Hi guys! Welcome back to my blog. Over the last year, I have spent a lot of time researching ways in which I can make more money by creating extra streams of incomes. One of my favorite things to do during this period of self-discovery was to listen to podcasts. In particular, I enjoyed listening to BiggerPockets. For those of you that are unfamiliar with BiggerPockets, it is a podcast/blog that prides itself on educating people about real estate. If you are interested in real estate investing, I would definitely recommend checking out their website/ their podcast. I had the fortune of listening to one podcast in particular where the topic was “Finding and Exploiting Your Unfair Advantage.”
I’m sure some of you are wondering, girl what are you talking about?? I promise ya’ll, it’s a super easy concept to follow and adapt into your own personal life. Regardless of rather you want to open your own business, or invest in real estate.
An unfair advantage is a skill, knowledge or situation that separates you from everyone else that you can use to your benefit in whatever endeavor you plan to indulge in. In marketing, they call this a competitive advantage.
Some of you may be reading this and think that there is nothing unique about you.. but I promise you no matter what your life/ lifestyle is, there is something about you or something that you have that most people don’t have or don’t know they have.
I’ll give you an example from my personal life:
Purchasing my First House
When it came time for me to purchase my first house, I had no idea how I was going to do it! I had saved just enough money for the down payment of the house. I had no idea about the extra fees and inspection costs that came with purchasing a house. But then I discovered a down-payment assistance program at one of my local community centers thanks to my mother. Though I was (and am) not rich, I’m not poor either. A lot of the time, people feel like they have to be impoverished to qualify for some of these programs. However, the income restriction to qualify for 3.5% down-payment grant for a single person was $40,000 per year. I qualified for that class and I took it. To top that, the bank that I used to finance my loan, offered to pay 3% towards my closing costs. For those of you that are unfamiliar, closing-costs typically cost you an additional 6% of the purchase price in addition to the 3.5% down payment. Want to put the icing on the cake? The seller ended up covering the other 3% of my closing costs.
In this scenario, my unfair advantage was being lower middle class and meeting the income restrictions. Had I made too much money, I wouldn’t have qualified for the down payment assistance or the banks extra funds. Had I made too little money, I wouldn’t have qualified for the loan amount I needed to finance the purchase price of the house.
Can’t think of any unfair advantages you may have in your life? Here’s a few:
Working for a company that offers tuition reimbursement: you can get a degree that may cost someone else $40,000 out-of-pocket, for free
Having a family/friends with different trades: you can get work done at discounted rates or learn the trait for free
Being impoverished: you can attend school on a government grant, get government assistance for food/ housing/ and child care assistance
Having good credit: will help you qualify for loans to finance any dream you may have
Self directed 401K: You can take money from your 401 to invest in yourself (though you should probably consult your financial advisor prior to making such a serious decision)
Being in a fraternity or sorority: you can use them to market products/ or your business
Social Media Popular: using your social media followers to become a brand influencer or using your social media platform to market your own product/service
Having a career that requires you to interact with new people everyday: can be used to help market whatever it is that you are trying to do
The idea here is to take the time to think of what you have that not many other people possess and use THAT to make whatever your dream may be to come true. Once you figure out what that unfair advantage is, think of different ways that you can use that to your advantage to make yourself more and more successful. The more unfair advantages you can think of, the better.
Can you think of any unfair advantages I forgot to mention here? If so, leave a comment with your list of unfair advantages below!
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