Tip# 1: Share a Common Goal
Sit down and talk about what your ideal invesment looks like. It won’t be identical, but you probably have a lot of common ground to work from.
If at first it seems totally out of alignment, your goal is to understand and appreciate what the other person wants. You’re not going to convince your partnet of anything they don’t already believe, so there’s no point trying to sell them on having the same ideal invesment. Instead, find common ground and create a shared vision of what you want your life to look like together. With that vision firmly in place, you can then figure out how you can get there together.
For example, maybe your wife wants to spend most of her day painting pictures and you want to be negotiating deals and renovating rentals. You don’t need to do the same things. Find where you do want the same thing, like having a schedule you control where both parents can pick up the kids from school or where you take advantage of a last minute vacation deal without counting vacation days. Then, talk about what you can do to create that. The cool thing is that a lot of dreams can be reached with real estate investments, but you need to understand what you’re creating together and why.
With that shared vision, you now must stay focused on it. Every major decision you make comes back to ‘does this move us closer to that shared vision or not?‘
Tip #2: Use Your Differences To Make You Stronger
The trick is to understand and trust in the strengths of your partner.
Some couples end up with one person on the gas pedal and the other firmly on the brake. That’s not going to get you to your ideal typical day. That’s just going to make you spin in circles.
Acknowledge and appreciate what the other person is bringing to the table and know you are stronger because of it. Listen to what they say with an open mind to make the best decision for you – as a couple. You each have to lift your foot off the pedal a little to get where you want to go … a little less gas and a little less brake and you’ll move forward! If you trust in your partner’s strengths this will be much easier to do (and your approach will probably be pretty rock solid because all angles are covered).
Tip #3: Divide & Conquer – Roles & Responsibilities
To make things work, you have to split up who is in charge of what. Have regular meetings to discuss the things that the other person needs to be up to speed on. And, by the way, dinner time is not when you discuss these things if you want to have a strong, loving and long lasting relationship. Set a REAL meeting.
Tasks to consider assigning to one person or the other? Financing, insurance, partners, marketing, renovation project management, deal finding, tenant placement, property purchase, property sale, property management and bookkeeping. And if nobody is good at it, the sake of everyone, hire someone to do it for you. Then, choose who is in charge of communication with that hired professional.
If you’re fighting about something neither of you wants to do (especially when nobody is very good at it) ask yourself when is saving money more important than your relationship? I hope the answer is never.
Those large roles break down into smaller tasks. Some tasks can wait. Some need to be handled in a timely manner.
If you’re in charge of something – do your job. If you’re not in charge of something – let your partner do their job.
It sounds simpler than it is. There’s a bit of control freak in most of us. But, if you can’t count on your partner to do what they say they are going to do, you have bigger problems to discuss.
