Gabrielle Dahms

A weeklong hike through the German countryside with my sister and my dad.

Hmm. Journaling has been part of my life since age ten, but journals don’t count as books. I wrote a research intense Master's thesis which turned out to be a book. The official real estate investing books followed starting in 2017.

As a child I dreamt to be a free spirit, an adventuress, a rock. Pippi Longstocking stories informed much of those ideas and they tied into my emotions. They also were fitting for the circumstances I grew up in and for my personality. I did not know that then. The iterations as expressed in what I wanted to be flying the skies as a stewardess, a nomadic teacher etc., faded and dissolved. The dream itself stayed with me. I am fulfilling this childhood dream as a writer.

Probably the fears everybody who writes has: Where do I start and can I really do this? Will I have something to say that others wish to hear? How will my work express itself and grow? As I write this, I realize I never had fears about getting my writing published or about whether it would be a success, but then I started writing when self publishing was already an accepted venue.

In addition, I decided first to write about my long time profession, although I wanted to write a novel right away. That was an excellent decision because it took away much of the trepidation about writing. Eventually, I want to write a novel but for now I am writing a nonfiction series.

Conventional publishing can be a difficult slog for people who have no connections in but the industry and who want to publish their work as fast as possible. When publishing conventionally through engaging agents and by writing proposals to big-name publishers, authors going that route must have time, sometimes years. They also must steel themselves against rejection. And then there are considerations for costs and marketing.

Self publishing is much easier, even if it also has pitfalls. In self publishing the author has much more control over the process of publishing and considerably shortens the period for their work to see the light of day. However, authors might find that the self publishing industry requires investigation. Authors must understand many of the aspects of publishing, drive that process, engage other professionals for different aspects of their work, and have a process.

The self publishing companies that allow individuals to publish through them can be a road full of potholes. It can be quite expensive and authors must eliminate those who deliver less than they promise. That is a big job.

I choose to educate myself about both options, including the hybrid options between the two, and learned a whole new industry. I expect that process to continue as long as I write and publish my work.

Even with a lot of preparation, developing systems and staying abreast of the many issues involved in self publishing, there is a lot of trial and error. Still, it's a great journey and draws on many skills.

One of the biggest challenges in writing Finding Profitable Deals was to balance the real estate investing niches with enough information to give readers the essentials and what to do next. I could write an entire book for each one of these niches. The idea of the book is to provide people with essential information on which to base further investigation for each niche.

Another challenge was finding the correct format to do this. I wanted to give readers the ability to skip to the subject that most attracts them, yet still have a sense of the other subjects in the book. And I probably could have done more in that regard.

Even though my work in real estate extends to almost two decades, research is paramount in nonfiction. Research provides facts, nuances, vantage points, and new ideas. I read almost everything available in the real estate investing space, investigated regulatory issues and real estate specific issues.

My findings also pointed me toward writing the book without selling a product or service in the real estate space. Many other books contain very little information about the fundamentals of real estate investing and are self promotional. That is irritating. It also disempowers those who seek the information.

How Trends Make You A Smarter Investor was my first title. Its intent is to bring awareness to socio-economic, demographic and cultural issues and how they influence realestate buying, selling and investing. In retrospect I could have dug much deeper into those trends but people still get the idea. Besides the trends, the fundamentals about real estate buying, selling and investing are the other big part of that book.

Fellow writers.

For me the most productive ways to spend time on the Internet is to focus on the subject at hand. With that in mind, locating the right resources first is paramount. I usually do that with initial specific library research. That way I avoid just surfing the net to surf it.

Real estate investing has a lot of moving pieces. Make sure you understand those pieces by educating yourself. Education is about understanding the process and what you need in terms of time, finances, and other resources. Assess risks and rewards. Real estate investing is also about mindset, knowing what you're looking for and understanding the market you want to invest in. Read everything you can about real estate in real estate investing. Do your homework, network and take informed action.

There’s always more because real estate and real estate investing intersect many other subjects and issues, whether personal, societal, regulatory, or financial. And even though the fundamentals remain the fundamentals, different people have different approaches to the same topics. What I bring is my perspective, my experience, and voice.

In my experience passive income is never passive, at least not in the beginning. Usually there is sweat equity and initial financial commitment one must put in to build a system that then delivers almost on its own. The grand daddies of passive income generation are network marketing, real estate investing, affiliate marketing, and stock investing.

Real estate investing alone could generate seven sources of income, depending on the strategies employed. Those could include note investing, being a landlord, wholesaling, fixing and flipping, and many others. However, most of these require work and even business experience and only become passive far down the line, if ever.

A lady who thanked me for empowering her. She felt that what she read allowed her to make powerful decisions. Sweet words to me because they encapsulate my intent.

Oh, so many. Right now affordable housing and how to make our communities, cities, states, and country more inclusive and fair consume me. Affordable housing is a complex story which at least has been fifty years in the making. Many interests and parties drive the affordable housing story. Lack of affordable housing is an albatross around our necks. We need solutions and fast.

AllAuthor is a wonderful service and platform with which I have been associated less than a year. How great it would have been to engage with AllAuthor long before that!