Real Estate In Your Twenties

You know that I love you, right?

Maybe not the “I want to have your baby” kind of love, but the “I’m about to yell at you, and I’m doing it because I care” kind of love.

Don’t you feel special?

Now, as the title suggests, this post is geared toward newbies.

But what’s a newbie?

I would define “newbie” as anyone who doesn’t feel like they “know it all” in real estate yet.

Yes, that means you. And me. And of course, Ben Leybovich. (But not Brian Burke, ’cause that guy really does know it all.)

So, really, this post is for anyone who is trying to build their real estate empire.

That means you! So keep reading.

These are the four mistakes newbies can’t seem to help making — but not if I have anything to say about it!

1.) “I Can Do It All Myself! I’m Superman!”

As a real estate investor, you wear a LOT of hats. 

One day you are a home inspector. The next day a master negotiator. The next a marketing wizard. Then a manager. Sometimes a plumber.

And that’s not a bad thing, necessarily. When you first start, you don’t have a lot of cash to use to hire other people, and you need to use what you have.

However…

The problem is newbies tend to stay in that state for FAR too long.

Like, years.

If you are trying to build a real estate business, begin thinking NOW about the systems you can outsource. Can you hire someone to clean toilets while you look for deals? Can you hire someone to answer phone calls and pay them on a per-deal basis? Can you buy such great deals that the cash flow covers management?

(And yes, Ben, you can buy properties that cash flow enough to cover management! You just gotta look harder!)

(click to continue reading on BiggerPockets)

P.S. looking for hard money loans in California? Be sure to check out my friends over at northcoastfinancialinc.com. They have very competitive rates, can fund within a week and specialize in fix and flip loans and other hard money loans.

Single family homes can be a great investment!

They are often far easier to manage than multifamily, they usually rise in value fairly quickly, and there are numerous ways to finance such a purchase.

But for most people, the process to buy a single family home is still too confusing.

That’s why today I decided to boil down the process for buying a single family home intoseven distinct “vital steps.” Use this guide as a sort of “road map” for your future as you search for and buy your next single family home.

Let’s get to the seven vital steps to buying a single family rental home!

1. Do Your Research

There are a LOT of single family homes out there.

According to Census Bureau: 133,957,180.

So, when you decide that you want to buy a single family rental house, you need to narrow down the options just a tad. This is why the first step is research. 

Now, research includes two different categories:

• Education: Do you know what you are doing? If not, there are plenty of articles,podcasts, webinars, and books here on BiggerPockets that can help you with that.
• Location: Do you know exactly where you want to buy? This will dramatically help you narrow down the possible choices.

I wish I could simply tell you the best kind of single family rental house to buy — but I would be lying.

Because I don’t know you!

The perfect investment is one that helps you best accomplish your goals. (Tweet that!)

So what do you want? Start there and work backward.

• Maybe you want to buy just a few really nice houses in really nice areas, and wait for appreciation to double the value of those homes.
• Maybe you want to buy low-income housing and let all the cash flow allow you to quit your job.
• Maybe something in between.

The point is you need to do some research before you jump in. But assuming you’ve done that, or at least are doing it, let’s move on.

(click to continue reading on BiggerPockets)

P.S. looking for hard money loans in California? Be sure to check out my friends over at northcoastfinancialinc.com. They have very competitive rates, can fund within a week and specialize in fix and flip loans and other hard money loans.

House flipping can be a lot of fun, right?

You get to turn something ugly into something beautiful.

You get to hone your design skills and impress your friends.

And, let’s be honest…

You can make a lot of money.

But house flipping is not as easy as the TV shows make it seem!

You know that, right?

Good! You are already farther along the path than most flipping newbies.

House flipping can be fun, challenging, and profitable — but it can also be dangerous. Many people have gone bankrupt because they decided to get into house flipping.

I’ve lost money on flips that didn’t turn out the way I wanted.

It sucks.

However, like any business venture, practice makes perfect.

Ok, that’s a lie. You’ll never be perfect at house flipping. But at least “practice makes better.”

Today I want to talk about five vital tips for house flipping success that I wish I had known when I first started on my house flipping journey. Knowing these would have saved me hundreds of hours of wasted time and thousands in lost dollars.

Let’s make sure you avoid that and find incredible success on your house flipping journey.

But first…

*** Hey, you! Yes, you! If you are reading this post, you must like the idea of house flipping. If so, I want to invite you to this week’s BiggerPockets Webinar, How to Analyze a Fix and Flip Deal (And Avoid Getting Burned!). We’ll be talking about the best ways to do the math, which is tip #1 on this list! Hope you can make it! And now back to the post!)***

Okay, let’s get to the five vital tips for house flipping success

1. Understand the Math Behind House Flipping

Before the paint colors, before the new countertops, before the demolition…

There is the math.

The math is like a crystal ball, helping you see the future.

It shows you the right improvements to make.

It guides you to the best neighborhoods.

It helps you know if you will succeed or fail.

However, so many people struggle with the math. They see a dilapidated house and start thinking about all the beautiful things they could do to the house, but they don’t see the math behind it. Does it really make sense, financially? Is this house really going to provide a great profit? Should you really do this flip?

The math helps you answer those questions. The math helps you gain confidence. The math helps you avoid mistakes.

The math is not as simple as the TV shows make it seem, but it’s also not rocket science either. It’s simply a matter of knowing ALL of your expenses and subtracting them from your ultimate profit.

There are many blog posts here on BiggerPockets about analyzing a flip so I’m not going to dive deep into the topic here. Besides, I’m doing a 90-minute LIVE webinar on this very topic this week. (Can you make it? If so, click here to register.)

Also, if you are not using the BiggerPockets House Flipping Calculator… you are missing out. Seriously, it’ll save you a dozen hours a month analyzing deals!

(click to continue reading on BiggerPockets)

P.S. looking for hard money loans in California? Be sure to check out my friends over at northcoastfinancialinc.com. They have very competitive rates, can fund within a week and specialize in fix and flip loans and other hard money loans.

 

[This post originally appeared on Entrepreneur.com.]

Two major books were published in 1926 that rocked our world: Winnie-the-Pooh and The Richest Man in Babylon.

Although “stuffed with fluff,” Pooh Bear might have had a larger impact on American pop culture, but it’s The Richest Man in Babylon that has made a massive financial impact on untold millions of readers, myself included, over the past 89 years.

Written by George Samuel Clason as a collection of parables, The Richest Man in Babylon is a unique book that lacks a central storyline and a reccurring cast of characters. Instead, the book is a collection of stories about one thing: building wealth. The book seeks to answer the question: If wealthy people have the same 24 hours in a day, and work just as hard as others, how do they acquire such incredible wealth?

Can wealth creation be taught? According to Clason, yes!

In one of his parables, Clason tells the tale of Arkad, a merchant and the richest man in the city of Babylon. The king of Babylon asks Arkad to share his wisdom with 100 students in an effort to increase the collective wealth of the population.

You see, the same problem existed in ancient Babylon that existed in 1926 and still exists today: most people are broke. Clason refers to this “broke” condition as having a “lean purse.” To cure the problem of having a lean purse, Clason, through the story of Arkad, offers the following seven lessons:

1. Start thy purse to fattening.

Arkad, the richest man in Babylon, asks a very simple math question to his students: What would happen if, every day, you added 10 coins to your purse but only spent nine? The obvious answer, of course, is that wealth would increase by one coin each day.

Therefore, the first step in building great wealth is to simply set aside one coin each day. Specifically, Arkad instructs his students to set aside 10 percent of their earned income, which I think is a great place for anyone to start.

(click to continue reading on BiggerPockets)

P.S. looking for hard money loans in California? Be sure to check out my friends over at northcoastfinancialinc.com. They have very competitive rates, can fund within a week and specialize in fix and flip loans and other hard money loans.

I want six-pack abs.

That’s right, I said it: Six. Pack. Abs.

You know, the kind that superman and David Hasselhoff have.

Oh, I also want a million dollars in my bank account. Oh, and while we are at it, let’s throw in an airplane, too. Grant Cardone has one, so why not?

These are all fine goals to have. And they really are goals for me.

But guess what? They are mostly worthless.

And, in fact, they might be worse than worthless.

They are dangerous.

Goal Setting Will Make You Broke and Depressed

There is one major thing getting in the way of my six-pack:

I like cake.

And cookies.

And pizza.

So every year I tell myself, this is the year I’m finally going to get my six-pack. I’m going to say no to the cake. I’m going to work out. I really want to get in shape.

But then I eat more cake.

And cookies.

And pizza.

And I don’t get that six-pack.

So I get depressed. And I eat more cake. And I get more depressed.

Now, maybe you don’t care about cake. Maybe you want something else.

Maybe this is the year you are finally going to quit your job! This is the year you are going to start your own business. This is the year you are going to buy your first rental property.

But then you eat more cake slack off.

You lose the momentum.

You can’t find a good real estate deal.

Your business partner flakes out on you.

You lose the fire.

And you get depressed.

Maybe, in an effort to accomplish those goals, you spend a bunch of “hype money.” Someone, somewhere, convinces you that the fastest or best way to achieve your goals is by purchasing some kind of product or $10,000 course or boot camp.

So you spend the money, thinking it’s going to help you.

You equate spending money with taking appropriate action.

But it doesn’t.

It just makes you broke.

And depressed.

Or let’s go back to the example of buying your first investment property. You really want to buy it. You know that buying rental properties is going to be your ticket to generational wealth for your family.

But because you are so focused on your goal of buying that property, you don’t buy the rightproperty.

You spend too much.

You didn’t run the numbers right.

You buy a bad deal.

And so you get depressed. And then you go broke.

And it’s all because you were so focused on this “goal” that you needed to hit.

Because here’s the truth you need to understand.

Are you ready for it?

Here it is:

Goals are not enough.

(click to continue reading on BiggerPockets)

P.S. looking for hard money loans in California? Be sure to check out my friends over at northcoastfinancialinc.com. They have very competitive rates, can fund within a week and specialize in fix and flip loans and other hard money loans.