Passive Income Goals and the New Investor

I frequent a couple Real Estate Investing forums, and overall, I think they are great.  Bigger Pockets is my favorite, they have a great mix of characters.  A lot of full time investors (way more successful then myself), some newbies and a lot of real conversations.

Being a member of these forums I notice a common trend.  A new investor and member joins, I check out there profile and it has a section they can write their goals in, this is great!  But, certain people have been sold a pipe dream, and make goals like: “I intend to create $20,000 of passive income a month, by the end of 2009.”

I don’t want to discourage people, but if you can get a house to cash-flow $500/month you’re doing awesome, I can’t.  But let’s just say it’s possible, you would need to buy 40 houses like this to get to $20,000 a month.  It can be done over 3 or 4 years, but not in 6 months.

The most successful members of the site seem to portray some common trends:

• They have created their portfolio over many years and many market cycles
• Through success or failure they have kept their expenses well below their income
• Most of them are the most humble people on the forum
• They have passed on the bad deals, and gone after the good ones hard
• They use leverage, but do not over-leverage their properties
• They all have a passion for real estate that goes beyond the money
• They invest with their head and not with their emotions

Real Estate Investing happens one deal at a time.  Set lofty goals an attack them.

And lastly, if you can start with no money and end up with 20,000 in passive income after the first year, tell me how because obviously I am doing something wrong .

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