Mission Impossible
Tom Cruise has made an incredible living as an actor with a net worth of more than $570 million dollars. 6 out of the 42 movies that Cruise has acted in were in the Mission Impossible series. This series has had so much success that production crews are already working on the seventh and eighth installments. The series of movies are built around an impossible mission that only Cruise can pull off; high speed chases, huge explosions and fires, a ton of bad guys getting killed, and ultimately, the impossible mission that always gets completed by Cruise. Not exactly real-life stuff, or is it?
This past week, I met with a former Navy SEAL who shared some of the outrageously impossible missions he was part of. Truth be told, every mission that a SEAL team is involved in is an impossible mission. In order for a SEAL team to be given a mission, the mission would have been vetted by every level of the US military system and deemed that the mission would be impossible to complete. Imagine, a Cruise-like movie in real life with real bad guys, bullets, bombs, and the harshest conditions that you can think of. Oh, and by the way, a 50% chance of survival on many of the missions!
The missions were outrageous and interesting, but it was the preparation for these missions and the SEAL mind that was absolutely fascinating. A mission would always start with a “desired end state” meaning, what is the desired end state and then plan to fail—yes, plan to fail. Every possible fail that could happen during the impossible mission would be meticulously torn apart and analyzed so the impossible would be possible.
Does the preparation and SEAL mind apply to real estate investing and portfolio? The Vancouver and Fraser Valley market has had an amazing few years where the failure rate of investment decisions was almost non-existent. That being said, we are moving into more challenging times; therefore, have you prepared yourself and your portfolio for failure?
The current Calgary real estate market and economy is in failure mode. This past week, I learned that there is approximately 30 million square feet of vacant office space in Calgary. How many of the investment owners had a SEAL mindset when they bought their investment property? What was the desired end state? Did they plan for an impossible mission? I do not believe we will find ourselves in a Calgary mission impossible situation, but I am guessing neither did the Calgary investor when he or she purchased their investment.
A SEAL celebrates failure with their team. When an individual or team experiences a fail during a training session or exercise of an impossible mission, they share, discuss, and celebrate their fail. The SEALS work from the mindset of growth failure, not hidden failure. A hidden SEAL failure could have the entire team fail or not come home alive; therefore, they will collectively solve fail so it will never happen again.
Do you work from the growth failure mindset with your investments? I have always encouraged people to build a strong investment team that involves a realtor, broker, inspector, handyman, and others. But have you ever considered the value of having other investors as part of your team? Investors working together for the impossible missions and using the growth failure mindset to safe guard your portfolio? A great way for this to happen is by joining an investment club. I find investors are extremely generous with their time and love to share their wins, and more importantly, their fails. A few excellent clubs to join would be REIN, REAG, WREN, or call me for other opportunities to meet up with like minded investors. Assess yourself and portfolio—are you heading for an impossible mission? Take action today: think like a Navy SEAL and safeguard your financial future.
The market through February saw improvement through most of the Vancouver and Fraser Valley property types and locations. The luxury market continues to struggle at a low buyers market sell through rates, while the entry level market is seeing some descent activity if the property is priced for the market. The saying “drive till you qualify” is certainly playing out with the central and eastern Valley. It is all about affordability, so it is unfortunate that much of the affordability issues have been brought on by poor government policies and initiatives. The government’s influence on the market is driving many of the buyers into the lower price ranges of the strata properties, which in turn is the making it the most active part of the market. Ironically, this is making it less affordable for the first-time buyer trying to enter the market.
Some of the best buys are in the single-family market where there are opportunities to negotiate a very good deal with the buyer/balanced market. Cash flow is still a struggle, but good homes in good neighbourhoods with suites are popping up which make for good long-term investments. As I mentioned last month, the assignment condo and townhome market continues to be a very valuable opportunity with many buyers finding themselves unable to close their presale deals. Please reach out to our team for more information or help with all your real estate needs.
Click Below To See The Fraser Valley Stats For February:
Click Below To See The Vancouver Stats For February:
Randy Dyck
Personal Real Estate Corporation
604-807-4366 or randy@eximus.com
