Top 5 Mistakes New Landlords Make

Hey, this is Steve Rozenberg with Empire Property Management. Today we’re going to talk about what are the five biggest mistakes that new investors make when they’re getting into business.

I would say the first challenge that most investors have is they have the wrong goals, and many of them don’t even have goals. That’s another problem. But you’ve got to have the goals, and you’ve got to make sure that those goals align with what you want.

Second biggest mistake is they don’t plan. They just think they’re going to get in and they’re going to kill the world. They’re going to do it all. They’ve got no goals. They’ve got no accountability. They’ve got nothing so there’s no plan to go along to achieve that goal.

Next thing I would say is they misjudge the amount of work it takes to get stuff done. Here’s the thing: if you want to be successful, you’re going to have to work hard. You’ve got to put in the time, put in the effort; whether it’s educating yourself, whether it’s physically doing things. You are going to have to put in work, and you’re going to have to get uncomfortable doing things that you’re not comfortable doing.

Next thing is people get into deals and they don’t have any money. You’ve got to have money to get into a deal. Now you can do deals with no money, but that may be a little bit higher, more educated stuff that you may not be ready for. Initially if you want to get into it, be conservative, know what you’re doing, have some money, have some skin in the game and do the deal.

Lastly, I would say the biggest reason that people make mistakes is they don’t understand leverage. They don’t understand the leverage of other people. For example: in the property management business, you’re leveraging a team of thirty people working to get your property taken care of. That’s leverage. That’s so you can do what you want with your life, and you don’t have to worry about learning property code laws, fair housing stuff, discrimination, and all of that stuff. Just leverage that out to someone else so that you can go focus on either spending time with your family, living your life, or really doing whatever you want to do.