Ten Real Estate Investing Tips

Real estate investing tips tend to be a bit vague, like “invest in the right location,” or “make sure the numbers work.” Actually, tips like these are important principles to remember. However, since they have been well represented in other articles, I want to share a few more specific tips with you.

1. Listen to the market. The cabinet guy looked to me for a decision. I realized that I knew nothing at all about which cabinets people like, so I asked him which ones others were choosing, and he pointed to one that three quarters of his last forty customers had chosen. That’s the one I want, I told him. Why argue with the market you are trying to sell to?

2. Do your own research. The real estate agent might show you only the comparable sales that make the property look more valuable. Do your own research. Some counties have made it easy now, with sales prices online. You can also search any number of sites with MLS listings, just to get an idea about the asking prices of other nearby properties.

3. Partner carefully. When you do a deal with partners, be the money or the management, but not both. Group decisions tend not to work well in real estate, and will cause you much stress. Once you decide on and agree to a plan, step back if you are investing the capital, and let your partner do his thing. Of course, step up and take control if you are managing the project.

4. Negotiate openly. Just ask a seller outright, “What do you want to get out of this?” It is rare that someone is offended by this simple question, and it saves you from wasting valuable time talking about things that don’t interest him or her. Once you get a clear answer, you can decide if you can give them what they want, and still get what you need.

5. Invest safely. Investing isn’t gambling. There is always risk, but the difference is that the odds are in your favor. If not, you are gambling. This why you shouldn’t invest based on continued price increases. There is no guarantee that prices will continue up at any particular rate. Do deals that work even if prices go nowhere, and if values go up, you’re that much better off.

6. Run the numbers. It is about the numbers, and if it is income property, it’s about one number in particular: cash flow. Whatever the local formulas are, whether gross rent multipliers or capitalization rates or whatever, just be sure that after every last expense you’ll have cash flow from the very first month.

Rules, formulas and real estate tips are really just guidelines. Even the rule above about cash flow can be broken if you know that rents can be raised soon, for example. You have to use common sense and learn from experience, and you can’t replace good analysis with rules, formulas and real estate tips.

About the Author

Steve Gillman has invested in real estate for years. To learn more, get a free real estate investing course, and see a photo of a beautiful house he and his wife bought for $17,500, visit http://www.HousesUnderFiftyThousand.com

Real Estate Investing Analysis

This article gives you a foundational understanding of residential real estate investing analysis, and a formula for determining how much to offer when purchasing property for rehab and wholesale purposes.

Anyone can learn the simple skill of real estate investing analysis. The important point to understand is that the analysis will vary, depending on the type of real estate being discussed. This article focuses exclusively on residential single family and duplex properties purchased for rehab and wholesale purposes.

The first step in your real estate investing analysis is to determine the fair market value of the property after all repairs have been completed. This is done most accurately by having a Realtor run a comparable sales comparison report. Make sure the properties your Realtor chooses are truly comparable, not simply the same bedroom count, but also the same type of construction, in the same neighborhood, roughly the same age, etc..

The next step in performing your real estate investing analysis is to determine the cost of all needed repairs to bring the property into what I call ?retail condition?. In other words, how much will all the repairs cost to complete, including materials, labor, and holding costs?

Once you have determined these two values- After Repair Market Value and Repair Costs- the next step in the real estate investing analysis process is some simple subtraction. Subtract the Repair Costs from the After Repair Market Value to arrive at the property?s Current Market Value.

Once you are armed with the Current Market Value of a property, it?s a simple matter to complete the real estate investing analysis and arrive at your offer price. Your offer price will be the Current Market Value minus either $20,000 or 30%, whichever is lower.

To make this real estate investing analysis process all very clear, here’s an example: Suppose you are looking at a single family home in a mid-priced neighborhood. The Realtor pulls Comparables and you determine that the After Repair Value of the property is $150,000. You further estimate that the repairs needed will cost $30,000 to complete, including materials, labor, and holding costs.

Next, as part of your real estate investing analysis, you subtract the $30,000 Repair Costs from the $150,000 After Repair Value, and arrive at a Current Market Value of $120,000. You subtract $20,000 from $120,000 and get $100,000. You also subtract 30% from $120,000 and get $84,000. The lesser of $100,000 or $84,000 is $84,000, so that is your offer price- $84,000.

Using this formula for real estate investing analysis you may miss out on a few properties you could have bought otherwise, but you will never overpay for a property, and you will always make money.

Now, go make more offers!

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