Why Women make the Best Real Estate Investors

In this post, I want to talk about a topic that was really inspired to me after I read a recent Forbes article written by Annie Dickerson, in which she writes about why women should be investing in real estate.

In the article, titled ‘Why More Women Should Invest in Real Estate’, Annie cites a 2018 study by Fidelity Investments that found that 'only 29% of women see themselves as investors. And less than one in four women, less than 25%, of women are comfortable with their knowledge of investing'¹.

These statistics really shocked me and it is something I want to see change.

As a female Real Estate investor myself, I want to contribute to, and help be a voice, of that change.

Why are women not becoming real estate investors?

We all know that there's a wage gap, but not to be ignored is the investing gap as well.

So many women seem to be saving their money as opposed to investing it. Why is that? I'm not 100% sure why that is, but I think it could be because of intimidation, lack of knowledge or a variety of other factors.

If you were to attend to local real estate meetup, it would be predominantly male. If you were to check out real estate investment YouTube videos or books on Amazon or other blogs, it's going to most likely be men who are talking about it.

Maybe a lot of women see real estate investing is not for them. They're not part of that club, right? That's not their people.

From my perspective, I think if we see more and more women talking about real estate investing, then that could resonate with a larger female audience.

In turn, they will then relate to that material more and be inspired to begin investing. I hope that becomes true.

I also think intimidation is a reason that women are not investing in real estate. Instead of doing something that they deem is ‘risky’, they will just put their money into a savings account.

But from a numbers perspective, it’s riskier to have your money sitting in a savings account that's barely keeping up with inflation than it is to be in the marketplace working for you. Whether it's in real estate or not.

There is an opportunity cost in everything that you do. If you keep your money in a savings account, then the opportunity cost of putting your money there is going to show up by you not investing your money for years and years.

It's going to end up costing you 10's or 100's of thousands and even millions of dollars worth of wealth. That is the financial freedom that you could have achieved had you put your money into the market and had it working really hard for you.

Ultimately, It's riskier not to invest your money than it is to invest your money.

Why Real Estate Investing makes sense for women?

I love real estate investing because your money is working in many different ways. There are so many ways to invest in real estate, and it’s up to you to choose what makes the most sense for you as an Investor, and for your desired lifestyle.

If you purchase an investment property, you're using leverage. You're only putting down a percentage, traditionally 20%, of the properties value, and you're borrowing on 80% of the value, but you're reaping benefits of the full 100% of the asset. So you're making money on any increases in the market with appreciation.

Also, if you choose to have a tenant living in your property you are making money with cash flow from your tenant paying you monthly. Your tenant is also paying down your mortgage every single month, which is increasing your net worth and you also have a ton of tax benefits to investing in real estate as well.

You can be an active investor or you can be a passive investor. This doesn't have to be like a full-time job or a part-time job for you to reap the benefits and create financial freedom.

Annie Dickerson, who I mentioned above, has a real estate syndication, which is entirely hands off for investors. Her syndication will go out, source a property, manage it for you, and you reap the benefits and the rewards of investing with a company like that.

So whether you want to invest in your own company or your own real estate yourself or invest in syndication, all of these are options with real estate investing that you can choose.

So how do you get started as a Real Estate Investor?

So for all these reasons, I love real estate investing. But I understand that it's hard to get started and it's hard to know who to trust, and where you can see yourself fitting into this whole thing.

As much as we need to fight for wage equality, we have to fight and take responsibility for our financial futures, and more importantly, our financial knowledge and our financial education.

We are all busy, but we have to be able to carve out time to listen to a podcast, watch a YouTube video. or check out an informative blog post each day. Maybe you dedicate yourself to just listening to a little piece of information each and every day, and that will add up quickly.

You can also work with a Real Estate Investment coach to help you learn. I offer 1-1 real estate coaching where I can help others to determine exactly what it is that is the right fit for them as a Real Estate Investor.

My top recommendations to my clients are always to begin educating oneself, learn about the benefits of real estate investing and really take responsibility for your own financial future because nobody else is going to do it for you. Nobody's coming to save you. This is really entirely up to you.

I can share with you the benefits of Real Estate Investing. I can tell you that you're going to see tenfold returns and it's going to give you the things that you need, but you have to take those first steps.

Are you ready to take control of your financial life?

If you're interested in getting started in real estate investing, I have a checklist where I outline the five first steps that you need to take as a brand new real estate investor. It includes simple, actionable steps that you can start right away.

Feel free to reach out to me anytime with your questions. I know other women in the Real Estate industry that are super supportive of other women, and I want you to know that I am as well.

I'd love to help you figure out exactly where you fit into the world of Real Estate Investing so you can create your own Financial Freedom and live the life of your dreams.

 Reference

(1) Dickerson, Annie. “Why More Women Should Invest in Real Estate. Forbes, February 25 2019,  www.forbes.com/sites/forbesrealestatecouncil/2019/02/25/why-more-women-should-invest-in-real-estate/#473b9ebc610