Monopoly for Millennials is Wrong (THERE IS AFFORDABLE REAL ESTATE)

If you haven’t heard, there’s been a huge uproar since they released it, which I completely understand, as the game is stereotyping the millennial generation about not being able to afford real estate, among other things. But more the former, which is evident right on the front of the box as it actually states, 'Forget real estate, you can’t afford it anyways'.

Now this is far from the truth. Watch and I'll explain why.

Hey, Tyler Soulliere here, real estate investing award winner and educator, and here we have Hasbro’s newest board game, Monopoly for Millennial's, and as you can see, right here, it actually states forget real estate, you can’t afford it anyways. This is terrible, hilarious, and sad, all at the same time. Hilarious in that a company like Hasbro would say this, but sad in that a company like Hasbro is stereotyping millennial's, and terrible because Hasbro has got it very wrong, because real estate is affordable.

Just take a look at the average prices of the 25 major cities in Canada in 2017.

Only about the first 20 are in my mind unaffordable, over $300K.

And here’s a look at the average price of 100 major cities in the US in 2017.

Same thing, only about the first 20 are in my mind unaffordable, over $300K.

Now, you might be thinking, that’s like every city, but really, that’s just 40 cities in the entire north American continent, and these aren’t the only places to live or to invest in real estate.

Just because you always hear how real estate is unaffordable in major markets, does not make them representative of all the markets where you can own real estate.

It is why when I teach people about investing in real estate and where to invest, I tell them to ignore the news, because you’re not going to be investing in these unaffordable markets, you are going to invest in the Affordable markets.

There are thousands upon thousands of markets; that is, cities, towns, neighborhoods, across North America, that aren’t expensive.

And this is where you want to own a home, this is where you want to start investing.

In fact, this is exactly what I did.

My journey of investing in real estate actually began while I was living in one of these unaffordable markets, Toronto.

I was selling real estate at the time, and was looking to buy a 2nd property as an investment.

However, buying property in Toronto was just SOOOO expensive.

I had used up almost all my capital to buy a condo to live in, and didn’t have much left to buy an investment property.

Plus, the thought of tying up all my remaining money in a 2nd property was too risky for me.

Anyways, being from Windsor, ON, I knew properties were affordable there, so I started looking there, and that’s when a property came up for sale in Amherstburg, ON, just outside Windsor, for a fraction of what a property cost in Toronto.

And from there the rest is history!

This is why Hasbro is wrong, because you can afford real estate.

And there is tons of real estate to afford.

You saw the data earlier with the many markets that are affordable.

Here’s some more evidence about affordable markets. This article here highlights 10 affordable markets throughout the US where the average prices of the homes in these markets are under $200K.

And these are major markets too!

Cities like Detroit, Cincinnati, Memphis.

Markets that have tons of jobs, with major corporations being headquartered there.

Where you can own a home on just a $60K salary.

So, the thinking that only small towns are affordable, where no one lives, or it's to far to commute, or there are no jobs....

Isn’t true.

It frustrates me so much when I see people leaving comments on my Facebook ads that real estate is only for the rich, or people in the news talking about how they can’t afford to own a home, or can’t afford to invest in real estate, or a company makes a board game saying you can’t afford real estate, because I’m thinking to myself, you need to just look elsewhere to own real estate.

And yes, maybe you do need to move.

Which you think can’t be done because major cities are where there is work, but as you just saw, there are lots of cities, and there will be work.

So Hasbro, You got it completely wrong!

Because millennial's can afford real estate.

And for that matter, any generation can afford real estate.

You just need to have an open mind, to think outside the box, look outside where you live.

There is a ton of opportunity out there to own real estate.

Now I’m sure I’ll get some comments saying real estate is still so expensive, and I’m out to left field.

That they can’t move or can’t start investing.

Can’t is a terrible word, because you can.

I myself realized I can.

Soon after purchasing my 1st property, I realized that if we sold our condo and moved back to Windsor, freeing up a lot of the capital which was tied up in our expensive home in an unaffordable market, we could purchase 3 properties, because Windsor’s market was just so affordable.

And we did just that!

Sure, moving back wasn’t easy, to a market still hurting from the recession, a market with not a ton of jobs, and a market where I had to start over as a Realtor, which resulted in no income coming in for almost a year.

But we learned to survive.

We changed our spending habits, changed our lifestyle, and along with not having to spend all our income on an expensive home, we were able to grow our real estate portfolio.

No doubt if I was still living in Toronto, I probably would’ve never started investing in real estate, would’ve never built up a real estate portfolio of over 50 units, would’ve never had the lifestyle I have now.

I would’ve continued to make an income to cover the cost of living in an expensive property.

So whether your renting, or you own a property, whatever, affordable markets are a great way to own real estate.

Tyler 1, Hasbro 0.

Other Resources Mentioned:

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/16/us/monopoly-for-millennials-trnd/index.html WHAT TO DO NEXT: Enroll in Real Estate Investing Bootcamp