When your REI plans do not match your spouses

[Christine D.]

I am stuck officially and have been for well over a year. Part of the problem is that my spouse and I are completely different pages with our ideas of what properties to search for and go after. This initially started with a goal to go after commercial properties, most specifically five or more housing rental units. The plan was for me to learn everything needed to evaluate deals and to make this work. Initially, things went very well and I did a great job of identifying properties pulling in cap rates over 8.5%. When I would bring them to my spouse with the numbers, it turned into a waiting game with my spouse insisting we wait and think about it. Every time I found one of these fantastic deals, we never put in an offer and within three days they were under contract by someone else. This has since degenerated further. The spouse is looking at everything from SFR, BRRRR packages, to mixed-used, to commercial office, to purchases that get us nowhere (another personal residence for us). The spouse is also suddenly announcing wanting to sell income-producing properties we have now and own outright!

For anyone who has been in this situation in which your spouse is not at all on the same page as you for real estate and got them to come around, how did you accomplish it?

[Dan Weber]

I would start by talking about what your long term goals are - a common ground. Work back from there to determine what the best way is to reach those goals. By the time you get to where you're currently at, you may have decided on the best strategy to reach those long terms goals. Also, if he listens to the podcast, almost every week they mention focusing on one strategy and niching down instead of building multiple bridges 50%. Lay out that analogy for him, I think it is one that clicks with many people. Focus on one strategy and go for it.