What is your guys biggest real estate mistakes

Question

I'm curious as to what your biggest mistakes and or real estate horror stories are.

We all know of the positive power of real estate and its potential to build real wealth but here I want to know of the worst experiences/mistakes you guys have made. So as people can learn.

Taylor L. · Answer

Spending way too long listening to limiting beliefs

Kevin Luttrell · Answer

Mine is a little surprising. Working with contractors, realtors, etc that were recommended to me by other investors/professionals. Or I should say, putting too much trust in their recommendations.

Mike Dymski · Answer

Paying a contractor ahead of the advance schedule

Not buying larger properties sooner

Brandon Vukelich · Answer

Nice to hear similar stories. Not ashamed of any of my personal losses or incorrect investment decisions. I received massive education from taking action. I'd add or reconfirm same comments...

1. Working with an agent that doesn't invest themselves. Advised me to get into new construction speculation in Las Vegas right before the recession.

2. Selling too soon due to being undercapitalized to stabilize a 6-unit property in Seattle (around 2012), panic caused me to lose out on $1M+ in equity growth.

3. Getting greedy, wanting to scale too quickly and not sticking to fundamentals.

Brian Ellis · Answer

#1 would be selling. Sold my first house that had been rented out, stable, and in a high appreciation area. Probably missed out on a couple hundred thousand in equity and another 65k in cashflow (as of two years). Those numbers will only grow over time.

#2 using an agent to find a tenant. Turned out to be a disaster. They care about the commission, not the property.

Steve K. · Answer

@Ben Jennings not buying more sooner. I passed on a lot of deals early on that I thought at the time were just okay but in retrospect would have turned out excellent. This is also the biggest mistake I see others make all the time: focusing too much on trying to time the market or getting distracted by analysis paralysis (which town, which property type, which strategy, etc.) rather than focusing on individual deals and actively taking them down. The people I see who are the most successful do a lot of transactions. If they end up with a stinker, they sell that one quickly but they’re still making a lot of money on other deals (definitely more than those who try to wait for the perfect deal to fall in their lap, and usually end up not buying anything at all or do one deal that isn’t perfect anyway and then quit). You’ve got to make deals happen. This means learning an area house by house, farming it, being active as an investor in that community so that deals come to you.

JD Martin · Answer

In general,

- Waiting too long to get started

- Buying a primary home before investment homes

- Not understanding the power of compounding young enough

In specifics, you can listen to my podcast episode where I talk about losing a bundle of money (in my signature).

Eliott Elias · Answer

Paying contractors before they finish work

Paul Camuto · Answer

Everyone has more or less echoed each others comments. The biggest mistake for me is being too selective and not buying more. You can easily get inside your own head and second guess yourself. The other mistake is not having the energy or willingness to deal with the problems. I got burnt out. I should have got a property manager to offset the work so I could scale.

What is your guys biggest real estate mistakes

What is your guys biggest real estate mistakes

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