The Educated Landlord

Making Landlording Easier

You are here: Home / Archives for investing in real estate

Why Real Estate Isn’t For Everyone

By

Why Real Estate investing?People I bump into often say “why Real Estate”? Why not stocks or bitcoin, or precious metals or some other hot investment sector?

Well, because Real Estate requires a different mindset is what it really comes down to.

People who get excited about stocks, or bitcoin or gold futures or other shorter term investments are often looking for quick gratification. Note the qualifier there, often.

Sure there are many people using stocks and mutual funds for long term retirement, but they rarely are the ones getting all excited about the next big thing.

These long term visionaries are much closer to being Real Estate investors than they realize.

Why Real Estate?

The simple answer is that it’s one of the simplest most consistent ways to grow your money over the long term.

It actually acts as a hedge against inflation due to property values being driven up by inflation.

You might think of property as a boat at sea and inflation as the ocean. As inflation rises, or the ocean in my example, property values get raised up as well much like the boat on the ocean.

A properly chosen property creates cash flow that can assist you moving forward whether it’s to retirement or as an income supplement.

Perhaps the best part is your tenants are paying down your mortgage every month helping you create more equity and putting you in a more secure position the longer you own it.

Are there challenges associated with Real Estate? Obviously, it’s why many of you are here reading this.

Why Real Estate Isn’t For Everyone

It’s often these challenges that become excellent excuses for people to not invest in Real Estate. After all, isn’t it far easier to simply trust the bank with your retirement funds?

And that’s the crux of the problem. People choose easy rather than smart options. They don’t do their own homework, their own research and they simply hand their dreams and hopes off to someone “more experienced” with investments.

So Real Estate isn’t for everyone, it’s for people who are in it for the long haul. People who are willing to put in some work to manage and maintain their properties. People who are a lot like you who come tot this site to get some insights, learn a few tips and maybe pick up some new ideas to help you become even more educated about your landlord business.

So thank you for not being everyone, but rather for being eager to learn and interested in being educated about what you’re doing.

Caveats When Buying A Turnkey Rental Property

By

Does a turnkey rental property work?It seems perfect. The nice little turnkey rental property that the current landlord is selling comes complete with tenants. A puzzle perfectly coming together

You’ll buy the property, you won’t have the headaches of doing your own searching for and then screening of tenants. You’ll be ahead of the game from the start and you’ll be making money from day one! What could go wrong?

Well, let me count the ways…

Why Landlords Sell A Tenanted Turnkey Rental Property

There are usually only a few reasons someone sells a turnkey rental property that is ready to go and comes complete with tenants in place.

Some are good, some not so good, and in a few cases downright bad, so let’s run through them.

Reason 1 To Sell A Tenanted Property

Sometimes they’ve reached their goals, they’re ready to retire or move on from being a property investor and now is the time for them to sell. They’ve had great tenants in place and want to make sure they aren’t disrupted and forced to move on.

If that’s the case great this may be a fantastic opportunity. Of course you’ll still need to run all your numbers, base your purchase on it being a smart business decision and not the fact that it’s turnkey.

Remember, just because it’s being sold as a turnkey rental property doesn’t mean it’s actually a turnkey business decision.

It may work for the current owners due to their purchasing it many years prior and buying it at a much lower price point which means lower carrying costs. It may have worked for them as they put down a much larger deposit so the property would cash flow better or they may have even inherited the property and have no mortgage expense.

You don’t always know the entire story and even if you do, you still need to do your diligence to ensure it works for you. With current prices and bigger mortgages the value proposition may have faded turning this perfect property into a potential moneypit.

Reason 2 To Sell A Tenanted Property

With reason 2 we’re starting to get to the potential landmines, so pay close attention.

Often landlords sell their properties complete with tenants because they’re losing money or the property simply isn’t working. These properties may either be a nightmare, or a huge opportunity for an educated landlord!

Many landlords, especially those who jumped into the game without enough knowledge or education, simply don’t understand the business.

They may have underpriced their units, under renovated them so they weren’t getting good rents or they possibly didn’t do the “real math” that experienced Real Estate investors complete to evaluate a property.

Years ago I wrote an article that explained “actual cashflow” versus what rookie landlords often see as cashflow. If you’re not familiar with it you can find it here, Do You Really Understand Cashflow?

The monthly cash flow and returns they anticipated simply evaporate as their inexperience with screening and managing tenants and their ongoing maintenance costs eat all their expected cash flow up.

These types of properties can provide a great opportunity for the smart investor willing to sink a bit of additional time and money to turn a property around. So you can’t count them out entirely.

Of course these also end up being not quite as turnkey as advertised so you need to balance that out as well!

Reason 3 To Sell a Tenanted Property

Now we’re moving to the danger zone. Sometimes a landlord ends up selling a tenanted “turnkey rental property” because the tenant (or the property) is a nightmare and the turnkey opportunity isn’t quite as advertised.

They’re just trying to get out and pass the problem on to someone else.  Don’t let it be you!

Some of the warning signs with this could be simple items like paperwork that can’t be tracked down (like missing or non-existent leases or lack of validated expenses ), not being able to talk to the current tenants (owner doesn’t want you to hear the real story) or a list of excuses about the condition of the property (lack of funds for repairs due to lack of payment?).

As in reason 2, there may still be an opportunity to turn this property around and turn it into a profitable solid long term rental property investment. It will simply require more diligence and/or immediate gains.

For a quick gain, you’d simply want to be compensated in some manner in order to assume or negate the previous landlords problems. This could be a better price, rephrased terms where you get the property vacant or other options.

For your diligence you’ll want all the possible paperwork and in the case of any suited properties all documentation verifying the legality of the unit.

There’s nothing more exciting for a landlord than assuming the property is legally suited to find out the reason the landlord is selling is due to the city inspecting the property and shutting down the second rental unit you were counting on.

Maybe exciting is the wrong word, frustrating perhaps?

It’s Not All Bad

Now, it may appear I’m saying never buy a turnkey rental property, but that’s not exactly true.

What I’m trying to point out is it’s important to get all the details, not just what the current property owner tells you.

It’s important to get all the documentation available, like leases, tenant walk throughs, amendments to the leases or special exceptions (allowed to sublet, pets, agreements for late rent payments or other allowances outside the actual lease).  You’ll also want copies of receipts of any security deposits.

You’ll want to meet with the tenants to make sure thee aren’t any problems or issues and obviously you’ll want a thorough property inspection. You just can’t leave anything to chance!

So, should you buy a property that comes with tenants? Well that comes down to what you find out with all your diligence!

What are your thoughts?
Have you bought a turnkey rental property? And did it work for you? Leave me a comment below and let me know.

The Myth of Passive Income From Real Estate

By

Passive income from Real Estate is only partially trueAre you familiar with the myth? The Myth of living an easy life by getting passive income from Real Estate?

It’s a pretty common theme in many of the Real Estate investing books, but it’s not reality.

To be successful in Real Estate, especially in a landlord, you need to put time and energy into your property or properties.

Don’t get sold on the idea that owning Rental Property is entirely passive, it simply isn’t.

You need to schedule property inspections, you’ll need to show properties, you’ll need to screen tenants and you’ll need to take calls form your tenants when there’s issues. Now some folks will jump in and say that’s why I have a property manager, to do all that for me!

That’s fantastic, but now you still have to manage your manager! Just because you’ve hired someone else to look after it doesn’t mean it’s entirely passive.

You’ll still want to keep an eye on your local economy so you have an idea what’s happening with rents, you’ll still want to monitor your monthly reports from your property managers to ensure you’re getting good service, you’ll still need to prepare all your tax paperwork and receipts for tax time.

In the end it’s just not entirely passive.

Partially Passive Income From Real Estate

Now I’m not trying to say it’s not all bad. You can maintain your own rental properties or manage your property managers and get partially passive income from Real Estate.

To do this though, you’ll want to make sure you have systems, you have the right people lined up and you understand it’s not quite like you may have been led to believe.

It might require networking with other like minded landlords so you have support if you do go away, it might require having a ton of contacts for repairs and maintenance and it definitely requires the right mindset.

The mindset that even if I have to work a few hours this week on my property, it’s still generating income every minute it’s occupied, it’s still getting paid down every month I make a mortgage payment and understanding if I pay off that mortgage I have steady income flowing in each and every month.

So get over the passive part and start thinking about how you can set up your property so it runs smoothly, systematically and with minimal work by you.

Your thoughts? Is your rental property passive or do you have to still put soem time and energy into it most months? Leave me a comment below, share this on Facebook, LinkedIn or your other social networks and lets discuss how passive Real Estate really is.

The Trump Era – Why Landlords Should Be Happy

By

Your Rental Property Doesn’t Care Who Won

Storm is ComingAs the stock markets react with fear, uncertainty and turmoil to the election results, it should be comforting to you as a landlord that your property values are essentially the same as yesterday.

You see that’s the great aspect of property and land. It’s not affected with the immediate fear and uncertainty that hits the stock markets after major events like an election. It can still provide shelter, even during stormy times.

Now I’m not going down the rabbit hole of whether Trump will be good or bad for America, it’s far to early to really say what the true outcome will be, but I will say the one aspect that doesn’t change with these results is people still need homes and properties to live in and to rent. And this is good for you!

If the stock market decides to plunge even further (as of the latest news several major markets plunged 4-6% since yesterday but are now holding steady), home prices will generally remain unscathed at least for the near future. Will the markets recover, probably and that’s the great thing about fear based markets, the fear fades and reality eventually returns.

Now there is a chance that if the 48,000,000 Americans who announced they will move to Canada if Trump wins actually do leave there may be some huge fallout, but we all know that isn’t really going to happen.

So today, whether you are feeling despair or triumph, stop for a moment and think about your property. Think about the positives. Think about how smart you were when you first bought it and how much smarter you hopefully feel today.

Owning property now, having an investment that you control and that is not subject to the instant fear, turmoil and uncertainty that accompanies the stock market makes you just that much more secure in your life and you shouldn’t forget it.

So stay the course, be happy you’re a landlord and continue to become more educated and more aware of how your investment will carry you through the uncertainty that will be unfolding over the next little while and the uncertainty of the future.

 

Understanding The Basics of Leverage and Return On Investment

By

Leverage in rental investmentsIf you’re buying your first or your fiftieth property one challenge that almost every Real Estate investor runs into is financing their properties.

In a perfect world we’re all sitting on a huge trunks of money and can simply purchase a property all cash. No financing required, no banks or brokers required and it all gets incredibly easy.

Yet, if it was easy, everyone would do it…

And if everyone had trunks full of money, sites like mine wouldn’t be necessary as money is supposed to fix all problem.

So let’s get back to reality and talk about a couple of areas involving financing. These are the benefits of leverage that financing gives you and I’m going to introduce some of you to the concept of Return on Investment or ROI.

Leverage is one of the most exciting aspects of Real Estate and it’s also why so many people get involved as it allows you to get involved without completely paying for a property.

I’ll break out other exciting tidbits a bit further, but for now let’s dig into the power of leverage.

The Power of Leverage

The Basics of Leverage in Real EstateIf you’re just getting started with owning rental property hopefully this little walk through can help you understand how leverage can benefit you as a Real Estate investor.

To help get the point across I have some examples that hopefully make it much clearer than just rambling on.

It’s also where you get to learn the basics of Return on Investment (which I’ll refer to as ROI going forward through this article). Anyone excited yet?

For ease of understanding I’m keeping this to the very basics very basics. I’m simplifying this by not taking into account any additional costs and expenses. These would typically include legal costs, taxes, financing setup costs, cash flow, mortgage pay down and many more annoying yet vital details.

Why skip these important aspects you might be thinking?

Because I’m only making a point about leverage, I’ll have a separate post about annoying yet vital details later to keep all the detail folks happy 8’].

So let’s go look at some examples!

Example 1

An investor purchases a property for $100,000 all cash and over the next five years the value of the property has increased by 10% making it now worth $110,000.

His $100,000 investment has grown by $10,000 and his ROI is 10%. That’s determined by dividing the growth amount or return, $10,000 in this case, by the original investment and multiplying by 100 to turn it into a percent.

ROI is typically referred to as a percent so it’s easier to compare across properties, industries or sectors.

The formula being

(Growth/Original Investment) x 100.

In our example the numbers look like this,

(10,000/100,000) x 100 = 10% return.

On a yearly basis the it works out to be 2% or the total percentage divided by the number of years. 10%/5 = 2% per year.

With inflation normally between 2-3% per year, this is a break even situation at best, but likely a net loss.

Example 2

In this example, lets say you still have the $100,000, but decide to now put only 50% towards the purchase price ($50,000). Then you use traditional financing for the remaining 50%.

Again, the value of the property has risen 10% over five years but the important difference is the return on the investors investment.

Using the same formula, but with a much lower investment, we get some much better returns.

Here’s this example,

(10,000/50,000) x 100 = 20%

Suddenly that return has doubled. Even on a yearly basis (20%/5 years) it’s double at 4%, so now you’re potentially slightly ahead of inflation!

But the aha moment is you still have $50,000 and could repeat the process on a similar property. By duplicating this and purchasing two properties your gross return would be $20,000 (2 x $10,000 in growth).

Your individual (and your overall) return on both of these properties would still be 20%, so that doesn’t change, just the amount of money you at the end does which is the important factor.

Example 3

This is where it gets exciting. We’re now going to look at only putting 20% or $20,000 down to purchase the original $100,000 property.

With everything staying the same except the amount put down, 10% increase in value over 5 years, lets look at the Return on Investment calculation now.

(10,000/20,000) x 100 = 50%

Anyone else excited? Same property, but now buying it with way less money and you’ve created a much larger return.

Breaking it down to a yearly basis, you’re seeing a 10% per year return on your $20,000 investment.

Let’s rethink our aha moment and now consider buying 5 $100,000 properties with our original $100,000 by putting only $20,000 on each.

With a $10,000 increase on each property that $100,000 dollars that only increased to $10,000 in the first example now becomes $50,000. Same original amount, just leveraged to allow additional properties and resulting in a 50% return on investment.

Which my friends, is the power of leverage!

And The Lesson Learned Is…

It’s also why you don’t want to typically buy a property all cash when financing is available. Is it always the case, no, but it is in my simple examples!

The issues do get more complex as you add in mortgage paydown, cash flow from having tenants in place and other external factors, but the one point I needed to convey with this article was the power of leverage.

Hopefully it made sense and it provided some clarity for you. To further help, I’ve created a Simple ROI Calculator for you to use. Just click the link below to download and once you’ve downloaded you should be able to open it in your spreadsheet program of choice!

Simple ROI Calculator

It just covers the basics, but it might be fun to play with when looking at a current property you own or even to project a return by estimating growth. Hopefully you find it helpful.

If you have a chance to play with it, I’d love to hear about your ROI, so leave me a comment. If you already understand ROI, let me know if I explained it clearly by leaving a comment, and if you think this will help others please share it with them!

Why Listening To The Media Will Mess With Your Mind

By

Housing Market Set For Biggest Downturn Since 2007

Houses OverPriced By 20-40%

Real Estate headlines shock landlordsHave you seen any Real Estate headlines like this lately? Depressing isn’t it, well don’t worry if you either check the next days paper or find another one you’ll find headlines like this.

Housing Market Booming

New Home Construction Set For Record Growth

I’ve even run into similar headlines to this on the same page, one calling for a downturn, the other calling for a boom and that’s the problem with much of the media these days. They have an agenda.

While they may have different underlying agendas, their main one is to sell papers and headlines that scare people or pump them up sell papers, magazines and TV news which is why you have to take them with a grain of salt.

How many economists, politicians, billionaires and people in general nailed the financial crisis back in 2007? Just a handful.

How many of those had accurate forecasts before that? Just a handful again.

And how many have been 100% right all the time,  if you guessed zero you’re right.

Many of them have just picked a stance and stood fast on it until they were right. In the early 2000’s there were many vocal critics of the housing booms forecasting an imminent crash and for five years plus they held to that and sure enough they were completely correct. Eventually.

Meanwhile the landlords and homeowners who bought at the beginning of the growth were still far ahead. Yet, if they followed some of the headlines and listened to these media experts, they would have missed out.

surprisedsmallNow I’m not saying you can’t listen to what’s out there, but you can’t take the headlines verbatim. You need to get more of the facts and look further into the details. There are so many variables that affect housing, the world economy and even the cost of groceries that it’s almost impossible to predict with complete accuracy anything these days.

An unexpected frost can cause orange juice prices to skyrocket, a dock strike can leave fruit hanging in the orchards causing shortages two months down the line, a country dealing with debt can change the confidence of a whole continent and these affects trickle down throughout our very interconnected world.

So you need to stay informed, but try not to let the media headlines cause a panic in your life. The panic of the up and down swings will give you an ulcer or worse a heart attack and it’s just not worth it.

As I told another Real Estate investor a day ago, you have to look long term. The panic headlines today are laughable ten years down the road when you look back at all the cash flow you’ve generated, the amount of your mortgage that was paid down by your tenants and the current value of your investment.

As we’ve talked about before, Real Estate is a long term plan and a long term solution. If you have planned for the long term the day to day and year to year hiccups all even out over time. Having said that though, if you’re getting to a point in time where you  are selling everything off to simply enjoy retirement it may be more important to pay attention to the current market.

Just remember not to get caught up in the headlines and look at the actual details usually buried in the article!

Dealing with Realtors When Buying Investment Property

By

How to deal with a REALTOR® when buying investment property?

Buying investment properties with a realtorWhen I first started out as an investor I didn’t realize there was a difference in a Realtor helping me buy my first home versus buying my first rental property. I assumed they had the same training and knew all the answers, but I assumed very wrong.

After going through many different Realtors until we found one who understood what we were doing, we often wondered what the problem was. Well, looking back there were several very obvious problems.

The first was us not realizing what we needed and the second was the Realtor not being aware of our specific needs. Because of this we actually drove some of our first Realtors away and others we became too much work for, so they essentially dropped us.

To help you avoid some of the headaches and problems we went through I went to someone with some answers from the other side of the table. A friend, fellow investor and a Realtor Joe Samson who was gracious enough to write the following article which I am sure many of you will find not just helpful, but also insightful to you as you move forward.

So take it away Joe!

So you’re confused and left wondering why your REALTOR® never called you back when you had plenty of money in your bank account to buy several investment properties.

You were very serious when you asked him to “call me when you find a good deal”.

I’ve been a real estate agent and investor for over a decade now, and these are some of the most irritating words that an investor’s agent can hear from a client. Here’s an insider’s look into what it takes for a real estate investor to have a good relationship with a REALTOR®.

So your REALTOR® never called! You’d waited patiently and watched others how they’ve been scooping up prime real estate one after another and you’re wondering what happened to all those real estate agents that you have recently told about your plans?

Don’t get me wrong, since we only get paid after a transaction is completed, I appreciate every opportunity I can get to help a client with their real estate purchase. But in this case I have to say: “Thanks, but no thanks”. Read on to find out why this awkward scenario is not ideal to anyone.

REALTORS® and investors need to find the common ground on which they can work together. Just like the example given above there are hundreds of other pitfalls or opportunities where a relationship can easily end up in the gutter or go sour due to a bad decision that you should have approached differently.

Working with a REALTOR® during your search is the cornerstone of your journey. Selecting the wrong type of property or if your real estate agent is not fully understanding your plans during the process, then it could be devastating to your investment or you could end up wasting significant amount of your time.

There must be hundreds of opportunities where a REALTOR® – Investor relationship can go wrong. To avoid heated conversations, let’s take a look at some of the obvious, but often ignored causes of failures when working with your agent.

Taking Responsibility

As always, everything is a matter of perspective and someone else will need to be blamed for sure if the investment goes belly up.

Let’s admit it, we have all said this before: “…it ain’t my fault”!

Then who’s fault is it? Once we start pointing fingers at others, the damage is most likely already done, regardless if it’s your advisor’s fault or not.

When you hear these words: “Taking Responsibility”, it may bring back memories to you from the days when your parents were trying to beat this message into your head. Back then we have just shrugged our shoulders, but let’s face it, they were right about it.

As a business owner we’re faced making decision every minute of the day. Some of the decisions we make may be as little as answering an e-mail to a tenant, hiring the right cleaning crew or writing a cheque for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

At the end of the day, we need to realize that it was us in the first place who has decided to engage the services of our team members. The ultimate conclusion is that we opened the door for them to do business with us, therefore we need to be very diligent with whom we decide to work with.

Hiring The Wrong REALTOR®

Choosing the wrong realtorThe truth is that there are thousands of real estate agents out there right now who are waiting for your phone call. Almost any one of them is capable of filling out a standard purchase agreement after opening a door for you to a house that you are interested in. But in this case you’re not interested in buying A house, rather you are looking for THE house that is going to bring you positive cashflow with very little maintenance headaches, aka: investment property.

Asking lots of questions about the real estate agent’s past experience is a very crucial step that you can take. Working with the “new kid on the block” may not necessarily be to your best advantage. The key question to ask your future agent is if he owns any investment properties on his own. Make sure you get some details as well to verify the depth of his experience.

Find out from exactly how many properties he owns as you don’t want him qualifying his personal residence as his investment property just to give you the impression that he is the guru whom you have been looking for. Next, ask when did he purchase his properties, what were his biggest challenges as a landlord and so on. I believe that these question are vital to verifying the agent’s experience.

You may run into some individuals who might be reluctant to share these details with you. They could be claiming that it’s private information and there might be all other sorts of excuses that they could come up with for not sharing. I think that’s just baloney and it may be a red flag to me personally. Most real estate investors whom I came across were very proud about their achievements and they are usually excited to talk about their experiences.

In the housing business a word of recommendation is as good as gold. I was a little bit hesitant sharing this advise in the first place, but you can also ask your real estate network if they can recommend anyone whom they worked with in the past. Just be cautious and ask the agent good questions about how is he going to prioritize his clients when the “good deal” shows up.

Thanks to technology, service providers are becoming more transparent of their performance then ever before. Spend 10 minutes online and see if you can find any reviews or testimonials of the person you are meeting with. Someone who’s been around the block a few times should have plenty of reviews available.

Key tip: randomly select 2-3 reviews before the interview and ask the REALTOR® if you can have those client’s phone number to request a quick feedback of their experience with him. Some people may be dishonest about how they are trying to portray their image to the public, so going the extra step may be worth it.

Once you have purchased your property, part of your learning curve is becoming an impeccable landlord. Surrounding yourself with likeminded people and team members who you can rely on can make your life very easy. Since you have decided to work with an experienced real estate agent, he should be a crucial part of your going forward strategy when you are managing your tenants. Having an experienced advisor available can be a real rock for you when you will be facing some challenges. Find out from your REALTOR® if you can rely on him to ask question even after the sale is completed.

Being Emotional

For most REALTORS® working with real estate investors can be a whole other world than what they might be used to dealign with. The typical residential buyers or “moms & pops” can often go through emotional roller coaster rides before making their lives biggest decision.

On the other hand, real estate investors need to leave their soft feelings at home and they need to become fearless business owners as if they’re going amongst a pack of wolves.

Seriously! This is probably the number one cause of failure why investors loose their shirts in this business.

I’d seen it countless times after spending weeks or months of looking at investment properties and nothing was to the client’s liking. The numbers made sense, the location was great and the property was in good condition as well, yet the buyer just couldn’t pull the trigger. This is a huge turn off for many REALTOR®S when their client cannot look at an opportunity objectively. In the residential area this indecisiveness is an everyday occurrence. But when you are committed to invest in real estate, be sure to step up to the table when it’s your turn and don’t hesitate. Otherwise an unspoken conclusion might be forming in your agent’s head regarding the level of your commitment.

On the flip side of the coin, there are some real naive buyers who may be so hyped up about getting out there and buying anything just to claim their first rental property. They get so emotionally driven that if they end up having the wrong person on their team, they will fall in to this trap very quickly.

You need to educate yourself in advance so that you can make decision on your own and be able to recognize the difference between a good and a bad investment.

Having a Plan

Buying Your First Rental Property GuideComing up with buying strategies and crunching the numbers can be overwhelming for the novice investor. Expecting your REALTOR® to serve the opportunities for you on a silver plate is very unlikely to happen. Unless you tell them exactly what you are looking for.

Since every market is different, strategies need to be very adaptive to the local environment. For example: some investment methods might work well in the U.S. while the same strategies may not fly in Canada due to different rules and regulations.

Before you decide to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on an investment property you should have a pretty good idea about how the entire process works. You can gain knowledge by reading books about real estate investing in a specific market. You can also join networking groups or invite others for lunch who have purchased investment properties before.

Before approaching your REALTOR® to help you find the property that you’re looking for, you will need to be able to understand what is it that you want. Otherwise how are you going to recognize a great buying opportunity if you don’t know what it looks like?

Being a Property Addict

Have you ever caught yourself looking at houses online for hours? Were you jumping from one website to another to see if you can find that gold nugget of opportunity that only seems to be a fairy tale? Perhaps you spent countless hours surfing online at your job when the boss wasn’t around? I’ve done it too.

It’s a completely normal thing to do when you are very interested in finding a solution to a problem. However it’s not necessarily a good thing for you. According to Google, addiction can be defined as a condition of making a habit of a particular activity.

When you are looking at hundreds of irrelevant properties on a daily basis it could push you off track. Wasting your time is one thing, but not having a clear sense of understanding of your goals can trap you in a maze of confusion.

Dealing With Realtors

Being more specific could have been the main thread of my entire point throughout this post. It is imperative to clearly set-up your property targets and identify your niche. Focus your search on a selected area where you intend to become a landlord instead of being all over the city. Decide on the type of property that you are looking for. Ask yourself if the house needs to be a certain size? What is going to be the minimum number of bedrooms that you require? Are you looking for newer or older buildings? Do you like condominiums more than houses?

Having clarity in your vision is going to free you from all the unnecessary activities that you may be doing and it will bring you closer to your goals. Try to resist the urge to look at all sorts of properties all the time and focus on spotting the ones that are relevant to your search criteria. By doing this you are going to soon become an expert in your niche and you’ll be able to weed out the bad investment properties that should have never showed up on your radar.

Being an investor’s agent comes with great responsibilities and I consider it a noble opportunity to work with anyone who is striving to become financially successful. You can reach me, Joe Samson at http://www.JoeSamson.com and I will be happy to guide you along with your investment questions.

Joe is a local Calgary Alberta Realtor, so he may not be able to help everyone as I know many of you come from all over North America and the world, but the advice and information in here should definitely be able to help you with whomever you work with. If you have soem feedback or questions for Joe or myself, we’d love to hear them! – Bill