Want to Build Wealth with Real Estate Investing? HOLD Will Teach You How!
As Gary and Jay say, you don’t need to wait to buy real estate—you simply need to buy real estate and wait. And, with an evergreen appreciation rate, real estate remains one of the strongest investments available.
It’s been twelve years since HOLD: How to Find, Buy, and Rent Houses for Wealth was released, but just as real estate remains an evergreen investment, the book remains exceptionally valuable. It still serves as guide for how to build personal wealth through real estate investing. KellerINK recently asked the authors what they felt were some of the most applicable practices shared in the book.
Here’s what they said:
Why is HOLD still relevant?
The authors agreed that the fundamentals in HOLD remain true, even if other things in the real estate industry and the world at large have changed.
“Buying real estate and holding it over time is one of the best and safest strategies to build wealth,” says author Jim McKissack. “The strategy of building wealth from holding real estate has not changed. The only thing that has changed are the numbers. It is always a good time to find, buy, and hold ‘good deals’ in real estate.”
“HOLD was written to identify the fundamental principles that apply to wealth building using real estate as the vehicle,” Steve Chader adds. “HOLD is still relevant today, maybe even more so. We understand that people grow into the conversation you create around them. That is true for our clients. If a real estate professional gave this book to their clients, the stories and the strategy contained in the book create the conversation.”
Jennice Doty agrees, saying that they wrote the book to be timeless. “In our research of comparing real estate investing to the stock market, we found the average rate of return for the stock market was, and still is, 6 percent over a twenty-year period,” she says. “Whereas real estate investments typically give a much higher return on your money.”
If you were to write HOLD today, what would be different or what would you add?
While Jennice says she wouldn’t change anything about the book, there are some things she would add to update it. “I think I would add information about using AI in managing properties as well as businesses that have recently been developed. [This would] complement property management that didn't exist when we wrote the book.”
Steve says he would add in some stories he has heard over the years that serve as proof of the concepts within HOLD. “There are many stories of people who HELD and those who wish they had,” he says. “Many people converted their equity to cash by selling. Inflation reduced the value of the cash and increased the value of the equity they lost.” Steve says he would also add advice on multi-generational investing. “Many families do not understand how to use the value of real estate owned by grandparents to create more wealth for the kids and grandkids.”
How can people put HOLD’s advice into practice and use it to boost their business?
An individual can use HOLD’s strategies to make smart investments right now.
“Look at it this way: Let’s say you buy a $300,000 home in a good neighborhood. You can get control of that asset for 25 percent down and leverage 75 percent of that asset with a lender,” says Jim. “So now you have control of a $300,000 [property] for $75,000. Now you can rent to a tenant who pays off that asset for you while you also make cash flow from the difference between the rent payment and your loan payment and your expenses. Then, over time, as your tenant is paying off your loan, you will start getting what I call the ‘icing on the cake appreciation.’ So, that $300,000 house becomes worth $500,000 or more.”
Agents can also use HOLD to teach classes for their clients and help them buy investments. After clients hear the success stories of real estate investing and learn how to do it with the help of an agent, they are more likely to invest themselves.
“Agents across the country have used HOLD as a lead generation tool and closing gift to introduce clients to the safe method of growing their wealth,” says Steve. “Surveys have demonstrated that 80 to 90 percent want to invest if they just had somebody to show them how.”
“An agent can [also] use the book to market their business to their existing clients as well as prospecting for new clients. They can give it as a gift to their clients to read and then meet with them to discuss it,” adds Jennice. “There are agents that use the analysis spreadsheet that we provide on KellerINK on every property they list to see if it makes sense for a rental investment property. That's another level of expertise that most agents don't have.”
Whether you want to use HOLD for personal investing strategies or use it to build your business by teaching clients how to invest, the tools and systems in the book will help you reach success just as much now as it did when it was first released.
To purchase HOLD and other KellerINK books, visit our website. You can find free worksheets and tools related to each title on our resources page. And don’t forget to check out our blog for more practical advice and models to improve your business and life.