Dreaming is the best since it’s fun and free to do. At least once a month, I dream that I can fly. The best is when you know you’re dreaming. That’s when things get really interesting.

Daydreaming as a young lad helped me achieve some goals, like getting a job in finance and starting a lifestyle business once I escaped it. Today, my biggest dream is to live long enough to see my son grow up happy and healthy.

Although dreams often don’t come true, there’s one dream that comes true for us every year. And that dream is living in an $18 million mega-mansion.

The property is on acres of prime land with not a neighbor in sight. In the morning I play tennis on the grounds behind the mango trees. In the afternoon, we take a dip in the pool before soaking in the outdoor hot tub to rest our achy muscles. After a nap, I’ll work on an article for the upcoming week.

And here you were thinking creating content wasn’t a lucrative occupation! Forget being a banker, venture capitalist, lawyer, or techie. It’s very hard to get rich working for someone else.

Blogging and vlogging is where it’s at! The recent 3,000 kid survey by LEGO and The Harris Poll is true.

OK, let me be frank. Financial Samurai is too small of a website to allow me to own such a luxurious property. My old friend owns it.

In this article, I thought it’d be fun to share with you what it’s like to live in such a place. For the sake of privacy, I’m going to use pictures from other similar properties at a similar price point.

In the great debate between real estate versus stocks, I give a slight nod towards real estate. When I was young, I wanted real estate because having it felt like I had arrived. Now that I’m middle-aged, I want real estate so I can provide a stable environment for my family.

After taking over 500 long walks around my neighborhood since 2014, I’ve made a very interesting observation. All the adult kids still living at home seem to be men, none are women. Within a four block radius, I often see between 4-6 adult young men waving goodbye to their moms or washing their cars in their parents’ driveway.

This, in turn, made me wonder, where have all the adult women children gone? What are the reasons men seem more destined to live at home with their parents than women? Perhaps maturity is what drives women to be more independent.

This observation worries me because I have a son. I want him to feel the joy of independence well before he’s 30 years old. If he still lives at home playing video games all day into his 20s, as a father, I will feel like a complete failure.

But sometimes, no matter how hard we try, we’re still destined to fail and there’s nothing we can do about it. Therefore, I got to thinking about how real estate can be used as a hedge against many bad or suboptimal situations. Here are 10 things I can think of. 

I recently had lunch with Jilliene Helman, Co-Founder and CEO of RealtyMogul. I was impressed with her focus on creating a long-term, sustainable business versus pursuing every real estate deal for growth’s sake.

I’m currently in platform due diligence mode as some of my real estate fund investments are starting to pay out. I expect all $810,000 of my principal invested across 18 investments to be returned by 2021.

In addition to platform risk, one of my main interests as an investor is how a real estate crowdfunding platform performs its due diligence and selects its deals. As a multi-property real estate investor, I am extremely thorough in my due diligence process, even coming up with a new property buying signal.

I want to invest in deals that have already been carefully vetted with a fine tooth comb. Once I make an investment, I want to forget about my investment and enjoy life under the assumption the platform will do everything possible to ensure the deal performs as advertised. Otherwise, what am I paying them a fee for?

Of course not every deal will do well since there are no guarantees in any risk asset. But we need to do the required work before making any investment. Due to the importance of due diligence, I asked Jilliene to write a guest post to share their process at RealtyMogul, one of the leading real estate platforms founded in 2012 after the JOBS Act was passed.

Given the relative illiquidity of real estate, there is huge room to get your property transaction right or wrong. My hope is for all of you to get maximum value whether you’re buying or selling.

There are many variables that determine the current and future value of a property. These include, but are not limited to location, marketing prowess, seasonality, condition, curb appeal, surrounding noise, interest rates, job environment, tax laws, housing laws, and demographic trends.

But all of these variables are derivative variables that leave a lot of wiggle room for price interpretation. A property is only as valuable as what someone is willing to pay. Therefore, I’ve come up with a new property leading indicator that if used properly, could save and make you a lot of money down the road.