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How_Not_To_Lose_A_Million_Dollars_In_Real_Estate
| How Not To Lose A Million Dollars In Real Estate.
I recently saw an article “How to lose a million dollars in real
estate” what a great title! Then I saw the author Verna
Jones-Cox (real estate short sale expert) no wonder it had a
great title. I met Verna about two years ago and I would have
expected no less. So with my apologizes to Verna, your title was
to eye catching not to play on.
My own book “One House At A Time” is directed at real estate
beginners and burnt out students of TV real estate gurus, the
very people that can’t afford to lose money. These are also the
very people that are most likely to lose money, especially when
miss lead as so many are.
“One House At A Time” is subtitle “Finding And Buying Single
Family Rentals” the key words are “Single Family” most people
should stick to what they know! Single family homes whether
rentals or flips are just like the houses most of us have lived
in all of our lives. Maintenance, improvements and day to day
upkeep are the same as you’ve been doing ever since your mother
first noticed you were big enough to push a broom. Buying and
selling them is just like your own home.
New real estate investors have enough to learn, single family
rentals are simple to maintain (just like your home), but you
have to deal with tenants, rental laws, and contracts. Flips
require different decisions retail or wholesale, paint or paper,
landscape or simply clean, etc . . . Sticking to what you’re
familiar with will ease the learning curve and most new
investors will make money, if only because it hard to make a big
mistake!
Rule # 1. To make money expand upon what you know!
On the other hand even if a person has lived in an apartment for
30 or 40 years, walked on land, shopped in stores and worked in
an office every day of their life there is very little relevant
experience to owning and managing them! I attended a meeting of
would-be real estate investors, a group I knew well. Their Guru
(with little experience but more money that his audience) spent
more than two hours urging the audience to liquidate their
single family homes to buy into commercial projects! It wasn’t
until the very end that we learned he was pimping a $5,000.00
week end book camp on commercial investing! Most of these people
had not yet mastered single family rentals! Some didn’t yet have
a home of their own. The only thing this program was offering
was a chance to lose $5,000.00.
Rule # 2. Avoid pimps!
Most of you reading this don’t yet have a million dollars! Your
losses will accrue from inaction, delay, and procrastination. In
today’s real estate market most of you will not lose a million
dollars. You will lose several million dollars!
Rule # 3. Buy houses! Now!
“NO!” That’s the advice most often given if you foolishly ask
anyone if you should do anything. There is never a risk telling
you “NO.” If you ask a friend should I and he says “yes” and you
fail he lost a friend! If a friend says no and you succeeded
anyway “you got lucky” everyone wins. If you lose, there’s great
bounding in commiseration, and great satisfaction in “I told you
so!” You’ll get the same “NO!” from your attorney or CPA, but
they will send you a bill for bad advice. Strangers will say
“NO!” because they don’t want you to succeed. Family will say
“NO!” because they don’t want you to get hurt.
Rule # 4. Avoid third party advice.
Some people will advise you to “do it.” They’re the ones who get
paid! We all know what you call someone who “does it” for money.
Getting paid is good, I’m a mortgage broker I get paid when you
“do it” just like your real estate agent. I’m also a Guru. Be
careful, good advice is worth paying for, but whores are whores!
Rule # 5. Avoid Whores!
Copywright 2005 William J Archambault Jr
More information is available through: http://www.reii.org
E-mail author@reii.org
Five quick attention getting rules for new and experienced real
estate investors! All to any of us have forgotten the wisdom of
our grandfathers, or discounted it as from simpler times. This
short article will not teach you real estate investing, but it
will help you understand conflicting advice!
About the author:
William J Archambault, Jr has been in lending and real estate
since 1969. A mortgage broker in Las Vegas, NV He writes about
up to the minute real estate, tempered with the wisdom of our
grandfathers, but realizes that to most of his readers he’s
talking about great, and great great grandfathers. He is the
author of “One House At A Time / Finding And Buying Single
Family Rentals” available at http://www.reii.org Counting On
Your Fingers” and
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