New Investor Checklist

Instead of being pulled all over the place you should start by making a checklist and addressing these items one at a time. While there are several different paths you can take there are a few basic items all new investors need. Knocking these five items off your checklist will give you a great head start for your business. You can fill in the holes as you go but start by answering these five items.

 

 

 

 

 

 Objectives

Goals – What do you want out of investing in real estate? Sounds like a straightforward enough question yet most new investors fail to answer this before they get started. Whatever road you want to take in real estate is possible with the right work ethic and mentality. If you want to dive right in and make real estate your primary source of income you can do that too.

 Investments

Finances – After you have an idea of what you want out of the business you can start putting the other pieces in place. The next piece of the puzzle is financing. You can have high aspirations for the business but if your financing doesn’t align you won’t get very far. In the past if you wanted to buy you needed your own private capital or were at the mercy of lender programs. Today there are several more financing options than ever before.

 Squad

Team – A good fit with a real estate agent can open doors to many additional deals. You also need to reach out to find a real estate attorney, mortgage broker, contractor, handy-person and eventually an accountant.

 Advertise

Market – At this stage you should limit yourself to just one, maybe two, markets until you become more comfortable with the business. Your goals and financing options should lead you to a few different markets to invest in. The more knowledge you have on an area the more comfortable you are and the easier it is to make quick decisions when a property comes your way.

 Operations

Implementation – Once you cross off the first four items on your checklist the last one may be the most important. The last phase of getting start is the implementation phase. You need to come up with a plan of how you are going to realize your goals. Deals will not just fall on your lap. There should be a plan for generating leads and finding deals. This doesn’t need to be elaborate or even expensive but it must be consistent.