You can make more money by having a good real estate accountant.

All real estate investors need a quality real estate accountant on their team.

Not just any real estate accountant though.  As a real estate investor, you need to ensure that your own real estate accountant is a real estate investor as well.

Accountants who invest in real estate themselves, understand what real estate investing is all about. Thus, they are able to relate very easily to their clients.  Their clients being of course, real estate investors.  Further, real estate accountants understand real estate investors well because the same tax implications and tax deductions allowable to real estate investors would apply to them as well.  After all, they are real estate investors themselves!

It is important to remember that real estate accountants have a large amount of specialized knowledge.   With this specialized knowledge they are able to help you deduct more expenses than an accountant with no specialized knowledge regarding real estate investing.

When you truly start adding up the numbers, and look at your tax return each and every year, there is no questions in my mind that a good real estate accountant will both save you and make you money.

Even if you have just one property in your portfolio, you need a good accountant that specializes in dealing with real estate investors.

My very own real estate accountant, George Dube, wrote a timely article over at his blog.  It is a great article called, What is a Real Estate Accountant? George does a great job in breaking down what exactly a real estate account is.

Do not underestimate the importance of having a quality real estate accountant on your team.  They are one of the most important members of your real estate team.

Best Regards,

Neil Uttamsingh

ps: If you are serious about real estate investing and need advice on how to get started, sign up to my blog today.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe4xAlTyvkY[/youtube]

If you are a student of real estate investing, you will hear the term “Real Estate Empire” a lot.

Successful real estate investors who have managed to build their own real estate empires have often done so by buying properties in the same location.  When I refer to location, I am referring to a specific City or Town.

This is a smart strategy as it helps to simplify your life.

For example, if you manage to assemble a portfolio of 10 rental properties in the same city, you will more than likely have an easier time managing this portfolio than if you owned 10 rental properties in 10 different cities.

If you own properties in 10 different cities, your life is going to be more complicated for sure.

Not only will things be more complicated for you, you will also need to have a lot more specialized knowledge in order to succeed.  Here is what I mean…

For instance, you will need to know the market rent and market values of all 10 of  these cities, as opposed to just 1 city.  You will have to stay up to date with all of the market information for all 10 cities.  As things change, and as market rents increase or decrease, you better be up to date on what the rents have changed to.

After all, if you don’t know the market rents, how do you know if you are renting out your property for the right price?  If you don’t know the accurate market rent, you could very well be renting your property out for $200 or more less per month than what you should be renting it for.

Also, if you do not know the market value of the properties, how do you know if you are buying the property for the right price?  If you don’t know the market value of the properties, you could easily overpay 20, 30, 40 thousand or more for the property than what you should be paying.

On top of it, if you are having your properties professionally managed, and if they are all in cities far apart, you may need to know and deal with up to 10 different property managers!  That is a large number of property managers to build and maintain relationships with.

Try to keep things simple by building your real estate empire in the same location.

Years down the road, when you look back upon your efforts, you will thank yourself.

Best Regards,

Neil Uttamsingh

FirstRentalProperty.com

ps: If you liked this video, I encourage you to subscribe to my blog, First Rental Property in order to watch more videos just like this one!

pps: Also, don’t forget….If you need help buying your first rental property check out REIN Live Events and REIN Home Study Courses.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6dD3vHoohA[/youtube]

Providing value to other people is the quickest way to becoming a better real estate investor.

Very few people understand this concept and even fewer people put it into practice.

When you take the focus off of yourself, and put the focus on others, good things will start to happen for you.

Find ways of helping other people before you help yourself.

This can be done by taking the time to make referrals back to your Realtor, Property Manager and Mortgage Broker.

Treat them with respect.

When you do this, you will be amazed at the effect this has.

You will be treated with respect in return, and you will be well liked.

As a result, if you are ever in a time of need down the road, and need to leverage on some of your real estate team members, they will be there to support you, as you had supported them in the past.

Providing Value To Others is a difficult concept to explain properly.  Only by practicing this concept do you begin to see the importance of it.

Try doing this for a while.  Provide value to others that is.  Expect nothing in return…just give back to others.

You will be pleasantly surprised to see how you are received as a real estate investor by everyone you interact with.

The value of your ‘stock’ will rise.  People will begin to see you in a new light.

Please now view my video which explains the concept of Providing Value to Others.

Best Regards,

Neil Uttamsingh

ps: If you would like to watch more videos like this one, follow my blog and subscribe to First Rental Property today!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we0EFK0_DZI[/youtube]

New Real Estate Investors make a certain mistake over and over.  I have no idea why they keep on making this same mistake.  I can’t explain it.

What I can do is identify it, and offer recommendations as to how to avoid making it.

The mistake I see new investors make is:

Failing to get second opinions.

Let’s pretend that your car needs a tune up.

You take your car into your local auto body shop to get a quote on how much the work on your car is going to cost.

The manager of the auto shop quotes you a price.  You don’t know if the price is fair or not, given that you know nothing about cars.

What do you do?

Do you blindly accept the price?

Or do you seek out another quote before getting the work done?

I believe most people would answer by saying that they would get another quote.

I mean, after all, who would pay a price for something not knowing if that price was fair or not…right?

Well, dear real estate investors…

You will be surprised how often this happens in the real estate investing arena.  Specifically with new real estate investors.

Here are 3 Dumb Mistakes New Real Estate Investors Make

ONE

Picking the wrong neighbourhood

As a new real estate investor, you have to do your due dilligence in picking the right neighbourhood that you will invest in.  Being new to investing, you may know nothing about the neighbourhood that you are about to invest in.  If this is the case, you are probably learning from and taking the advice of a more experienced real estate investor or Realtor that knows that area well.

This is all fine and dandy but…

As a new real estate investor, you have to go one step further, and get a second opinion on the neighbourhood from someone else.  This second opinion can come from another Realtor or another experienced investor.  The opinion has to come from someone who knows that area well.

Why do you need a second opinion on the neighbourhood?

You need a second opinion because there may be something about the neighbourhood that the Realtor you are working with or the investor that is helping you does not know.

When I purchased one rental property, I bought it in a neighbourhood that I had heard from a number of people was a good place to buy.  Based on this information, I chose this neighbourhood as the place that I was going to buy.  When I found the particular property that I was going to buy, I bought that property, WITHOUT getting a second opinion from another Realtor or investor.

Little did I know that I bought the property a couple of streets over from a section of the neighbourhood that many investors avoided.  This smaller area, was avoided by a lot of investors because the tenant profile was a little bit rough and the properties were run down.

Fortunately, the property that I ended up purchasing was a good one, and I have had no problems with it thus far.

However, if I had done some more due dilliigence and asked for a second opinion of the neighbourhood, there is a chance that I would have passed on this property, knowing that the neighbouring streets had a rough tenants profile.

TWO

Paying the wrong price for a property

I have spoken to many real estate investors who have demonstrated great excitement when talking about buying their first rental property.

However, it is disturbing to hear how people are over paying for their properties.

Why is this happening?

I think it has a lot to do with the emotions that investors are feeling.  They are new to the game, and excited to get a deal done.  When they are in the moment, they don’t take the time to think if they are over paying or not….because they just want to own something.

When you are buying your first rental property, you need to take a step back and get a second opinion on the price that you are paying for the property.

You can get a second opinion on this by asking your Realtor to see comparable properties that sold, or you can ask an experienced investor that owns properties in that area how much properties are going for.

Further, you should never make your ultimate decision on how much you are going to pay for a property based on one person’s opinion. After all, they may not have your best interest at heart…

I have heard of cases where investors have purchased rental property using a Realtor, and without even looking at any comparable sales.

If you chose to buy properties like this, how do you know if you paid the right price???

You have just overpaid $20,000 for the property.

THREE

Overpaying for renovations

Once a real estate investor has purchased their first rental property, they may be overly excited to renovate the property.

A lot of the time real estate investors will buy properties that need some work done to them.  Perhaps the home needs some new flooring and a coat of paint.  Or maybe the home needs to have it’s furnace replaced, as the current one is a bit old. Or maybe all it needs is some new tiles in the bathroom.

Whatever the case is, new real estate investors are making mistakes when it comes to completing renovations on their first rental property.

A mistake that they are making is accepting whatever price is quoted to them by the first tradesperson they talk to.

For instance, if you need your floors and walls painted, you may get a quote of $6,000 dollars by a handyman that was referred to you.  Most new real estate investors accept that first quote that they get, and get the work completed based on that quote.

Very few investors, with their first property take the time to get multiple quotes from a number of handymen.

If you do this, you will be amazed at the range of pricing you will get…for the exact same work !!!

Here is a story that I will share with you, that hopefully drives home the importance of getting multiple quotes.

I was replacing the flooring in one of my renal properties.

I decided to deal with well known companies to get the job done.

I got a quote from a company who had multiple store locations in the same city.  I got a quote from one of the stores, however, I felt that the store manager that I was dealing with wasn’t telling me the truth about everything.  I just got a funny feeling from him.

As such, I decided to go to another store location of the Company in the same city.  I got a quote from this location that was 50% cheaper than the quote from the other store.  Which resulted in over $1000 of savings.

Nothing had changed regarding the quote…just the people, and store locations I was dealing with.

Had I just blindly gone with the first quote that I got, I would have been cheated.

Don’t make dumb mistakes.  Get second opinions on everything!

Best Regards,

Neil Uttamsingh

ps: Let other people make dumb mistakes, not you!  Be Smart and Subscribe to First Rental Property today!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAsnlT3Lpz0[/youtube]

Happy New Year Everyone!  The Blogosphere went really quiet this holiday season.  There were not as many posts being made to real estate blogs, and for good reason.  It was a holiday time and people were taking a break!

First Rental Property was plugging away this past week.  As a result, we have 2 new posts to share…

Wednesday

Your Cash Flow Business Is Sinking

Some people believe that real estate investing is all about ‘appreciation’.  Other people believe that real estate investing is all about ‘cash flow’.  Which train of thought is the correct one?  Find out by reading this article…

Read the full article here

Friday

Top 10 Blogs for Real Estate Investors 2010

New real estate investors need support.  All the support you need can be found via real estate blogs.  There are a lot of great real estate blogs out there currently.  In my opinion, none of them are better than these top 10.

Read the full article here

Best Regards,

Neil Uttamsingh

ps: Read the First Rental Property Weekly Wrap each week so that you can become a more confident that knowledgeable real estate investor.  You will find articles here that will help you along your real estate investing journey.

pps: Subscribe to First Rental Property today!!

People get scared out of their mind with the idea of buying their first rental property.  Fear is the culprit.  It causes people to shake in their boots and paralyzes them so that they cannot take any forward moving action.

What most people don’t realize is that they have an unfair advantage when it comes to battling and defeating fear.  This unfair advantage is:

Real Estate Blogs.

Not just any real estate blogs.  Rather,  Real Estate blogs written by experienced real estate investors.  Further, these blogs for the most part take a positive approach and the author(s) of the blogs are genuinely interested in educating their readers.

If you are a new real estate investor, looking for more education and a different perspective on how to buy your first rental property, you don’t need to look any further. I highly recommend each and everyone of these blogs.

Happy reading!

1.  Life As Real Estate Investors Julie Broad and Dave Peniuk are proud Canadian Real Investors.  They have a large  following and for good reason.  They do an absolutely terrific job teaching people how to get started as a real estate investor.  They are leaders in the industry and you should follow them if you are not currently.

2.  Rock Star Inner Circle Blog Tom and Nick Karadza in my books are the smartest Canadian online real estate marketers.  Even better, they are two stand up guys.  They do a superb job teaching people how to invest in real estate.  They are not shy to share some of their earlier challenges as real estate investors.    New investors, you need to check out their blog.

3.  Mr Hamilton Erwin Szeto is figuring out the blogging world fast.  Erwin is building an authority blog on Hamilton, Ontario. Hamilton is one of the top investment towns in Canada to buy rental properties. Erwin is a pleasant person with a killer amount of knowledge on the Hamilton, Ontario, Canada real estate market.  If you want to know a little bit more about this market, learn directly from Mr. Hamilton himself.

4.  The Engaged Investor Joe Ragona of The Engaged Investor was the Rocky Balboa of Real Estate bloggers in 2010.  Just like Rocky did, Joe has the Eye of The Tiger.  I see big things coming from Mr. Ragona in 2011.  Keep an eye on him!

5.  Good Faith Investing Shae Bynes of Good Faith Investing is one of my favourite Real Estate Bloggers of 2010.  Not only does she bring a positive outlook to the topic of real estate investing, her blog also keeps on getting better and better. She is a very good writer, and I have picked up a lot of tips from her. If you are a new real estate investor, you need to check out Shae’s blog.

6.  Higher Ground Real Estate Investments Inc Wade Graham is a respected Canadian Real Estate Investor and Blogger.  What really caught my attention this year about Wade was when he ran for Municipal Council in Canmore, Alberta, Canada.  The positive vibes that Wade radiates are felt all across Canada.  If you are a new investor trying to figure out how to raise joint venture money, take a look at Wade’s website.  There is a lot that you can learn from him.

7.  Don R. Campbell’s Blog Don R. Campbell is the President of The Real Estate Investment Network.  Any real estate investor that closely follows the Canadian industry, knows who Don is.  Don is an authority on real estate education in Canada.  Many Canadian real estate investors owe a lot of their success to the network and education that Don has made available.   His blog is going to be a tremendous success in 2011 and beyond.

8.  Mobile Home Investing I have been following the work of John Fedro for over a year now.  John is a mobile home investing expert in the USA.  If mobile home investing is what you are interested in, John is the person to learn from.  He has a lot of experience investing in mobile homes and a lot of interesting stories to share.  If I was living in the USA, and just starting out with real estate investing, I would follow John’s strategy completely.

9.  Diva Money Club Four Real Estate Investing Diva Powerhouses are spreading their collective message through their new blog, Diva Money Club,  launched at the end of 2010.  These Divas are not only exceptional real estate investors, they are also expert online real estate marketers.  I have learned a lot from each one of them, and you can as well.

10.  The Bigger Pockets Blog Bigger Pockets is the largest online real estate community that I have come across.  In my opinion, one of the reasons as to the success of their blog is due to the fact that the real estate writers come from very different places in life and have a varying degree of experience.  Josh Dorkin has done a great job in assembling this real estate social networking site.    This blog is  must for the new American real estate investors looking to get started.

Best Regards,

Neil Uttamsingh

ps: I provide knowledge and confidence to new and aspiring real estate investors so that they can buy their first rental property.  If you liked this blog post, please subscribe to my blog today!

Real Estate investors tend to be a very strong headed bunch of people that work hard and are goal oriented. Yet at the same time they have a very difficult time admitting when they have screwed up.

Whether an investor owns one property, three properties or three hundred properties there are some early warning signs for when a real estate investor’s business is sinking.

These early warning signs are:

1) A Lack of Enthusiasm

2) Decreased Cash Flow

A Lack of Enthusiasm

If you are around the real estate investing game long enough, you notice that some investors become ‘burnt out’ as time goes on.

Real Estate investors can get ‘burnt out’ at any stage of their real estate investing career.  I have personally met investors that have become completely burnt out after investing for 5 years and under.  I have also met real estate investors who have become ‘burnt out’ after over 20 years in the real estate investing business.

Once your enthusiasm begins to dwindle, you need to address this issue promptly, otherwise you are in for big trouble.

A lack of enthusiasm means that the landlord becomes less responsive to their real estate investment business.  This can prove to be a fatal error.  If you take a back seat approach to running your business, a lot of problems can arise.

Due to the fact that an investor takes a back seat and is now less responsive, this could mean that they:

• Become lazy when responding to repairs and maintenance issues. For example, their response time to a tenant request could have been 24 hours at the beginning of their investing career when they were full of energy.  They may have now become fed up with investing and as a result, are much slower to respond to tenant request.  Maybe now, instead of taking 24 hours to respond…it takes them a week or longer to respond.  Trouble really starts to arise when the landlord stops responding on first contact by the tenant.  This is a horrible move on the part of the investor when it comes to customer service.

• Not inspecting rental properties. This can cause even the smallest repair item to compound in magnitude over time.  For example, a small piece of rust in a bath tub might seem insignificant.  If not looked after, the rust will turn into a hole, and the resulting water damage that the house will incur will be significant.

• Failing to thoroughly screen tenants. Every real estate investor, who has been in the investing game long enough has more than likely rented to a tenant that they thought was great before they moved in, however, ended up as a nightmare tenant.  If your enthusiasm for our business declines, you will not exercise the same due diligence in screening tenants that you once did.  Maybe you have dropped the ball is this department, or maybe you have outsourced the tenant locating process to someone that doesn’t really care who rents your property.

• No longer rewarding tenants. —  At the beginning of their real estate investing career, an investor may have provided their tenants with gift baskets at Christmas and the periodic gift card to show their appreciation for being good tenants.  Now…well now, the landlord doesn’t give them anything. When the investor no longer has enthusiasm towards their business, they are not doing the little things like this, which make all the difference in the world, especially when it comes to retaining quality tenants.

Decreased Cash Flow

As a real estate investor, you are simply a ship out at sea.

One of your main objectives is to navigate your way through the water.  The water represents real estate investing and you are the ship.   One of the problems when you are out at sea is that the waters become very choppy.

Without question, choppy waters and storms arise, while you are out at sea.  These tough times are directly comparable to the tough times that you will experience as a real estate investor.  I relate the choppy water to all of the problems that you would encounter, such as non-paying tenants, dealing with dead-beat tenants, major repairs, and long unexpected vacancies.

One of the key factors that helps to keep your boat afloat during these tough and very scary times is your cash flow.  Without cash flow, your boat will sink.

You can think of your cash flow as your life boat.

…you can rely on your cash flow to keep you alive, during the tough times.

Plain and simple, cash flow keeps your real estate investment business alive.  As soon as you start to experience a decline in your over all cash flow levels, this matter needs to be closely monitored and dealt with promptly.  If you have no cash flow being generated from your real estate business, you will not be able to ‘weather’ the choppy waters or the storms that arise during your real estate investing journey.

Remember…

Cash flow keeps you afloat, during the good times and the bad.

Best Regards,

Neil Uttamsingh

ps: I like pictures.  Do you?  Subscribe to my blog so you can read more fun picture posts like this one!

If you are reading this and have not yet completed your business plan for 2011, STOP!

Stop everything you are doing this instant, and go and start you business plan now.  Don’t walk away from this planning exercise until you have finished it.  It is important to spend some focused time planning for the year ahead.  This is one of the most important tasks you can do….  Most successful people do this.  If you want to become successful, or become more successful than you currently are, you need to get into the habit of doing this

…Now that you have finished your business plan, let’s take a look at what happened at good ol First Rental Property this week!

Monday

Build a Real Estate Team You Can Be Proud Of

I thought that the graphic on this article might cause some controversy, as did the graphic on one of my posts at the myREINspace Forum.  Nevertheless, real estate teams in my opinion are what make or break an investor.  Check out how I draw multiple comparisons between Baseball and real estate in this creative post.

Check out the full article here

Wednesday

67 Reasons Why You Should Have Subscribed To First Rental Property months ago

When I sat down to write this post, I didn’t think it could be done.  I sat and stared blankly at the headline of the post, which I had written first.  I always write my headlines first. My empty stare lasted for about 60 seconds and then the juices started to flow.  I had toyed with the idea of coming up with 93 reasons.  I guess I can always do a ‘Part Two‘.  Chris Davies referred to my post as an ‘epic list’.  It definitely was!

Check out the full article here

Saturday (Christmas Day)

Why Every Real Estate Investor Should Celebrate Christmas

I thought twice about writing this post on Christmas Day.  Simply because I figured that a decreased number of people would be online and reading this blog.  Man, was I wrong!  The Internet never sleeps.  That is for sure.  Every real estate investor should celebrate Christmas or some form of it.  No IFs, ANDs or BUTs.  Period.

Check out the full article here

This week’s cool links:

How to Become Successful:  I thought that this article was great.  It was very well written, and it is a timely read especially at this time of the year, when we are planning for the upcoming year.  Kudos to Rita Putatunda for writing such a fantastic article.  Every real estate investor, whether experienced or novice can benefit from reading this article.

Best Regards,

Neil Uttamsingh.

PS: Get the First Rental Property Weekly Wrap delivered straight to your Inbox by subscribing to the blog.  Enter your e-mail address on the LEFT hand side of the blog.

A controversial title, don’t you think?  Well, I personally don’t think so, and here’s why…

Christmas time in North America represents a lot of things.  More than anything, Christmas time is a time for family and friends.  It is one time of the year where family comes together, either willingly or forced in order to spend time together and celebrate the holiday season.

An unfortunate by product of investing in real estate that not many new real estate investors know about is that it can cause a lot of stress on family life and often pull families apart.

This happens when family members do not see eye to eye on financial matters, or when a real estate investor in the family compromises their family members in order to grow their real estate portfolio.

In a previous post, I have talked about people being more important than real estate. I really mean this because in my view, people and especially your closes family and friends will always be more important than real estate.

When you are down and out and experiencing tough times in your life, it will be the people that are closest to you that will come to your aid  — not a material object such as a rental property.  Money and the accumulation of it means nothing at the end of the day.

So what exactly do I mean that every real estate investor should celebrate Christmas?

• In my view, every real estate investor should take some time during Christmas time to spend time with and appreciate those people in their lives that they are closest to.
• If a real estate investor focuses too much on themselves and their own business endeavours,  this may serve as a warning sign for family trouble.
• By spending too much time on yourself, you may be allowing  your family to slip away from you.  Here is an example to help illustrate:

I have seen very experienced real estate investors focus so much time and effort on building their real estate business in an effort to make a better life for their families.  However, they lost sight of actually spending time with their family during the process of building their portfolio.  Further, they let the stress associated with managing a large portfolio of real estate envelop them.  This in turn had a negative effect on their family, as they were constantly stressed out whenever interacting with their family members.  Long term, this resulted in a lot of stress on the family and the eventual collapse of it.

• One of the most successful real estate investors that I know recently told me that if he could do everything all over again, he would have worked less, and spent more time with his family.  Only later in life he has decreased his workload and is spending a lot more time with his family.

Real Estate Investors should view Christmas time as an opportunity to connect with and spend quality time with family members and close friends. After all, these people are your greatest assets, not your real estate.

Best Regards,

Neil Uttamsingh.

ps: Learn from successful real estate investors on how to have work life balance.  Buy rental properties AND have a supportive and strong family unit.  Sign up to The First Rental Property Newsletter for tips on how to do this.

Yes, that’s right.  67 reasons.

Are you ready for them?

Here they are…

67.  Traffic to the blog is growing which means that people are interested in the content.

66. The blog is followed by numerous other influential real estate bloggers. Some of my favourites include Julie Broad and Dave Peniuk, Shae Bynes, Don R. Campbell and Josh Dorkin.

65.  I get constant requests from other bloggers to guest post on First Rental Property.  People want to be a part of this awesome blog.  More importantly, they want to get in front of you, the valuable readers.

64. The First Rental Property Newsletter provides highlights of some of the most important content posted to the blog.  If you haven’t signed up for it yet, you can do so by entering your name and e-mail address on the RIGHT hand side of the blog.

63. The writing on the blog has improved over the past year.  I will admit, some of my earlier posts like, Are You The Victim of a Real Estate Bully? are not as polished as some of my most recent posts like, The Dark Side of Real Estate Investing.

62.  Other real estate bloggers copy content ideas from First Rental Property.  I am glad this is happening because this proves to me that I am putting out good content.

61.  Authors of other blogs are linking back to First Rental Property, which means that they like what is being said on the blog and they want to share the content with their readers.

60.  The content on the the blog is easy to follow.

59.  The blog has had over 500 comments in one year, which means great participation from all of the readers!

58.  It is a positive community.

57.  Aspiring real estate investors have contacted me to tell me how much they appreciate the content.

56.  I will be including more video content to the blog in the coming year.

55.  The content on the blog has been shared on Twitter by The Real Estate Investment Network, Canada’s premier real estate network.

54.  Content on the blog is also being shared on Twitter by real estate bloggers.

53.  The number of people who ‘Like’ The First Rental Property Fan Page is growing.  (I couldn’t for the life of me find out how to link to the Facebook Fanpage…I was having some issues with the url from the Fangage)  If you haven’t already, show your love for First Rental Property by clicking the ‘Like’ button on the right hand side of the blog.  You can do this before reading point number 52.  Please and thank you!

52.5. Thank you for clicking the like button!  🙂

52.  REI Newswatch distributes the content on First Rental Property to their readers every time I put out a new article.  This means that the content on this blog is of top quality.  If you have not already, check out REI Newswatch after you finished reading this list.  Here is the link for REI Newswatch.  Remember…after you read the list.  :).

51.  Blog posts can also be read at my blog at the premier real estate social networking site, BiggerPockets.

50.  I am a real estate investor sharing real life experience.

49.  The blog generally has very good article headlines, which draw in the reader and make them want to read the actual article.

48.  The blog also generally has very good opening sentences and or opening paragraphs.  A catchy opening, helps to keep the readers’ attention.

47.  Aspiring real estate investors come to the blog and read it whenever they need a shot of confidence.  This I have been told.

46.  The blog is truly educating people as to what steps they need to take to buy their first rental property.

45.  The blog gets a LOT of spam comments which you don’t see, because I filter and delete them.   This means that the traffic to the blog is very good and as a result Spammers want to capitalize on the traffic coming to the blog.

44.  I share my Business Life Story on the blog so that you can read about how I got started as a real estate investor.

43.  I am learning from some of the best bloggers in the world as to how to make this blog better.  Some of the best blogs that I read and learn from are Brian Clark‘s Copyblogger and Yaro Starak‘s Entrepreneurs Journey.

42.  I have PODCASTS available for you to listen to.

41.  More podcasts will be added in the coming year.  In the podcasts you will be able to hear real estate investors speak about their experiences and how they bought their first rental property.

40.  This is a professional blog.  The author and/or the readers don’t get involved in attacking other readers for their comments or suggestions.

39.  Regular content is produced to this blog.

38.  All the the content is original.  None of this content is copied off of other blogs.

37.  Ideas and concepts are taken from other successful real estate blogs, which helps to make this blog a successful one.

36.  Readers come from all over the world.

35. The majority of the readers are from North America.  So if you have a question regarding the Canadian or US real estate markets, you will have no trouble in finding an answer.

34.  This blog does not teach the get rich quick method of buying real estate.

33.  Readers are encouraged to adopt a slow and steady mentality to investing in real estate.

32. I am committed to this blog and to helping others.

31.  In the coming year I will be sharing with the readers certain products that I believe new and aspiring real estate investors can benefit from.

30.  I am honest and I don’t like to B.S. people.  I will only recommend products to you that I believe you will benefit from.

29.  In addition to products, I will also be sharing with you ebooks that I think are worthwhile reading and that you can learn a lot from.  More on this in 2011.

28.  When I first created this blog, one of the main objectives was to monetize the blog and collect income from the blog.  As time went on, my main objective changed to simply providing value to the readers and not monetizing it.  I found that by doing this, I was able to provide much better content to the readers.  In the future, the blog will be monetized, but I will not compromise the value provided to readers in an effort to monetize the blog.

27.  I will be writing a lot of guest posts for other real estate bloggers in 2011.  As a result, the traffic is going to increase on this blog.  You the reader will benefit from more detailed discussions and questions posted in the comments section.  Read the comments section with the intent of looking to learn from other real estate investors that post there.  In fact, leave a comment at the end of this article and tell me what you thought of this post.

26.  I share “Cool Links” in the First Rental Property Weekly Wrap.  Most of these links are related to real estate, however some of them are not.  Take an opportunity to read the “Cool Links” that are not related to real estate.  You can learn a great deal by doing this.

25.  In the not so distant future, I will be putting out a survey asking readers what they want to see on the blog.  By gathering this feedback, I will be able to make some adjustments to the blog so that I am providing the readers with exactly what they want.  I have to give a shout out to Shae Bynes for this, as I got the idea from her.

24.  I am funny.  It may not seem that way because of my writing style, as I tend take on a little bit more of a serious tone in my blog posts.  Such is not the case for some of my comments on other blogs.

23.  If my blog were a professional basketball player…my blog would be Micheal Jordan.  (1 out 10 readers probably got this joke…)  Don’t worry if you did not get it…it wasn’t much of a joke!  🙂

22.  I am taking a course that is teaching me how to become a better blogger.  As a result, both the content and the physical layout of the blog are going to continue to improve.  I am constantly going to implement changes in order to make this blog better and better.

21.  I am well liked in the Canadian real estate investing community.  This allows me to have good conversations with very successful real estate investors.  By speaking with them, I learn from them some of their secrets to success.  I always share these insights on the blog.

20.  I am creative.  This means that I do not present content to you in a boring manner.  Rather, I add a flare of creativity to my posts which are demonstrated in posts like, Top 3 Reasons Not To Become A REIN Member and Real Estate Investing For Dummies.

19.  I am going to be using iMovie to edit the new video content coming to the blog in 2011. So far, I am pretty awful at using iMovie, however, I hope to up my game in the coming weeks.  Videos edited via iMovie are cool to watch.

18.  I participate in online forum discussions with bloggers from all over the world.  All of these bloggers are working hard to develop their blogs by producing regular content and by increasing traffic to their blog.  I am constantly learning by reading all of the discussions in the forums.  This helps me to improve First Rental Property and make it a better blog for you the readers.

17.  I bring an interesting perspective to the real estate investing space.  I am an entrepreneur by night and a banker by day.  Working for one of Canada’s largest banks, I learn quite a bit about entrepreneurship which I am skilled enough to be able to share in an indirect manner via this blog.  Mainly via life lessons and through describing general concepts.    After all, you can’t be sharing confidential bank information via a personal blog, duh!

16.  This community is full of like minded people.  This is a space where you should hang out and learn.  Check out my video that I recoded a while back regarding the importance of surrounding yourself with like minded people.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR2tsl97vzw[/youtube]

15.    First Rental Property has a clear vision.  The vision is to provide knowledge and confidence to new and aspiring real estate investors so that they can buy their first rental property.  If you have not bought your first rental property yet, hang out here, subscribe to the blog and learn.

14.  I have assembled a strong real estate team.  As a new real estate investor, you need to do this as well.  I can share with you my experience in assembling my team, and I can give you advice on the best practices you need to take when assembling your team.

13.  I was voted as the ‘Nicest Person’ by my high school graduating class.  It is cool to be nice.  However, don’t get ‘being nice’ in the way of your real estate business.  There is a time to be nice, and a time to law down the law.  As a real estate investor, you need to know when you have to law down the law and take control of your real estate business.  You running a business after all, even if you own one rental property.

12.  I would argue that the act of investing in real estate is 90% mental and 10% technical.  As a result, you have to consciously work towards developing the right frame of thought in order to survive as a real estate investor.  There is no better place to gain positive reinforcement and guidance than though this blog.

11.  You can also gain positive reinforcement and guidance that will help you to survive as a real estate investor from a select number of blogs that I regularly share with readers.

10.  Believe it or not, most successful real estate investors have all reached a point in their real estate investing careers where they almost gave up investing for good.  I have been there and so have so many others that I know.  If I did not have a strong network of people supporting me, I would have given up some time ago.  First Rental Property is your network.  You are supported here.  Never give up.  Collectively we will make sure that you don’t.

9.  You have to embrace the life lesson of ‘learning from other people’s mistakes’.  In a lot of the posts, I talk about fears and obstacles that new investors have and face.  You can avoid making mistakes and learn how to avoid fear and get around obstacles by reading the content on the blog.

8.  The blog has been going strong for over a year with no signs of slowing down.

7.  After reading this blog on a regular basis, you should be able to detect very easily insincere advice and insincere real estate education on the available in various forms on the Internet.  Steer clear of that, as there is a lot of garbage out there!

6.  Do you know how to analyze the performance of a business?  By examining financial statements, can you tell if a business is performing well, or if the business is performing poorly?  Learn the basics of how to analyze a business by looking at the financial statements of the company.  You will be surprised how much this helps you in understanding how your own real estate business works.

5.  I have readers from all of the Continents.

4.  If you are nervous about buying your first rental property, you have all the information you need in this blog in order to help you move forward.

3.  I answer all real estate questions posted to the blog.  If you have a question, post it and I will answer it.

2. I encourage you all to speak to experienced real estate investor in person and learn directly from them.  This is how I learned a lot about real estate investing.  Some of my greatest lessons have come from my face to face meetings with experienced investors.  Network on this blog, and though the other blogs that I talk about and find real estate investors close by to where you live.  Form real estate support groups.  This is some advice from me to you.

1.  I don’t pretend that I know everything about real estate investing.  I am constantly learning just like you.

Subscribe to First Rental Property by entering your name and e-mail address on the LEFT hand side of the blog.  After you have subscribed to the blog, also subscribe to The First Rental Property Newsletter by entering your name and e-mail address on the RIGHT hand side of the blog.  In the newsletter, you will hear from experienced real estate investors on how they bought their first rental property.  They will also share with you some tips and tricks to help you buy your first rental property.

Best Regards,

Neil Uttamsingh