{"id":78508,"date":"2016-06-12T05:00:09","date_gmt":"2016-06-12T11:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/renewsblog\/?p=78508"},"modified":"2021-03-16T11:59:21","modified_gmt":"2021-03-16T17:59:21","slug":"2016-06-12-dear-new-landlords","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/2016-06-12-dear-new-landlords","title":{"rendered":"Dear New Landlords: 7 Things an Experienced Landlord Would Like You to Know"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear New Landlords,<\/p>\n

Welcome to the landlording world! We\u00a0older-timers are really excited to have you here. While\u00a0you get started in the the landlording world, out on your own or in the BP Forums, reading the blog articles or listening to the BP Podcast<\/a> (which if you haven’t checked this out, you need to head over right now!),\u00a0I wanted to tell you a few things about myself and some of the old-timers. I hope this helps you better understand us.<\/p>\n

1. We are experienced a.k.a. jaded.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

2.\u00a0We will give you lots of advice you think is stupid. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Trust me, the advice is not stupid; there is a reason we say these things. Unfortunately, if you don’t give yourself a chance to learn from us, you’ll you have to learn the hard way. Which means loss of money, time, and lots of energy.<\/p>\n

3. If you are looking at this from a tenant’s perspective, you will think we are either mean, stupid, or practicing bad business.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Related:<\/strong> The Landlord\u2019s Guide to Dealing With Problematic Tenants<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

But we act this way — firm but fair — because we\u00a0treat landlording\u00a0as a business. Our goal is to make money!<\/p>\n

\"landlord-friendly-states\"<\/p>\n

4. We don’t have theoretical thoughts. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

We aren’t sharing book smarts; we are sharing lessons learned from doing, as\u00a0we have learned the hard way. So when we tell you we don’t do something because of X, it’s because we have already been burned because of X.<\/p>\n

5. We’ve learned that longevity is the true teller of success. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Those who figure out this business are those who have stayed in business.\u00a0So see how long people have been in this business. How many houses they own?<\/p>\n

6. We will give you our 100 percent honest opinion — and trust me, you won’t always like it. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

We aren’t saying these thoughts to be mean, but to save you the heartache we learned the hard way. (P.S. I still get advice that I didn’t like, but it has saved me time after time). The reality is, the truth is not always gentle, and no one likes to hear they are doing it wrong. Yet if we don’t learn from our mistakes — or even find out we are making mistakes — we can’t grow.<\/p>\n

7. Lastly, we wouldn’t respond if we didn’t care and didn’t want to pay it forward. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

There are many experienced landlords who don’t speak up because they are tired of push back. Experienced landlords have nothing to prove. Their bank account is doing awesome no matter if you do or don’t take their advice.\u00a0Truth be told, if they really wanted to help their business, they would keep their mouth shut and let you fail. The more\u00a0people who think real estate is awful and who stay renters, the more it only helps us as landlords. Less competition in the market and more demand. But\u00a0we, the experienced landlords, are still here. We are\u00a0believers of paying it forward and taking care of others, so we are here day-in, day-out to pay it forward and help others be successful. We give you advice even when you don’t want to hear it.\u00a0So please, before you get cross and snap back, remember, we are only here to help, and if you don’t want the help, don’t ask. We won’t tell you what you want to hear just so your feeling aren’t hurt.<\/p>\n

\"landlord-policies\"<\/p>\n

Related:<\/strong> The Best Landlords Are Firm But Fair: Here\u2019s How to Adopt Their Principles<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Again, I welcome you to this world. I am excited to have fellow investors, no matter your reasons, to go through this journey with me. Make sure you participate, as we can’t wait to celebrate your success, help you through you the bumps, and listen to you vent. We get it, as we are walking the same path. If you pay attention to the posts and watch other people’s mistakes, I promise you, you will learn virtually and save yourself a few mistakes. I know I have learned so much, made great friends, and have grown without having to learn the hard way.<\/p>\n

Sincerely,<\/p>\n

The Crazy Landlord Who Has 8 Rentals in 3 Different States Who\u00a0Self-Manages Them All<\/p>\n

P.S. Yes, landlording can be profitable. I not only made up my corporate salary, I exceeded it!<\/p>\n

Experienced landlords: Anything you’d add to this? New landlords: How has your journey been thus far?<\/em><\/p>\n

Let me know with a comment!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Starting out as a new landlord, there’s plenty to learn. Here’s what one experienced investor would like to tell newbies straight off the bat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1908,"featured_media":78509,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5183],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-landlording"],"acf":[],"comment_count":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1908"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}