Successful Real Estate Investing : How to Avoid the 75 Most Costly Mistakes Every Investor Makes

by Shemin, Robert

• ISBN13: 9780471453970
• ISBN10: 0471453978
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-12-29
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

This book walks the reader, step by step, through an understanding of all the common mistakes novice real estate investors make and the specific, real-life strategies they can use to avoid them. Readers will learn to avoid mistakes like: failing to screen potential tenants, not receiving adequate cash flow, missing out on special loans programs, overlooking bad houses, not having the proper insurance, and owning a rehab or rental house that won't sell or rent.

Author Biography

Robert Shemin, JD, MBA, A nationally recognized real estate expert, he has been featured in BusinessWeek, as well as on Montel Williams, National Public Radio, the USA Radio Network, the Business Radio Network, and more than fifty nationally syndicated talk-radio programs

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xiii
Introduction	1	(14)
PART I: 75 REAL MISTAKES TO AVOID IN REAL ESTATE	15	(136)
Not Getting Started in Real Estate Investing Early Enough	18	(2)
Not Paying Attention to the Cycles of Real Estate: Prices, Price Increases, and Price Decreases	20	(1)
Not Becoming Active in Your Local Real Estate Investors Association	21	(1)
Thinking about Short-Term Results Instead of Long-Term Results When Starting Your Real Estate Investment Business	22	(2)
Not Having a Written Plan for Your Investment Business	24	(1)
Expecting to Have Equal Partnerships in Your Real Estate Investment Deals	25	(1)
Being Frightened to Do Large Deals	26	(2)
Being Unclear Whether You Want to Sell or Rent a Property	28	(1)
Letting Your Business Get Out of Your Control and Run You	29	(2)
Not Budgeting for Your Real Estate Education	31	(1)
Failing to Review Your Finances, Progress, and Overall Activity at Least Once a Week	32	(2)
Thinking That Real Estate Is Risky	34	(2)
Not Creating an Exit Strategy for Your Real Estate Business	36	(2)
Wasting Time on Activities That Don't Make You Any Money and Simply Aren't Any Fun	38	(1)
Not Having the Right Insurance to Properly Cover Your Investments	39	(2)
Being Underinsured on Your Auto Insurance Coverage	41	(2)
Not Taking Advantage of Affordable Legal Services	43	(4)
Not Developing a Long-Term Plan to Protect Your Real Estate Assets	47	(2)
Setting Up an Asset Protection Plan Improperly	49	(2)
Missing Out on Special Loan Programs	51	(1)
Running Out of Cash and the Bills Keep Coming	52	(2)
Not Having the Proper Team in Place	54	(3)
Not Establishing Good Relationships with Those in the Investment Business and Service Providers	57	(1)
Getting Stuck with a Rehab House That Won't Sell or a Rental House That Won't Rent	58	(1)
Failing to Include a Contingency Clause When Putting Together a Contract	59	(2)
Not Negotiating with the Decision Maker Who Can Really Help You	61	(2)
Lamenting That Your Property Isn't Selling Fast Enough	63	(1)
Making the Contract Process More Complicated Than It Has to Be	64	(2)
Negotiating a Good Cash Offer on an Attractive Piece of Property, but Leaving Money on the Table	66	(3)
Not Verifying Everything with a Third Party	69	(1)
Making Only One Offer on a Property Instead of Three	70	(1)
Spending Too Much Money on a House That You Bought to Fix Up and Sell	71	(2)
Analyzing Properties Too Much and Too Long	73	(3)
Overlooking Bad Houses and Bad Neighborhoods	76	(2)
Not Making Sure Buyers Are Preapproved for a Mortgage	78	(2)
Using Only Short-Term Financing	80	(2)
Not Having Multiple Sources of Financing so You Can Transact More Deals	82	(3)
Spending Too Much Time Talking to Tenants, Worrying about Repairs, Doing Paperwork, and Making Very Little Money	85	(2)
Not Having a Systematic Way to Run Your Rental Business	87	(3)
Not Setting Up Minimum Standards in Writing When Selecting Tenants	90	(1)
Not Charging Tenants for Damages to Your Property	91	(1)
Not Screening Tenants Well Enough	92	(1)
Not Doing a Credit and Criminal Background Check on Everyone Who Receives a Key to Your Property	93	(1)
Not Having a High Enough Cash Flow from Your Rental Properties	94	(2)
Penalizing Bad Tenants but Not Rewarding Good Ones	96	(2)
Not Learning about Government Programs for Low-Income Tenants	98	(1)
Not Inspecting Properties Regularly	99	(2)
Attempting to Perform Your Own Evictions and Collections, and Getting Sued	101	(2)
Not Using Licensed, Bonded, and Referred Contractors and Repair People	103	(1)
Paying Too Much for Repairs and Not Getting Written Bids	104	(2)
Paying for a Repair or Construction Job before It's 100 Percent Completed	106	(1)
Not Having a per-Day Penalty for Contract Work That's Not Finished When Promised	107	(1)
Assuming That the Way You Think and Do Business Is the Way Other People Think and Do Business	108	(1)
Selling Your Property Instead of Holding It	109	(2)
Relying on What People Tell You, Not on What They Do	111	(2)
Letting Fear and Hesitation Keep You from Getting the Deal	113	(2)
Not Choosing and Working with Partners Wisely	115	(2)
Not Understanding How to Deal with Real Estate Agents as an Investor	117	(2)
Not Understanding the Difference between Being a Real Estate Investor and a Real Estate Speculator	119	(1)
Not Having Enough Rent Coming in to Cover All of Your Real Expenses	120	(2)
Not Setting Up Separate Bank Accounts and Accounting for Each of Your Real Estate Activities	122	(2)
Not Knowing Why You Are Really in Real Estate or What You Will Do with the Money You Make	124	(2)
Working Only on Making Big Deals When the Little Ones Pay the Bills	126	(2)
Thinking and Worrying Too Much, Then Losing the Deal	128	(2)
Not Understanding That Real Estate Investing Is a People Business	130	(2)
Not Making a Real Commitment to Being a Successful Real Estate Investor	132	(1)
Not Having a Mentor or Coach	133	(1)
Missing Out on Lots of Deals and Thousands of Dollars Because You Stopped Following a Deal	134	(3)
Not Making Additional Income from Deals That You're Doing Anyway	137	(3)
Not Focusing on the Activities That Will Make Money for You Today	140	(4)
Letting Your Emotions Rule Your Choice of Rehab Projects Instead of Analyzing the Numbers	144	(1)
Overrehabbing a Property	145	(1)
Not Finding out the Underlying Reasons Why People Are Selling Their Properties	146	(2)
Getting Too Greedy When Flipping to Other Investors	148	(1)
Not Being Generous with Your Partners and Coinvestors	149	(2)
PART II: THREE BONUS MISTAKES	151	(6)
Not Knowing to Ask for Owner's Terms	153	(1)
Failing to Aggressively Market Properties You Have for Sale	154	(1)
Not Giving People More Than They Expect	155	(2)
Appendix A Almost Every Possible Way to Find Great Deals	157	(32)
Appendix B The Top-10 Real Estate Mistakes We Make Every Day	189	(12)
Appendix C Robert's Six Basic Rules of Negotiation	201	(12)
Appendix D Lease Optioning as a Money-Making Strategy	213	(10)
Appendix E When Your Investment Business Needs Help: How to Build the Perfect Team	223	(20)
Index	243