Your money-pits vs your cash-cows -- what lessons did you learn?

[Harman N.]

Hi everyone,

When analyzing your portfolio and comparing the money-pit sinkholes vs the reliable cash-cow properties, what lessons did you learn? What were the common threads? Was it location, property type, class, age of the property, your experience/inexperience at the time, etc? 

- Harman

[Will Fraser]

@Harman N., I'll echo Joe above and say that speculation is a huge pitfall.  Additionally I have sunk a lot of money into repairs and maintenance of old properties that were shoddily maintained by the previous operator.  New construction doesn't have previous operator risks (other than the builder), it is at Year 1 of ALL the different lifecycles of the property, and if it cashflows from day one it's a beautiful simplification factor!