This popular real estate investing axiom was coined by Bigger Pocket’s own David Green, and summarizes the idea of skilled individuals gravitating together towards common goals. Greene explains that, “[one] person alone can only do so much, but by leveraging others whose goals align with yours, you’ll find that your success will start to come much, much faster.” The term Rockstar denotes a person who is highly skilled at their job. In rock n roll, there are countless drummers, but only one Neil Peart.

I first heard of Bigger Pockets through a friend’s financial podcast. This was before real estate was ever on my radar of being a feasible investment vehicle. My friend repeatedly promoted real estate investing as having the highest potential for asset growth, passive income, and ultimate financial freedom. And BP was often lauded as the best platform to help aspiring investors get started.

I recently finished reading Gary Keller’s The One Thing. It was one of the few books I’ve read where I realized it would greatly impact my life if I applied it’s lessons. The book is designed to help you discover your top priority, and to give you the tools to use your time most effectively to achieve your goals. The book promotes thinking BIG, asking focused questions, forming sequential habits, writing down important tasks, among other principles. 

We are forming habits all the time. 

When we face a problem, our brain looks for a solution. When we find the solution, our behavior is reinforced; and when this pattern repeats over and over the behavior becomes automatic. So in simplest terms, habits can be seen as our automatic solutions to life’s daily problems.  

An overweight man rises at sunrise to workout every morning. Another man checks social media at every free moment during his day. Both men have problems they desire solutions to. The first man wants to overcome obesity and poor health. The second man is looking for validation or at the very least an escape from his mundane workday.

Emerging Trends in Real Estate® is a trends and forecast publication now in its 41st edition, and is one of the most highly regarded and widely read forecast reports in the real estate industry. Emerging Trends in Real Estate® 2020, undertaken jointly by PwC and the Urban Land Institute, provides an outlook on real estate investment and devel- opment trends, real estate finance and capital markets, property sectors, metropolitan areas, and other real estate issues throughout the United States and Canada.

If you’ve been around the real estate investing world long enough, you’re likely familiar with Bigger Pockets, which is arguably the largest platform of real estate investors and resources. And if you are familiar with Bigger Pockets, odds are you’ve heard of the BRRRR method, which is Brandon Turner’s coined term for the strategy of Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat. The BRRRR method is quickly becoming one of the most popularly practiced strategies for investors in SFR's and small multifamily buildings. The BRRR method is appealing because it offers an alternative to the traditional method of making a large (20%+) downpayment and spending as little as possible to get the property move-in ready. Essentially, BRRRR works like this: 

Did you know in Fairbanks, Alaska, it’s illegal to serve alcohol to a moose? Yeah, actual law.

And did you know in South Dakota, it’s illegal to fall asleep in a cheese factory? And in Memphis, Tenn., if you order a slice of pie at a restaurant, you have to eat it there. It’s illegal by their law to take it out.

Now, these laws are kind of silly, right? But a lot of laws are there to help us, to actually protect us from things—like don’t murder somebody, don’t drive drunk, wear your seatbelt.

Some laws are good; some laws are bad.

The ability and willingness to change your mind, and your strategy, in the face of new evidence might be one of the most important skills anyone can possess. Clarida’s statement above reminds us of the quote from either John Maynard Keynes or Paul Samuelson, depending on who you ask: “When events change, I change my mind. What do you do?”

Our basic thesis for 2020 is for continued modest economic growth driven by continued modest job and wage growth, but we are keeping a close eye for evidence of a shift. And we got a lot of new evidence to look at last week, namely the December jobs report.