Retire Early with Real Estate Book Summary

retire early real estate

How would it feel to be financially free? What would you with your time if money wasn’t a restriction? Wouldn’t it be nice to not have to work? What if I told you it was possible to become financially free, and to be able to retire early with real estate?

Retire Early with Real Estate, by Chad Carson, is all about how you can use real estate investing to retire early. While it might seem tough, it is very possible to become financially independent with real estate in 10-15 years with the right purchases and effort.

Chad Carson has been investing in real estate for the last 15 years. He has become financially independent through his work. As a result from his efforts and risk taking in real estate, he has created a life which allows him not to work anymore in his late 30s.

Investing in real estate isn’t for everyone. However, if you are looking to build wealth passively and in a tax efficient way, you must consider investing in real estate.

Below is a book summary of Retire Early with Real Estate, takeaways from Retire Early with Real Estate, and a reading recommendation for you.

Retire Early with Real Estate Summary

Retire Early with Real Estate is all about using real estate to become financially free.

Financial independence is possible with real estate, but there are some important things to think about before buying rentals:

  • What’s your why?
    • Do you want to spend more time with your friends, kids, family, etc.?
    • Do you want to travel?
    • Are you looking to have flexibility in work?
  • What is the level of spending you want in retirement?
  • How much work do you want to do in your real estate business?

Pursuing wealth for the sake of money won’t lead to happiness. However, with a why and driving force, you can uncover many options.

The Power of Real Estate When Compared to Other Investments

After understanding your why and goals, now it’s time to learn about why real estate is such a powerful asset class.

In Retire Early with Real Estate, real estate is the IDEAL asset class to use for building wealth. IDEAL stands for:

  • Income
    • Each month, your tenants pay you rent, and you can use this to improve your property, pay down debt, spend on things you want, or save up for another property
  • Depreciation
    • The tax code is favorable towards rental properties, and allows different pieces of your properties to be depreciated over time – leading to a lower tax rate.
  • Equity
    • As you pay down your mortgage, or make improvements, you are build equity in the house.
  • Appreciation
    • Over time, real estate has gone up in value.
  • Leverage
    • With real estate, you can use debt to finance your acquisitions and own a property with only a percentage of the total cost.

With these 5 different amazing benefits from real estate, you can grow your wealth over time.

Different Strategies for Investing in Real Estate

After discussing the benefits of real estate, Retire Early with Real Estate gets into the different strategies for investing in real estate.

These real estate investing strategies include:

  • House hacking
    • House hacking is a great way to start off real estate investing. With house hacking, you live in the property and rent out your spare space, rooms and units to reduce your housing expense.
  • Live-in-then-rent
    • Buying a property, and then moving out and renting it out can be another great way to get into real estate investing. By occupying the property up front, you can make repairs and get better financing for the future.
  • Live-in-then-flip
    • Buying a property, fixing it up, and selling for a profit is a way real estate investors can generate income.
  • BRRRR
    • BRRRR stands for Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, and Repeat. By doing BRRRR, you look to buy rentals which need work, and through the rehab, you can refinance to get your cash out.

Each of these real estate investing methods has their advantages and disadvantages. Some of these strategies may be for you, and others may not be for you.

Building Your Real Estate Portfolio

After you’ve decided on your real estate investment strategy, now it’s time to build your real estate portfolio.

In Retire Early with Real Estate, there are a few different ways you can go to build your real estate portfolio:

  • Pay Cash 
    • If you are debt adverse, you can pay cash for rentals to own them without a mortgage and maximize cash flow from the start.
  • Use Leverage
    • If you aren’t afraid of debt, you can use mortgages to buy properties quicker, but this will cut in the cash flow.
  • Buy and Hold
    • If you are happy with your purchases, you can hold them and collect monthly rent checks forever.
    • Over time, you may want to pay the mortgages off using the debt snowball method, or by selling off bad properties and using the proceeds to pay off the other mortgages.
  • Trade Up Over Time
    • The tax code in the United States allows real estate owners to trade up over time in a tax free manner through something called a 1031 Exchange. Over time, as properties appreciate, you could “trade up” for bigger and better properties to generate more cash flow over time.

Advanced Retirement Account Usage for Real Estate

One of the interesting sections from Retire Early with Real Estate is the last section on advanced retirement account usage.

It is possible and sometimes a great strategy to invest in real estate through retirement accounts.

As you reach retirement (whether at a traditional age or an early retirement), you will need to think about how you are withdrawing from your accounts and getting income from your properties.

Retire Early with Real Estate talks in-depth about these different retirement account strategies – something I haven’t seen before all in one place.

Takeaways from Retire Early with Real Estate

With every book you read, it is a must to have takeaways and actionable items to implement in life.

I have a goal to build extreme wealth at a young age. Since this is my goal, then I should consider investing in real estate and buying rental properties.

I’ve house hacked for the past few years, but after seeing the potential of buying properties for below market value, making repairs, and renting them out, there can be some amazing results.

What was awesome about Retire Early with Real Estate were the simple examples of the various real estate investing strategies, and how attainable they seemed over 5, 10 or 15 years.

While it might be tough to buy and own a rental property without a mortgage, over 5, 10 and 15 years of saving, collecting rents, and paying down debt, you can get there.

Real estate is a powerful investment class. With the right strategies and information, you can use real estate to build wealth.

Retire Early with Real Estate provides this information. With inspiring stories and tips, Retire Early with Real Estate made me want to go buy some real estate after putting down the book.

Our Recommendation for Retire Early with Real Estate

Retire Early with Real Estate is a comprehensive book for prospective real estate investors. With real estate investing strategies, motivational passages to build wealth, and advanced retirement topics, Retire Early with Real Estate is a great resource.

Building wealth through real estate can be a lot of work. However, real estate is powerful, and at the end of the day, you will own assets which produce monthly cash flow.

The Millionaire Real Estate Investor is another amazing book at getting into the details of real estate investing. However, The Millionaire Real Estate Investor didn’t have any emphasis on retirement and the strategies involved when drawing on your investments later in life.

If you are interested in real estate investing, financial freedom, or building wealth, you should definitely check out Retire Early with Real Estate.

Readers: are you interested in real estate investing? Are you a real estate investor currently? What are your thoughts on becoming financially free?