As a real estate investor, there are not many worse phone calls you can receive than a tenant calling to tell you they lost their job and can't make rent. When that happens to multiple tenants, it becomes a major problem. First, it is important to show compassion and understand that people are all going through different situations but…… at the same time you need to protect your business and assets you worked so hard to procure. The balance is very difficult to maintain while you pay mortgages each month with no sign of income. If you are a fellow rental real estate investor, you know the struggle of keeping up with the mortgage, taxes, maintenance, all while not collecting any rent, especially during COVID-19. I wanted to share some ways that our companies thrived, even through the pandemic.

Diversification of income and assets has to be the number one priority. The old saying “don't put your eggs in one basket” or “don't spend it all in one place” holds very true in this real life example. Luckily for us, the construction industry and the real estate sales market held strong throughout the last year. Without those branches of our business, we would not have been able to keep up with the mortgage payments forcing us to foreclose.

Fluidity is another word not many would use to describe an investment strategy, but I am going to take a shot at it. When the stock market crashed due to the news about shutdowns, I knew next to nothing about the market. All I saw was a huge opportunity to take advantage of cheap stocks from great companies. After many hours of research, we decided to move some capital into the stock market. Since then, we more than doubled our money. We recognized the gains would be better elsewhere, did some research, and pulled the trigger.

Maintaining a positive mindset is definitely a challenge when things go from normal to chaotic during a pandemic. Positive was definitely not a word I would use to describe myself at the start of all the madness. Everyday we waited for the governor to shut down our active construction sites causing a fast collapse of everything we worked so hard to build. After days, maybe weeks of worrying I realized that being depressed and worried was not going to get us out of the hole we were in. Eventually, I realized how grateful I should be for everything we have and changed my whole mindset.

Hard work. Sorry to be cliche, but I believe here, it fits. Realizing the construction company was doing well, we decided to sign more construction contracts….A LOT more. After about 2 months we found ourselves with 200% more contracts than at the beginning of the pandemic. We basically took one problem, solved it, and created a whole different problem. We not only had to put in 16-18 hour days, but now had to train multiple new employees and subcontractors. Somehow, through it all, our team succeeded and lived to see another year of business.

The pandemic was not easy for anyone, emotionally or financially, but with diversification of assets, fluidity, maintaining a positive mindset and hard work we managed not only to survive the pandemic, but come out on the other side thriving.