November 23 2018

Real Estate Investing: Getting Started

Starting out as a real estate investor can be intricate. Initially, you are not well aware of things and it is okay to be scared. You need to jump into the vast sea of investing and see what it holds for you. Educating yourself is important, but there are so many things that books cannot teach us. These things can only be learned through experience.
We have come up with an elaborate plan to get you going as a real estate investor:

Assess Your finances
Make Your own real estate investment strategy
Specify Your target market
Raise Cash
Find deals
Time management

Assess your finances:

In order to be above everyone else, you need to first know of your own potential. You need to first assess your financial circumstances and figure your way through the entire thing. As an investor, you don’t only think of your current financial situation, but also about your end financial goal. Before jumping into the real estate investment world, you need to have a clear picture of what you want our of this in terms of finances, it is only then we can proceed to the next step

Make Your own real estate investment strategy

By compiling a real estate investment strategy, you will have a point to start. At this point, you need to have a business plan, which will guide you throughout your way. We have listed some strategies for your ease:

Strategy#1: earn an extra income and stay away from losses
Strategy#2: increase your savings by increased income
Strategy#3: focus on growing your net worth
Strategy#4: Turn equity into investments

Specify Your target market

It is good to know about which group of people you are going to target as a real estate investor. The people you do business with, will determine the amount of money you are going to make. It is often preferred to invest in areas you already live. This allows investor with an intimacy with the client and being a local can be fruitful in terms of know-how of that area. After an investor has managed to master the real estate in their locality; they can now move to areas that are one hour drive away from their previous investment zone. You can also target niches like condos, mobile homes, tax liens or commercial buildings. Here are some tips that will help you choose a location for you investment:

Big picture location criteria
- Jobs and economics
- Population growth
Small picture location criteria
- Convenience
- Walkability
- Safety and Crime Rates
- School Districts
- Public Transportation

4. Raise Cash

As a real estate investor, having cash at hand can give you edge over your competitors. The real estate business allows an investor to use other people’s money to move forward. But it is never advised to build your business on lending from other people. So, raising money in important. The amount of money you need to raise depends upon your investment strategies. The direction you are going to head determines the amount of capital you need for this business. Here are some ideas through which you can raise cash:

Savings – saving is the most reliable way to funnel your business with investment. But it takes patience and there are no shortcuts.
Selling – you can sell some of your valuable items to get cash flowing in. sell your car and buy an inexpensive one. Sell your real estate and downsize to get cash-flow.
Borrow money– you need to be careful before borrowing money. An investor must be sure on the return they are going to get out of the property they are buying, it is only then they decide to move on with the loans
Partnership – Finding a partner can help you boast your business to the next level. Introduction of partner in a business guarantees more investment and more opportunities of expansion. You can agree on terms by mutual consent and sky is the limit!

5. Find great real estate deals

Once you have decided your financial goals and raised cash for your first investment. You now need to look for deals that best suits your interests. Good deals never fall in one’s lap and they need to be searched for. During the great recession, everything nice on the market was up for grabs and people got rich by buying great properties at cheaper costs. The times have changed now and market is a lot stable than it used to be. There are two main steps that allow you to find the best real estate deal:

Marketing Budget
Marketing campaigns

Marketing Budget

If you are not keeping a marketing budget, you need to make one or spend more of your personal time looking for deals. The money you spend on marketing eventually comes back to you one way or the other. An average campaign will cost you around $500, while a better one will have to have a $1000 budget.

Marketing Campaigns

There are many ways you can fix up a marketing campaign. Usually, marketing campaigns are used to get more clients rolling in. they are divided into two categories:

Low Cost:

MLS Campaign.
Referral & Networking Campaign
Drive (or Walk) For
Find Wholesalers & “Bird Dogs” .
Cold Calls.
Classified Ads.

Intermediate & High Cost:

Direct Mail
Website & Social Media
Car Signs
Yard Signs
Advertising

6. Time management

Time management has an important part to play when it comes to determining the success of a business. When it is about managing a business you need to keep track of your time and make sure that every second of it is spent in the right direction. As an investor you also need to spend time on the right things.

Time scheduling:

It is about how much time you can give to your business. You are well aware of your routines and can be your own judge regarding this matter.

Prioritize Your Actions

It is crucial to know that the time you are spending on a certain task is worth it or not? Your actions need to be sorted out well ahead of time and you need to act accordingly:

Identify Next Projects
Identify Next Actions
Do Your Next Actions:
Repeat

Conclusion

As a newbie, if you follow the above listed rules you can make a great living at real estate. You just need to give it a try and at the information we shared. Remember, that the entire process requires self-belief and patience