Anyone have a list of what a first time investor will need before purchasing a property?
I’ll give it a college try…
- Need to know your farm (as well/better than anyone else).
- Need to make written offers in your farm (no offers, no accepted offers)
- Need to negotiate, and close, on offers in your farm (don’t flit off to 'no man’s land, like it was ‘greener grass.’
- Need to rinse and repeat (unless the goal is to buy one property).
Conventionally speaking, you…
- Need credit.
- Need a down payment.
- Need a good job.
- Need a financial statement.
Non-conventionally speaking, you…
- Don’t need credit…
- Don’t need (much, necessarily) down payments…
- Don’t need a good job (but definitely helpful at the beginning)
- Don’t need a financial statement (but definitely helpful at any point)
Prospecting…
- Look for people with problems (You want to find people with cracks in their marriage, not in the foundation).
- Drop as many problem-solving hooks in the water as possible. (Hungry fish will find your hooks).
- Never stop looking for people with problems and dropping hooks in the water. (fugly business cards that look like car accidents are great for making your solutions memorable)
- Talk up your business with everyone you come across. Get rid of your fugly business cards like they were infected with herpes virus. (okay, too gross?) Maybe printing a herpes virus image would be good here? I don’t know.
And the catchall of optional internet marketing/prospecting we might ‘need’…
a. Bait (bandit signs, free reports/videos/ebooks on the ‘7 mistakes that idiots do when buying/selling their houses’, direct mail, classified ads, etc.).
b. Branding website. (Not to brand yourself personally, get over that idea. It’s not about you; it’s about your solution(s)).
c. Site URL that contains the what, where, and how of problems we solve. “www.we-equity-strip-old-ladies-in-florida.com”
d. Squeeze page. (Gets the names of the idiots that want to know what other idiots are doing when they sell their houses (just kidding).
e. Email auto-responder. (very useful for keeping your solutions in front of not-yet-ready-to-deal types of sellers.)
f. Dedicated, multiple-number, voice mail service. (very good for sending buyers/sellers to specific squeeze pages, and tailoring specific outgoing messages for individual properties or situations, etc.
Of course I’ve missed the checklists about characterizing your strengths and weaknesses, financially and otherwise as it relates to investing. For example, what business skills are you bringing to your business? Is your family supportive of this endeavor? How much cash do you have? How’s your credit, job, income? How familiar are you with sub2, lease options, options, property management, estimating repairs, networking, and perhaps negotiating…??? The better you know yourself, and the better you know your options and solutions, the faster you’ll progress.
That all said, anything worth doing, is worth doing badly. Been there. Done that! :biggrin :shocked :rolleyes
Kemacgroup, thanks for forcing me to put on paper the seeds of my next training course!! Shall I charge $10,000 or what??? :biggrin
Wellll…
On the one hand, i only meant what questions to ask about a potential purchase (rental records, etc.)
On the other hand, i learned a lot i haven’t even thought about; on the other SIDE of the other hand, i have a kajillion more questions. :banghead
"Kemacgroup, thanks for forcing me to put on paper the seeds of my next training course!! Shall I charge $10,000 or what??? "
and that’s gonna be a 10% “motivational fee”!! :bobble
(i don’t know what that icon means but it is cool as heck!!!)
:biggrin LOL!!!
Okay, half off??? That’s only $5,000…! Such a bargain… :anon
I may not be able to answer any more questions until I learn to ‘google’ better answers!!! j/k
Here’s some indicators to start you off:
- Vacany Rate in the area
- Population Growth of the region
- Target Market: Who will be renting my property?
These are some of the things I look at to find a location to invest.
If you’ve already found a property:
- What’s the market value? Eg. compare to other recent sales in the area
- What’s the rental yield?
- What due diligence do I need to do? (Eg. building inspection, pest inspections etc)
Darren.