It was this book from Robert Kiyosaki that started my real estate journey. I read it sometime before 2007. I learned about assets and liabilities. Words I hear a lot but never understood. He taught it clearly in layman’s terms. He wrote it like this, if I remember correctly:

An asset is something that puts money in your pocket while a liability is something that takes money out of your pocket.

Can be easily understood, no? It also blew my mind to learn from him that my or anybody’s home is one big liability. Why? Because I spend for it or takes money away from my pocket. Before reading this book, my parents told me that all real property is an asset. One of the reasons why we were stuck in middle class, I guess.

Anyway, this started my interest in real estate. Primarily with foreclosures. So, I read more books. Some are even locally authored books which I have somewhere in storage. Why it did not impact me the way this book did is probably because of marketing. This book by Robert was so accessible and visible.

Then, sometime early 2009, I received a call from a friend inviting me to take a seminar in preparation for a Real Estate Broker’s License exam. It was hosted by Philippine Association of Real Estate Boards – Pasay-Makati Real Estate Board (today, it is named Pasay – Makati Realty Board). I took the seminar, passed the examinations luckily (way back then Broker’s Exam was handled by the Department of Trade and Industry) and became a licensed real estate broker around mid 2010.

How about you? What’s your story? How did you end up doing what you are doing now?