another one.


Speaker 1:

Another example, we got the duplex, and now my wife is fully bought in on investing in real estate, and is even talked about living in outdated, ugly units, now, so. That's how to handle a hesitant, significant other. Any questions?


Speaker 2:

Throughout the whole process what was the most challenging part to figure out?


Speaker 1:

I would say finding, in my situation, finding a duplex that did have some sort of updated unit involved, because that was, Robin didn't want to live in an outdated place. But like I said, now, she's all for it, as long as the numbers make sense.


Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:


And the neighborhood that you chose was different than other neighborhoods with duplexes?


Speaker 2:

Mm-hmm.


Speaker 1:

Is that a factor?


Speaker 2:

Yeah. I mean, it's definitely a nice area, and the one con is still that our neighborhood, or our street that we live on, is predominantly condos and two to four-unit properties, so that makes it feel a little bit more apartment, but there's standalone units or side-by-side units, so it feels like you're living in a townhouse instead of an apartment.


Speaker 1:

Yeah.


Speaker 3:

How did you combat not having a yard?


Speaker 1:

Less maintenance, and, I may myself to pay a landscaper every now and then, significantly less maintenance than a single-family house. And there are 15 miles of walk trails and [inaudible 00:07:10] in the park community, so if you want to go for a walk-


Speaker 3:

There you go.


Speaker 1:

... you got 15 miles to kill your legs.


Speaker 3:

Awesome.


Speaker 1:

All right.


Speaker 2:

Well, nice work.


Speaker 1:

Thank you.


Speaker 4:

Nice.


Speaker 1:

So I'm going to pause it or stop it?

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