Social Capitalism (Real Estate Investor Style)

It occurred to me that some of the best and most successful capitalists have had a "social capitalism" frame of reference. Consider that Henry Ford found a way to increase transportation and thus helped the economy as well as himself and countless other industries. All of this because he solved a social problem; hence he was a "social capitalist."

I believe in capitalism, it is not a perfect idea, but it is an ever evolving idea and I like the way that it is trending right now. The trend is to consciously engage in social capitalism, that is to say that to engage in capitalism in a way that solves social problems. Consciously is one of the key words here. Sometimes products or services pop up that were solely created to drive revenues and that is not necessarily bad, but let's just get into the mindset that we can solve massive issues and capitalize from them individually and socially.

If you are reading this blog, then you are probably involved in real estate in some form or fashion. There is a social condition that I think warrants a product or service and that is the social disease....yes, I said it DISEASE! of perpetual renters. Now, I am not saying it is bad to rent, there is certainly a time and a place for it, but when it becomes a permanent solution, then it becomes a disease because those involved are not putting themselves in a better financial situation.

As part of the responsible real estate community, I think that we can all capitalize on the fact that there are 54 million renters out there and the "problem" isn't going to go away anytime soon. But we can tailor our efforts to minimize the negative effects of this "rental disease" by putting good deals together and offering home ownership at some point maybe in the way of a Lease Option, Seller Financing, or Land Contracts.

I am not kidding myself. I know that simply offering lease options is not going to change the mindset of millions of people, however, if we pool our resources and make a serious and sustained attempt, we can all contribute to the collective education of renters, because in my opinion, it is a lack of education and discipline that people fall into a rental abyss.

Let's face it, we are in an industry where we have the ability to help people. This is something that we should all be proud of because we have the opportunity to make a great income while helping others and THAT is what Social Capitalism is all about!

Now go get 'em!

Rob