Take our kid to work day 2016

Today, my ‘host’ was my mom, Julie Emery. To find out more about her career, I asked her a few questions and learned that…

1. She is a real estate investor/property manager. (job title)
2. She buys and manages properties to make a profit. (job description)
3. She finds investors, presents her products, shops for good deals in real estate, manages renovation projects,  handles tenants, and does bookkeeping. (duties/tasks performed)
4. a) Because she started the business herself, she never completed any significant training, besides some guidance from the Real Estate Investment Network/REIN. (training)                                                                                                                                                            b) She has a university degree in political science. (education)                                                           c) She has been investing in real estate for 14 years now (experience)                                            d) Some of her skills include decision making, relationship/team building and management (skills and attributes)
5.  Some of the things she likes about her job: being able to work on her own time, shop for furniture, work with other people, and manage projects.
6. Some of the things she dislikes about her job: evicting tenants and dealing with complaints.
7. In the next 5 years or so, she expects the business to grow. Right now, she owns 12 properties, but she would like it to grow to 50. (how she anticipates the job changing in the next 5 years or so)

Here are some examples of the things we did today:

We visited one of my mom’s properties (it’s under renovation)

We went to “Lowe’s” to buy some appliances

… before heading back to the properties to check on the paint job

My Reflections

3 reasons why I would like this job:

• I wouldn’t have to work in an office somewhere: I could work from home
• If I were to buy enough properties, I could make a big profit
• It could teach me how to manage my money and how to be smart with it

3 reasons why I would not like this job:

• I would have to manage complaints from tenants
• I would have to write eviction notices and deal with unpaid rent
• It’s a lot of work to do the bookkeeping and to make sure all of the finances are in order

Is this job for me?

I’m not sure. I would like to invest in something (maybe stocks), but having my own business and managing everything involved? I don’t know…

The value of the TOKTW experience in relation to my ideas about my post secondary plans:

I’ve already decided that I want to be a neural engineer, but this doesn’t mean that I’ll never be a real estate investor. Who knows? Maybe someday I’ll be more into it. Until then, I can invest my money in other things, without owning my own real estate business.

Despite my final decision to do something else (job-wise), I think the TOKTW experience has been beneficial to me. Now, I know the option is available.