What you wish you knew for your first deal

[Jennifer White]

Hey everyone,

My husband and I are looking into investing in our first single family or multifamily home.  We are practicing more with the calculators and assessing deals but I'm sure there are plenty of things we haven't considered or encountered.  So I am wondering what is something you wish you knew when you were first starting out?  Hidden expenses? Finding tenants?  Loans, realtors, etc?  Anything you can think of I'm sure will be helpful!  Thanks in advance.

[Spencer Cornelia]

@Jennifer White you'll never be fully ready to buy your first deal.  I don't think humans can really learn until they go through something themselves.  Sure, you can understand how to plug in generic numbers into a calculator, but you won't fully understand the reason for the numbers until you own a property.  It's not until you FEEL loss that you can understand how to avoid it.  It's not until you FEEL profit, that you know where to pursue it.

For me, my first "deal" was a 4plex here in Vegas using seller financing.  I wish I knew then how much reserves would be needed for a D class property and how to adequately prepare for economic vacancy (late payment, evictions, etc.).

I think we as a BP community tend to really focus on numbers and spreadsheets but forget the real estate is centered around people.

The people who will be managing your property, the people who will be living in your property, the people who will be living in the community, the people who will be creating jobs for your tenants, the people who will be fixing your property.  All of these things matter more than a spreadsheet calculation IMO.