**The Official Goal Thread**

[Rich_in_CT]

Carleton Sheets says in his courses that you need to write down your goals if you want to acheive them to remind you of them and encourage you to complete them.  So with this thread I want to see new and seasoned investors write down their goals.  I'd like to see a 1 yr goal, a 5 yr goal and a 10 yr goal. 

My goals:

1st yr-
Aquire a home to live in, duplex.  (found one, getting together a deposit now)
Continue on my path to paying down more and more debt.
Aquire 2-3 additional rental properties, 1-4 family.
Wholesale at least 2 deals.
Bird dog at least 5 deals
End the year with at least $1000 a month realworld cashflow (or $50k in guru cashflow)
Join my REIA
Quit my part time job, it brings me about $600/month after taxes and should easily be replaced by a little bit of REI work.  Right now I can't quit due to needing as much good W2 income as I can to qualify for a loan on a duplex.
Begin establishing brand name.

Years 2-5-
Aquire 5-10 rentals per year, 1-4 families. 
Continue working at my fulltime job until my cashflow exceeds $4000/mo.
Towards the end of the period start looking at aquiring 5-25 unit buildings using cash that has been saved up or from helocs on existing properties.
End of year 5 positive cashflow of $8000/mo.
Wholesale all deals that I can't take, goal is 10 per year.
Bird dog any that don't have much room to take a full wholesale cut on, 20 per year+.
Continue work towards establishing brand name and creating large contact pool.

Years 6-10-
Begin converting small residential rental properties into commerical properties starting with those first aquired and those with the most equity.
Gain at least 100 units per year net after selloffs are taken into account.
Break the $10k a month cashflow per month barrier.
Have company name become a household name in the CT area and well known for providing solutions to homeowners in need of a fast escape.  Sounds a little far fetched but I know there are people that have TV ads, radio ads, etc that are on that level.......why can't I in my area?

[DannyTheGreat]

When does your private island, your 400 ft. megayacht w/ helipad and 40 passenger plane come in?

You're too young to work that slow. It will come to you much faster than what you think if your smart (questionable). 10 freakin' years for 10k a month is very slow. If you started rehabbing instead of unclogging toilets for $3.3/ day / unit in rents, you can start test driving cars with 6- digit price tags in a couple years.

[Rich_in_CT]

When does your private island, your 400 ft. megayacht w/ helipad and 40 passenger plane come in?

You're too young to work that slow. It will come to you much faster than what you think if your smart (questionable). 10 freakin' years for 10k a month is very slow. If you started rehabbing instead of unclogging toilets for $3.3/ day / unit in rents, you can start test driving cars with 6- digit price tags in a couple years.

Well 10k a month in rental income.  I forgot to include doing lots of rehabs in there and that income. 

[motivatedceo]

Good goals Rich. But I would be more aggressive than that if I were you. Personally, I have to earn  FAR more cashflow than $10k a month now to feel financially comfortable [note: my cost of living is much less than 1/2 that] and I'm not even in real estate yet. Also I'd want a ton of cash in the bank..semi-liquid investments / stocks / etc if you have a large assortment of real estate holdings, say where you want to be 10 years down the road. You'll need cash for those unexcepted tough times, not to mention acquisitions and down payments.

Danny has me convinced rehabs & flipping can make some great cash. I've read every single one of his posts [through searching]...and that guy is on to something good. If you want to be successful, copy others who are successful [just stay out of Texas and Rhode Island, lol].

[Rich_in_CT]

I like to set reasonable goals and exceed them.  I don't like to set goals like $14mil a year by year three and never get near that.

Come on guys, let's here yours!

[motivatedceo]

I don't have any real estate specific goals yet. I'm still researching the business as of this point.

I have tons & tons of other goals, though, divided into 4 categories - financial, personal, social and spiritual. My 'master' goal - aka my goal in life - is to maximize my life in those 4 specific categories. Below each of those categories is a list of sub-goals that basically outlines how each one of those parent goals will be achieved. The goals/sub-goals/etc are layed out in a hierarchal fashion several layers down in many cases. It's a roadmap to my success in life, you might say.

[DannyTheGreat]

I would set a goal for $14mil by year three and outline an aggressive schedule with semi-arduous daily tasks to reasonably complete the goal.

I just got my much anticipated active-duty recall letter so my goal for the next few years is to shoot 'em straight!   

[propertymanager]

Rich,

I think your goal sounds fine.  When you achieve that 5 year goal, you will be in the top 5 percent of Americans for income and you will be a Millionaire which puts you in the top 2.5 percent of Americans for net worth.  That's pretty good in my book.

I plan to be a little smarter than Danny.  I am not including the Mega  Yacht and Private Jet in my goals, because my goal is to become good friends with Danny AND BORROW HIS!

Here are my goals:

At the end of year 5 (20 months from now), have 100 rentals with a postivie cash flow in excess of $10,000 per month (real world numbers) and $2,000,000 in equity.  Ski, scuba dive, bike, camp, and help out more at church.  Keep working 3-4 hours each day with the rentals (as I do now).  Borrow Danny's yacht once in a while for some water skiing. 

As my rentals are paid off, the cash flow will dramatically increase.

That's about it.

Mike

[DeeinAustin]

Thanks for sharing, Rich. We're not here to judge people's goals, so it's strange to me to tell someone to  be more aggressive. Goals are like children. Each one is special and reflects on the people who created them.

[DannyTheGreat]

Maybe I'm a little dense but I don't see the spiritual connection to a person's financial goals. Making money is hardly comparable to special children and whatever else. I am under the impress that those interested in starting with REI aren't doing it for minimum wage paychecks, maybe I'm wrong.

If someone told me they wanted to lose 5lbs. in the next year and they were 50lbs. overweight, I'd tell them they're shooting too low and could do much better. I also believe goals reflect on the people who create them. For someone to create VERY modest goals tells me that's all they think they're capable of. Then it's not a goal of progression but a road map to an easily achievable target. Goals that are a struggle to accomplish, especially nearing the final gut-check, build immense character and an overwhelming sense of accomplishment. It takes stepping out of your comfort zone to grow as an individual and grow your bank account beyond one's current comprehension.

Who am I to tell Rich anything about his goals? I am in no way "judging" his goals. But if he says he can do 80 push-ups, I'll say he can do 90, then when he gets to 90, I'll say he can do 100. He appears to be a sponge of information and has the desire to succeed, he can do better than anyone can imagine. Since no one (including himself) can imagine his full capabilities, modest goals will limit him to modest results. I say shoot for the stars!

Mike,

When I buy a yacht, you can borrow it anytime!

[Serio]

Note that I am 18 right now.

Short term (From 18 to 22)
- Purchase 4 SFHs with a minimum positive cash flow of $100 using real world operating expenses (thanks Mike)

Medium term (years 22-27 age wise)
- Buy 5 properties a year for 5 years, the first five being SFHs
- I want to start getting into commercial property at this time.
- By the time I'm 24 I want REI to be my full time job and I will work my ass off to succeed.

Long term (years 27-30)
- I want to have $750,000 in equity by the time I'm 30.
- I will be buying as many QUALITY properties as possible.

Retirement
- By the time I retire I want to have $40,000 in positive cash flow a month. 
___________________________________________________________

For the experienced investors:  Are these goals possible, well not possible, are they REACHABLE goals?

Thanks

[Bluemoon06]

This year with the addition of 6 more houses I will be only a couple of house short of my goal.  My goal is to get 20 base houses.  I do owner finance.  I ask for $5k up front.  I will take from $3k to $6k.  I charge them monthly $300/month over my PITI.  When they convert, I get $20k.  I will be putting 6 each year into my program and converting out 3 and reselling 6.  That way after steady state has been reached I will be getting $30k from new starts, $4500/month from monthly payments or $54k/year, and $60k from conversions.  That will give me a total of $144k/year.  This requires me to do about 6 rehabs/make readies per year.

[kdhastedt]

My goal is to live to be 100 - so far, so good...

Keith

[aak5454]

my goals are pretty modest for '07 after a busy '06 (13 transactions in 10 months).

-add one apartment building/complex to my fleet
-purchase one property (raw land) for future development
-do one flip

while this seems pretty modest, I've decided I want to focus more on some things like family, my health and volunteer work.  This is in part driven by watching my brother-in-law being diagnosed with cancer at age 43.  Despite beating it once, its back and his condition is very grave.  For me, being kind of a workaholic, its given me reason to think about how allocate my time.  REI is just one of things I like to do.

[collin1]

Bluemoon006
Can you be more specific on how you are doing the owner finance, what do you mean by 20K when they convert?  Are you financing the entire loan amount or just the amount of sweat equity that you build up.  thanks