Helping Others While Investing In Real Estate
By JD Esajian on December 23, 2015
Is it really possible to make a living from real estate while simultaneously helping others?
More and more people are looking to real estate as a means to revitalize communities, and their financial situations. However, there are even more people left wondering if that is even possible. Are these to things tied together somehow, or can you have one without the other?
While many are seeking ways to earn a living through real estate investing, not everyone is convinced they can help others in the process. In fact, many that have posed this question in online real estate forums have been heavily disputed. So is it possible? Can you really invest in real estate, and – at the same time – help others around you?
The Challenges
Anything worth doing requires a little effort. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it, and we wouldn’t have any problems to be solved.
There are clear challenges to being able to solve this problem. Greed, for what it is worth, may be the largest hurdle for people to overcome. Sadly, greed continues to rob those that need safe and affordable housing of the thing they need the most: a home. Grants and tax breaks that should go to affordable housing continue to be given to big developers that try to circumvent the system.
So I ask you again, is it really possible to make a living from real estate while simultaneously helping others?
Mission Possible
Doing good, giving back, creating affordable homes, delivering safe and healthy living options isn’t easy. It certainly isn’t always the most personally profitable option either. However, some are doing it, quite successfully might I add.
R.J. Martin of Green Homes Hawaii has pioneered affordable, sustainable housing in Hawaii. It is one of the least affordable places in the country, and where the spread between luxury units an affordable ones is massive. Yet, RJ did it. It took several years and intense dedication, but he made it happen.
The 2015 Realtor Good Neighbor Awards highlight dozens of others in the industry that have dedicated themselves and their careers to increasing the quality of life of individuals and families. They’ve welcomed home veterans, given millions, rehabbed affordable homes, funded after school programs, and have contributed to healthcare services.
FortuneBuilders Gives has helped equip kids for school, worked to build homes with Habitat for Humanity, and much more.
Finding the Right Strategy for Helping
It can be difficult to find the right way to help. Even trying to do good can sometimes be counterproductive. For example; going in to rehab a neighborhood and ultimately finding you have driven out all those in need because they can’t afford your shiny renovated units. But it can be done, and the few that we mentioned above have been doing it. There are even small private landlords across the country doing their little bit to help by offering better rates, allowing people with less than perfect credit to get a second chance, and providing healthy homes and apartments.
Perhaps you don’t have a lot to give right now. Perhaps you can get into real estate and give a few dollars a week to a community nonprofit. Maybe you can simultaneously work on high-end luxury projects and affordable homes and take the Robin Hood approach. You could find local grants, nonprofits, or local corporations and other investors to team up with.
Whichever path you take will require dedication, effort, working together, and never giving up. But it is possible to do good and make a living in real estate. When you stop caring or give up; that’s the day to quit real estate for good.
Know anyone else doing good things in real estate? Let us know those that deserve recognition.