Share your 20/20 Hindsight - what would you do differently day 1

Rental Property Investor · Waycross, GA · Member since 2018 · 39 posts · 40 votes

What single piece of advice would you give to a newbie to share the hind sight you've no doubt experienced by this point. Knowing what you know now, what would you have done?

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Chris Szepessy

Catskill, NY · Member since 2018 · 636 posts · 668 votes

I would've started earlier in life by buying a 2-4 unit instead of a single family.

26 Reply

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Edo Tinjak
Rental Property Investor · Dublin, OH · Member since 2018 · 11 posts · 20 votes
8y
Find an agent who knows the area and who is very responsive.....or else you will miss out on many deals.
13 Reply
Margie Fuller
OP
Rental Property Investor · Waycross, GA · Member since 2018 · 39 posts · 40 votes
8y
Edo, thank you for the advice. I will definitely be looking for that right fit.
0 Reply
Chris Szepessy
Catskill, NY · Member since 2018 · 636 posts · 668 votes
8y
I would've started earlier in life by buying a 2-4 unit instead of a single family.
26 Reply
Jill HaselmanPro Member
Rental Property Investor · Delray Beach, FL · Member since 2015 · 63 posts · 41 votes
8y
Buy value-based deals-- it's all about the deal--and have a strategy (BRRR or Flip or ?).
7 Reply
Will GastonPro Member
Rental Property Investor · Columbia, SC · Member since 2010 · 1k+ posts · 2k+ votes
8y
@Margie Fuller Buy everything I possibly could in 2010.
25 Reply
Charlie MacPherson
China, ME · Member since 2014 · 3k+ posts · 4k+ votes
8y
@Margie Fuller I would have started decades earlier.
9 Reply
Amanda Whiteley
Member since 2018 · 29 posts · 21 votes
8y
Get an inspection. Screen you PM as you would screen a tenant. Ask more questions and not be as trusting. Visit the area in person, 2x a year. Ask more questions on BP!
9 Reply
Ian WalshBusiness Member
Lender · Philadelphia, PA · Member since 2016 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
8y
I wouldn't have done much different. Learning my market and learning how to market very early on was key to what I do now and have done in the past.
0 Reply
Nicholas Paros
Rental Property Investor · Johnstown, PA · Member since 2017 · 28 posts · 28 votes
8y
One thing I underestimated was the impact that the winter months had on renters and their willingness to move. We closed at the end of December, had renovations done for the first unit towards the middle to end of January, and had a steady flow of "interested" candidates who wanted to see the apartment. At the end of the day, people saw it, liked it, but nobody was interested in moving until around April when the property filled up with qualified tenants with no problem.
11 Reply
Jason D.
Rental Property Investor · St. Petersburg, FL · Member since 2017 · 3k+ posts · 4k+ votes
8y
I would have started 10 years sooner, and bought a multi unit to househack. I wish I was more aware of the housing market in 2009-2010 when I purchased my first rental to buy as much as humanly possible
6 Reply
JD MartinBusiness Member
Moderator
Rock Star Extraordinaire · Northeast, TN · Member since 2015 · 10k+ posts · 16k+ votes
8y
Bought investment property before buying my own home. Hands down the biggest 'mistake' I've made, since you can never get the time back that could have been multiplied on investments.
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12 Reply
Charlie MacPherson
China, ME · Member since 2014 · 3k+ posts · 4k+ votes
8y
On my first flip, I would have spelled compensation with my contractor/partner in very fine detail. After wrapping up what was initially supposed to be a 50/50 split of the profits, he also wanted to get compensation for his hourly rate plus a markup on whatever the subcontractors did - none of which was ever discussed until it was time to pay ourselves.
VERY uncomfortable.
12 Reply
Travis Rasmussen
Realtor · Murrieta, CA · Member since 2016 · 373 posts · 203 votes
8y
1. HouseHacked
2. Started Earlier
3. Gone to More REIs
10 Reply
Dustin Beam
Kansas City, MO · Member since 2015 · 609 posts · 321 votes
8y
Like many here, I wish my first home was a fourplex or at least a duplex. I did a lot of sweat equity on the house I did purchase and basically did an 8 year flip, but a multi-family first house would have been better I believe.
5 Reply
Emily Pierce
Rental Property Investor · West Palm Beach, FL · Member since 2014 · 27 posts · 13 votes
8y
When starting out, do all the work yourself to learn the ropes early on.
4 Reply
Sunny D.
Pleasanton, CA · Member since 2015 · 246 posts · 115 votes
8y
1. Thinking flipping will work out of state.
2. Trusting people who tell what you want to hear. (the right numbers)
3. Trusting people who are dishonest.
4. Trusting the status on the email being sent from the untrustworthy folks 1000+ miles away
5. Trusting that the inefficient partner will turn things around by being more patient.
6. Taking too much financial risk by jumping ahead with multiple projects with a bad team without seeing one actually work
7. Not protecting myself legally when working with the dishonest partners.
I have learnt this the hard way. I now am able to make money working with the people that know they will benefit by remaining honest and building a long term partnership.
10 Reply
Thomas S.
Member since 2016 · 13k+ posts · 12k+ votes
8y
1. Self manage
2. be extremely conservative with the numbers. If it does not have significant cash flow it is not an investment.
3. Never buy cash flow with equity.
5 Reply
Margie Fuller
OP
Rental Property Investor · Waycross, GA · Member since 2018 · 39 posts · 40 votes
8y
@Chris Szepessy, I would like for my 1st investment purchase to be 2-4 unit also.
3 Reply
Margie Fuller
OP
Rental Property Investor · Waycross, GA · Member since 2018 · 39 posts · 40 votes
8y
@Sunny D., I have decided to keep my initial investments close to home. Maybe I'll do business in other states in the future, but only after cultivating long-term relationships with people who have a reputation for integrity.
5 Reply
Dave G.
Investor · Phoenix, AZ · Member since 2016 · 349 posts · 418 votes
8y
Not having sufficient reserve funds was my first failure and it was painful. It put my RE investing career on hold for a long time after that experience.
Make sure you have liquid reserves set aside for each property to acquire. This is your staying power for when things go wrong (repairs). Your reserve amount should be based on property type, age, condition at acquisition, etc. I budget it to pay other people to do it. So that's parts & labor, not just parts (if I chose to do it myself).
Best of luck to you!
8 Reply
Jared Forman
Rental Property Investor · Philadelphia, PA · Member since 2017 · 139 posts · 107 votes
8y
I would have started learning about investing in RE in college rather than gambling on stocks while taking notes.
If I have the knowledge and drive back then I might have skipped a party to buy a house or two.
5 Reply
Jay HinrichsBusiness Member
Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
8y
well thats easy for me hindsight is 20/20 as you said.. Never sell any of the properties i bought in the late 70s and through the middle 80s in Silicon valley. thats a pretty easy one...
starting new today things to watch for.. are
1. proper liquidity undercaptilized business's fail
2. if its landlording U want to do .. do it local if you can to start.
3. if your looking to invest in alternative investments other than rentals vette the providers very well.
4. if your doing fix and flip do this with only the most trusted partners .. none of these will be 100%
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12 Reply
Jim K.
Handyman · Pittsburgh, PA · Member since 2018 · 5k+ posts · 13k+ votes
8y
I renovated my first property in 2006, a basement apartment in an apartment building in Athens, Greece, converted illegally from a basement storage area. My girlfriend was in a bind at the time. She had come back to Greece with an €18,000 inheritance from head long-dead mother in Australia. That money was all she had of her mother, and she sunk it into buying this basement apartment. After a series of bad tenants, she finally got one that completely trashed the place and she declared she was permanently done with landlording and decided to sell the apartment.
We went over there, cleared out the old tenant's junk, and brought in an agent. He took one look at the place and advised us that he was willing to give my girlfriend €10,000 for it and guaranteed with great certainty that she would never see more for the place.
This devastated my girlfriend. She believed she had squandered her inheritance. She cried every night. And being a fine, upstanding young man in love, I offered to renovate that apartment for her. For free. I would pay for paint and tools and other materials. Because love conquers all.
During the next four months I toiled ceaselessly in every free moment I had down in that basement. I fixed everything from the in-the-wall toilet assembly to the sink to the flooring. I fixed every crack in the plaster-on-concrete walls. I primed and I painted every pipe in the ceiling. I put at least €3,000 into that apartment.
When I was done, it looked pretty good. I had surprised myself with what a good handyman I was. I dimly began to understand that there was real money in this. The second retail buyer who saw the place offered €27,000 for it. My girlfriend accepted, and was ecstatic with her profits.
If I could go back and do things differently, I would have chosen a much different person to do my first residential renovation with. Not getting paid or the work or materials is fine. I got a splendid basic education out of the deal. But the problem was, I invested in the wrong woman.
6 Reply
Rosanna DelacruzPro Member
Belleville, NJ · Member since 2016 · 3 posts · 5 votes
8y
Decide which type of RE investing motivates you the most (BRRRR, Fix and Flip, Multi-family, Commercial, Syndication, etc.) many choices out there find what fits with your personality and have fun with it. Making money is not as exciting if you can't find some fun in it. Once you decide which you prefer go get as much education as you can, give yourself 12 weeks or so for reading books and researching online then go get contacts, find real people doing what you aspire to do and get mentored. Find a mentor that is willing to connect you to their team and have a goal of closing your first deal within 3-6months (seems reasonable). Your first deal will also teach you, so get it out of the way sooner than later, it's part of your initial training.
5 Reply
Aaron L.
Kansas City, MO · Member since 2015 · 123 posts · 46 votes
8y
I bought 7 properties in British Columbia when I was 23 years old and sold them all a couple years later. Definitely my biggest regret. They've all doubled in value or more since then — I should have held onto them!
5 Reply

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