Real Estate Investment Goals And Objectives

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During your investing education journey, you’ll quickly discover that there are a million different strategies to invest in real estate. Firstly, you can invest in residential real estate (typically 4 units or less) or commercial real estate (multifamily apartments, office, retail, hotel, and industrial property). Each “product type” has their pros and cons.

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Once you know what you want to invest in and where, you then need to pick a strategy. Are you going to simply buy-and-hold a property? Buy something value-add? Be more opportunistic and look for distressed property to flip? Build ground up? The riskier the strategy you choose, the higher your expectation of returns should be to take on that extra risk.

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So what strategy is best you might ask? There’s no one right answer but I do believe there is a right answer for YOU that depends on your risk tolerance, time horizon, investment objectives, and more.

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I’ll tell you a quick story that relates. While I was trying to answer this question for myself, I came across an incredibly successful real estate investor named Manny Khoshbin. Manny came to this country with nothing and in less than 25 years, built a personal net worth of several hundred million dollars. I wanted to learn how Manny did it so I joined his paid mastermind group, below is a photo of Manny and I at one of his latest commercial acquisitions in Orange County, CA.

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I learned a ton from Manny but here’s the thing… while I really admired what he had achieved, I realized that I personally wasn’t comfortable with his particular investment strategy. You see, Manny has made the vast majority of his millions flipping distressed retail and office buildings in three markets: Southern California, Arizona, and Texas. For more than 20 years he’s timed the cyclical real estate market perfectly and, as you can imagine, calls himself a “contrarian” investor for a reason. While Manny has made millions as the exception, I know that many others following a similar investment strategy have lost it all. I’ve always been attracted to real estate as a means to get rich for sure, not get rich quick and his strategy was simply too risky for me.

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Only after many years of real world investment experience did I find my personal truth: I believe that the highest risk-adjusted returns are found with value-add business plans for recession-resistant product types (multifamily apartments, mobile home parks, RV parks, and self storage) located in growing markets that remain business friendly, tax friendly, and landlord friendly.

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As you can see, without clear investment goals, you’re more likely to get swayed by any ol’ investment opportunity that comes along because, hey, the numbers seem like they work, and the property photos look nice. Or, on the flip side, you might be paralyzed with fear because you’re not sure which opportunity is best for you since they all look decent.

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Real Estate Investment Goal Examples for Your Real Estate Investing Journey

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Once you have your real estate investing goals in mind, you’ll have a clear idea of what you’re looking for from an investment, so when that next opportunity comes along, you can easily determine whether it’s a good fit for you.

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Let’s take a closer look at a few real estate goal examples, so you can try them on for size and see if any of these investing goals resonate with you and your life.

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Investing Goal Example #1: Investing for Cash Flow from Commercial Real Estate

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Meet Jill. She’s a working mom who’s been in the corporate world longer than she cares to admit. Her job pays well, but she doesn’t love it, especially because it comes with long hours and lots of meetings. Oh, the meetings.

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Jill’s investing goal is to generate income streams from commercial real estate that will cover her family’s living expenses, so she can eventually quit her job.

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In other words, Jill is investing for cash flow. She’s interested in investments that will provide a steady and ongoing return for her family now rather than years in the future. She’s looking for an investment whose returns will help offset her income so she can eventually quit her job.

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Jill’s goal is to generate $2,000 per month in cash flow distributions. If she can do that through passive income, she’ll switch from a full-time to a part-time role, giving her more time to spend with her family.

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When reviewing passive investing opportunities, she sees that she can make about eight to ten percent in cash flow per year from many of the multifamily real estate syndications she’s looking at.

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As such, to get $2,000 per month, or $24,000 per year, in cash flow, Jill would need to invest roughly $300,000.

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$300,000 x 8% = $24,000

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With that benchmark in mind, Jill can easily turn down any investment opportunities with projected cash flow returns lower than eight percent. If she sees any opportunities with cash flow higher than ten percent, she knows she would be highly interested.

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Investing Goal Example #2: Investing for Appreciation in the Real Estate Market

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Meet Todd. Unlike Jill, Todd isn’t interested in cash flow. He has plenty of good, steady income every month, both from active and passive sources.

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Todd doesn’t mind some cash flow, but that’s not why he’s investing. Todd’s investment goals revolve around real estate market appreciation. He’s seen how coastal cities like New York and San Francisco have had huge upswings in real estate values, and he wants a piece of that. He knows that these kinds of investments come with higher risk, but he’s okay with that.

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Todd is also okay with waiting a bit longer for a potentially bigger payout rather than getting returns immediately. Because he has multiple streams of passive income and a fair amount of assets, he’s okay with taking a bit more risk. If the appreciation doesn’t play out as predicted, and he doesn’t get as high a return as expected, he’s fine with that. He just wants to invest for the chance of appreciation.

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Many investors will tell you that it’s way riskier to invest for appreciation and that you should always invest for cash flow first and foremost. While this is true for many real estate investors, there are some investors with a higher risk tolerance who want to gamble on that appreciation for the possibility of a higher payout. There are definitely people who have made some great money through appreciation, but many have lost money investing for appreciation.

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Todd knows his risks, though. So he looks for commercial real estate investments in appreciating markets, as well as value-add deals, so that he can maximize his chances for appreciation.

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The Hybrid: Real Estate Investing for Cash Flow AND Appreciation

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Most real estate investors don’t have strict investment goals like Jill or Todd. Rather, most investors would prefer a real estate portfolio including properties that produce a combination of cash flow and appreciation.

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You get some cash flow throughout the project’s lifecycle, but you also add value and invest in an appreciating market to maximize the potential for appreciation.

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Hybrid investments like this give you the best of both worlds. Hybrid investments are our sweet spot, mainly because it’s what we like to invest in ourselves. We set smart real estate goals that include ongoing cash flow to help with our current living expenses, as well as the potential for appreciation later on in the project.

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Know Your Goals

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With clear financial goals, you’re more likely to make particular investment choices that support and align with your overall investment portfolio strategy and retirement planning picture.

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I’ve been in the field of graphic design for several years now, and I’ll tell you, when you see one of the investment summaries for a commercial real estate syndication investment opportunity, you’re going to get distracted by the pretty colors and beautiful photos. I certainly did.

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That’s why it’s so important to know what you’re investing for, so you can set the photos aside, scrutinize the core of the investment opportunity, and determine whether it fits with your investment goals.

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Take some time right now and sketch out your own investment goal-setting exercise, similar to how Jill did. How much monthly real estate income would change your current situation? Perhaps you have specific family vacation, net worth, or retirement age goals?

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Take some time to dream and identify what it is you really want. Then, work backward to figure out how much you need to invest at regular intervals to achieve your own definition of investing success in a reasonable time horizon. Finally, find someone already on the path who you trust to provide you with sound advice.

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That way, when a deal comes along that fits your criteria, you can pounce on it with full confidence that it’s the right thing to do for you and your family.

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