📌 Help Me Answer This

[Justin Goodin]

Hey everyone,

What are a few things that you know now, that you wish you would have known 10 years ago?

This could be real estate, personal, or business related. 

Thanks for any advice!

[Erik W.]

1) There are ways to buy real estate without debt and still not limit your growth.  It's not a requirement, as is too often asserted by those who are not as educated about ways to raise funds.

2) Land lording is primarily a people business.  The houses, plexes, and apartments are just the tool to get us to where we can serve our customers.  This is probably true of many other businesses as well, but it is profoundly true for residential rentals.  You can have the best housing units in the best locations, but if your tenants are poorly chosen or you don't know how to manage them properly you will lose money.

3) If you ever intend on growing past 10 units, hire out the maintenance.  All of it.  You will make 10x - 100x more money with your mind than your muscles.  Ask Jeff Bezos or any other CEO if you have any doubts about that. (*grins)

4) Don't be afraid to try something scary....like letting prospective tenants tour a property without you being present using a key in a lock box.  Find ways to minimize the risks of theft, vandalism, and squatting.

5) Have backup plans B, C, and D....maybe E would be good too.

6) Only buy stuff that you understand.

7) Education is important, but how much money you spend on education is only marginally correlated to it's value.  Better to spend a couple of hours serving/learning from a highly successful, happy investor than spending $10,000 on a guru.

8) Books are useful, but action yields results.

9) Look for deals where others aren't.  If everyone is talking about going after MF / apartments, try digging through commercial warehouses / automotive shops

10) Have fun with this.  Being rich (or poor) and miserable isn't worth it.