Does Passive Income in Real Estate Matter?
This is my Dad and my son, on my dad's last day, at 61 years old. He passed away in January 2014. He is my personal motivation for pursuing passive income and building something that would last beyond my physical life.
Dad worked for the same company for over 35 years. He brought many people to the company, he would always tell his friends to come work there and was always first to promote his company's products. Then he got cancer and was told there was no cure. He moved closer to us, knowing his time was limited, and left that job. His pension, when eligible was $271.00 per month.
Most of us in real estate have some sort of retirement plan. Be that a SEP, Roth, life insurance, other standard retirement vehicle or rental property. Rental properties are terrific sources of income, someone else is really paying the mortgage and expense, you are putting up with some repairs and dealing with renting it out every so often. Until you retire....and just plain burn out on dealing with tenants as you look to more travel or living part time in another location, making it difficult to manage those rentals.
One of the most intriguing things to me about Keller Williams was their profit share plan. I researched it thoroughly before joining the company, having spent many years recruiting for other companies. It almost seemed too good to be true. Was it a pyramid scheme??? How can they profit share to non-employees, non-stockholders???
Why does passive income matter? You can insure against many things. You can insure yourself against disability (although there are loopholes in that - just ask a friend of mine recently diagnosed with Lyme disease - not covered by her very expensive plan). You can insure your family against your death. You can insure yourself against cancer with programs like AFLAC.
You cannot insure your income against your child getting sick and needing to spend every moment in the hospital with them. You cannot insure yourself against your parent getting sick and wanting to be by their side through procedures and tough times as they look at you terrified. You cannot insure their bucket list or your own bucket list if you get sick and wanting to give your best to your family before you go.
As my Dad was dying I desperately wanted to spend more time with him. As a person responsible for generating my own income, I could only do so much. I could take the time off, but taking time off would affect my income not just for the immediate time off but for months, in the business I would lose.
I had the money to take my Dad places, but I couldn't take the time I wanted, knowing it would affect my family's income long term. When I wasn't taking calls, listing property, and selling property, recruiting agents and managing agents, I wasn't earning money.
How would passive income change that? If the money came as a result of the work I had done in the past rather than work I was doing to earn the future income; I could take the time. Keller Williams profit share provides that opportunity.
Over the course of my life I've worked to recruit hundreds of agents into the business and into companies that I've worked for. Only at Keller Williams do I earn income based on the work they do for the rest of their careers with Keller Williams. And the work the agents they bring in do, and the work the agents under those agents do.....for seven levels! And it's not even slightly a selfish goal - the company business model is a better fit for most agents than any model I've ever been privy to, so I get to help them get a better life too! After three years and one day, even if I leave this career, I get to keep earning (and the agents I've helped find their way to KW get to thrive in a great company). As do my children after I go. And their children after they go.
In the first quarter 2017 I was recognized as a top 5 stakeholder in this giant worldwide company for having recruited in the most agents. I didn't even notice or look at the recognition, one of my agents and friends noticed it in a Facebook post. The story it didn't tell is that I encouraged five additional people to choose someone other than me as their sponsor, even though they wanted to select me based on our in-depth conversations, because I wanted to share in what it feels like to be a sponsor to a great agent. It's another beautiful part of this business model.
With misty eyes I can tell you that Keller Williams has changed my life. It has changed so many lives around me. Thank you to my friends Ted and Shari in Texas for gently pushing me to look deeply at this model - because I can be a stubborn mule. Thank you to the original 38 (whoever you all were) and Gary Keller for recognizing that our industry needs something different. For realizing that we are put on this earth to do more than earn our paychecks, pay bills, procreate (not necessarily in that order) and die. Thank you for realizing that our greatest gift is the ability to give something to someone else's life that no one can take away and for helping me built a legacy worth leaving.
It is everything my dad would have wanted. So yes, passive income matters.