Iâm Cameron from the Pacific Northwest.
Just a few years ago, I was living paycheck to paycheck. Now granted I had a relatively high paying job, but when I was living in Los Angeles it certainly didnât feel that way. L.A. was expensive! I was living in an old monster house, driving a scooter to work (which was actually awesome), and spending money I didnât have to try and eek out some kind of âgoodâ life in southern California. Over time, my girlfriend (now wife) and I had to stop going out with friends as often, we had to swap dinner at Gwen for In n Out drive thru.
I was 40 years old and felt like I was going backwards. I knew there had to be a better way to produce income but couldnât figure out what it was. I thought âIâm too lazy to be an entrepreneurâ. Iâm not a âhustlerâ, I told myself I didnât have a strong enough work ethic, etc. All this negative self talk kept me stuck for a long time. At some point I decided to ask myself âwhat if none of that were actually true?â
I started to examine my life in terms of failures and successes. I recognized that actually I was quite good at successfully accomplishing things as long as there was a clearly defined finish line. Whether that was a professional certification, a work project, or a revenue goal, as long as I had a clearly established âfinish lineâ and a non-arbitrary time-based deadline to get there, I almost always succeeded. Where I failed was in day to day cog in the wheel office jobs with no finish line, no goals, no anything. I realized that was my own personal hell and I had maneuvered myself right into that life.
I knew some friends that had built up additional income from real estate, mostly by buying and renting out single family homes. That seemed like a very daunting, and very tedious process. They had done this over a decade plus, I wanted and needed something that would get me there now, in a few years or less. I thought, âwell Iâll just buy fourplexes and that will get me there four times as fast!â Wrong. None of the math made sense, especially since I didnât have ANY of my own money I could use as a down payment or as reserves in case something went wrong or we needed to renovate a unit when someone moved out. In addition, even when I did look at a property, I wouldâve had to purchase it way below the price sellerâs wanted in order to make it a profitable endeavour. I went back to the drawing board. Then I had a conversation with someone online that told me about something called âsyndicationâ. That day, my life changed.
I used to feel like there was no way I could get ahead by investing in real estate because I didnât have the money, and where I live real estate is way too expensive for owning a rental to work.
Learning about syndication, gave me the ability to buy large apartment complexes even out of state.
Now Iâve replaced about 35% of my income with real estate and on my way to financial freedom in a couple years.
Iâm still in shock that everyone hasnât discovered this!