Real Estate agent is an essential part of your investment team. Perhaps the most important piece of advice I can give you as a private mortgage lender is to find an agent who specializes in working with investors. The truth is that representing an individual who wants to purchase a home to live in and representing a real estate investor is VERY different. It requires different types of skills that not every Realtor might have.
Hard Money Blog: Invest, Revitalize, Create, Prosper
Dealing with Risk in Real Estate Investing
One of the questions we get a lot, especially from new real estate investors is, “How do I deal with risk?” I wish investing was a sure thing, but there really is no such thing as a “sure thing.” There is always the possibility of losing money just like there is always a possibility of making money. It’s all about dealing with risk. But you can help minimize that risk by using experienced hard money lenders. Here are some other tips for handling risk in your investments.
How to Build a Great Investment Team: Part 5
Have you ever heard the phrase “It takes a village to raise a child?” As we continue our private mortgage lender series on building a great investment team, it may feel like we are truly recruiting a village. Today we will focus on a team member you may not have thought about, the interior decorator. Unlike a real estate agent or contractor, interior decorators might not be necessary for each project. However, for certain fix and flips, spending money on interior decorator might actually help improve your return on investment.
How to Build a Great Investment Team: Part 4
As hard money lenders, we cannot overemphasize the importance of finding the right contractor. A reliable contractor can significantly improve your return on investment. In contrast, an incompetent contractor can flush your profits down the drain. If you are a first time investor, finding a reliable contractor should be your priority.
Finding Real Estate Deals: REO
I am a private mortgage lender and as such I’ve seen successful investors draw on different types of skills. Some are handy and can build sweat equity by doing parts of their rehab themselves. Others are negotiators and managers extraordinaire. They are the ones who squeeze every penny, negotiate for every nail and breathe down the neck of their contractors every day. Working with them is not a picnic for contractors, but those investors do make money when their softer competitors don’t. Still, regardless of their skills, all of those investors share a single strength in common: an ability to find real estate investment opportunities. Identifying properties with money-making potential and putting them under contract is at the heart of real estate investing.
How to Build a Great Investment Team: Part 3
On every team you have what can be considered the “support players.” We’d like to consider ourselves support players for our hard money loan customers. Support players are the people who work hard, but don’t always get recognized as star players. This is not to say that these people are not important. In fact without these people the whole process would break down, but you don’t hear them mentioned as much as the lawyer, lender or real estate agent. These are still key members of your team, so you need to choose them wisely and recognize their worth.