Real Estate Success

Real estate success? It happens by way of the many things you repeatedly do right, and it is your habits that ensure they get done. Here are some habits to develop for your real estate investing success.

Ask for people's names, and tell them yours. People are your most valuable resource in real estate investing. The more you know, the more likely you are to find good properties, or buyers for your good properties. Get to know the right people too. Start with a real estate agent that gets many listings of the type you are interested in. Wouldn't it be nice if he called you first?

Think numbers. Think people first, but know the relevant numbers. Ideally, when you look at a rental property, for example, you should be thinking about the income, the expenses, and the cap rate. You should be imagining how certain changes would allow you to raise the income, and what that would do to the value. Having a "feeling" about a property, and ignoring the numbers, gets investors into trouble.

Carry supplies. Always have at least business cards, pen and paper on you. You never know when you might see a property for sale, or hear about one. Mention that you invest in real estate, and sellers, buyers and other investors suddenly appear with information, opinions, and sometimes deals. Be ready.

Think risk reduction. Put those inspection, financing, and other contingency clauses in the offer, so you will get your deposit back when a deal falls through. Know your exit strategy before you buy. Find value by comparables, not "hunches." Buy properties through your corporation or LLC. Always look for ways to reduce the risks.

Real Estate Success Is Found In Action

Set action-oriented goals. Get in the habit of taking regular steps towards real estate success. Require yourself to look at a certain number of properties, and maybe even to write a certain number of offers each month. Set at least minimum goals for all sorts of little steps, like making five phone calls per week, checking online for new listings twice per week, and so on. Action creates momentum, and repeated action creates habits. Good habits lead to success.

Finally, learning more about investing from books, magazines and even tapes or CDs is a great idea. Just be sure to spend as much time doing something as reading about it. Some of us let our fascination and enjoyment of reading about investing get in the way of actually investing, and of our real estate success.

 

Lisa Jones is a seasoned realtor affiliated with RE/MAX Bryan-College Station. She offers a one-stop source for real estate services and information about Bryan-College Station Real Estate. Visit her homepage for a complete list of real properties college station, and you just might find the home you have been dreaming to have.

 

Real Estate Market Research

Start your real estate market research with the U.S. Census information about a town. You want to invest in a town that is growing, especially if you are investing in income properties. It's getting easier to do this now, with all the information available online. Just go to the official U.S. Census site at www.census.gov.

If you call the chamber of commerce, or the local department of economic development, they may have a packet of statisics they can send you too, showing population figures, employment mix, and more. These are a couple of the statistical tools and information that can help, but one of the easiest and most useful research tools, is talking. 

Real Estate Market Research - Choosing a City

Talking is a great way to research a town. I once called the  Chamber of Commerce of Deming, New Mexico. In the course of our conversation, the chairman casually commented that the city was using up the water faster than the aquifer was being replenished. I also learned that they had no back-up plan. That was enough to cross Deming off our list.

When you want to know more about a town, use the phone. Use any excuse to call anyone from a real estate agent to a random resident. Ask questions about crime, whether the local government welcomes new businesses, what the climate is like. Are houses sitting for sale for a long time, or do they go fast? Where are the good and bad areas? What are the good and bad things about the town?

Prior to moving to Tucson, Arizona, part of our real estate market research was to call people in potential towns to see if they owned a snow shovel. If they did, we crossed the town off the list. Two different places can both get 25 inches of snow per year, but in one it stays all winter, and in another it melts before noon. Our snow shovel question told us the truth behind the statistics.

That was just a personal thing with us, of course, but talking to people can tell you much that is more directly related to investing. In fact, a good local bar can be a great place to do your research once you are in a town. Patrons will tell you what big employers are about to move in or out of the town, how fast homes are selling, whether there are gangs, and much more. 

Ask which areas are improving, and which are getting worse. Listen for stories about noisy or animal-infested areas. This kind of information is important, but hard to get from the raw data. Of course, people do sometimes exaggerate, so try to verify what you hear. Still, talking to people of can be a great way to do real estate market research.

 

Lisa Jones is a seasoned realtor affiliated with RE/MAX Bryan-College Station. She offers a one-stop source for real estate services and information about Bryan-College Station Real Estate. Visit her homepage for a complete list of real properties college station, and you just might find the home you have been dreaming to have.