Scaling the Mountain of Real Estate Growth

Are you interested in growing and scaling your real estate portfolio? Today, let’s explore the journey of building a successful self-storage business. I’ll be your guide as we navigate through the different stages and give you tips on how to maneuver each one.

Scaling a real estate business is hard. I like this analogy to explain the journey of building a business: I think about this as climbing a mountain. In order to climb a mountain, we start at the trailhead.

At the trailhead, it’s essential to understand the landscape of investment opportunities. You need to explore the different paths, methods, and resources available to you. Take your time to gather information and make informed decisions.

From the trailhead, we move into the forest. The forest is comfortable - lots of shade, water, plants, and animals. The path is flat and it’s a nice walk through the woods. This resembles the path of building your real estate business because you have limited risk. You haven’t bought anything, and you are figuring out where to go.

You’re reading, learning, and consuming information. This is easy to do, but you’re also not making much progress. Comfort equals complacency. The real danger of the forest is that you can’t see the mountain peak and so you don’t yet see the potential heights you can reach. The goal for you and the challenge of the forest is to start to take action and find your way out in order to reach new heights.

Once you get out of the forest, you have the mountain in front of you. The trail starts to narrow and becomes steeper. This is similar to the new challenges you’ll face in real estate. For example, you’re preparing to buy your first property. You’ve made the decision to climb up the mountain, but you still don’t know the path.

Finding the path takes preparation and resources. You need a plan before you attempt to scale the mountain. When climbing, preparation takes place at the Basecamp. You’ve bought a few properties and are beginning to understand the “mountain” of real estate before you. This is your Basecamp. You own several properties. You can still see the top of the mountain. You are a seasoned investor - you start to get comfortable again because you have a solid cash flow.

Here’s the big difference. Are you going to stay at Basecamp? You may have some deals, but you may still have a full-time job. You haven’t fully committed. In order to get to the summit, you have to take it to another level. It’s time to make the transition from hobbyist climber to professional climber.

In order to get to the summit, you have to build a real estate business. You have to invest AND earn an income. You need strategies and systems. You need a team, a plan, and a vision. To refer back to the mountain analogy, you need a new set of equipment in order to climb to the top of the mountain.