The one in which we have some exciting announcements
So it’s 2022 already - which is a bit crazy. A brand new year calls for some big resolutions - or does it?
Happy New Year, friends! It’s a brand new year and we for one are excited about it! 2022 seems like a nice, well rounded number, destined to bring us good things, don’t you think? Not that I am overly into feng shui or anything but I am more than happy to believe that a simple number with just two digits is an ominous sign for all the best occurrences, real estate and otherwise (yes, I am aware of 2020 but we will never speak of that devil of a year again)?! I also checked and it’s the year of the water tiger, not that I know what this tidbit of Chinese zodiac info means precisely or how I could meaningfully connect a certainly wonderful sounding animal to buying property. Anywayyyyy …. What I do know is that I have spent the last couple of weeks putting together an elaborate list of New Year's resolutions - that I am excited to share with you.
Yeah, right, who am I kidding. If you have read this newsletter for a while you will remember that I once vouched to be learning how to do a pull-up. Have I succeeded? Let’s just put it like this: hang me into a door frame now and I will 100% not be able to lift myself up even a few inches by my arm strength alone. Yeah. So I think we all know how well that bodes for my being a fan of New Year’s resolutions. I honestly don’t really believe in them because too often, they go the way my biceps go. They fail at delivering the thing that you hoped they’d deliver. I do, however, believe that if you want to really achieve something - setting your mind to it and working towards it, without any grandiose declarations or a special day on the calendar, will actually get you pretty far in most cases. Which is why, on a non-descript day some time in October of last year, Moritz and I sat down to discuss this very newsletter. A half year in seemed like a good time to take a step back and assess where we were. How was it all going and what did that mean for the future (which is here!? Now!)? Well …
Without much further ado, we have a couple of exciting things to share.
We are blown away by the fact that there are actual readers to this newsletter! Real life, human beings that are interested in what two random strangers from Germany have to say about their real estate adventures. Many, actually. More than we thought we would have subscribed a couple of editions in. So thank you! Seriously, it means the world and is a great motivator to keep going (and growing, no rhyme intended). Sure, when we started this, we figured that we would be writing for literally no one for a while, so we should not need the validation. But boy, let me tell you, it makes all the difference to know that the hours I spend clickclacking away on my keyboard aren’t going into a big, black void. So again, thank you - we can’t say it enough.
While we know that there are the above mentioned human beings reading our musings, we actually don’t know that much else about you - which is a bummer! To that end, we will be sending out a little survey in the next edition, just to understand more about what you are actually looking for and would be delighted if you participated. If we know more about why you read, we can be sure to cater to your needs. Please be on the look out for a link in the next newsletter! We are excited to get to know you.
Okay, this feels redundant at this point, but bear with me. Because we know that there are (many!) real human beings reading this newsletter (I will never get sick of repeating this fact to myself) - we actually feel like it’s time to step it up a bit, giving you more of the content you apparently like to read. No problem! Starting immediately, we’ll be posting weekly, simply because every two weeks feels like a rather long time between posts with so many things going on in the world of real estate. No pressure, but that means we’ll be posting twice as often. We’ll also tweak our content structure a bit and play around with how we can best deliver the info you need, well-researched per usual and wrapped into some hopefully fun to read prose. Expect a monthly theme that we’ll break up into four separate posts, making things a bit easier to digest.
Understanding that you love reading this newsletter has honestly been a game changer in a different way as well - because it means we are a part of your real estate journey, no matter what you are trying to achieve. To that end, we’ll be adding a paid option to this newsletter with deeper deep dives on the things that matter when you are looking to invest in real estate. On the one hand, that’s massively exciting because it allows us to do more of this thing that already adds value to you - but it’s also a bit nerve wracking honestly. Starting with our March editions, there will be a paid subscription option to Rente aus Stein (silent, excited shrieks happening in my head right now). You will still absolutely be able to read some of this newsletter for free - but we’ll add a lot of in-depth content for paid subscribers. Another thank you is in order to those of you that have (and will be) supporting our work. Thank you. Also, and this is important to us, we will most definitely do big, fat discounts for you early supporters and find other ways to make this content as accessible as possible while also making sure it’s sustainable for us. We’ll tell you more about all the plans soon.
Saving the best for last, though, one more big thing for 2022 (whoever said I wasn’t into juicy commitments for a new year?!). We will be buying another property!! More details to come soon - but basically, that means we can take you along for the ride and really run through the entire process together. Which was always the idea and is now finally happening in all its real world, complicated glory. A lot of this newsletter was started with that goal in mind - but while we were getting our ducks in a row, we went down memory lane, reminiscing about how we got here. That part's been super fun - but we can’t wait to take this show on the road!
There you have it, my little water tigers. 2022 is going to be a big, fantastic cracker of a year, beautiful and prosperous for all of us. No Chinese horoscope needed for that prediction. And to show you (and this year) that we mean it - we are going to kick things off with a bang next week: The three boldest trends we are seeing in property right now, kinda like the guiding North Star to the real estate year that we all wished we had. Think about these three things and you should be a whole lot closer to making smart choices in your 2022 property investment.
When it comes to urbanisation, where is this show actually going? We have looked at a lot of articles, data and expert opinions to try and give you an answer.
Hashtag “global supply chain issues” - do you need to care in the context of real estate (spoiler: we think you do!). And lastly:
If there’s one word to rival “Covid” in terms of number of press mentions AND scariness, it surely must be “inflation”. We are trying to make sense of it all!
Please check the first post out this time next week (because that’s our new schedule - weekly! Eeek!). We have been deep in books and charts and newspaper clippings to distill things down (because who has time for “the 20 biggest things happening in real estate right now”?) and we will kick things off with Prediction No 1 next week. Also, please tell me I am not alone in not making New Year’s resolutions? Happy New Year - and talk to you next week!
Next week, on Rente aus Stein: The three trends that will shape real estate in 2022, starting with maybe the least obvious one. Make sure to subscribe to not miss this!
Disclaimer: We are not lawyers (sadly) and as such can’t give you legal and/or tax advice. We are simply telling our story in the hope that it’s inspiring to you.
Helo Léna!