There’s no escaping it, regardless of how hard we try, We’re all gonna age, We’re all gonna get old and turn grey.
That time our eyes are weary and vision blurry, when our hip and legs and legs don’t locomote as good as we want them to, when we’re popping endless pills for endless medical conditions, how terrifying to think about the stage of life when we’re past senior citizen years.
So, what remarkable thing have you done with your bloom of youth? What feel-good thing or decisions have you made or are you making right now before your hairline is pretty much non-existence. If you’ve made this happen, then you can sip a lil easy in old age.
But seriously, what’s the uphill to investing in real estate in Nigeria pretty early? Well, there’s the problem of the buck. Very little money – Let’s face it – most young people are pretty broke, and it’s mostly due to lifestyle choices, or low income earning from a single source. Maybe you’ve got a good job and have so much disposable income you don’t know what to do with it, but chances are – you’re living pretty close to paycheck-to-paycheck.
The life experience needed to know better and do better with finances and property investment is probably a handful at this stage of life.
Also, check your social circle in your youngling age. How many folks in that circle are deeply interested in real estate investment business? They most likely simply don’t care. Hence, it makes it tough to find motivation to get into real estate when you don’t have a community that fosters financial education and growth. Plus, the allure of splurging in gadgets, toys, the ladies and vice versa, the accessories, etc? Very strong!
Nevertheless, what’s a young person who needs to break this stereotype set to do, to get cracking in investing in real estate, and do it young?
Now, what’s going to be Your First Investment?
Well, this is largely going to depend on your situation. For most people, your first investment (besides investing in yourself through reading a TON of books, blogs, and forums) should be your primary residence. There are options open to you.
When starting out, you could:
Start small. Find the cheapest home you can buy, in a relatively strategic location that’s easy to get taken up by tenants, and do a have a live in-rent out situation. An ugly, run down, dishevelled home, yes, buy the cheapest house that you can find for almost next to nothing after weighing your location options carefully, and then over the course of months you can begin to carry out repairs at your own pace: painting, flooring, new improvements, etc. Eventually you can resell the property years down the line after appreciation has set in with a nice property, and then buy your next property with change left.
The beauty of this is that since you have to pay to live somewhere anyways, there are effectively no “holding costs”. You could take three months or three years to sell it – but in the end, you’ll profit.
Buy/build a small 2 apartment home: This will enable you to live in one apartment while renting the other half out. Doesn’t have to be anything fancy. This will enable you to live rent free, decrease your expenses as you are no longer paying rent, and maybe you can go into investing full time with the extra money you’ve saved up from your prudent investment decision. Additionally, the experience you’ll gain in ‘land-lording’ will help you for the rest of your real estate investing career. It truly is a great first step.
Where do you go next? Best believe you’re not going to have it all together, for starts. What is truly important is that you start anyway with the aforementioned. Time is ticking. You are getting old, fast. Evaluate where you are, where you want to be, and the path you need to get there.