Habits Holding You Back From Better Real Estate Deals

When you think of some of the really great real estate deals that you’ve missed out on in your career so far, it’s tempting to blame bad luck. You weren’t lucky enough to be the first person to make an offer. It was just bad luck that you couldn’t get the cash together in time to make it happen. It’s just your luck that you saw the deal and didn’t recognize it for the goldmine that it was.

While it’s tempting to blame luck for any number of problems with your real estate investments and flip houses, the truth is luck really doesn’t have much to do with it. So what’s to blame? Believe it or not, you could have a few seemingly harmless bad habits that are holding you back from making better real estate deals.

You Let Your Emotions Take Over

This happens with all kinds of investors. People who invest in one asset look at another asset class, see it outperforming the assets in their portfolio, and they’re tempted to jump ship and go for the better performing products. For real estate investors, you might be working on a flip you’ve already bought, and you see another one pop up for sale that you think will get a much better market value.

If you’re like some new investors, you might be tempted to halt work on your current flip, or try to cut corners and speed it up, so that you can focus on this other seemingly more profitable property. There’s definitely nothing wrong with flipping two or more houses at once, but don’t sacrifice one for another, or you’ll be in trouble before you know it.

You’re a Procrastinator

This is one I’ve had to really fight against, myself. You’ve found a really promising lead on a flip house, and you know that you should call the seller. Somehow, though, you keep finding anything else in the world to do besides picking up the phone. By the time you actually stop procrastinating and you give them a call, though, another investor has jumped ahead of you and already made an offer.

It’s not always as obvious as this example, but procrastination can kill a deal. If you have something you need to do to ensure that a great deal goes through, do it ASAP!

Multitasking

Lots of people praise the ability to multitask, but it’s really not something that anyone can do well. If you’re trying to do multiple things at once, you’re probably doing at least one of them poorly. When I try to do my mom duties while looking for leads on the MLS, I either ignore my mom duties or absentmindedly scroll past a great property. I’ve had to learn the hard way that when I’m working, I have to work on one thing at a time, and that family time is sacred time when you put down the computer and the phone.

Micromanaging Your Team

If you’ve hired a good project manager or general contractor, it’s a good idea to check in on them throughout the job, but don’t micromanage them. And the same goes for all of your other employees, partners, and contractors. Don’t hire people you can’t trust to get the job done, and don’t insult qualified people by standing over them and trying to oversee every little thing. It’ll sour a lot of great deals for you.

So what do you think? Do you have one or more of these habits? If so, see what happens when you break them and how many more great real estate investment deals you can get.

For more information about real estate investing, visit Real Estate Elevated's BiggerPockets blog.