scared to get my second rental property

[Gabriel Benavidez]

Its been about 5 months that I've had my first rental property everything seems to be going smoothly with my tenants they sign another year with me which is good! But This post is to mainly talk about why am I feeling scared to purchase my second property I mean I have the funding for another one and I love the idea of having to manage two houses but there's something that's not allowing me to commit. How did you guys feel when trying to get a second property and how long did it take you?

[James C.]

Gabriel,

It's normal. You worked hard to get the first one to go, looked at lots of deals, fretted over the numbers, and finally pulled the trigger. That took some time. Now deal 2 comes "quickly" and you are thinking "does this work, what if deal 1 is ok, and deal 2 goes bad" or "what if something happens to deal 1, and I can't get deal 2 done". Could be any number of "doomsday" scenarios.

First thing, relax. Go over your plan (you do have one, right?), double check your numbers, check your reserves, check your assumptions, contingency plans etc. If everything checks out, that is the best you can do. You've done this once, you can do it again. Consider each deal independently. When the deal is right, the deal is right, when it's not, it's not. 

 If it checks out, write the check. Then take it from there. You only get over this by doing it again and again. It's kinda like going on a second date. The first one went well, now you are doing it again. The second date is harder, because you aren't sure of the outcome. If one went well, and I go for another... will it go well, or will it bust. Like flipping a coin twice, will I get two heads, or a tail this time. What if?

Lose the "What if" . Trust (and VERIFY) your process. 

To answer your question directly: 5 years for property 1 (condo), property 2 was purchased 10 months later (2 family). 

Good Luck!

Jim