Everyone wants to achieve financial freedom. Unfortunately, most people don’t know how to get there.

The key to achieving that financial freedom, based on what I have learned so far, is to make your money work hard so you don’t have to. This means buying assets that generate cash flow, and growing your net worth through passive streams of income.

One excellent way to generate passive streams of income is by investing in real estate. This is because land - and especially land in desirable locations - is truly a limited commodity. Governments can print as much money as they want, and companies can issue more shares of stock, but no one can print more land. It is a finite resource.

The Real Estate Coach offers a window into the coaching experience of fictional couple Brian and Sarah. Like many Americans, Brian and Sarah were overextended financially and missing the big picture. They were in a downward spiral, and with the assistance of a friend found a mentor (”the Coach”) that taught them about real estate and got them started.

About Bradley Sugars

Bradley J. Sugars is an Australian multimillionaire. He has written The Business Coach, Billionaires In Training, Successful Franchising, and a number of other books of that genre - 13 in total.

Mr. Sugars happens to be the founder of global coaching firm Action International. He is a business coach who has helped nearly a million clients around the world find business success.

Learning The Ropes

According to the Coach, real estate investing is “not about windows, floors, or bathrooms, but numbers.”

The idea is timeless: to buy property for less than it is worth - i.e. at a discount to its intrinsic value. Then, you increase the property’s value by making meaningful renovations and raising rents accordingly.

The Coach emphasizes sound principles, and many of them hold true for any kind of investing. He says that profit is made when you buy, not when you sell, and that risk comes from a lack of knowledge about what you’re doing. This is why he stresses the need to research your local real estate market.

For newbies this means looking at dozens of properties to get a feel for market values - and be able to recognize a good deal when you see one. The coach recommends that new investors visit fifty (50) properties, putting an offer in on a handful, and obtaining financing for just one.

Making Your Rules

One key point that Sugars stresses again and again in the book is the need to determine your own personal financial goals. Before you even invest a cent, he says you must know what you are trying to achieve so you know which investments will work for you.

You need to know where you are financially, and where you want to go, to build your set of investing rules. Your rules will get you where you want to go. But, in order to do that, they must be your rules.

Real estate can become a very emotional game, and that’s precisely why Sugars emphasizes the need for rules. A property investor must ignore their personal feelings when reviewing potential investments because they will not actually be living at the property. They must instead focus on the best features to add to increase value and desirability for tenants.

According to the Coach, “Stick to your rules, and you will never go wrong. You won’t be blinded by a great deal that comes your way that doesn’t quite fit with what you’re after.”

For example, you cannot invest in something just because someone else is doing it. In order for it to be right for you, it must fit in with your master plan as dictated by your rules. According to the Coach, “It’s quite often that people ask me what they should invest in and my only recommendation is for them to get more knowledge so they don’t have to ask such a question.”

Building Your Portfolio

Sugars stresses the importance of building a real estate portfolio with balanced cash flow. Through the Coach, he introduces a concept he calls a “wealth wheel”, which consists of quick cash deals, positive cash flow investments, and negatively geared capital growth properties.

This is necessary because not every property produces enough income from tenants to cover its mortgage. Ironically, it is often the more expensive properties that produce the great long-term capital growth but do not produce enough cash on a day to day basis to sustain themselves.

The “wealth wheel” concept allows investors to manage cash flow needs and, most importantly, allows for enough cash to make all of the mortgage payments. This is because the income from positive cash flow properties enables an investor to cover the cost of other properties which have higher growth potential but less rental income.

To encourage capital growth, Sugars advises to renovate each property after purchasing and get new assessments afterward. As the property’s assessed value grows, so does the owner’s equity in the property. “The Coach” recommends refinancing whenever possible, and at least every five years, to cash out all available equity to use for future investments.

The Review

I learned a lot from this book. A ton. Your results may vary, of course, but I can’t imagine that someone could read The Real Estate Coach and not learn something. It is a very good book.

The style of this book is different from most others because it is written as a story of two people that visit “The Coach”. Though I prefer other writing styles, Sugars shares many real estate tips through “The Coach”. Clearly, this guy has a lot of experience when it comes to real estate investing.

The book can provide you with a big picture perspective and a way ahead to building your wealth through real estate. It is general enough that the information within applies to virtually every real estate market in the world. But if you have questions about specific tax or legal issues pertaining to your state or local area, this book will not give you the answers.

This is no “get rich quick” scheme here. Like pretty much anything else in life, it will take time and hard work to build a real estate portfolio worth owning.

But, as the Coach says, “Rich people do what poor people aren’t willing to, and if you want the rewards, my friend, you have to do the work.”

Even if you know nothing about real estate investing - and that was me - you can’t go wrong starting off with The Real Estate Coach. I enjoyed reading it.

To Learn More:

• Amazon.com: The Real Estate Coach