10 Lethal Mistakes to Avoid on Your First Real Estate Investment

Investing in real estate might seem a money-making idea but the reality is something different. There are chances of committing mistakes in your way of making the first real estate investment. Your first investment in the real estate sector will definitely enable a learning process for you. Investing as an amateur in this sector might increase your chances of losing a fair amount of money in the market due to inefficiency and lack of experience in real estate business. Your first investment in this real estate sector might not be foolproof but there is always a chance to educate yourself about the common mistakes an investor does before making his maiden entry in this sector. To make your initial real estate investment deal lucrative for you, here are the common missteps you should avoid.

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Poor Finance Management

Investing too much in your real estate property might incur losses for you in the long run. Due to financing mistakes, you might have to pay large monthly installments, a billowing amount in the first 3 years, and even have to mortgage your assets and future earnings to guarantee the loan amount.

If you are borrowing a loan amount at an inflated rate, you might have to pay a ballooning amount as an interest. It involves taking too much risk as you will be experiencing negative cash flow in your business. It is highly unlikely to replenish the scarcity of funds even if you have sufficient credit and healthy income coming from secondary sources.

If you fail to generate the desired ROI from your investment, then you will not be able to pay back the promised amount to your lender and ultimately your fixed assets might be traded as collateral for your loaned amount.

So, negotiate skillfully with private financiers and act accordingly to your plan.

Read more: What’s a protection mortgage clause and is it important?

Miscalculating the Resale or Rental costs

As a real estate investor, the first and foremost thing to do is to analyze the buying patterns of renters and buyers. This analysis will enable a value-learning for you since you will be able to assess the potential of our investment. On your first purchase, you might not be able to earn profit straightaway but you must cultivate your investment skills for the rest of your investment career. There are definite ways of stopping misjudgment of resale or rental expenses.

• You need to consult with real estate professionals for assistance in finding the right resale or rental values. Connect with property managers and real estate agents to find out the varying charges in several units in your area.
• There are digital platforms that provide news on daily real estate transactions in your locality. There are websites like Zillow, Trulia, MLS that will provide you with a detailed insight into the competitive real estate market.
• There are local real estate associates who are ready to provide you with the latest news on real estate, current trends and the property valuations in your target market.
• Always try to concentrate on a smaller market for your first round of investment. Target a specific area in close proximity to your office. If you become successful with real estate investments, try to extend your business into other areas.

Location Disadvantages

The value of a Real estate property is estimated according to the advantages of its location. Both for residential and commercial purposes, location plays an important role in valuing the property for purchase and rent.

Before investing in a certain real estate property, it is essential to adjudge the credibility of that place. It is always a challenging game for the beginners to make money from a project situated in a poor location or a location which is remotely connected to the main city.

You can pay a little extra for the projects situated in the featured locations. Such properties will act as money-spinning tools for you since the tenants and buyers always prioritize properties that are situated in posh locations in a city.

There are properties with reasonable prices situated in obscure locations in a city or maybe in the suburban areas. Those properties offer excellent seller financing terms and some of them are even priced at a ‘below-market’ price. The locations of these properties act as detriments in finding the attention of real estate investors and property buyers.

Instant Cash Burning

As an investor, you will always avoid the grim situation of cash crunch or scarcity of liquid cash. Cash acts as a fuel for your major investments. If you are running low on cash, your investment opportunities might come to a complete standstill.

Due to miscalculations of repair expenses and future running costs in a rental property, the liquated, stored cash gets wasted. To sustain your property expenses in the long run, proper planning needs to be done. Cash burn also acts as an impediment to your wealth-building.

Never walk alone

As a newcomer, it is highly implausible to take care of the designing, architecture, and maintenance of your real estate property. The right way of succeeding in this business involves building up of a right team of executives who are well-equipped with the major challenges in this sector. They must be well-versed with the latest trends in this domain and might assist you in choosing the right deal for you.

Your team should contain one or two real estate agent, a broker, a legal consultant, a tax consultant, a property inspector and a lender.

If you want to redesign and maintain your own properties, you should compose a team of plumbers, electricians, carpenters, contractors, room cleaners, property helpers and a supervisor for your properties.

Read more: A Beginner’s Real Estate Guide to Rental Property Analysis

Investing without knowledge

Without adequate education and training, real estate investors should not think of jeopardizing their financial stability. Cracking the code of success in this sector is only possible if you start reading articles and blogs on real estate situation in the United States.

Check out books by famous authors like Domenick Tiziano, William Floor. Attend the local conference of the National Real Estate Investors Association. Speakers at these monthly seminars give an idea about buying policies, investment hacks and ways of renting your properties.

If there is no local seminar or discussion in your area, try to connect with the agent who is having the maximum knowledge on rental properties in your area.

Practicing shortcuts for becoming rich

Every newcomer in the real estate sector gets influenced by the words of self-proclaimed real estate consultants who falsely spread the common misconceptions about real estate investments in the market. There are advertisements that suggest real estate investment is the easiest way to grow your wealth exponentially. However, those unethical claims can put you in an obverse track. Real estate investment is for a long period of time and you have to work smartly by taking appropriate risks to excel in this career path.

Avoiding due diligence period

Inexperienced investors often make offers with abrupt closures and no conditional due diligence period. This might help them in getting a real estate property at a lower price, but this is not the best route to follow. The newbies execute a short but reasonable due diligence about the deal, the expenses or the market situation before spending their hard-earned savings. It also allows you to opt out of the purchase contract or walk away from the deal if you are not comfortable with the clause.

Instead, hire third-party inspectors for a thorough inspection of your property. Evaluate rental expenses and take the help of the famous real-estate analytics firms to get a detailed knowledge of the property value and rental comparisons.

Reducing the number of transactions

Working on a particular deal at a time will not be able to mint profits for your business. Some deals will gift you with marginal profits while others will generate sufficient profits for you. A flow of high volume transactions in this space might help you in recovering the losses you have obtained from the shallow deals. Running a real estate business involves a steady flow of transactions that are to be equated in order to spawn a healthy income from the investments by the end of the month.

Dearth of multiple plans for recovery

Many property owners remain stranded due to lack of plans for making money from the properties. Every entrant in this industry cites two possible ways of exit: either by selling the property or by renting it out. Well, there are polynomial factors that can disturb the buying and rent transactions for a substantial period of time. How to combat such tough situations? Always keep all the doors of transactions open.

Give the property on a lease-purchase agreement to the buyer. If you have received an unfurnished property, remodel the interiors with state-of-the-art amenities and resell it to the buyer. In case, you are not finding any other option to earn money from your property, try to resell it to another investor at a price lower than the trending one. In such a case, you will earn profit from your property and reduce the losses on your operational expenses.

Read more: 9 Reasons Why Real Estate is one of the Best Investments

Written by Kukun staff. August 22, 2018

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