If you haven’t noticed, the American dream has changed. Once upon a time Americans dreamed of getting a good job, buying a house, raising their families, and then retiring to a life of playing golf and bird watching. 

For decades, the dream couldn’t be any better than this (I mean who doesn’t like bird watching?) But over the last decade or two our country, along with the way we dream, has dramatically changed. The new dream is no longer about home ownership and having a great career or 401K. The new dream is about financial freedom. Thanks to popular books like The 4-Hour Workweek, Rich Dad, Poor Dad and The E-myth, Americans have ditched the dream of having a great 9 to 5 job and have moved on to dreaming of a life of being financially free. There are 100+ ways to do this, but since this blog is centered on the topic of property management I’m going to focus on how this works within the context of real estate investment.

In the new dream, people develop systems that create monthly income without having to be completely involved in the process. These are essentially money machines that spit out cash every month without you having to clock in or commute anywhere. The hard work is all done up front in developing the machine and making sure it works.

This kind of lifestyle of having complete freedom with your time and money almost seems too good to be true, but I assure you, it’s a dream that a multitude of Americans are realizing all the time. It takes discipline, time, discernment, and hard work, but it’s something you can do. 

Step by Step

The first step is obviously to find the right property that will provide cash flow and have a good cap rate. This is a huge step and really the foundation of the whole process. As much as I would love to give you the three easy steps to finding the perfect property, that’s not what this blog is about. The only thing I’ll say is that it isn’t easy, there’s a lot of competition, but the deals are out there to be had. 

Many investors make a big mistake at this point. Unless you’re the person I described in this blog, you need to get a professional company to manage your property. Just because you made the right call in an investment property doesn’t mean you have the skillset to make the right call throughout the renting and managing process. Becoming financially free is all about employing systems and teams to manage your investments. A residential property management company is your built-in system to free up your time almost instantly as well as a huge buffer against any legal issues.

Without a property manager, the average investor trying to become financially free doesn’t have the time to manage multiple properties, especially if those properties aren’t in the same area. They get bogged down in the management details and can’t grow their portfolio. Essentially, these investors, in pursuit of becoming financially free, trade in their day job and become full time property managers tending to the daily affairs of their units.

That’s not really the dream. The dream, as Tim Ferris, author of The 4-Hour Workweek says, doesn’t start until you can remove yourself entirely from the equation. The right investments with the right property manager will do just that. 

Adopting the Dream

This is not impossible. It’s rare, it’s not normal, it’s hard, but it’s not impossible. As someone involved in the real estate profession I meet with people who have personally done this. They didn’t have a huge inheritance, they didn’t win the lotto, they worked an average job, they invested on the side, and slowly but surely they were able to enter into the new American dream.

We have clients that live in Austria and we manage their properties here in the states. They get a direct deposit each month and are free to live anywhere and do what they want. The cool thing is that the more properties someone owns, the less we charge per property to manage, making it easier and more profitable the closer you get to living the dream. 

No matter where you are in the journey, Hignell Property Management can help. Our success is only achieved when our investors succeed. It’s a win-win or no deal. Contact us and we can discuss your personal journey to financial freedom.