TEN BIGGEST INVESTING MISTAKES

Real Estate investing may be a path to wealth, but it’s not always a sure thing. Beginning investors and seasoned investors alike need to learn how to avoid costly mistakes.

Here are 10 common mistakes made by new real estate investors:

1. Falling in love with the property.

Stop thinking like a homeowner and start thinking like a business owner.  Never fall in love with the property, fall in love with the deal.  When you get emotional about a property and just have to have it, that’s when you’ll make mistakes.  Look at the financial numbers, if it works, buy it; if it doesn’t, walk away.  Leave emotions out of it. 

2. Not performing your due diligence.

This is more than just an inspection of the property, although that’s essential. It’s also a thorough investigation of your area’s current rental market. What are the vacancy rates and average rents for comparable units? What’s the average age of the rental housing stock? How is the neighborhood zoned? What are the government regulations about rental properties? Has City Hall approved new rental complexes nearby?

3. Forgetting the rule of home improvements.

It will always take three times the money and twice as long as you estimated to get a unit ready to rent. Or is that twice the money and three times longer? Either way, you need to build that extra cost into your expenses.

4. Thinking you’ll get those low mortgage rates you see on TV.

Those are for owner-occupied homes. Investment property is considered a riskier loan and you’ll pay more in points and interest rates. Expect about an extra 1.5 points or half a percent more in interest rate. The credit standards also will be higher. You don’t need perfect credit but if your credit is in the dumps, you won’t get the loan.  And you won’t get many low-down or zero-down-payment offers, either.

5. Not pre-screening tenants.

New landlords can get very excited about prospective tenants who show up, take one look at the place, hand them a cash deposit, and want to move in that weekend. Don’t do it. When selecting renters make them fill out an application, and check their credit, employment and rental history before you take a dime from them. It’s a much more expensive — and potentially nasty — headache to evict a bad tenant than to have a unit sit vacant for a couple of months.

6. Breaking your own rules.

Landlords establish policies for good reasons. When they start ignoring those policies, they’re headed for trouble. No pets means no pets. Don’t ever let someone move in without a security deposit and don’t ignore collecting late fees.

7. Investing long-distance.

Unless your rental property is in a spot you love to visit regularly, such as a lake or the beach, keep your rentals very close to home. Otherwise, you’ll eat up your profits travelling back and forth to manage the property or paying someone to make repairs for you.

8. Paying too much for the property.

If you’re embarrassed to make a low-ball offer to a seller, don’t invest in real estate. Rental property owners need to know their numbers. If you pay $100,000 for a property, you may need to collect $1,000 a month in rent to pay all the bills and have a decent profit margin. If you’ve done your homework, you’ll know what your rental market will bear.

9. Not studying the competition.

Why does the guy across the street fill his units the same day someone moves out and yours sit vacant for months? He might not be very picky about whom he rents to, but he also might have lower prices, have washers and dryers in his units, pay for lawn maintenance and trash pick-up, or have his building on a wireless network.

10. Being underinsured.

Insurance on rental property goes beyond insuring the building against fire or a hurricane. You need to look at your own coverage for liability. If there’s a loose railing and a tenant’s child falls off a balcony or there is a burglary and a tenant says it’s because you wouldn’t install security alarms, you’re likely to get sued.