First Time Real Estate Investors — Gotta Love ‘Em
Posted @ 9:51 pm - Filed under Real Estate Investing, Purposeful Planning, Retirement, Mentoring, Sominex Account, Communication
Countless times on these pages I’ve admitted my addiction to the process of taking real estate investors from ‘now to retirement’. Of course, there are nearly an infinite menu of investor flavors. There’s the experienced veteran. The investor who’s owned their first property for quite awhile, but hasn’t experienced a tax deferred exchange yet. Obviously there’s all the variations in between.
But my all time favorite real estate investor? The first timer. Get ‘first timer juice’ flowing in my veins and I’m good for quite awhile. 
Talk about a potent fix. They ask more questions, have more anxieties, are more conservative, searching for ‘lake serenity’, or real fire breathers, braver than is safe. Sometimes all at once. They also offer insight at times which makes me stop and think. They’re unfettered by experience, good, bad, or indifferent, so often bring a fresh take to the arena.
The questions almost always are the ones they should be asking. Many of their queries require a crystal ball, but they understand that — they just want a professional and experienced opinion. Fair enough.
How long will it take to get these properties rented? Do I include insurance as an expense when analyzing properties I recommend? How to houses in the area compare to the ’sides’ of a duplex for resale value? Don’t I need a pre-approval letter for each property? Can we drive a harder deal with this or that seller? Why don’t renters buy, when the payments wouldn’t be much different?
See what I mean? All great questions. And those are only a small sampling of what I’ve been asked in just the last several days. I remind people all the time — answering questions is a huge part of my job.
Of course, the best part is when I’m able to answer a question they didn’t know to ask. Lord knows I love when that happens.
When new clients, especially those new to investing, ask us questions, we try our best to give in depth, and richly detailed answers. It’s not always possible, but we give it our best shot. When the answer depends upon our perpetually cracked crystal ball, we laugh about that fact with our client, then proceed to answer the question as best we can.
Sometimes the answers aren’t what they expect. Everything isn’t Grandma’s pancakes and bacon — know what I mean, Verne? Newbies learn quickly — we don’t sugarcoat answers that are sometimes by nature, negative, or at least unpleasant. One of our most often repeated retorts to stunned silence is, “Hey, that’s why we insist on a Sominex Account.” 2 3 4, “Oh, yeah, right.”
That’s when the light comes on — there’s a reason it’s called ‘risk capital’ Virginia. Usually by the time any particular conversation is finished, they’ve learned a new respect for the concept of cash reserves. This is a decidedly good thing. Soon, the excitement of investing for a magnificently abundant retirement is tempered by the realities of the real estate investment arena.
Again, that’s exactly why we call it Purposeful Planning — ‘cuz doing things on purpose with a plan is a whole lot mo betta than the alternative. Right?
Right.
Deciding to take the path of a real estate investor for the first time means you’re gonna take a nearly vertical ride up the learning curve elevator.
I’m always excited to ask — “What floor please?” “Penthouse? Excellent choice.”
It’s my job to answer questions, and do it as long as you have them to ask. Never, ever feel like you can’t ask ‘just one more question’. It’s how you learn, and how I stay high.
First time investors are great fixes.
This entry was posted on Monday, April 7th, 2008 at 9:51 pm and is filed under Real Estate Investing, Purposeful Planning, Retirement, Mentoring, Sominex Account, Communication. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.