How I Bought My First Rental Property

There I was receiving my first paycheque as a full-time designer. For a 21-year-old, receiving a cheque for $945.13, it was a lot of money. More money than my account has ever seen. I thought I was the richest person on the street! I went shopping and spent it all and more. It felt pretty good for some time. Then I realized, wait a second, this is life. I worked my own life to get a job, and now that I have a job, this is yet. I can’t foresee myself making more money in the near future. I’m capped for at least a few years.

To the outside world, it looks great, I have a job while most of my classmates were struggling to find an internship. Many of them even ask for my advice. I told them how great it’s in the advertising industry and how they should all try to get in too.

Deep down, I know something just doesn’t add up. I used to read every night and studied every night and suddenly I no longer have projects to work on, test to study, or essay to complete. I am no longer required to learn. This can’t be right. I have so much potential. I can be better. I can do more. Looking back, I should have known, I’m never cut out to work for people. I just wasn’t content with my situation.

I was only 1 month into my job and I already felt it wasn’t enough. I want to do something more, but I don’t know how. At work, I offer to do more, offer to put on bigger projects and only was I turned down since I was so junior. At home, I told my parents I want to do more, they thought I’m crazy. Why do anything when you have a job that everyone wants? Internally, I am lost. A good metaphor would be, I’m a butterfly looking out a window. The outside world looks exciting, fun and within reach. Yet the window is shut, I couldn’t get out.

One thing, something hit me. I thought, what if I can best use my time at work, my income to do more than just a job. I thought what if at work, I see it as:

1) Opportunity to learn from the best marketers in the world

2) Save the money I make and invest

3) Using my stable income to get mortgages

4) Build a stable passive income on the side that doesn’t require much of my time

5) Be as patient as I need to be as I don’t need to cash out anytime soon

This a great plan I thought. I can buy a rental property and test my theory.

The challenge? Well, there are too many.

1) I have a 20K student loan I need to pay off, interest rate was at 7%

2) I need to save money for a downpayment

3) I have no idea how to invest and have no one in my circle that knows how

4) When I decided to learn more, I paid thousands of dollars on seminars only find out materials I got wasn’t applicable in Toronto as it’s very differently regulated than America

5) I met a realtor who I trusted and turned out to be extremely sleazy. If I went with him, he would have sold me junk and I would have lost my hard-earned money

6) I spent my weekends driving 4–5 hours to properties, and meet up with other newbie investors to share ideas. Although it was like blind leading the blind, it did keep me from quitting.

After 13 months of trying to get my first property, one day, it happened. I presented a property to my trusted counsel, my parents and my boyfriend (my husband today). All 3 of them fired questions at me for 45 minutes. In the past, I would have either gotten angry at them for not being supportive or I would have frozen as I have no answers to their questions. This time, it was different. I wanted them to shut down my deal and point out my blind spots.

Crazy thing is, after 45 mins of Q&A, all 3 of them said, you know Alice, this would work.

I was shocked! In fact, I was scared. I can’t back out anymore because of external factors.

I met with my lawyer 2 days later. At the last minute, I wanted to pull out of the deal all because of the fear and the discomfort of buying my first rental property.

My lawyer is an older gentleman. He said, Alice, in life there will come to a point you need to take a leap of faith and go for it. If you are willing, you have the potential of making a lot of money. If you don’t you would have tails between your tails and don’t want to do this again.

I signed the paper and left his office as fast as I could before changing my mind.

What did that do for me? Well, it made me a millionaire by 30. It is pretty cool. But what’s better is that I no longer believe other people have a say on how much money I can make, and how many years I need to wait before getting a sizeable raise. The truth is, no one determines how much we can make, only ourselves do.

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