Anxiety of First Rental

[Ben Kevan]

I'm new to REI, and have gotten into contract on my first property.

I have ran numbers, and numbers and numbers again, and feel that the deal is solid. I've networked with many processionals (bankers, realtors, investors, wholesalers, landlords) and believe in my abilities to make good investment decisions, but HOLY COW.

This first deal is nearly giving me anxiety. It's part excitement, anxiousness and partly worry.

The property isn't very costly as it's in Cleveland Ohio (good ol' rust belt). It's tenant occupied, and will be managed by property management (as I'm out of state).

Am I the only one that has these crazy anxieties during a new investment venture? I had these same anxieties when I first started purchasing stock when I was 18, when I bought my first investment car note (I've only bought a few, but was crazy). Don't get me started on forex (which I ditched because it wasn't good for my health). Or monitoring my funds that I have in Peer to Peer lending.

Am I going crazy? Please tell me I'm nto the only one.. PLEASE

[J Scott]

Ben -

Something to keep in mind is that real estate investing is much different than stock trading, FOREX, or buying notes in that with those other things, once the investment is made, you just sit around until you're ready to implement an exit strategy (at least for each particular deal).

In real estate investing, after the investment is made, there is a LOT of room to affect the investment and ultimately determine whether it will be successful or not. If you plan to just invest the money and then sit back and wait until your exit strategy kicks in, you'll likely end up losing money, regardless of how good the investment looked on paper.

In your particular case, it sounds like you have an out-of-state (to you) property management company handing your investment. Do you have a plan on how you will work with the PM? How you will ensure that they are correctly managing your property? How you will ensure that they are taking care of things properly and managing expenses appropriately? How you will ensure that they are choosing good tenants? Etc...

Remember, often-times PM companies have conflicting interests -- they actually make *MORE* money when they have tenant turnover and property issues. An disreputable PM company can easily cost you much more than whatever cash flow you otherwise would have coming in.

So, don't trust just any PM company to manage your rental. Find a company that is reputable, communicates well, and that you trust. And then make sure you stay on top of them EVERY STEP OF THE WAY.