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!!

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

I have got the perfect analogy for you.

Think of your real estate team as a professional sports team…

No wait….

…Think of your real estate team as a professional baseball team.

Given the fact that most of the readers of First Rental Property are from North America, many of you are familiar with the sport of baseball.

For those of you that are not from North America and unfamiliar with the sport, baseball so happens to be my favourite sport.  I am told by others that it is a very difficult sport to understand.  It is a sport that has many rules.

If you are unfamiliar with the sport try your luck at it by reading and learning some of the rules of baseball.

Now let’s now get to the heart of the matter.

Your real estate team is very similar to a professional baseball team.

In previous posts I have talked about the members of a real estate team.

Real Estate teams can be big or small.  Despite the size of the team, there should be one commonality with every real estate team.  That is…they should always be changing.

In baseball, players come and players go.  Managers come and managers go.

With regards to your real estate business, you should also have team members that come and go.  If team members on our real estate team are not performing at the standards that you need them to perform, then you should dismiss them from your real estate team.

In professional baseball, you have an owner of a baseball team that calls all the shots.

In Toronto, Rogers Communications is the owner of The Toronto Blue Jays.

In New York, the late George Steinbrenner was the owner of The New York Yankees.

The Owner

A a real estate investor, is like the owner of a major leauge basball team.  You are the one in charge.  You ultimately have all of the authority.  You assemble a team of great people around you in order to make your organization (or real estate business) a great success.

The General Manager

In baseball, the General Manager works towards ensuring that all facets of the team are in working order.  The General Manager goes out and finds new talent to bring to the team, trades players, and provides direction to the Manager of the Team.

The General Manager would be comparable to your Real Estate Lawyer and/or Real Estate Accountant.  Both the Real Estate Lawyer and Real Estate Accountant should be two very influential members of your real estate team.  They can provide you with a lot of key insights, and may even recommend and bring in other individuals into our team in order to make it stronger, such as a quality book keeper.  The same happens in baseball when a General Manager may bring in a new player in order to help the team to perform at a higher level.

The Manager

The Manager of a baseball team is comparable to your property manager.  The Manager manages the day to day operations of the baseball team.  The manager provides direction to and coaches players.  The Manager is lower on the food chain when compared to the General Manager.  As is the same with real estate investing.  The property manager is viewed as being lower on the food chain than the Real Estate Lawyer or Real Estate Accountant.

“Lower on the food chain” meaning that they are considered to be less of a trusted advisor when compared to the Lawyer and Accountant.

Bench Coach, Bullpen Coach, Pitching Coach, and Hitting Coach

These coaches are lower on the food chain when compared to the Manager.  These coaches can be compared to the various trades people on your real estate team, such as painters, plumbers, and electricians.

If you have property management on our rental property, your property manager (Manager) is in constant contact with tradespeople. (Bench, Bullpen, Pitching, Hitting Coach)

The Bench, Bullpen, Pitching, and Hitting Coach generally receive all of their direction and instructions from the Manager of the Baseball Team.  Much would be the same in the real estate investing arena, as the property manager would give all of the direction to the tradespeople, as to what repairs and maintenance need to be completed.

Scouts

In baseball, you have scouts.  These people search out talent on other teams and get the know the competition inside and out.  They are the eyes and ears of a baseball organization.  They do a lot of research and know all of the good, great, and terrible players.

Your fellow real estate investors are comparable to scouts.  Your fellow investors are everywhere you are not.  They are working with other tradespeople, other real estate lawyers, other real estate accountants and other property managers.

At the end of the day, your real estate investor peers share information with you.  In conversation, they will tell you about all of the great members of their real estate team, and they will also tell you about all of the members of their team that are not performing very well.

As a result, if you hear of someone who is tremendously talented in their given profession, you would want to bring them over to your real estate team.  For example, if you hear from a fellow real estate investor that they are working with a fantastic real estate accountant, and your real estate accountant happens to be sub par, you will want to make a change.  You may decide to dismiss your current real estate accountant from your team due to the fact that they are under performing and bring on board to your team the services of the excellent accountant that was referred to you by your fellow real estate investor.

So you see, fellow real estate investors are indeed your scouts.  They are your eyes and ears as to what is going on with all of the other key players in the real estate investing industry.

So what do you think of my analogy?

Is a real estate team REALLY just like a professional baseball team?

Tell me what you think by leaving a comment below.

Best Regards,

Neil Uttamsingh

ps: No matter what anyone tells you, you NEED a strong real estate team in order to succeed as a real estate investor.  Sign up to my blog to learn how to build a great real estate team!  Enter your e-mail address on the left hand side of the blog.

6 sleeps until Christmas.  This usually means one of 2 things for me…

1) I still have presents to buy for family and friends, or:

2) I have completed all of my shopping.

This year, I am happy to say that I have completed all of my shopping.  Which means that I will be able to avoid the hectic shopping malls during the home stretch of the Christmas shopping season.

This was a busy week for First Rental Property. Video content was re-introduced to the blog.

Monday

What Everybody Ought To Know About The World’s Richest Man

Making money is not important to the world’s richest man.  The most important thing to him is his family.  There are some great lessons that aspiring real estate investors can learn from this remarkable man.

Read the full post here

Wednesday

How To Find Tenants That Pay You On Time

If you have been in the real estate investing game long enough, you will have tenants that won’t pay you.  This is a reality of the life as a real estate investor.  You can however minimize the chances of non payment of rent.  It takes a little bit of planning, but it CAN be done…

Read the full post here

Thursday

How I Became A Successful Real Estate Investor

I became a successful real estate investor because I refused to think like everybody else.  Aspiring real estate investors can become successful as well.  It takes a disciplined approach.  Find out exactly what you need to do to become successful by reading this post.

Read the full post here

Friday

Who Else Wants Birthday Cake?

First Rental Property celebrated it’s first birthday this past Friday. There are going to be some big changes for the blog during  it’s second year.  Read this article to find out what is in store for the blog in the coming year.

Read the full post here

This week’s cool links:

Donald Trump’s Top Three Tips For Dominating Your Niche: Donald Trump is in a league of his own. He is a real estate developer extraordinaire. He has specific strategies that he executes with great precision. These strategies have helped to make him a real estate giant.

Best Regards,

Neil Uttamsingh

PS: If you like First Rental Property, don’t keep it a secret!  Tweet this article or share it on Facebook.

PPS: Subscribe to First Rental Property and sign up for The First Rental Property Newsletter.

“Happy Birthday to you.  Happy Birthday to you.  Happy Birthday Dear First Rental Propertyyyyyyy.  Happy Birthday to you!”

Guess how old First Rental Property is?

One year old, as of today.

The first article that I posted to First Rental Property was on December 17th 2009.

The blog has come a long way thanks to all of it’s great readers!

The next year for First Rental Property is going to be very exciting.

Check out my video in order to find out what is in store for First Rental Property in it’s second year.

Best Regards,

Neil Uttamsingh

ps:  You will also want to check out the first five blog posts ever written for First Rental Property.  Here they are:

How To Find The Money To Buy A Rental Property

4 Crucial Tips When Selecting A Mortgage Broker

How To Become A Better Real Estate Investor

Real Estate Investors Are Liars

What Is A Transitional Area?

pps: Be a part of the excitement of First Rental Property during it’s second year.  Don’t miss out! Subscribe to the blog today!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9WNBTfuUl0[/youtube]

The automatic doors jolted open and a frigid wind blew into the train and right onto my face.  Gasping for air I stepped off the train and lost balance on the ice.  I almost went down like a sac of potatoes, ready to be trampled on by aggressive commuters coming at me from all directions.

This happened to me this morning.

It has been almost 5 years since I have made the commute downtown.  I simply had forgotten how intense it was.

In fact the commute seemed increasingly intense.  A lot more intense than I had remembered it 5 years ago.

Or, maybe it’s no more intense that it used to be.  Maybe I am that one that has changed, and now see things differently

Yeah…

I like this theory better.  I am the one that has changed.  Not the intense commute.  The commute has remained the same.  Intense.

After my narrowly averted tragic demise this morning, I found myself navigating my way through downtown Toronto’s Underground Walkway.  More affectionately known to Torontonians as The PATH. Check out the Muddy York Blog for a great explanation of the Toronto PATH.

My journey became more complicated in The PATH.

It seemed that somebody, somewhere opened up the flood gates, and in came all of the marching commuters, flowing in from all of the doorways and hallways in sight.

Left-Right-Left-Right-Left-Right-Left-Right-Left-Right-Left-Right-Left-Right-Left-Right-Left-Right.

You better keep pace and not slow down, otherwise you will be trampled from behind.  Don’t even dare cutting diagonally through the crowd, otherwise you may get pushed to the ground and stomped on for getting in someones way.  You don’t believe me?  Have you ever tried cutting diagonally?  Try it, and then tell me what your experience was…

I make it seem that I had a terrible time this morning.  However, in reality, I actually learn a great deal from experiences such as these.  Which brings me to my explanation of:

How I Became a Successful Real Estate Investor

I have always been a very self aware individual.  Some people are self aware and some people are not.  In order to find out how you can become more self aware, read the article 11 ways to be more self aware today at Mary Jaksch‘s blog Goodlife Zen.

Due to this high level of self awareness I have always known that people want to fit in and be accepted.  As a result, people will do things or say things to be accepted.  People will also be less likely to act up or say something that draws attention to them, at the risk of being labeled as someone that does not fit in.

This phenomenon can in someway be referred to as  Groupthink.

Irving Janis was a Research Psychologist at Yale University who defined “Groupthink” as:

“A mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when the members’ striving for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action.“

Here lies the secret as to how I became a successful real estate investor.

1. I have always been efficient at fighting off the effects of Groupthink.

2. Further, I never care what anyone else thinks about me.  I make my decisions independently of any body’s influence.

My secret sounds overly simple and to the point.  It is!

People become successful as real estate investors when they start to go against the norm and not follow everyone else.  Real estate investors don’t think like the majority of the population.

If you are a newbie just starting out as an investor, you have to understand this and embrace it.

Using the example of my eventful commute this morning,  I present you with the following analogy.

Wok with me here…

All of the commuters walking in the same direction in Toronto’s PATH represent the thought process of the majority of the population.

A real estate investor would be someone trying to cut diagonally through this group, or event better, walking in the opposite direction and into this sea of oncoming commuters.

The point that I am trying to make is that the thought process of the real estate investor differs.  It is not the same as everyone else.  You can’t fall victim to Groupthink.  Fight it.  Be unique.  Always.  That is how you will become successful.

Best Regards,

Neil Uttamsingh

ps: Don’t follow the crowd.  Be unique and become successful by subscribing to my blog!

pps: Here is an oldie but a goodie video that was recorded early in 2010.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lrxe-cR-LoI[/youtube]

You are defeated and wondering how this all happened to you.  Your tenants have not paid you for 2 months.  They are showing no signs that they will ever pay you again.  You are now out of pocket and paying the mortgage on your rental property from your personal savings.  You are wondering how long this can go on for.  Your ROI is diminishing and so are your spirits.  You are questioning why you ever became a real estate investor…

If this sounds familiar to you, you are not alone.  Any veteran real estate investor has more than likely experienced non payment of rent.  Non payment of rent, whether deliberate or accidental is a reality that real estate investors face.

You might be happy to hear that you can stack the odds in your favour and find tenants who are more likely to pay you on time.

This can be accomplished by following these simple rules:

1) Be strategic in WHERE you buy your first rental property

New real estate investors are guilty of ‘following the crowd’.  As a new real estate investor, you can learn a tremendous amount from experienced real estate investors who are members of real estate investment clubs.  The knowledge that you gain from them is invaluable.  However, do not confuse knowledge with awareness.  Let me explain…

Some real estate investors tend to buy properties located in specific towns, neighbourhoods, and even specific streets.  Areas become well known within real estate investor circles for having a ‘high density’ of rental properties.

Enter Mistake #1 made by new real estate investors

These areas may not have the tenant profile that you personally want to attract.  For instance, located in these areas could exist a transient tenant population that generally pays their rent, however is always late in doing so.  A questions you must ask yourself now is:  Were you aware of this before you invested in this area, or did you just simply follow the crowd because everyone was investing there?

2) Know what type of tenant profile you want to deal with before you buy your first rental property

Sounds simple, right?!  You would think so, but it is not common sense to new real estate investors.  Before you invest in real estate, you have to ask yourself what your comfort level is in dealing with people from different socio-economic backgrounds.  Are you comfortable in dealing with white collar workers, or do you feel more comfortable and relaxed when dealing with blue collar workers?

Knowing what type of tenant profile you prefer dealing with helps.  However, what is most important is to understand the financial stability of that tenant profile before you buy your first rental property is essential.

For example, the first rental property that I bought is located in a middle class area of town in a suburb of Toronto.  In the neighbourhood there lives middle to high income earners.  As such, the renters in this area for the most part are all middle to high income earners. In over 5 years, I have not had any issue with non payment of rent at this property.

For my first rental property, I knew that I wanted to attract a higher income earning tenant profile.  As a result, I bought my property in a nice area, that was experiencing population growth, and where higher income earners were living and wanted to move to…

Finding tenants that pay you on time may seem easier said than done.  However, if you are a self aware individual you will know that the location where you buy your rental property and the tenant profile that you are attracting will determine whether or not you get paid on time consistently or not.

Best Regards,

Neil Uttamsingh

PS:  Do you want your rent paid on time?  Stack the odds in your favour.  Subscribe to my blog today!