How to buy your first rental property – Step One

Posted by neil on February 05, 2010
General / 30 Comments

 

email me: NEIL@FIRSTRENTALPROPERTY.COM

In this article series, I will explain in detail all the steps that you need to take in order to buy your first rental property.

People new to real estate investing often have no idea where to start. I get a lot of questions from aspiring real estate investors as to how they should begin, and what they should be doing.

Getting started in real estate investing can be a daunting task. However, if you take the time to build a solid foundation of knowledge before you begin, you will be off to the races. If you follow the advice precisely in this article series, you will have all the information you need so that you can confidently buy your first rental property.

Sometimes people need help buying a property.  The H.O.P.E. Program has helped more than 12,000 people get homes who never thought they could, helping even those with BAD credit get qualified.  This program is the premier Rent To Own Program as it gives access to thousands of listings for Rent To Own homes.  CLICK HERE to enrol in the H.O.P.E. Program or to have your credit repaired.

Step #1
Determine why you want to buy a rental property

This step is extremely important. However, it is a step that is often overlooked by people because they do not perceive it as being an important step.

It is an important step because, knowing ‘why’ you are buying your first rental property, will help you to stay motivated and focused on this goal when times get tough for you.

In the world of real estate investing, times often get tough because owning and managing real estate is not easy. It takes time, effort, and organization on the investor’s end in order to successfully manage a portfolio of rental properties.

Also, people who do not have a clear sense of why they are buying their first rental property tend to get confused. If you don’t have a crystal clear vision of why you are doing it, it is easy to lose your focus and shift your attention towards another project. For instance, one day someone could be interested in real estate investment, the other day, they could be interested in stocks and the financial market. Although on the surface, this may sound okay, it is not. A lack of focus is never a good thing. You need to be focused like a laser.

Here are some clear examples of ‘why’ an individual would invest in their first rental property.

Example #1

An individual needs the extra monthly cash flow from the rental property.

With the cash flow, the individuals decides to pay down the mortgage on their principal residence. As such, they are able to dramatically reduce the time it takes for them to pay off their mortgage. Paying down their mortgage faster is an important goal for this individual. This is a strong ‘why’.

Example #2

A young couple is trying to save money for their young child’s future education.

In order to save for this education, they decide that investing in real estate is the best game plan. They plan to buy a rental property, keep it for several years, and then sell it. They will use the equity from the sale of the property to pay for their child’s education. Making sure that the child has enough money for their future education is extremely important to them. Therefore, they are motivated in making sure that this plan works. This is a strong ‘why’.

Example #3

Similar to example #1, here the individual requires cash in order to pay down their debt.

Instead of using the cash flow to pay down the individual’s mortgage on their principal residence, they use the monthly cash flow to pay down bad debt such as credit card and loan balances. Here the individual might be quite motivated and focused on paying down this debt, until eventually all of the debt is paid off. This is a strong ‘why’.

Now, here are some examples of situations where an individual does not have a strong ‘why’ as to why they are buying their first rental property.

Example #4

They want to make a lot of money from their rental property.

Neil’s Commentary: “What exactly does this mean? This is a very vague goal. Vague goals are not good because they are impossible to measure. How much is ‘a lot of money?’. Goals need to be more measurable. In order to be a more specific goal, this individual should quantify how much money they want to make from their rental property. For instance, they should restate their goals as follows:

“I want to make a lot of money from my rental property as I will be holding the property for a minimum of 5 years. My expected equity appreciation over this time from is going to be $50,000. Once I have reached this equity appreciation target, I will sell the property.”

Example #5

An individual wants to buy their first rental property and then they want to become a real estate investor full time.

This if often a lofty goal that is not achieved by many real estate investors due to lack of focus. Again, this is a very vague goal that is difficult to measure. In order for this goal to be more focused and more specific, numbers and time lines need to be stated.

For instance, this goal can be restated in the following manner:

“I want to buy my first rental property by the end of this month. The property will be cash flowing $500/month. I then plan on purchasing 6 properties a year over the next 5 years with joint venture partners, all of which will be cash flowing at least $500/month. ”

Buying your first rental property requires you to follow a step by step process. The more organized that you are on the front end the easier time that you will have with purchasing your first rental property.

Step number one can never be skipped. With step number one, you need to clearly understand why it is that you are purchasing your first rental property.

Happy Investing!

Neil

PS:  The H.O.P.E. Program has assisted more than 12,000 people get homes who never thought that they could, helping even people with POOR credit get approved.  This is the best Rent To Own Program as it gives access to thousands of property listings for Rent To Own homes.  CLICK HERE to enrol in The H.O.P.E. Program or to have your credit repaired.

 

Related Article:

Step Two – How to buy your first rental property

 

 

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The Eight Common Questions that Joint Venture Partners Ask – Part Two

Posted by neil on February 04, 2010
General / 3 Comments

In Part One of this article, we discussed the first four common questions that Joint Venture Partners ask.

In this article we are going to cover the last four common questions that are asked by Joint Venture Partners. I have listed them below in no particular order.

Before we kick things off, I would like you to check out after reading my article,  a recent article by Florence Foote.  Florence discusses, investing in the path of progress, a concept that I will soon be writing about on my blog.

Now, back to business…

5) JV Partners will ask, “What is your share in the deal?”

The answer to this questions is very simple and straight forward. You tell your JV Partner that as the real estate investor you will be doing all of the work, the joint venture partner will be putting up all of the money and the profits and cash flow will be split 50/50.

6) JV Partners might ask, “This seems rich, is this negotiable?”

Your answer to this is, “No”.

You must say no politely but with authority.

There are 2 reasons why your answer is ‘No;.

First, if you have never purchased a property with a JV Partner, you will learn quickly that you are going to be earning your 50% because there is a lot of work involved in buying and managing rental properties. There is a lot more work than many people think, especially people who have never invested in real estate before.

Second, when asked if the split is negotiable, if you waiver and say that it is negotiable, you have lost value in the eyes of your JV Partner.  You will also seem less attractive to give money to. If you are backing yourself into a corner in which you are re-negotiating, your perceived value has decreased.

There will be instances where people will push you on this. They will want to make you agree to a split other than 50/50.

Take note that you will not agree to a split other than 50/50. There is a lot of work involved on your end.

If you cannot come to agreement with the potential joint venture partner with regards to the 50/50 split, politely tell them that this opportunity is not for them.  End of conversation.

7) JV Partners will ask, “Can you offer a guaranteed rate of return?”

Your answer to this is, “No.”

You have to be honest if you are going to attract joint venture money. The real estate market is not linear, rather it trends up and down. By knowing historical trends in real estate values, we know that in the long term, it trends upwards.

Knowing this, you should never guarantee anything. To say that you ‘guarantee’ a rate is wrong. You can provide projections to your joint venture partner of your anticipated returns, however, never guarantee anything.

One year you may have a return of 57%, the next year the return may be 18% and the following year the return could be 27%.  The ride may look something like this:

It is important to emphasize with your joint venture partner that if they don’t make money, then you will not be making money.

You can also tell them that you do not wok for free, so you are going to make sure that both you and the joint venture partner are going to make money with this particular venture.

8 ) JV Partners will ask, “Can I see the property before we buy it?”

Your answer to this yet again is going to be….

You guessed it…

“No”

I have never shown a joint venture partner a property before purchasing it.

You never show a joint venture partner a property before purchasing it because real estate investing in not based on emotions, it is based on numbers.

I say again…

Real Estate investing

is not based on emotion,

it is based on numbers!


For example, if you are investing in the stock for Telus, you do not drive to the Telus headquarters, open the doors of the building and look inside. If you do not like the tile in the building, or the light fixtures, or the way the front reception desk is designed, do you chose not to invest in the company? Of course not! You chose whether or not to invest in this company based upon your analysis of the company’s numbers, or if a trusted party that you know says that Telus stock is a good stock to buy.

It works the same way with real estate investing. You either crunch all of the numbers yourself, or you take the advice of a trusted party who has done all of the due diligence into the deal at hand.

Once you have closed on a property, you can take pictures of the property and send them to your joint venture partner.

Remember, there is no emotion with real estate investing. Leave your emotion out of it.

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Part One – The Eight Common Questions that Joint Venture Partners Ask

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The Eight Most Common Questions Joint Venture Partners Ask – Part One

Posted by neil on February 03, 2010
General / 2 Comments

Once you become an experienced real estate investor, you will have people approach you that want to invest in real estate with you.

Being a real estate investor with a clear track record of success means a lot.

It means that you have taken some calculated risk, invested in real estate and have succeeded.

One of the greatest assets that you will have as a seasoned real estate investor is your life experience as your investor.  There is nothing more valuable than ‘being in the trenches’.

Starting off investing in real estate can be an extremely intimidating experience for many new investors.

I have observed and spoken with many people who are interested in real estate investment.  I would say that the minority of these people actually end up pulling the trigger and investing in real estate.

Why is this the case?

I believe that only the minority of people end up investing, because it is this minority that has the courage or receives the proper guidance.

Success with real estate investment is all about surrounding yourself with people with experience investing in real estate.  You need to learn from others that have invested before or who are in the process of investing.

If someone has an interest in real estate and wants to begin investing, they are not going to magically learn everything they need to learn about real estate by hanging out with the same people in their lives.

They have to expand their horizons and start to network with people who are taking action with real estate investing.

Joint venturing is a reality especially for experienced real estate investors.

When an experienced real estate investor is speaking to potential joint venture parters, there are a series of common questions that always seem to be asked by these joint venture partners.

I will cover the first 4 question in this article.  I will also address how you should answer these questions when speaking to these joint venture partners.

1)  JV Partners will ask you, “Will the real estate market continue to go up?”

When you answer your potential joint venture partner, you tell them, “Absolutely!”
You as a real estate investor should have full confidence in the real estate market and you should believe that the market is going to continue to go up. (it always will). If you do not believe that the market is going to continue to go up, then you have no business in asking a joint venture partner for funds. Be confident in responding. Believe in the market and believe that it will continue to go up.

2) JV Partners will ask you, “What is the worst that can happen if I invest with you?”

When people have not invested in real estate, they are generally anxious and think that bad things will happen to them if they invest.

The worst thing that can happen is that your tenants will end up paying off the mortgage and your rental property will be free and clear of a mortgage in 25 years.

This is the worst that can happen, and this is what you tell your potential JV partner.

When they see that the worst case scenario, is not even a bad situation, they will start to see things differently and have more confidence in real estate and in you.

3) JV partners will ask, “Can I see the joint venture agreement?”

You should always use a joint venture agreement, no exceptions. If your potential JV partner asks to see the joint venture agreement, you say, “No”. And here is why…

You are not a lawyer and you do not understand legal jargon. The joint venture agreement is often times a 5 to 10 pages document of exactly that….legal jargon. Since you are not an expert in explaining these documents, you should not be doing it. This should be the job of your real estate lawyer. Good real estate lawyers deal with these documents every day and can explain them very easily and in plain English.

Advise your potential JV partner to meet with your real estate lawyer so that they can review the document together. You can even go ahead and book the appointment with your real estate lawyer for the two of them to sit down and go over the document.

Again, since you are not an expert in legal jargon, don’t even try to explain the document. If you try to explain the document and the legal jargon involved, you run the risk of making a mistake in interpreting the information in the document. This could cause a lot of confusion between you and your JV partner.

4) JV partners will ask, “Can I get a copy of the Joint Venture agreement so that I can show MY lawyer”

Your answer to this should be, “Absolutely. In fact, this is one of the terms of us doing business together. You need to get independent legal advice from your lawyer.”

Getting independent legal advice is always mandatory. If someone is not willing to get independent legal advice before entering into a Joint Venture Partnership, then don’t enter into the partnership with them.

Your real estate lawyer will have a copy of the joint venture agreement. As such, your real estate lawyer can send directly to your JV partner’s lawyer a copy of the joint venture agreement. Once the other lawyer has a chance to review this agreement, the other lawyer will consult with your JV partner and explain to them the details of the JV agreement.

In tomorrow’s article, I will cover the next 4 common questions that joint venture partners will ask.

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Part Two – The Eight Most Common Questions Joint Venture Partners Ask

How to build better relationships with your tenants

Posted by neil on February 02, 2010
General / 2 Comments

Let’s face it.  Most landlords suck at land-lording.

You always hear stories from people who are renting  homes as to how bad their landlord are.  Have you heard one of these stories before?  I sure have.

You seldom hear people talk about their landlords in high regard.  If they do, perhaps their landlord is a sweet little old lady.

The reality of the matter is that most landlords do not know how to be good landlords.  As a  result, this can put a definite strain on the tenant – landlord relationship.

Why does it matter if there is a strain on the tenant -landlord relationship?

Well, it matters for a variety of reasons.  First, as  landlords, you do not want your tenants to be upset.  If they are upset with your land-lording skills or lack thereof, this is your fault and you need to correct what you are doing wrong.

How do you know what you are doing wrong?

Most landlords have no idea what they might be doing wrong in relation to the relationship management of their tenants.

So…

If you are a sucky landlord and are doing things wrong that are upsetting your tenants, and you have no idea what it is that you are doing wrong, you are up sh*ts creek, right?

Well, no.  Not yet…

This is where I come in and let you know what you can do to build better relationships with your tenants.

The below mentioned list are a list of items you need to put into action.  I personally abide by this list and I have felt that these actions have helped me to both understand my tenants and build a good working relationship with them.

1)  Always send your tenant a welcome gift when they move in.

This is a must do.  You cannot EVER skip this step.  Giving a gift to your tenant upon their move in sets the tone for your relationship to come.  You want to welcome them wholeheartedly into their new home.  You also want to show them that you care about them.  Giving them a gift will do just that.

What type of gift do you give?

I have given gifts such as potted plants and gift baskets.  My personal favourite and my ‘go to gift’ is the gift basket.  You can buy pre-made gift baskets anywhere.  Try places like Wal-Mart.

I really like to design my gift baskets from scratch.  That way, you can personalize things to a certain degree. I design my gift baskets from scratch from the store Fruits and Passion.

Also another great place that you can buy gift baskets is through a company called, T Kid Baskets.  My fellow REIN Member, Carla Johnson‘s daughter runs this company along with one of her friends.

They sell large $40 gift baskets and medium $25 eco-friendly packages for new tenants, plus they have a $20 treat basket.  $1 from each basket goes to Free The Children. To place your order, the girls can be reached at tkid@ttri.ca.

2) Call your tenants once a month

I have stuck to this routine for the past 5 years. I always try to touch base with my tenants once a month via telephone. The purpose of my call is to touch base with them and see how things are going. I also want to know if they are having any problems with anything. I like this strategy for a number of reasons.

First, by talking to my tenants once a month, it allows me to get to know them better. So many sucky landlords end up never talking to their tenants…Months or even years go by and they have had no direct communication with them.

Second, regular communication with my tenants demonstrates to them that I am proactive. I want to demonstrate to them that if they ever need to get in touch with me, they will be easily able to.

3) Treat your tenants with respect

When you demonstrate to your tenants that you respect them, in most cases they will reciprocate this respect.

There is a saying that holds very true. It is:

In order to gain respect, you have to show respect

Show respect to your tenants by doing such things as:

1) responding to their calls promptly
2) be nice to them
3) listen carefully to their concerns
4) take action when you are called upon

If you show respect to your tenants, you will no doubt be respected in return.

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Assemble Your A-TEAM

Posted by neil on February 01, 2010
General / No Comments

If you want to be a results oriented real estate investor for the long term, you can’t do it alone.

There is a saying, ‘It takes a village to raise a child’.

Well, with respect to real estate investment, ‘It takes a team to make an investor’.

I have discussed in previous posts some of the key members that you will need on your team of professionals, a.k.a. Real Estate Team.

The list does not stop with these people.

There are many more people that you will have on your team, that will all serve a very important function.

It is very important to assemble a great team, because you will have to rely upon these people in a time of need.

If you have a collection of great people working with you, they will unknowingly help to alleviate a lot of stress from your life.

Speaking of stress…today I had a situation arise where I realized that I needed to have one of my newest rental properties painted and painted fast. When I closed on the property, I did not spend any time or money upgrading the interior because I thought it looked fine. Although the existing paint job wasn’t THAT bad, looking back, I should have had the unit painted right after closing. Luckily, I have a very good painter on my team of professionals that I was able to call.

Because I know him, and I am comfortable with him, he is going to go check out the property this week by himself.  He will access the property through a lockbox I have at the property.  Once he takes a look around he will send me a quote for the paint job, I will approve it, and should he should start and finish the job within a few days time.

Having someone like this on my team, who is so responsive and willing to jump into action when called upon is a great help for me.

It wasn’t always like this though, I had to go through a really brutal painter to get to this good one. The first painter that I had was lazy and tried to rip me off on one of the jobs that he did.

The moral of this story (and this article) is as follows…

Assemble a team of professionals. As a real estate investor, you will need to rely upon these people. You will not become a successful real estate investor all by yourself. When you do become successful, you will be successful because of all of the contributions of the people on your real estate team.

Fellow real estate blogger Shae Bynes wrote an article called The 7 Day Plan for Aspiring Real Estate Investors. This was a well thought out article, that I would like you all to check out.

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Robert Kiyosaki — Friend or Foe?

Posted by neil on January 31, 2010
General / 15 Comments

If you are an aspiring real estate investor, one of the first books that you will probably come across during your research into real estate will be Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki.

This will be one of the first books you come across because this book is everywhere.  Go to any self help section or real estate section of a book store, and you will be able to find this book no problem.

If you speak to modern day real estate investors, they will confirm and tell you that Rich Dad Poor Dad was one of the first books that they read on their road to real estate investment.

I have personally yet to meet a real estate investor that owns more than 3 rental properties that has not read this book.

As a real estate investor myself, I often meet a lot of people who are interested in real estate and who are aspiring to become real estate investors themselves.

I have on the odd occasion heard some very peculiar stories from novice real estate investors as it relates to Robert Kiyosaki and the Rich Dad Poor Dad brand.

These peculiar stories told to me by new investors have always related directly to the Rich Dad Poor Dad Seminars.

What has always struck me as peculiar from these stories has been the following:

During these seminars, the participants are instructed to call their credit card companies and have the limit on their credit cards increased as high as they will go.  The participants are told that they will need these high balances on their credit cards in order to buy real estate.  In the class, they are also given scripts of what to say to their credit card companies.

When I first started hearing these stories from aspiring investors, I could not believe it.

I just dismissed these stories as being unusually peculiar and did not invest much more thought into this.

This past weekend, my fellow Real Estate Investment Network (REIN) member, Chris Davies posted on his blog a very eye opening interview of Robert Kiyosaki conducted by the Canadian Broadcasting Channel (CBC).  Watch this video, it may change he way you look at Robert Kiyosaki forever. In addition, the CBC also wrote an accompanying article which describes why Rich Dad Seminars are deceptive.

What are your thoughts? Is Robert Kiyosaki a friend or foe? Comment below.

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3 secrets that all successful people know about

Posted by neil on January 30, 2010
General / 6 Comments

Do you ever wonder how some people become so successful?  Sometimes it seems that these people just have some sort of magic ingredient, that no one else has.

At other times, it seems that these successful people are so much smarter than the rest of the general public.

The truth of the matter is that generally speaking successful people are not that much smarter than the rest of the population, and they definitely don’t have some unknown, secret ingredient.  —  No offense successful people!  🙂

I have been carefully observing successful people in the hopes of cracking their code.  I wanted to find out what made them so different than everyone else.  I have come to realize that there is not much of a difference between successful people and those people that do not realize success.

I have also come to realize that successful people all do  a handful of things very well.  It is these handful of things that they do that differentiates them from the rest of the population.

Here is a list of the things that successful people do differently…


1)   They focus on completing the most important task first

This seems easy to do, right?  If it was so easy to do, then why don’t all of us do this?  Successful people are relentless in completing their most important task first.  This is a noteworthy practice because what it does is that it increases our productivity.  Steph Davis of Flipthiswholesaler.net wrote a recent article.  In the article she discusses,  focusing on the most important tasks.

2) They create a brand and an image for themselves so that they can gather a following

It is no secret that I have been creating a brand and an image for myself through this very blog that you are reading.

I have mentioned these two people before, but they are worth mentioning again because I think that they are currently two of the best Canadian online real estate marketers.  If you want to learn about brand and image, study careful what Tom and Nick Karadza are doing.  In my view, they have created, and continue to create for themselves a very strong following.

3) They create 26 hour days

This concept blew my mind when I first started realizing it. Since successful people are only focusing on completing their most important task, they begin to eliminate the less important tasks in their lives.

For example, let’s assume that an individual is faced with the following 3 tasks. I will list them below…

The tasks are:

1) Write a daily blog article for their blog — Time required = 1.5 hours
2) Research City X and neighbourhood Y in search of a rental property — Time required = 2 hours
3) Watch TV — Time allotted = 2 hours

In order to create more time in the day, successful people will cut out the least important tasks. In this scenario, you might have guessed it. The least important task is ‘watching TV’. By cutting this task out of one’s day, this individual has just added 2 hours of time in their day in which they can work on more productive tasks. If you can master the ability to eliminate less important tasks from you day, you will consistently be able to add hours into your day that you can spend working on more important tasks.

Neil’s Challenge #1

I have a challenge for all of you.

How much TV do you watch in a given day? 1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours, plus?

For the next 7 days, don’t watch any TV at all. Sounds scary, eh?! Don’t worry, you can do it.

Instead of watching TV, work on some tasks that you consider to be more important. Over the week, compile a list and write down all of the tasks that you were able to complete during the time that you were going to be watching TV.

Try this for a week. You will be absolutely AMAZED at the tasks that you were able to complete.

Comment in the comments section below on some of the tasks that you were able to complete with this new found time.

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Top Blogs of the Week

Posted by neil on January 29, 2010
General / No Comments

 

Today I would like to give a special mention to a  few noteworthy blogs.

I have been paying particular attention to a couple of blogs over the past few weeks.

I find the content on each of these blogs to be very good. Also, from my observation, the people that write these blogs have good integrity and they are smart business people.  Both blogs do a very good job of creating an image of the people ‘behind’ the blog. 

Below I have listed the links of the two blogs that I am speaking of.  I wish both of these blogs continued success because the information and the message that they are providing is very valuable. 

The blogs are…

 

Mark Loeffler’s Blog.

Mark Loeffler, a.k.a. The Versatille Investor is a fellow REIN member. Mark has expert knowledge on the Rent-To-Own method of real estate investing.

 

Nick and Tom Karadza’s Blog

Nick and Tom Karadza are two brothers who are real estate investors and Realtors. They are very genuine guys and master online marketers. Their blog is very interactive and well laid out. A must view.

Check out these two blogs and let me know what you think of them by commenting below.

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The Facebook change-a-roo

Posted by neil on January 28, 2010
General / No Comments

If you are an aspiring real estate investor looking to purchase your first rental property, you need to change the way you are using Facebook.

Also, if you are an existing real estate investor looking to purchase more rental property, you also need to change the way you are using Facebook.

We already know that many people in certain demographics have Facebook accounts, this is a given.  I guarantee you that most of these people do not fully comprehend the powerful marketing reach that Facebook can offer.

When I first started using my Facebook account, I didn’t really understand how powerful a marketing tool it was. However, when I started to observe how others used Facebook, I began to understand it’s marketing reach.

So why do aspiring and current real estate investors need to change the way they use Facebook?

This is because they need to create an:

1) Image
If you haven’t yet invested in real estate and you are looking to attract joint venture partners, you can demonstrate your credibility through the use of Facebook.  In order to show your potential partners that you are knowledgeable, you can post real estate related items on your Facebook page.  You can post interesting articles, and you can provide your thoughts on the article, in the form of a commentary.

Create a dialogue on Facebook with your ‘Friends’ and demonstrate to them that you have a keen interest in real estate investment and that you know what you are talking about.  When ‘Friends’ ask you questions about real estate investing via your Facebook page, take the time to mentor them.  Provide your thoughts and feedback publicly.

You can join real estate related investment groups through Facebook as well.  By doing that, you further demonstrate that you are someone who is interested in real estate, and you are able to network with like minded people.

I personally always post my most recent blog articles on my Facebook status.  This is because, I want people to know what I am doing and I am building my image.  I am a real estate investing expert and blogger.  This is the image that I am projecting to others.

As a real estate investor, in order to get people interested in what you are doing, you need to create a positive image.  Be mindful of what you are posting on Facebook. Make sure that the content that you are posting is always consistent with the image that you are trying to project. This is important if you want to build a positive image of yourself as a knowledgeable real estate investor.

Facebook is a powerful marketing tool.  Use it effectively.

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The Secret to Relationship Success

Posted by neil on January 27, 2010
General / 3 Comments

The secret to relationship success is so easy, you may not even believe it when I tell you.

The secret to relationship success is:

Keeping in touch

The most successful real estate investors understand the importance of relationships.  These investors are generally very good at maintaining the existing relationships that they have.  This ability is crucially important, as successful real estate investors do not become successful by themselves, rather they become successful because they leverage upon existing relationships.  These relationships are with their team of professionals.

As a real estate investor becomes a better investor, they are at a stage where they are purchasing more properties.  In order to purchase these properties, they have to rely on a multitude of people.  The real estate investor will need to work with some key people such as:

A Realtor

A mortgage broker

A Home Inspector

Real Estate Lawyer.

Once a real estate investor has bought a hand full of rental properties, they begin to get to know their team of professionals better.

Furthermore, the team of professionals all get to know the real estate investor better.  The result is that both the real estate investor and the professionals become more comfortable doing business together.

This is also the point in the realationship where the real estate investor can drop the ball…

Real Estate investors, just like the general public, are flawed in how they deal with people.  Most people are not good at keeping in touch with one another.  In fact, many friends are not good at keeping in touch with one another.  This is how people drift apart, and how friends lose touch with one another.

If a sub par effort is put in by both parties (or friends), the realationship is destined for failure.

If you are a real estate investor and you are serious about investing, you need to maintain an excellent team of professionals.  If you have people on your team that are great at what they do, then it is important that you do everything in your power to keep theses professionals as part of your team.

Investing becomes easier when you have a trsuted team of professionals that you can call upon in a time of need.

However, YOU have to be the one that maintains the relationship with all of these people. If you do a good job at keeping in touch with them, and staying close to them, they will get to know you better, and they will support you and go the extra mile for you when you are in a time of need.

In summary, having success with your relationships is easy to do.  It requires you to put in effort.  All you have to remember is these 3 simple words.

Keep in touch

If you do, you will start to notice improvements with all of your relationships.

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