Building a 7-Figure Real Estate Side Hustle

If you want to achieve anything great it’s important to have a strong “Why.” When you first get started it seems like the last thing that you need, "I need tactics," you tell yourself. And you do need tactics to be sure, but accomplishing great things generally takes 2 things, a strong sense of purpose and other people. Nothing great gets accomplished alone, which will be a topic for another post.

But today I want to talk about having a strong "Why," and what my "Why" was and still is. You need a strong Why because there will be a lot of challenges along the way. You will fail at things, and other times you will work hard for long periods where minimal to no progress seems to be happening even when you are using the right tactics and strategies. To persevere through these times you need to have a strong Why. A powerful motive force that keeps you moving towards your goals during these difficult times. 

It doesn’t have to be some grand altruistic goal, or an ambition to change the world, it just has to resonate deeply with you and have a strong pull on you. For me the goal was just about the type of lifestyle that I wanted to live and the types of places I wanted to live.

 About 2 years ago, I realized that even though my then future wife and I both had great, high paying sales/sales leadership roles at a big tech company, we still could not out-save the type of appreciation that was happening in the Toronto real estate market where we live. 

I wanted to have a nice house in the city and a cottage within a couple hours drive that were both big enough to host friends and family. There was no way we could save for these things unless we were willing to wait for retirement to get them.

I also didn’t want to retire at 65 or even 55. I wanted to set myself up to be able to do what I want, when I want as soon as possible. I wanted to be able to travel with my wife, to set my own schedule and put my time and energy only into the things that I found intrinsically rewarding.

One evening around the time I was realizing these things, I was at a small social gathering and heard from a friend that he had purchased a couple rental properties in the last few years. He was a smart guy with a solid job, but it was surprising to hear what he had accomplished in just 3 years and it inspired me. The idea of owning not 1, but 2 rental properties in Brantford, ON at that time seemed like an almost impossible goal, but he had done it.

I also learned that rental properties create a lot of wealth long term. If you amass a large enough portfolio you can live off the cashflow while your properties pay off their own mortgages and the appreciation is just gravy, even though it actually tends to create the most wealth. 

Prior to that night, I didn’t have exposure to any real estate investors and so it never occurred to me that I could become one either. I didn’t have a lot of capital, and I didn’t really know anything about houses, mortgages, or private lending, and I could barely swing a hammer. But now I had a proof of concept, someone that I knew, that didn’t start with any great advantages was able to do it, and so I could do it too.

And that’s a big part of why I’m writing this post and sharing my journey, because I want to inspire some of my family, friends, colleagues and followers to do the same. 

Getting back to my goals, I realized that if I wanted to own the real estate that was currently out of reach for me, I needed to buy as much real estate as I could that was within my reach, so that I could ride the same wave of appreciation that was making my life and personal real estate goals seem unachievable.

Not only could I use real estate to fund the purchase of my primary residence/cottage, I could use it to create a business that allowed me to retire early and achieve time freedom.

Since then, in less than 2 years, we have closed on (or are contracted to close on and keep in our portfolio) 7 properties representing 23 units. In addition, I’ve transacted over 30 deals, started two distinct businesses and have more money in the bank than when we started.

In that time, I’ve had to learn about and utilize a lot of different strategies. I’ve bought single family homes, converted a single family home into a legal duplex, and purchased multi-family properties up to 8 units. 

I’ve flipped real estate purchase agreements, am just finishing my first flip with a large expected profit, and done A LOT of renovations. I’ve utilized private lending, bought properties with no money down and even on unsecured lines of credit and I've bought some of them in cities I've never been to.

We even bought that cottage we wanted in Muskoka, which is now operating as a short term rental and paying itself off.

In subsequent posts I’ll dive more into how I was able to do this, share some of the more helpful learnings I’ve had in the last 2 years of investing, as well as share some links to other forms of real estate education I’m involved in like live (and virtual) events, as well as podcasts I’ve appeared on.

It is possible to achieve a lot in a short period of time if you dedicate yourself to your goals, surround yourself with people doing the kinds of things that you want to do and be obsessed with being great at what you do.

If you've ever wanted to get started in real estate investing, start getting obsessed with good content now. Start reading the classic books, listening to the podcasts and joining groups and networking events. It's amazing what you can accomplish in a few years if you do.

Thanks for reading and feel free to comment, like or share. I'll try to respond to everything, and if the questions require longer answers I'll consider writing posts for them.

Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram for regular posts about real estate, particularly in my stories! www.instagram.com/waylon_mcgill