Our Success Story
Colleen had been involved with REIN for about 3 years. I (Donald Bourne) had some experience in real estate but finally I decided to join REIN in 2005. As a couple we started attending REIN meetings together, once a month we got pumped up, but really our lives never changed. We both worked, we both had activities. Each time we bought one property, life took over. You know work, family demands, demands for entertainment.
In the back of our heads, we knew we had to do something different if we were to achieve our goals. It was during the Quick Start in fall of 2005, that the Goal setting exercise was completed. But finally the process clicked in at that time. We figured out our monetary goal, how much we wanted to live on each month. Our Goal. We then calculated how many properties that would be required and we broke those goals down on what we had to do each month until we acheived our Goal. Then we decided to really concentrated on our goals.
As Don said, we placed this paper with our goals on our fridge so we both saw it every day, and we read it everyday, we worked it everyday. We started this time with equity in 2 properties, and we had our own RRSP approx 100K total. We met Eric Peters and bought a multi family building. After that purchase we continued building our portfolio, we worked our goals. We learned to used RSP 2[sup]nd[/sup] mortgage for one property, we learned to use our own RRSP without cashing them in for real estate which we used to purchase our apartment building. We also used JV partners and our own money to purchase more properties. We continued with Single Family houses, 25% down, put in equity building tenants. After buying one more, we bought another one and another one. We followed our goals each week and each month.
Throughout the remainder of 2005, and all of 2006 we worked our guts out. We dreamt, we thought, we talked and we applied what we learned each and every month. We attended every REIN meeting, bus tour and workshop. We read our goals each day, morning and night. We did what was needed, it was written down and it was in our face. We made ourselves accountable to each other and we worked the REIN system.
In mid October 2006, my old employer the Canadian Red Cross who I had worked overseas for over 6 years mainly in war zones, called me with an urgent request to go to the Tsunami area in Banda Ache, Indonesia. They needed me to organize the next phase of their operations, and very ironic, it was to build 2,100 permanent homes! I accepted and left late October 06, and in Feb 07, at the end of my RC mission, Colleen came and joined me for holidays in Bali, Indonesia. We were both exhausted from work, and Colleen still worked full time and did our real estate portfolio while I was away. Our 3 week holiday in Bali gave us a breathing space and time to reevaluate our goals when we realized that we had achieved everything monetarily that we had set out to do. In fact even more than what we had planned due to the market.
It was quite the feeling! We were absolutely amazed, and we had a feeling of disbelief. We worked and reworked the numbers and each time we came to the same conclusion, WE DID IT! We had achieved our Belize! We acheived our Goals!!!!
Soon after our return to Canada, Colleen retired from her job at the hospital on the 11 May 07, and I retired once again. Now we have turned our property holdings over to a property Manager. On the 1 November we leave for our 6 month holiday in Bali Indonesia. While in Bali we will decide on new GOALS, goals we can acheive now with the financial independence that we have acheived from real estate investing.
Our friends and family who really supported us are going to join us while we are there, and everyone is welcome to join us. Upon return from Bali, we will wait for our new home to be completed and we will continue to follow our new goals that we will make while in Bali.
We would like to thank those that helped us on our journey (there are too many to name) and especially REIN leader Don Campbell and the REIN group for supporting, teaching and encouraging us to keep working and setting our goals. And of course there is our team: lawyers, accountants, realtor, bankers, inspectors. Without them we could not have done it!!
But we feel our success is due to having achievable goals, having a month to month strategy that is acheivable, and having the will and determination to continue when others were critical of how much work we were doing.
And Lastly, thanks to all of you for being a part of our Belize, our success!
Colleen had been involved with REIN for about 3 years. I (Donald Bourne) had some experience in real estate but finally I decided to join REIN in 2005. As a couple we started attending REIN meetings together, once a month we got pumped up, but really our lives never changed. We both worked, we both had activities. Each time we bought one property, life took over. You know work, family demands, demands for entertainment.
In the back of our heads, we knew we had to do something different if we were to achieve our goals. It was during the Quick Start in fall of 2005, that the Goal setting exercise was completed. But finally the process clicked in at that time. We figured out our monetary goal, how much we wanted to live on each month. Our Goal. We then calculated how many properties that would be required and we broke those goals down on what we had to do each month until we acheived our Goal. Then we decided to really concentrated on our goals.
As Don said, we placed this paper with our goals on our fridge so we both saw it every day, and we read it everyday, we worked it everyday. We started this time with equity in 2 properties, and we had our own RRSP approx 100K total. We met Eric Peters and bought a multi family building. After that purchase we continued building our portfolio, we worked our goals. We learned to used RSP 2[sup]nd[/sup] mortgage for one property, we learned to use our own RRSP without cashing them in for real estate which we used to purchase our apartment building. We also used JV partners and our own money to purchase more properties. We continued with Single Family houses, 25% down, put in equity building tenants. After buying one more, we bought another one and another one. We followed our goals each week and each month.
Throughout the remainder of 2005, and all of 2006 we worked our guts out. We dreamt, we thought, we talked and we applied what we learned each and every month. We attended every REIN meeting, bus tour and workshop. We read our goals each day, morning and night. We did what was needed, it was written down and it was in our face. We made ourselves accountable to each other and we worked the REIN system.
In mid October 2006, my old employer the Canadian Red Cross who I had worked overseas for over 6 years mainly in war zones, called me with an urgent request to go to the Tsunami area in Banda Ache, Indonesia. They needed me to organize the next phase of their operations, and very ironic, it was to build 2,100 permanent homes! I accepted and left late October 06, and in Feb 07, at the end of my RC mission, Colleen came and joined me for holidays in Bali, Indonesia. We were both exhausted from work, and Colleen still worked full time and did our real estate portfolio while I was away. Our 3 week holiday in Bali gave us a breathing space and time to reevaluate our goals when we realized that we had achieved everything monetarily that we had set out to do. In fact even more than what we had planned due to the market.
It was quite the feeling! We were absolutely amazed, and we had a feeling of disbelief. We worked and reworked the numbers and each time we came to the same conclusion, WE DID IT! We had achieved our Belize! We acheived our Goals!!!!
Soon after our return to Canada, Colleen retired from her job at the hospital on the 11 May 07, and I retired once again. Now we have turned our property holdings over to a property Manager. On the 1 November we leave for our 6 month holiday in Bali Indonesia. While in Bali we will decide on new GOALS, goals we can acheive now with the financial independence that we have acheived from real estate investing.
Our friends and family who really supported us are going to join us while we are there, and everyone is welcome to join us. Upon return from Bali, we will wait for our new home to be completed and we will continue to follow our new goals that we will make while in Bali.
We would like to thank those that helped us on our journey (there are too many to name) and especially REIN leader Don Campbell and the REIN group for supporting, teaching and encouraging us to keep working and setting our goals. And of course there is our team: lawyers, accountants, realtor, bankers, inspectors. Without them we could not have done it!!
But we feel our success is due to having achievable goals, having a month to month strategy that is acheivable, and having the will and determination to continue when others were critical of how much work we were doing.
And Lastly, thanks to all of you for being a part of our Belize, our success!