Praveen Kumar

Hi, my name is Praveen Kumar and I must thank you for stopping by at my Better Networker page.

I have tried my hand at many things. I graduated from being a spiritual recluse to a submarine captain. I played the guitar and sang to win a few hearts. My passion for painting has continued since I was a young boy but of late I am more into writing about issues that I feel are important. In between I sailed around the world to expand my mind and experience of life.

I never cared about money when I was young and lived on a heavy diet of spirituality even though I was financially insecure. It was only later in life I realized how money influences our relationships with our loved ones and affects our decision making in each and every aspect of our daily lives.

It was only after I got married and was blessed with two wonderful kids (who are now grown up but still drive me nuts) that I saw the necessity of improving my financial status.

I tried my hand at several things including shares trading before focusing on real estate investment as a vehicle for wealth creation.

I started investing in real estate in the early eighties when there was a property boom.

There were no books or seminars in those days. My adviser was a real estate agent who virtually pushed me into buying my first investment property because he wanted to make a commission. I am glad he did that to me because unsuspectingly he set me on to a path of wealth creation through property investment.

They say property cycle repeats itself every seven year. But things in life do not work as predicted. There was a bull run in India for nearly two decades starting in the late seventies. I rode the property boom and made easy money.

During the Bull Run everyone in my family and friends thought that I was some kind of a property genius. Even strangers sought my advice and I distributed my ignorance freely without realizing it. Even I fooled myself into believing that I was a genius.

I now realize that I was just a street smart investor in those days with little or no knowledge. I simply rode my good luck and external economic circumstances aided my good fortune.

The property Bull Run halted in 1999. Prices nosedived by around 20% to 30%. I must confess that I was totally confused and unprepared when the property market crashed. The down turn lasted close to 4 years.

My real education in real estate started with the pain the down turn caused me. Before that I was a dare devil cowboy who rode the property boom. The only good thing I did in my fool hardy days was that I continued to buy property.

When the market nosedived I froze. I was totally unprepared for it. Not only did my net worth go down but I lost some of my tenants that affected my cash flow. To reduce my risk I sold few of my assets to pay off my mortgage. I even sold my house to have cash in hand.

In hind sight I should not have panicked. With little imagination I could have easily held onto my properties. I had plenty of cash but did not buy a single investment property during that period of 4 years. My cash just sat in the bank earning 5% interest giving me false sense of security.

In mid 2003 the markets turned around and property prices grew dramatically. I had migrated to new Zealand by then because it is the best destination for a property investor as it is the only first world country that has no stamp duty or capital gains tax and has the most supportive tax incentives towards property investment.

Why I am narrating my story is because had not the fear factor frozen me into inaction during that depressed period from 1999 to 2002 I would have increased my net worth by at least three times. I lacked the knowledge to invest in the down turn market when the money is really made.

One good thing about pain is that it opens your brain centers and increases the understanding of life. I became an avid reader, attended seminars and filled up gaps in my learning. I was amazed to learn about the depths of my ignorance.

The knowledge that I gained has served me exceedingly well during the property crash of 2008 - 2009. I am comfortably placed because during the preceding years I concentrated on buying high cash flow properties below market value in good areas.

This time around I have the capacity to reduce rents and keep my properties tenanted. I am also cashed up to buy properties at a discount with foreclosures at their peak.
I did not allow the bull run of 2003 - 2007 to get into my head. I was patient and purchased sensibly. Period of property boom hides our ignorance and gives us false confidence. All the warts get exposed during the downturn. You become an expert when you have the knowledge to invest during the bear phase.

The biggest leverage you can have in the process of creation of wealth through real estate is knowledge. People say knowledge is expensive as it costs thousands of dollars to attend a half decent property seminar. Try ignorance and it can cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars if you go wrong in one real estate investment decision. Worst still lack of knowledge will keep you away from earning those millions of dollars and enjoy life of abundance & financial independence that is your birth right.

There is very little quality information on the Internet that is of value to a serious property investor. You will find thousands of articles on the internet about real estate investing but you will find very little or no valuable information in them. The only purpose of these articles is to provide back links to give high rankings to the websites.

I have created a website to share my knowledge with fellow investors. It is a place where you will find anything and everything you want to know about real estate investing. The best part is that it is free with no strings attached. You can read hundreds of articles on every aspect of by experts who are willing to share their knowledge with you.

The website is an interactive place where you can ask questions or tell your story to enrich and inspire other real estate investors with your experience and expertise.

Please visit http://real-estate-investment.net to gain some quality insight and share your views about the wonderful world of real estate investment.

Of late my new passion is about building a Virtual Real Estate empire. This is without doubt the new gold rush that happens once in your life time. Please read about it by visiting http://www.real-estate-investment.net/virtual-real-estate.html