Real Estate Millionaire Shares His Investing Strategies

My brother, Andreas, is a real estate millionaire who has built a lifetime of wealth.

He has been in the investment game for many years. As a result of his efforts, today he has built a multi-million dollar investment portfolio.

Over the last two centuries, about 90 percent of the world’s millionaires have been created by investing in real estate. These numbers prove that investing in real estate is one of the best ways to create wealth.

No matter what happens in the world, people will always need a place to live, sleep and work, so why not take advantage of this asset class? You don’t need a lot of money in order to start investing in your future. However, you need to start investing if you want to make a lot of money.

Are you ready to learn how you can become a millionaire with real estate investments? In the words of John Paulson, “I still think buying a home is one of the best investments any individual can make.”

Watch the video below:

(Click here to watch on YouTube)

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Do you want to learn how you can become a real estate millionaire? CLICK HERE to learn more about Andreas' coaching programs!

Andreas didn’t become a real estate millionaire overnight.

He has been in the investment game for over a decade now. During that time, he accumulated a wealth of knowledge that has allowed him to increasingly diversify his investment portfolio and level up his wealth.

Here is a sneak peek of our interview together, where Andreas shares his investment journey and the strategies that he has used in order to create financial freedom.

When did you first get started with real estate investing?

I bought my first property with my partner when I was 26 years old. I rented out a place for about 8 months and then decided that I didn't want to do it anymore. It felt like I was throwing money away. I had a British mentor who had a massive portfolio.

He owned 100 properties in Vancouver and had retired at the age of 35. Before investing, he owned car lots. He would buy used cars, fix them up and then sell them on his lot. He then took that model into the real estate world. When I had gone into construction I got him as a client. I was mesmerized by him. He owned all of these properties, from condos to townhomes to houses.

I asked him if he would mind mentoring me, and he said, “Sure.” He took me under his wing. There was a cost for that, but as I started to accumulate properties, the cost seemed so small, relative to what I was doing. When I bought my first place, he gave me tips on the 5-10 things that I needed to watch for. I still have that same place 14 years later. It's beautiful.

The knowledge he gave me was so valuable.

It all started with a cheap investment. I spent $149,000 on my first place. It was a 2-bedroom, 1 bathroom that was one block away from the ocean in a suburb just outside of Vancouver. My goal was to fix it up and then move into my next place.

How many properties do you have now?

Right now I'm coming up on ten. That's a mixture of residential and land. Now that I am in my golden years, my lifestyle has changed. I decided to go with a long-term investment that requires less maintenance. For me, that was buying land. I’m 40 years old so I’m looking for something that I can buy outright, sit on it and just pay the property taxes.

What is the strategy that you have when it comes to investing in real estate?

A lot of people invest in real estate in order to create passive income for themselves. Because I had a career in construction, I tried to put the least amount of money down as a down payment. This meant that my mortgage payment would be a bit higher. I just wanted to break even.

Whatever rent came in I wanted it to pay my mortgage and taxes, or whatever cost was associated with it. Even when my cash flow had broken even, I was still accumulating equity because I was paying a mortgage.

Part of that mortgage is principal so you’ve got principal that is growing every month, even though you don’t see it. You only see if you pull that equity in refinancing or down the road when you sell it. I was fine with breaking even on paper, but I knew that equity was accruing.

At the same time, I was having the capital appreciation, so I was banking on making the most money from that side of things. When interest rates go down and you refinance, your mortgage goes down. I started to see a positive cash flow from it. Two years ago I moved five hours from Vancouver.

When I first started investing in real estate, I could buy a place for $150,000.

Where I live now, there are houses that I can buy for a quarter of a million dollars, and I can easily rent those out. However, in Vancouver, you can't buy a house for under $700,000 now.

You have bigger capital upfront and the interest rate plays a bigger role, so it’s much tougher to invest in cities like these. However, this video is going to go out to people all over the world.

You might be living in a different country or city where you look around and the basic principles are all going to apply. It's just making the numbers work. There will be pullbacks, but land is always going to go up.

Can you talk a little bit about why you think it’s so important to diversify?

It's tough to make investing as your primary business because you need capital. To go and buy ten properties and then live off of that income becomes really challenging. However, if you have extra income, nothing beats diversity.

I bought my first place for $150,000 and I put $5,000 down as a down payment. Today, that place is selling for $400,000. Over the last decade, I've seen a $250,000 appreciation from it. At the same time, I've been able to pay down my mortgage, and I've pulled that equity out and invested it into other vehicles.

I’m making money off of equity that is just sitting there and growing.

I knew that I was going to be immersed in construction and in my other businesses, so I just wanted to invest my money in real estate and let time work for itself. For a lot of people that have some extra money and already have a place for themselves, I suggest that you diversify.

How are you able to scale up your investments?

It's all about leverage. In my second year of investing, I bought a house for $325,000. That was a big shift from $150,000 to $325,000. However, it was a 3 bedroom and 3 bathroom house, and it had a basement suite.

When I did the numbers and looked at the rent that I was collecting from it, I found that we were saving money. Plus, we had a backyard, a garage, and land. A house will always appreciate more than a condo will. We jumped in. However, at that time I was leaving the family business and was starting my own business, so I didn't really have credit.

I had to leverage myself and manipulate the banks. Keep in mind that things have gotten tougher in Canada since then, but back when I was doing it 12-14 years ago. It wasn't as highly regulated. However, I just heard that Drumpf has made bank lending easier for people.

I over-leveraged myself and took a risk, but I believed in my mentor's suggestions and went all-in.

It got easier as I accumulated a couple of properties because the value started to go up and I had equity. Now I can go back to the bank, refinance, pull the equity out and have a downpayment for my next place.

If you are holding an investment over the long-term, there will be times when it will go down. What is your mindset when that happens?

Let me share a story with you. I owned a townhouse and one of the people that were renting from me got into a battle with the strata over a parking spot. He had argued that when he bought the place he was given two parking spots.

However, strata said that he was only given one spot, so they towed his car. All of these towing bills got racked up. Eventually, the guy sued the strata. To make a long story short, it turned into a 5-year lawsuit over a $50 parking ticket. Eventually, they foreclosed.

I had bought that place for $250,000, but he had to foreclose it because he couldn't pay. They had to get a bailiff to remove him from the house, the strata took it over and had to sell it. They dumped it to $175,000. The bank could have come to me and said, “I want my money.” Here in Canada, they don't do that, but in the U.S. they are tougher.

As long as you are making your payments, you are fine.

Today, that place is worth over $600,000 and this incident happened 4 years ago. Even though everything worked out, it was a scary time because I didn't know how I would be able to pull off that money. My mortgage was higher than what the place was worth.

What advice would you give to someone that is looking to invest in real estate?

The easiest way to get into the market is to buy a place for yourself. If you are in a position where you are paying rent, then you are probably are in a position where you could buy a place.

Your biggest challenge is going to be the downpayment. However, nowadays we live in a world where credit is easy to come by, and you can maneuver that credit around for a downpayment.

Don't overextend yourself. If you’re paying a $1000 in rent, look for a place that you can put down a minimal down payment.

In Europe and the US, you can still get away with only putting 5-10% down on a place. There are a lot of people who want to have the bells and whistles and that's when real estate doesn't work for you. You have to look at it and say, “I can keep paying my rent, which is making landowners rich, or I can pay down some equity.”

After some time, that equity will grow and you can pull out that equity and upgrade your place or buy a bigger one for yourself and rent it out.

My mentor told me that, because entrepreneurs don't have a pension, they are always having to think, long-term. When you own real estate and rent it out, it becomes an indexed pension.

If a city becomes expensive, rent goes up with it.

That's what we are seeing in Vancouver. Rent is blowing out of the roof and that's because the city has done so well and the land values have gone up. Inflation occurs almost every year, so rent is always going up. If you are an entrepreneur, you need to find ways to create income when you retire. Unless you invest wisely, it won’t be indexed.

Can you share a little bit about the real estate investment coaching that you provide?

It's a great program for teaching people their options, whether that’s in the world of investing or real estate. In real estate, there are a number of things that you can get into. We go through what is going to be a good fit for you in regards to your cash flow and skill set.

Before you start investing, you need to know what you can stomach. In my investing program, I show you what your options are, from stock markets to mutual funds to real estate. We explore what kind of investor you are, and look at the different types of vehicles that you can invest in.

Do you aspire to become a real estate millionaire?

There is a myriad of different factors to consider when investing in real estate. Andreas now offers real estate and investment coaching to people, where he shares the investing strategies that have made him a real estate millionaire.

Whether you are a newbie or a more advanced investor, I can confidently say that Andreas’ coaching programs will help you succeed faster and avoid the common pitfalls of real estate investing that many people fall into.

In the words of Louis Glickman, “The best investment on earth is earth.”

Investing in real estate is not only safe, but it is an impressive wealth-building tool that has turned ordinary people into millionaires. Are you ready to be next?