7 Tips For Real Estate Investing Success

January 2, 2010 by Kenny Santos  
Filed under Real Estate Investing

1. Find out what you really want from your investments.

Set goals. Where do you want to be 5 years from now? Do you want a much larger nicer house for your family? How about waltzing into a car dealership and paying cash? Picture what you want.

Your investing needs to provide a living -and a lifestyle. You need to be able to look forward and enjoy your life and your family.

If you want to coach your children’s sports teams, your real estate needs to give you the time, not steal the time from those precious events.

With proper planning you can learn how to out-source but you’ve got to know where you want to go before you can get there.

2. Start simple and keep it simple

Sometimes it’s too easy to lose focus because of information overload. Our generation is being bombarded with more knowledge than any in history. And it’s only going to get worse.

Real estate is basic investing. Stick to the fundamentals. Go to the old gurus such as Tyler Hicks and read the old books. Markets come and go, but the basics never change.

3. Do your investing one small step at a time

Don’t try to compete with Donald Trump with your first property. Start small.

Get your first property going. Then move on to the second and the third. Don’t worry about what the stars and experts in online forums are doing. They’ve been at it for a long time. Naturally they can do more. And you will too if you don’t allow your investing to get too complicated.

4. Focus on one aspect of investing for six months

What are you really interested in? Foreclosures, Buy and Hold, Short Sales?

How is the market doing in your area of interest? Concentrate on one type of investment and soak up everything you can about it for six months. Not only will you become an expert but it will be almost second nature to you.

5. Design your investing around your strengths and weaknesses.

Okay, this is the challenging one.

We’ve been taught all our lives that winners do what they hate. It’s a conditioning process. In order to get it done, we’ve got to make ourselves do the dog work.

That’s okay for football or high school algebra, but real estate investing is different.

You need to like it. If there are parts of it you don’t like, don’t get bent out of shape about it. Sub those parts out. Out sourcing is one of the most valuable lessons you can teach yourself.

Don’t get upset about landlording if it’s not your thing. Out source that too. The most important point is to invest. That’s where the money is.

6.Stop analyzing and buy something

There are investors who paralyze themselves to death with market analysis. Another way of putting it is they are fearful of doing it. Jump in. Get your feet wet. Sure, you might make some mistakes but if you read the right real estate materials and study the right courses, as well as networking, you can cut those mistakes down to miniscule small potatoes.

7. Set aside some properties for your lifetime profits.

This is your own personal bank. Whether you’re a flipper, wholesaler, rehabber and you want to move those properties fast, this advice still applies to you.

It’s amazing to me how some investors let perfectly great properties get out of their hands because they want to make a quick profit. Occasionally, keep a few of them. Hold on and watch them appreciate. They may truly pay for your old age.

Alice Stevens is a real estate investor with 19 years experience in property management. She writes regularly for the lively and quick-witted blog, Real Estate Windfall. http://www.realestatewindfall.com

Real Estate Investing - Self-Analysis

October 8, 2009 by Kenny Santos  
Filed under Real Estate Investing

Most people just starting out in real estate investing focus on buzz phrases like, ?property analysis? and ?due-diligence?. The relationship between these two is important to any real estate investor, both experienced and inexperienced alike. The other aspect that is equally important, if not more important is self-analysis.

Now I don?t mean psychological self-analysis either. Self-analysis is about taking a good look at your own financial situation, knowledge of investments, resources, strengths and weaknesses, and personal preferences. When we first began our real estate investment company, we agreed that personal guarantees for loans for any project for the company was not in our best interest. This is an example of a personal preference. This obviously has an impact on how we conduct our business.

Many real estate investors face the reality of having to borrow money in order to begin purchasing real estate. A great place to start analysing is your own wallet. Then match that to your personal preferences. For instance, if you were to consider buying a ?fixer upper? and you had $5000 in your bank account. You would have to consider your options based not only on the amount of money in your bank account, but also the implications of borrowing money. This includes your credit, your personal assets, your family situation and the risks involved.

Bullets are always nice, so here are some to help you focus on what should be considering before ?going for broke? (which is what you want to avoid):

Money in bank
Access to more money if needed
Credit

Possible risks to credit
What do these risks mean to you (how much do you care about them)?
Family - how will this effect your family?
Current assets
Current debts

Take these bullets and then match them to the following:

What are the potential problems that may arise?
How well prepared are you to handle these challenges?
How well do you handle pressure?
What experience do you have?
What are some resources you can use that can help you?
What money sources can you access if needed?
Who do you know that can help you?
How can you meet people that can possibly help you?
Do you want to do what it takes to actually start meeting people in the business?
What if you lose all your money?
What if your credit is destroyed?
What if you lose everything you have?

On a scale of 1 - 10 (1 = Absolutely No Risk and 10 = Extremely High Risk), how risky is the investment strategy?

Those ?what if? questions are probably the most scary out of the bunch and they are also the root of what keeps many people from taking the first step toward making that first real estate investment or starting their own business. Regardless of these questions, if you want to start investing in real estate or start your own business, these questions have to be asked honestly.

But look at the entire list also! Part of the power of the ?what if? questions are that they overshadow all the other options. The self-analysis you do is an absolute must. Any person who is considering real estate investing as a viable option for wealth building has to answer these questions on their own. No one can answer them but you.

Self-analysis is important because knowing yourself is the first building block to success. You?ve got to understand yourself and be honest. If you sugarcoat it, you will ultimately fail. There are so many different ways to begin a career or business in real estate, it?s almost unbelievable. But no matter what path you choose, you?ve got to sit down and look at yourself seriously. Where there are strengths, grow them and where there are weaknesses, work on them. Real estate investment success or business success in general, does not happen overnight, neither does self-analysis. Sit down, figure it out. Then go out and make money!

?2007 noobdogs.com

Noobdogs.com offers a place for fellow new investors in real estate to ask questions and get good, sound information they can understand. Noobdogs.com is owned and operated by AmeriCountry Realty Group LLC. Founded in 2006 by Tom McGiveron, a Behavior Specialist and entrepreneur, noobdogs.com is becoming the premier site for new investors to achieve success in personal development and real estate investment.

7 Tips For Real Estate Investing Success

April 28, 2009 by Kenny Santos  
Filed under Real Estate Investing

1. Find out what you really want from your investments.

Set goals. Where do you want to be 5 years from now? Do you want a much larger nicer house for your family? How about waltzing into a car dealership and paying cash? Picture what you want.

Your investing needs to provide a living -and a lifestyle. You need to be able to look forward and enjoy your life and your family.

If you want to coach your children’s sports teams, your real estate needs to give you the time, not steal the time from those precious events.

With proper planning you can learn how to out-source but you’ve got to know where you want to go before you can get there.

2. Start simple and keep it simple

Sometimes it’s too easy to lose focus because of information overload. Our generation is being bombarded with more knowledge than any in history. And it’s only going to get worse.

Real estate is basic investing. Stick to the fundamentals. Go to the old gurus such as Tyler Hicks and read the old books. Markets come and go, but the basics never change.

3. Do your investing one small step at a time

Don’t try to compete with Donald Trump with your first property. Start small.

Get your first property going. Then move on to the second and the third. Don’t worry about what the stars and experts in online forums are doing. They’ve been at it for a long time. Naturally they can do more. And you will too if you don’t allow your investing to get too complicated.

4. Focus on one aspect of investing for six months

What are you really interested in? Foreclosures, Buy and Hold, Short Sales?

How is the market doing in your area of interest? Concentrate on one type of investment and soak up everything you can about it for six months. Not only will you become an expert but it will be almost second nature to you.

5. Design your investing around your strengths and weaknesses.

Okay, this is the challenging one.

We’ve been taught all our lives that winners do what they hate. It’s a conditioning process. In order to get it done, we’ve got to make ourselves do the dog work.

That’s okay for football or high school algebra, but real estate investing is different.

You need to like it. If there are parts of it you don’t like, don’t get bent out of shape about it. Sub those parts out. Out sourcing is one of the most valuable lessons you can teach yourself.

Don’t get upset about landlording if it’s not your thing. Out source that too. The most important point is to invest. That’s where the money is.

6.Stop analyzing and buy something

There are investors who paralyze themselves to death with market analysis. Another way of putting it is they are fearful of doing it. Jump in. Get your feet wet. Sure, you might make some mistakes but if you read the right real estate materials and study the right courses, as well as networking, you can cut those mistakes down to miniscule small potatoes.

7. Set aside some properties for your lifetime profits.

This is your own personal bank. Whether you’re a flipper, wholesaler, rehabber and you want to move those properties fast, this advice still applies to you.

It’s amazing to me how some investors let perfectly great properties get out of their hands because they want to make a quick profit. Occasionally, keep a few of them. Hold on and watch them appreciate. They may truly pay for your old age.

Alice Stevens is a real estate investor with 19 years experience in property management. She writes regularly for the lively and quick-witted blog, Real Estate Windfall. http://www.realestatewindfall.com