Don Campbell talks alot these days about the 3 F's - Food, Fuel and Fertilizer.

My personal 3 F's these days are as follows - Fourty, Focused and Flying. It seems like it took me until very recently to truely understand the value and power of investing in Real Estate. I guess life is a process and for me that process began when I read Robert Kiyosaki's book "Rich Dad Poor Dad". Surprising how a Master's degree in Management and a Bachelor's degree in commerce did not teach me the power of leverage and passive income...or maybe I am a slow learner. Regardless, that book started me on my real estate investing journey.

The second major step in that journey was an invite from my parents to attend a REIN Quickstart seminar in October of 2006. This weekend was important for many reasons but primarily it was my introduction to REIN. During that year, the ideas and concepts from REIN soaked in my mind but did not result in any specific action on my behalf. A year passed and I decided to take action by becoming a REIN member. That fall, my wife and I attended the October 2007 REIN Quickstart. Having my wife attend with me was fantastic! Our gifts are different and when it comes to networking, she is the gifted one hands down. We were introduced to many key people, including veteran real estate invester John Waite and investor and real estate agent Murray Zelinski. Over the coming months they would both prove to be helpful in helping us take action.

After the October Quickstart event I worked hard to 'get my ducks in a row'. I was struggling with accounting challenges, specifically my former accountant who was not getting me resolution on my 2006 personal and corporate income taxes. Without this information I would not have been able to provide a banker or mortgage broker with what they need to help me with financing. Through REIN I was pointed to George Dube, a Real Estate investor and professional accountant. Thankfully, he took on my case despite me living in Quebec (provincial laws vary from province to province but Quebec differences are probably the most extreme, including having all my Revenue Quebec documents in the French language...imagine having to translate this!) From November to February we got my corporate and personal financials straightened out paving the way for the next steps.

My wife and I had decided that we were going to invest in Edmonton and so I made the effort to fly to all the Edmonon monthly REIN meetings. I took this opportunity to look at properties with my real estate agent Murray Zelinski who was extremely patient and helpful during this time. We had made purchases in the past (our house and some land in the Mont Tremblant area) but never a rental property. As many of you reading this can attest, the analysis phase of the first property is long, painful and extremely scary. Interestingly what helped us 'pull the trigger' on the first property after all the analysis was done, was watching the action of John Waite (mentioned above) who I had spoken with at the March Edmonton workshop and had looked at properties that morning and "bought the best one". This example, along with the help of our real estate agent, and all the analysis up to that point, helped us remove the emotion and purchase our first rental property. This one closed May 5th, 2008, rented May 5, 2008 (thanks to RealtyCorp Property Mangement) and cashflows at about $100 per month.

Since this time we have secured three more properties, two that will close in July and one for August. Our real estate momemtum is building and we are getting interest from people to partner with us as JV money partners. This represents another big learning curve for me which brings with it both fear and excitement.

Nine months ago I agreed with my wife to be "Mr Mom". During that time I renovated our bathroom, took action on our real estate business and spent some quality and quantity time with my beautiful two year old daughter. People ask me if I am working and I always struggle with the answer. I feel as if I am working very hard but currently am not working for someone, 9 to 5, bringing home a salary. I now measure everything I do in terms of whether it brings me closer or further away from my personal Belize. I know that the steps I have taken over the last nine months have definately brought me closer. In fact, the last nine months, for me, has been a small taste (today) of what my Belize will be in five years.