If you could start over again in REI...how would you do things differently?

General Real Estate Investing
1

Well…the topic speaks for itself…

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
-Mike

2

Great Question! If I could start over, I would change the mix of rentals that I have accumulated with a greater percentage of SFHs and a lower percentage of low income apartments. I am now only buying SFHs in order to increase the percentages accordingly.

I also would have done better research of the costs involved with rentals. Fortunately, I bought my properties at a hugh discount, but my profits are only half of the predictions of the gurus and their nonsense numbers. I wish I had found that National Apartment Association website and joined my local REIA before I made the first purchase.

Mike

3

When I did my first purchase I stopped for awhile. If I could do things differently I would have kept on going, doing at least one purchase a month if not more. I have helped make multi-millionaires, to bad I did not have the same insight for myself. IF ONLY…

4

Great Question. I will answer in 2 ways.

  1. How am glad that I did what I did.

  2. What I would do differently.

  3. I am super glad that I approached the business as a rehab investor. I learne a lot very quickly and followed Ron LeGrands ARV formulas. Starting out with rehabs really showed me the true costs of investing, not just seminar hype and what you see on the TV shows. That was invaluable. I am also glad that I had a very good understanding of many types of real estate investing…such as lease options, buying discounted notes, wholesaling, etc.

  4. What I would do differently: I would focus more of my attention on cash flow. Lease Options, wholesaling, subject to deals where I can rent out or sell by using a wrap or owner financing. John Burley has some really great information on this.

Why do I say that I would start out doing more cash flow? I have typically done many full renovation rehabs and the payoffs are good at the end, but it always takes more time and more money than is expected going in. Also, when you only get 3 or 4 paychecks a year, it can be very stressful. Now I am doing multi-family condo projects and have about 25 units in process…but the closest payoff for those is about 7 months from now. It would be nice to have a steady stream of 20K per month coming in from tenant buyers who are working towards and wanting to own their own home.

Take care.

Chip