Investing for Freedom

By Lars Dyrendahl

An easy to follow guide that will help you to create REAL income through real estate investing!

 

Create a passive income through investing in real estate. Learn how to find properties with good longterm possibilites. Learn to negotiate and make sure that every deal you make is a good one. Learn about how to rehab a property, how to deal with tenants and how to maximize your return on investment. Learn how to create passive invome and then keep that money coming for years!

 

This book contains all the tools and technique you need to be a successful rental property investor!

Read stories about real life deals, see the numbers of real life deals and learn everything you need to know about how to buy your first rental property!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lars Dyrendahl
• Release date: Jan 21, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224332816

Book preview

INVESTING FOR FREEDOM

building wealth one house at a time

COPYRIGHT LARS DYRENDAHL

This book is dedicated to my wife without whom this whole project would be as broken as I would be without her. To my older, wiser and calmer friends who influenced me to seek wisdom and stay calm. To my family, to God and to you! You who are hopefully so eager to jump into the book and learn more that you flip right past this. Thank you for buying and reading my book. I hope it will serve you well!

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Introduction: What’s the story

Chapter 1: WHERE TO BUY

The story: Dipping my toes

The story in numbers

The facts

Action items

Chapter 2: UNDERSTANDING THE MARKET

The story: Winning the real estate lottery

The Story in numbers

The facts

Action items

Chapters 3: A GOOD DEAL MADE BETTER

The story: He loved his restaurant, I loved his house

The story in numbers

The facts

Action items

Chapter 4: WHAT TO BUY

The story: No pain, no gain

The story in numbers

The facts

Action items

Chapter 5: HOW TO BUY

The story: An unusual auction

The story in numbers

The facts

Action items

Chapter 6: NEGOTIATING

The story: Working for it

The story in numbers

The facts

Action items

Chapter 7: HOW TO PAY

The story: On thin ice

The story in numbers

The facts

Action items

Chapter 8: SIGNING THE PAPERS

The story: Confidence boost

The story in numbers

The facts

Action items

Chapter 9: TIME FOR CHAMPAGNE

The story: Winner by choice

The story in numbers

The facts

Action items

Chapter 10: SWEAT EQUITY (REPAIRS AND MAINTENANCE)

The story: Luck increased by persistence

The story in numbers

The facts

Action items

Chapter 11: FINDING TENANTS

The story: A rental property for free

The story in numbers

The facts

Action items

Chapter 12: MANAGING TENANTS

The story: As good as the people we work with

The story in numbers

The facts

Action items

Chapter 13: SETTING UP YOUR BUSINESS

The story: Saving money by spending money

The story in numbers

The facts

Action items

Chapter 14: BUYING A SECOND HOUSE

The story: Too good to resist

The story in numbers

The facts

Action items

Chapter 15: WHEN THINGS GO WRONG

The story: Close call

The story in numbers

The facts

Action items

Chapter 16: GOING FULL TIME

The story: Duplicating a way of life

The facts

Action items

A Final Word

Explanation of words and abbreviations

Did you enjoy this book?

Recommendations:

INTRODUCTION

If you want to be a real estate investor, you will need to invest in real estate. To me, that means buying a property. No real estate investment trusts (REIT), no investment groups, no stocks in real estate companies and no indirect investments or complicated get-rich-quick schemes. In this book I want us to focus on how to become a real real estate investor by investing in real properties that you take ownership of. To me, that is what real real estate investors do to make real money in real estate.

One of the greatest ways to make real money in real estate is also one of the simplest. It is to buy and hold single-family homes. From hereon, that is what you and I will be talking about. We will make sure you have all the information and knowledge needed to make a safe and profitable investment that gets you started as a real real estate investor making real money in real estate.

Introduction: What’s the story

It was one of the few tropical nights we get during summer in Sweden and I was sitting on the porch of my first house looking out over the setting sun. I had a book in my hand of which I had just read the last few pages. It was one of those business books that got me really fired up, enthusiastic and excited, but one that—like so many others—also left me a bit clueless.

Sitting there, I acknowledged how it wasn’t the first time I’d felt like that. It has been quite common in my life to feel excitement and motivation from imagining a better self, but not knowing how to make those dreams become reality; to not see a clear path that can carry me from my current state to where I want to go.

I have realized that life is often like this, but if I stick to my dreams and keep looking ahead without losing hope, most of my dreams slowly start becoming reality. I have learned that quotes like: Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve, from the author Napoleon Hill are true, but I remember when things seemed different.

The world I used to live in felt very far away from the lives of the people in books I read. Books about millionaires, billionaires and global entrepreneurs. Books I started reading because I so badly longed for a different kind of life. A life more similar to that of business superstars like Richard Branson, Steve Jobs, Henry Ford, Robert Kiyosaki or Elon Musk.

It was tough to transform all that positive and inspiring information into actual tasks I could undertake in order to move towards those dreams. I often felt like all that motivational literature built up loads of energy in my body, and since I had no clue what to do with it, I ended up just taking endless walks around the small and very ordinary little Swedish town I had grown up in, one I felt was on a different planet from New York, London or Los Angeles.

Thankfully, there is a philosophy behind success that really works, and, over time, I found myself changing. The books opened my mind and they changed my attitude. As a result, I noticed people around me I hadn’t acknowledged before, and I started making friends with people who had been right there in front of me my whole life. It turned out that even my small town in Sweden had some fairly successful people living in it and, before I knew it, I started getting new input and seeing real opportunities on my own doorstep. The kind of opportunities that could actually take me somewhere.

My real estate investments were a direct result from the books I read and the people I got to know as a result. It ended up being my way out and I am forever grateful for it.

What I have learned is that reading about someone accomplishing something inspiring is very motivating. It’s like being a fly on the wall, and being a first-hand witness to the fact that big achievements are actually possible. I have also learned that the information within the pages of all those books is enough to help us achieve our goals.

This book, however, is a little different. I wanted to do more than inspire. I wanted to share tangible information about how I did what I did. In order to share both inspiration and information, I have divided the chapters of this book into stories and facts. After every story, I have listed the information needed to not only feel motivated, but to actually be able to start taking steps towards your desired goal of making an income from real estate investments.

Chapter 1: WHERE TO BUY

The story: Dipping my toes

Those first few years after finishing high school and finally becoming free felt like a never-ending summer. I was young, happy and I loved every minute of it. I spent most of my time hanging out with my friends, going to the beach, playing sports, travelling, throwing parties and having constant fun. Probably a pretty normal life for a Swedish kid in their late teens and early 20s. But, unlike most others my age, I was also stuck with a weird obsession. I felt like I needed to buy a house before any of my friends did.

All that fun meant I met a lot of interesting people and, even though I didn’t realize it back then, some of them would end up influencing me so much that they more or less helped to form the rest of my life. Especially my friend Toby and his very wealthy businessman father.

I remember being a bit intimidated by them, and I always struggled to feel like I was good enough to earn their time. However, since I loved their way of thinking and being, I still hung around as much as I could. It ended up being a lot. I had pretty much walked right into my own version of Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad Poor Dad book series and I loved it.

Toby had big plans for himself and his life. So big, it initially scared me just to hear about them. But his way of dreaming, setting high goals and thinking positively rubbed off on me and, as time went on, I started catching onto it all and dreaming a bit more boldly myself.

These new influences helped me grow, and the more I grew the more they started appreciating having me around. I learned a lot about myself and quickly realized that I would need to take a different path in life if I was to get what I wanted. Seeing Toby and his father firsthand, I soon came to the conclusion that a normal life and a normal job wouldn’t cut it. I needed to be in business, just like they were. I needed to figure out a way to live off something scalable.

The feeling was amazing. It was like a fresh ocean breeze through my body. I remember feeling less and less suffocated the more I realized I could actually take control of my situation and create the life I wanted. I really could. Just like Toby and his dad. His dad had started with nothing and his first job was hauling timber out of the woods with a horse. His dad now had factories, tons of real estate and he built skyscrapers.

I needed some of that and it became very clear to me that I should get started building this new life of mine as soon as possible. I began by creating my own company through which I could do work for others and bill the hours. It wasn’t fancy—the work I did was rough—but I was in control. I had a company of my own and I decided when I wanted to work. I was on my way. But it wasn’t enough. I needed more. I needed to move faster. I wanted to prove to myself that I was ahead of the crowd and I decided I wanted to do this by being the first among my friends to buy a house.

Figuring out a way to afford a house without having to move too far away from my friends became a big challenge and it took me a few months to come up with a solution. Most of my friends and I were all about hanging out where things were happening, where there was life and where we got enough stimulation. This usually took us downtown, to the beaches or to the high-rent district.

These were three prime locations when it came to real estate and three areas way out of my budget. But, I found a compromise that also taught me a lot about the best locations for the type of real estate investments I have been doing ever since.

I grew up in a small town located on Sweden's west coast and I think that little town is a good location for buying and holding houses. There was a big highway built in the 1990s that allowed us to go south or north along the coast. If you headed south you would reach a city of approximately 65,000 people in just 30 minutes and then, 15 minutes north, a smaller town of 15,000 where I went to high school.

After our graduation, most of my friends moved to one of those two cities which meant I would probably have to do the same if I wanted to keep the social life I loved so much. I probably would have moved if it weren’t for that obsession with buying my own house.

I had no experience and no money. All I had at the time was a burning desire to own my own place and that ended up being a stronger drive than that of keeping my social life alive.

It was painful seeing all my friends go, but I knew if I went with them I would very likely get stuck spending all my money on rent like everybody else. That was not what I wanted. I wanted to get started on my dream life and my plan was to do so by buying a house.

The next few months gave me some much-needed time to explore my options. I visited banks to learn about potential financing, I went to see places that were for sale and I talked to my parents about possibly borrowing some money from them.

Luckily for me, I didn't get hold of much money, which gave me limited options. So limited that I almost gave up. I had no more than a few hundred dollars in my account and I had just started my own company that didn’t really do anything yet. The little money I made came from a few kind local farmers who would let me help them a few hours here and there, then bill those hours. Being in my early 20s, and with a very marginal income, all I could seem to afford was a cottage far out in the woods.

It was a hard pill to swallow, but I surprised myself by actually going out and exploring some of those cottages and being willing to move there if that was what it took for me to own a place. But, it wasn’t what I dreamed about. Not even close. I dreamed about owning a property in the city where all my friends could come