Top Tips I Wish I Knew When I Started Real Estate Investing

Imagine if you had a roadmap that helped you reach your real estate investing goals based on what you like, your interests, and your risk tolerance. A roadmap that saves you time and money by optimizing your investing experience to acquire your properties and make your money. 

That's what you get with this article; a roadmap gleaned from the experiences of a real estate attorney and investor, Jason Marino, ESQ. This list of tips benefits those just starting who don't have much real estate investing experience. Anyone can grow their real estate business if they are willing to follow some fundamentals and learn the basics. 

This beginner's guide will look at the top tips a real estate investor should know when investing in properties. 

Your Team Of Industry Insiders

As you find deals and decide where to invest, you may not be acquiring properties where you live. Sometimes the best deals are properties in another part of the state or a different state altogether. You'll have to learn how to acquire and manage your real estate remotely. 

As a real estate investor, time is your most valuable asset. To save time and money, you should build a team. At a minimum, your team must include the following types of people:

• Real estate professionals
  • Agent
  • Flipper
  • Wholesaler 
• Conventional and creative lenders
  • Banks, conventional loans
  • Crowd-Funding
  • Hard-money
  • Private lenders
  • SDIRA
  • Venture Capital 
• Rental managers
  • Take the stress off you 
  • Deal with tenants and toilets
  • Understands local laws
  • Let you free up your time for more lucrative activities
• Contractors
  • Do renovations for a living; they do it better; they do it cheaper
• Accountants
  • CPA 
  • Save yourself from audits
  • Investment specific that go with your scaling
  • It saves time and money
• Legal Team
  • Professionals that focus on investors
• Title Company
  • Use multiple title companies
  • Answer you questions
  • Look into the chain of title

Work with professionals who have real estate investing experience

All professionals will bring something of value to a conversation, but a specialist will be better for you than a generalist. A generalist won't know how to address your pain points. Some professionals lack relevant experience and won't understand your specific needs as a real estate investor. 

Find a team of professionals who have direct personal experience or business experience in real estate investing:

• Shop around to find the right pros to work with 
• Ask for recommendations 
• Don't hesitate to make a change if you find a professional who is more aligned with your goals 

Make Money With Market Research

Market research is the difference between profitable properties and losing time and money. It also allows you to take emotion out of the equation.

You want details and data for your market research. Some research your team on the ground will provide. You can also do plenty of initial research on the internet: 

• Home prices
• Neighborhoods
• Rental prices
• Market needs and suitability for long-term, medium-term, and short-term rentals
• Know the average time on market
• Vacancy rates
• Landlord and tenant codes to gauge the friendliness of the local law to landlords; this evolves; check into this biannually

Focus Is Key To Profit

Most people will succeed more by focusing on a single aspect of real estate investing. Diversifying too much can be detrimental and counterproductive because you will have to spend time managing various types of investments. 

An aphorism highlights the importance of focusing: "A jack of all trades is the master of none." More pointedly, if you had to have brain surgery, would you rather have your general practitioner or a neurosurgeon with years of experience? 

Pick a lane, pick a focus, and be intentional. Scattered focus is scattered resources.: 

• Syndications
• Notes
• Flipping
• Wholesaling
• House hacking; rent out part of a house, guest house, apartment, or duplex

Mentors Reveal Insider Secrets and Tricks 

In this industry, you have to network and speak with someone who has experience in the same focus area that you're prioritizing: 

• Experience is invaluable
• Learn from other people's mistakes
• Develop the connections you need to be successful
• Relationships can be paid but are often free

Analyze Your Real Estate Investing Deals For Profit Margins

Emotions are your enemy when you're investing in real estate. Remove emotion from the transactions, carefully calculate, and be intentional with your decisions.

• Find a metric that works for you that applies to your area, and be open to multiple metrics to evaluate the feasibility of a property
• Use a calculator or a system to run the numbers on all of your transactions before making an offer
• Avoid getting attached to a single deal and have a backup option and contingency

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I diversify? 

It could make sense. Risk mitigation and higher returns are a possibility. Make sure you don't spread yourself too thin. You could end up putting too much time into managing different markets. External factors like deals and available time should guide your choice to diversify. 

It's probably best to stay within a real estate investment type, you know, and diversify by geography. Find an entirely remote team you trust; this will be your biggest challenge.

What is happening with the short-term vs. long-term market? 

Short-term properties started unregulated, but that's changing. It's becoming popular. More laws and more saturation are making mid-term and long-term rentals more attractive. Eventually, oversaturation of the market should force prices to drop.

Key Real Estate Investing Takeaways

As a real estate investor, you need to have a plan for your investments. As you grow, so will your strategy. But anyone can get started by learning the basics and adhering to these fundamentals: 

• Build a team 
• Market research
• Pick a Focus
• Find a mentor
• Analyze your deals

Are you ready to start your real estate investing journey? Sign up for FREE Royal Legal Solutions Group Mentoring to learn more from our real estate investing experts.