Time, Experience, & Money: Key Resources for Real Estate Investing
By Desert Dog on Jul 04, 2009 with Comments 0
Before pursuing any real estate investment, the investor should take a personal inventory of three critical resources: time; experience; and, money. It doesn’t matter if this is your first investment property or you have two hundred flips under your belt, a shortfall in one or more of these resources is reason to stop and reconsider. A shortfall doesn’t mean that the deal is a “no-go”, it just means that you need a plan to bridge the gap.
Time: Time, or rather a lack of time, is probably the main excuse I hear for not investing in real estate. Granted it takes a lot of time to market for leads, evaluate leads, present offers, plan and execute the property rehab, be a landlord, and sell the property. If you already have a full time job, you may only have a couple of hours each week for investing. Not only can this mean losing out on deals, it can mean dragging a three week rehab into a three month ordeal.
Does a lack of time mean that you can not invest in real estate? Absolutely not! It means that you should be looking for an established team. Even full time investors don’t try to do everything themselves, so why should you?
Experience: It is easy to use a lack of experience as an excuse to sit on the sidelines, but the reality is that you will never gain experience until you take action and get into the real estate game. Classes, books, and seminars are great (don’t even ask how much I have spent on these!), but they will never give you the experience and confidence that comes with your own personal successes and mistakes. This doesn’t mean that you should just jump in and buy an underperforming, 50-unit apartment building! Find a way to start small and have a plan to grow as you gain experience.
Money: Money certainly makes investing easier, but many of the most successful investors I know started with no money. Money is the ultimate excuse. Oddly enough, even people with money use it as an excuse not to invest (I’m doing OK; or, I can’t afford to lose it.)
Teams & Partners: The cold truth is that none of us have enough time, experience, or money to reach our goals by ourselves. The fastest way to your goals is to find a team that you trust and work together. Don’t have time? Use your money to fund investors with more time and experience than you have. Don’t have experience? Find a mentor that is willing to teach you in exchange for the use of your time. Don’t have money? Use your time to put together deals for your partners to fund.
Each of us has something to offer. Can you stuff envelopes for a direct mail campaign? Can you build websites? Are you a good negotiator? Do you absolutely love bookkeeping? Each of these can make you valuable to other investors and can earn you a percentage of a deal. It is really a question of commitment and ingenuity.
I love working with other investors. To me real estate investing is not about properties, it is about building relationships. So if you would like help putting together an investing plan that makes sense for you, contact me here.
(Images courtesy of www.DailyClipArt.net)
© 2009, The Desert Dog Journal. All rights reserved.
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Filed Under: Investing • Real Estate
