My 2007 REI Year In Review

Now that the holiday madness is dying down, I've got some time to look back over what I did in real estate last year and see if I achieved the goals I set out last year.

Goal 1: Rehab two properties. I did not achieve this goal, although I can't really say it was through any fault of my own. The investors I was working on behalf of got scared with the current real estate downturn and decided they no longer wanted to flip properties. Even though I never lost them any money, I can understand their feelings on this, especially given all the media attention the real estate market has received.

Goal 2: Buy another rental property or invest in more real estate-backed paper investments like the Louisiana deal. I achieved this goal when I bought a rental property in Oklahoma (Rental #1).

It feels like those goals weren't all that difficult, but that is only because Goal #1 didn't get done. If I was rehabbing properties, my year would have been much busier.

For 2008, I think my goals will be:

Goal #1: Invest in a multi-unit property. I may already be close to achieving this goal. Ideally, I'd like to own a multi-unit property all on my own, but right now, while I'm still in the learning stage, I'll be happy to go in with some other investors and learn the ropes by being a passive investor and watching how things work.

Goal #2: Invest in more real estate-backed paper assets. This should be fairly easy, now that I have some contacts. Unlike my Louisiana deal though, I plan on splitting up my funds into at least two different investments so that if one stops paying, I should still get some income from the other. Different partners and different geographic areas would maximize my diversification.

Goal #3: Buy another rental property. If the first two goals work out, I should have enough cashflow to make obtaining this goal fairly easy. If they don't, well, it could be tough...