What's the best way to get reluctant spouse on board ?

Question

I have 5 units of rental property and I would like to get more ! My wife keeps saying she doesn't want anymore even though I'm doing all the work.  She is not convinced its worth it even we are cash flowing on them . I'm open to hearing some words of experience from others that had the same issue.

Account Closed · Answer

@Michael Coates

Wait until you cash one out via refinance or sale etc and then present to her as follows: “okay, so we took $xxx,xxx.xx and turned it into $yyy,yyy.yy for a return of __% over ___ years. During that time our mutual funds earned 3% but our financial advisor skimmed 2.5% from us (over 80% of our return went to that guy/girl).

Do you see why real estate is a good idea now or do you want to keep letting our advisor skim 80% of our gains while taking absolutely zero of our risk?”

Courtney Trahan · Answer

@Michael Coates I agree with the above answers. Additionally from cash flow, you should include the total equity these rentals are bringing in yearly. If you have 5 properties and each is cash flowing $500/month = $30,000/year. But if you show her how much total equity. $1500 x 5 x 12/months = $90,000/year. When you go to sell the property you're gaining all that equity that you never put any money into. Hope that helps and best of luck!!

Sheldon Zimmerman · Answer

Good Afternoon,

I love this question. My wife was not really on board at first either. It took her a while to see the benefits of doing it. Now I would agree with Carlos, because maybe she sees it take your time and does not like that part of it. But once you identify why she does not like it that would help create a plan to solve that issue. For example, if she sees it taking too much of your time to manage it, maybe the compromise is to hire a property manager. Or she is concerned about the financing side of things. It took my wife about 2 years until she was on board. Once she could see the reduction in tax liability and the cash flow she could start to see the benefit of me being a full-time real estate agent and have more time at home with her and the kids. But definitely recommend sitting down and talking about why she might not like the properties. And then come up with a way to solve those concerns. I hope this helps. Have a blessed week.

Carlos Figueroa · Answer

Find a new wife lol. I'm joking of course.

In all seriousness, I think it would be a good idea to find out exactly why she is not on board. Depending on what she says, you can bring up solutions or compromises to the table to get her on board. Ex. If she think it's not worth it financially, then show her all the numbers on paper. Explain how much your current rentals are bringing home every month and what would it take for you to bring that kind of money on your own. Understand what are her concerns and you will have an idea on how to proceed.