Home - The Club

Myth: You can depend on your job to give you the lifestyle and the retirement you desire.

Fact: By definition, a job requires that you trade your time for dollars. Even high-paying jobs still typically require you to work 40 hours or more, 50+ weeks a year. There's little room to create a lifestyle of choice and freedom when you can't control your time.

Fact: The statistics show: 85% of retirees will depend on the government for their retirement.

Solution: Real estate investing allows you to leverage your time and money through using other people's money (the bank's), other people's time (your tenants pay your mortgage) and through tax advantages and appreciation.

Myth: The real estate bubble has burst. There's no money to be made in real estate these days.

Fact: What went bust is the formula that NEVER really worked - gambling with your money by (1) buying real estate and (2) just hoping it would grow in value. For a short time, driven by low interest rates, house prices did rise quickly. But appreciation has never been the only way that savvy investors make money.

Solution: "Buying right," which most recent players in the market place either ignored or didn't know to do, NEVER went out of style. Many investors in Baltimore (including myself) have not stopped finding excellent deals at steep bargains. And we have sold them or rented them for a healthy profit.

Myth: You can make money in real estate by reading a book, buying a CD or going to a seminar.

Fact: Over 90% of people who buy a book or a tape course are more likely to buy another book than they ever are to buy a piece of real estate. Says who? Try Carleton Sheets, the #1 late-night TV promoter of real estate investment education.

And while the TV promoters have sparked many investors into action, you don't need "canned" information from a national "guru" to buy Baltimore real estate. You run the risk of attempting to make money by just buying any property. But the only way you make money in today's market is by buying an extreme bargain and managing that property like a business.

Solution: What you need to succeed in Baltimore real estate investing is to know:

the latest of what's happening in and around the Baltimore market,

where to go to get money, and

who to work with to fix and sell your deals.

You need a network of people who can keep you focused, motivated, and informed about what's working in this changing market. And you need to know how to manage your contractors and tenants right by running real estate like a business.